Back at the Spiral Nexus, Elara returned with the stabilized echo. The child, Kael-Fragment Alpha, now rested in a containment field surrounded by stasis harmonics. His energy signature pulsed slowly but in rhythm. Kael's consciousness—what little remained—was still alive.
But it wasn't enough.
"There are at least ten echoes left," she told the Council. "And we're out of time. The Firstbreaker's seal is eroding. If we don't recover and unify the echoes, both it and the Architect could return through Kael."
The Chrono-Sage spoke. "There may be a path. An ancient construct known only as the Codex Pathway."
Elara frowned. "That's myth."
"No longer," the Sage said, projecting a map of the multiverse. "The Codex Pathway is an interdimensional artery—outside space, between timelines. If Kael left pieces of his core identity anywhere, it would be there."
Lira's eyes lit up. "A memory vault."
"Exactly. The Codex was designed to store the root consciousness of multiversal architects," the Sage explained. "It predates even the Firstbreaker. If Kael found it before he sacrificed himself…"
"He may have stored his original self there," Elara finished. "A template."
If they could reach it, they could extract Kael's core and use it to overwrite the corrupted echoes before the Architect's code fused with them.
"But the Codex isn't on any map," Lira said.
"It exists between maps," the Sage replied.
With no time to lose, Elara, Lira, and a new recon team—featuring Korr, a reality jumper from a collapsed dimension, and Astra, a time-weaver—entered a jump sphere and calibrated for dimensional phase drift.
They leapt through ten layers of existence—past living planets, time-locked cities, and thought-eating maelstroms. The multiverse itself rebelled, sensing their destination.
Finally, they arrived.
Floating in the void was a monolithic library—shifting constantly, shaped by thought, memory, and entropy. Its walls were etched with glowing scripts in every language, from mortal to divine.
The Codex Pathway.
The team stepped inside. Memories, voices, and visions swirled around them. Elara staggered as a phantom of Kael passed her, smiling, whispering, "It's not over."
"Split up," she said. "We find Kael's root consciousness—whatever form it takes."
As they moved deeper, the Codex began responding. Lights flickered. Paths opened.
And far in the distance… something else moved.
Not Kael.
But something that had been waiting in the Codex for a long, long time.