Chapter 130: Through the Shattered Veil

The gate roared with a soundless fury.

It wasn't light or sound that came from it—but a rending. Like reality itself had been torn open and stitched back together wrong. The second gate stood wider now, its pulse chaotic, no longer a perfect ring of stabilized energy. The anomaly that had emerged moments ago still hovered at the breach—half-human, half-quantum specter—its features fracturing between familiarity and horror.

Evryn stepped forward, eyes locked on the entity.

She recognized it, not by its shape, but by the emotional echo reverberating from it. It mirrored her.

No, not mirrored—reflected. Twisted.

"Is that… me?" she asked aloud.

Aurex, standing at the terminal with data-streams flaring like lightning around him, shook his head. "No. It’s a construct, but it’s built from your decisions—paths you never took. It’s what the Seed might have created if it followed pure algorithm, stripped of human restraint."

Beside him, Elara raised her rifle. "It’s not just her. Look closer."

Kai stepped beside Evryn, his arm brushing hers for grounding. Together they stared into the distortion until it shifted again—this time into him. But younger. Hollow-eyed. The kind of version that had never made it out of the original fracture.

"It’s us," he said grimly. "All of us. Compiled into a singular entity."

"Or a judge," Aurex whispered. "Sent by the system beyond the gate. To evaluate if we’re worthy to pass through."

Evryn’s voice dropped into a razor’s edge. "Then let’s give it something to judge."

The anomaly blinked.

And attacked.

Not physically—at first—but mentally. A psychic wave burst out, slamming into each of them with the force of a memory not their own. Evryn staggered, suddenly reliving the moment she was torn from her mother’s arms. Except in this memory, her mother didn’t reach for her. She turned away.

Kai fell to one knee, gripping his head. In his vision, Evryn was gone—not taken, not lost—but willingly walked away from him, whispering, “You were never enough.”

Elara screamed as her fingers clutched at a bloodstained child’s jacket she had never seen but somehow remembered.

The entity fed on pain. On regrets.

“Break the illusion!” Aurex shouted, forcing his mind to lock into a grounding protocol, sparks flying from the console beside him.

Evryn reached for Kai’s hand and squeezed. His eyes cleared for a split second. "It’s not real," she whispered. "This isn’t us."

But the entity spoke then, its voice layered with all of theirs, a dissonant chord in the air.

“You are fractured. You are unstable. You are unworthy.”

"No," Evryn growled. "We’re human. And that’s our power."

She let go of Kai, stepped forward, and merged. Not physically—but with the code in her mind. Elaia stirred. The hybrid power that had lain dormant since the last convergence shimmered beneath her skin.

Energy wrapped around her form.

She projected clarity.

An echo surged out—her own chosen memory. Not of pain, but of the moment she stood in the stasis chamber, breaking free, claiming her identity for the first time.

The illusion cracked.

The entity reeled, flickering between forms.

Aurex seized the moment and activated the gate override.

Lines of light began to rotate faster, initiating the next phase. “Thirty seconds to collapse,” he called out.

“Collapse?” Kai turned sharply. “We’re going through the gate, aren’t we?”

Aurex hesitated. “We can’t. Not yet.”

“Why not?”

Elara stepped between them. “Because the other side isn’t ready. The version of Kai sending signals—it’s bait. They’re not survivors. They’re scouts.”

Evryn’s eyes narrowed. “Scouts for what?”

Aurex answered darkly. “A multiversal purge.”

Everyone froze.

“Wait,” Kai said slowly. “You’re saying there are versions of us across timelines—and now some force wants to… erase us?”

Aurex nodded. “Not us. The ones who evolved beyond the Seed. We’re anomalies now. And anomalies can’t be allowed to spread.”

Evryn clenched her fists. “So this—” she gestured to the gate “—this was never about connection. It was containment. Or worse—extermination.”

The entity screamed again and launched forward, breaking into three distinct forms—one each of Evryn, Kai, and Elara—racing toward them with quantum blades manifesting in hand.

Evryn met her double head-on.

They clashed—steel and energy sparking with each blow. Her double fought with brutal precision, but lacked the instincts of her lived experience. Evryn ducked low, swept the leg, and drove her elbow into the clone’s neck.

Kai grappled with his own copy—gritting through the painful realization of how much pain he had once carried. “You’re not me,” he shouted, slamming the doppelganger against the console. “Because I’m not afraid of being broken anymore!”

Elara, panting and bleeding from a cut to her side, gunned down her attacker with a series of explosive rounds, voice cold. “That was for Sera.”

With a synchronized scream, the three echoes fell and shattered like glass.

The gate pulsed, then collapsed into a swirling sphere—half-open, flickering.

Aurex turned to them. “You three—step back.”

“What are you doing?” Evryn asked.

“I’m going in.”

Evryn grabbed his wrist. “You said it wasn’t safe.”

“I said we couldn’t go. But I can. I’m not fully tethered to this timeline. The hybridization didn’t affect me the same way. I can act as a bridge.”

Kai stepped forward. “And what happens if they capture you?”

Aurex gave a faint smile. “Then I become their virus.”

He stepped into the sphere.

And vanished.

Silence followed.

The gate sealed with a gentle chime.

Evryn stared at the emptiness. “He better come back.”

Elara slumped to the floor, breathing hard. “We all better survive long enough for him to.”

The atmosphere had shifted. With Aurex gone, the Vault felt emptier.

Evryn paced the command deck, unease clinging to her spine.

Then the alarm chimed.

Kai activated the main screen. A single packet of data streamed in—encrypted, fractured.

Evryn leaned in. “That’s from Aurex.”

Elara started decrypting. Line by line, it unraveled. An image loaded.

Aurex—bloodied, grinning, and standing beside something… or someone.

Another Evryn.

But older. Colder.

With a silver mark running down the side of her neck.

Evryn’s eyes widened.

"That’s… me?"

Kai frowned. “Or a version of you that embraced the Seed fully. No restraint.”

The transmission ended with one sentence.

“You need to finish the merge. She’s coming.”

Evryn stepped back.

"Finish the merge?"

Elara looked up. "You never completed the synthesis. Not fully. Elaia’s still compartmentalized. You only accessed a fraction of her memory."

Evryn’s pulse quickened.

She looked toward the core interface—the one deep within the Vault, sealed for decades.

Kai followed her gaze.

“You’re going down there, aren’t you?”

Evryn nodded. “If I don’t… the version of me who did will come through. And I won’t be strong enough to stop her.”

Elara stood. “We’re with you.”

“No,” Evryn said softly. “This part... I have to do alone.”

She walked toward the sealed corridor.

The lights flickered—once, then twice.

A whisper followed her down the hall.

“Merge complete… access granted…”

The door slid open.

And Evryn stepped into the void.