The cavern Elara led them into wasn't just a hiding place—it was a war room. Holograms floated mid-air, each projecting unstable regions of space-time across various Earths. Kael recognized familiar cityscapes—New York, Tokyo, Cairo—all with something wrong. A skyscraper twisted into impossible geometry. A train phasing through its own rails. Oceans boiling upward into the sky.
"This," Elara said, gesturing to the shifting maps, "is what happens when reality leaks."
Kael stepped forward. "These are... fractures?"
"Wounds," Elara corrected. "Where multiversal tension is highest. Think of each universe like a tightly stretched string. The more the Architect pulls, the more they unravel."
Reeva studied a flickering scan. "This one—New York Sector Seven. It's from our world."
Elara nodded. "It'll be ground zero in less than three days. The leak's already started. People there are experiencing memory loops. Time skipping. Physics is breaking down at the edges."
Kael rubbed his temples. "We need to stop it. Seal the breach."
"You don't seal a black hole by taping it shut," Elara said sharply. "You reconfigure the field around it. Change its resonance."
Reeva frowned. "And how do we do that?"
Elara tapped her gauntlet. A new image appeared: a floating monolith, rotating slowly, its surface covered in living glyphs.
Kael felt a chill. "What is that?"
"The Keystone," Elara replied. "One of six artifacts left behind by the Fracture Architects. The original ones. Not him—the one pretending to be a god now—but the beings who built the lattice that holds the multiverse together."
"You've seen it before?" Kael asked.
"I've touched it," Elara said. "It nearly killed me."
Kael stepped closer. "Where is it now?"
Elara turned. "Hidden. Deep inside a world that no longer follows linear time. We'll need a stable drift signature to access it. And a traveler's anchor."
Kael looked confused. "A what?"
She pointed at him. "You."
"Why me?"
"Because your quantum signature is entangled with another version of yourself. You're already slipping between realities without even realizing it."
Kael's stomach dropped. "I've... had dreams. Flashes. Places I've never been."
"Not dreams," Elara said. "Echoes. That version of you who arrived? His death triggered a tether. You're connected now. Which means you're a beacon."
"A beacon for what?" Reeva asked.
Elara didn't answer immediately. Then, almost reluctantly, she said, "The Architect. If we don't move fast, he'll track Kael through that tether. And if he finds this world's Keystone..."
Kael finished the thought. "It's over."
The cave rumbled faintly.
Reeva looked up. "Another leak?"
"No," Elara said, checking a device on her wrist. "Something worse. A ripple in the Drift. A reality is collapsing nearby."
Kael stared at the maps. So many dots. So many universes.
"How do we stop a god?" he asked.
Elara gave a cold smile. "We don't."
She turned away, cloak billowing. "We outsmart him."
Behind them, one of the maps blinked red.
New York. Earth-199.
The countdown had begun.