Chapter 24: Echoes of a Broken Sky
The sky was no longer whole.
Fractures spiderwebbed across the heavens like a mirror hit by divine rage. Pillars of flame and void spiraled into the clouds, each one a testament to the battle that had just ended — or perhaps, only paused.
Shen collapsed to one knee.
His body trembled. His armor cracked and steaming. The Voidbrand across his chest flickered like a dying star, and the Nullburst Core he had awakened seconds ago now felt like it was tearing him apart from the inside.
[Warning: Overload Threshold – 97%]
[Brand Core Will Collapse in 37 Seconds]
He spat blood and looked up.
Across the battlefield, Nihriel still stood — her armor scorched, wings cracked, and her once-mighty halo dimmed to a faint glow. She held her side, where a void-infused strike had torn through divine plating.
She looked at Shen not with fury… but something closer to confusion.
"You weren't supposed to survive that power. It was erased from this world's design."
"You… weren't meant to exist."
Shen chuckled, weakly.
"Yeah, well. I'm pretty good at breaking rules."
Behind him, the Bloomroot altar pulsed violently — now transformed into a tower of black crystal veins and ancestral code. Nyxria knelt beside it, eyes glowing, surrounded by spectral vines that pulsed with alien data. She was speaking to someone — no, something — buried within the Bloomroot's memory stream.
And then it happened.
The memory of Aeris took shape.
Scene: The Girl in the Memory
Aeris appeared not as she was — but as a glitching echo of the past.
Wearing a white cloak soaked in rain.
Her eyes wide with fear… but not of Shen.
"You promised me," the memory whispered.
Shen froze.
"You said you'd find a way to come back. Even if the gods turned the sky against you."
Nyxria gasped. "Shen, that's not just a memory — it's a living fragment. The Bloomroot preserved it when she died."
"Or when she was erased."
Shen reached out, but the image of Aeris rippled and began to dissolve.
The system screamed in his mind:
[Warning: Chain Collapse Imminent]
[Voidbrand Core Overload: Shut Down Recommended]
He had seconds. But Aeris was fading again.
He clenched his teeth.
And then made a choice.
Scene: The Sacrifice
"Transfer stability," Shen whispered. "Use me as the anchor."
The Voidbrand surged.
[Command Confirmed. Sacrificing internal stability to preserve Memory Core: Aeris.]
[Voidbrand Chain One: Collapsing...]
Pain tore through him — so raw it silenced even the system alerts. But he didn't scream. He didn't fall.
Because this time, he refused to lose her again.
The memory stabilized. Aeris solidified, blinking, fully aware now. Not just a vision. A soul fragment, revived.
"Shen…? What did you do…?"
"Whatever it takes," he said, smiling faintly. "Even if it kills me."
Scene: Divine Judgment Retreats
Nihriel watched from afar. Her comm-sigil pulsed.
A voice echoed from the heavens:
"Nihriel, retreat. The Bloomroot anomaly has fused with the Voidwalker. Protocol revision in progress. Await new orders."
She scowled. "Cowards."
Still, she obeyed.
With a sweep of her cracked wings, she vanished in a streak of golden flame — leaving behind only the afterimage of her wrath.
Aftermath: Emberreach in Ruins
The city burned — not with fire, but with silence. Broken towers, scattered bodies, and stunned survivors looked to the battlefield and saw a single figure still standing.
Shen Nightfall, Voidwalker.
Beside him, a girl with glowing eyes, wrapped in vines of ancestral code — Nyxria.
And between them, a flickering memory now bound to the Bloomroot system — Aeris, reborn in part.
Final Scene: Whisper of the Bloomroot
Aeris reached out and touched Shen's face. Her fingers felt real.
"You came back for me…"
"Always."
From deep inside the Bloomroot's core, a voice spoke — ancient, root-bound, and alive.
"Voidwalker. The sky cracked… because it remembered what it once tried to forget."
"You are no longer alone in this war."