The woman stood tall in the heart of the broken Nexus—wrapped in flames that didn't burn, cloaked in shadows that whispered.
Her skin glowed like molten stone, and her eyes shimmered with the dying light of forgotten worlds.
Selena instinctively stepped in front of Lorenzo, her body trembling with the aftershock of the Core's explosion. The ruins of the mirror still crackled with energy beneath her feet.
"Who are you?" she asked, voice hoarse.
The woman's lips curved into a haunting smile. "I am what comes after the end. What you released when you shattered the seal."
She lifted her hand, and the void behind her twisted—taking shape.
A throne rose from the ashes. Tall. Jagged. Ancient. It pulsed with power so raw, Selena's knees almost buckled.
The woman walked toward it, every step sending tremors through the Nexus.
"You cracked the lock," she said. "But the Core was only a gatekeeper. Not the master. I am what it was guarding."
