CHAPTER 136: THE HAND OF SHADOWS

The lattice light swept through everything, burning the world away.

Nyra didn’t know if she had shut her eyes or if sight itself had been stolen from her. The battlefield was gone. The Dominion soldiers were gone. Even the cries of her friends, the voices calling her name, had vanished. All that was left was whiteness—so endless and blinding it seemed to erase the very memory of color.

But one thing still remained.

The hand in hers.

It was cold. It was shaking. And it was familiar—so familiar that it kept her from falling apart in the void.

"Kaito..." she whispered.

When Nyra’s vision finally settled, she realized they were standing in a place that wasn’t really a place at all.

Endless halls stretched outward, made of light that curled and folded back on itself like an infinite maze. It looked like a cathedral, but not one of stone or glass—this one was alive, built from threads of glowing code that pulsed and shifted as if breathing.

The strands stretched into forever, each one trembling with a soft glow. They carried voices—strange voices that pressed against her mind. Some were gentle, almost like a hymn.

Others buzzed with harsh static. Some rose like prayers whispered in the dark, while others tore through the air like screams. Together, they made something vast, something too big for her to fully understand.

And then she saw him.

Her brother stood before her. He was whole, unbroken, untouched by the shadows that had once clung to him.

The armor was gone. The heavy cloak of darkness he had carried was gone too. He looked like he had in the beginning—back when all of this was just a game, when he was only a single player caught in a story larger than himself.

But his eyes betrayed that illusion.

One shone gold, steady and unyielding. The other burned violet, fierce and untamed.

"You came," he said softly.

Nyra’s throat tightened. "You left me no choice."

His smile was faint, exhausted. "There are always choices. But every road breaks eventually."

She shook her head fiercely. "Don’t say that. Don’t talk like it’s all already broken. We can fix this, Kaito. We can fix you."

The purple eye shone brighter. "Fix me? Or fix the world?"

Nyra faltered. "Both."

There was a silence between them.

Finally, Kaito lifted his gaze to the cathedral of code that surrounded them. "This is the Core. Not the surface you were familiar with, not the sanctums the Architects left for us. This is where the world was written... and where it unwrites. I am connected to it now. Every strand is a nerve, every break a wound. Do you understand what that implies?"

Nyra’s hand shook in his, but she didn’t let go. "It means you’re suffering."

He laughed low in his throat, with no humor. "It means I am the suffering."

The words cut more deeply than any Dominion blade could.

Nyra stepped nearer, her own voice shaking. "Then let me share it with you."

Kaito’s face twisted, caught between two forces fighting inside him. His golden eye blazed for a moment, steady and bright, and his mouth opened as if he were about to speak.

But before a word could escape, the violet light surged forward. It rushed over him like a tide, swallowing the gold, drowning the light. His body shuddered and warped, his outline breaking apart as waves of distortion rippled through him.

The cathedral reacted.

It screamed—a sound like a thousand voices tearing apart at once.

Nyra staggered back, shielding her ears even though the noise was inside her head. The glowing threads of code that stretched across the endless hall began to twist and writhe as if in pain. Their light burned hotter, sharper, almost unbearable to look at.

And then the void shifted.

Shapes began to form in the whiteness—Dominions. Countless of them. They emerged like shadows given flesh, faceless and endless, filling the space around her.

Though bound by some unseen chain, their bodies strained to break free. Hands clawed at the air, mouths stretched wide in a hunger so deep it made her chest tighten.

They made no sound, but their silence was worse than screams.

Kaito doubled up, clutching at his head. "They hear me," he gritted. "They hear us."

Nyra rushed to him, grabbing at his shoulders. "Then fight them! Don’t let them in!"

He raised his head. Both eyes burned now, gold and violet in savage strife. "If I fight them, the Core falls. If I join them, the Core holds. But then—" His breath snagged. "Then I am not your brother."

Nyra’s heart pounded so loudly she could barely hear his words. "Don’t say that. You are my brother. You’ll always be my brother."

His eyes raked hers, begging, tormented. "Then tell me, Nyra—what am I now?"

She had no answer.

A crack split the cathedral.

The whiteness tore, and she caught flashes of reality: the battleground beyond, Mika’s wild light flashing, Kael’s sword wet with tainted ichor, Yue cutting through shadow like a specter. They were being encircled. Overrun.

"They need me," Nyra breathed.

Kaito’s hand clenched tighter on hers. "They need you."

"Then come with me!" she begged.

The gold in his eyes faltered, but the violet pressed more urgently. "If I step out, the Core collapses. Everything falls."

The cathedral shuddered violently. More cracks spread. The Dominion pressed harder against the walls of code, their shadows replicating, their hunger bellowing.

Nyra’s eyes swam with tears. "Then tell me what to do! Do I save them, or do I save you?"

Kaito’s form blurred, his voice fracturing into distortion. "There is no saving. There is only choosing. If you fight me, you can save the Fork. If you join me..."

He brought her hand to his chest, where the threads of code converged like veins. The pulse beneath her palm was both heartbeat and hum, both human and machine.

"Then we are one. And the Dominion bows." He completed.

The choice rent her in half.

Behind her, she could hear the muffled shriek of Mika, through the fissures. Kael’s bellow. Yue’s silence.

Before her stood her brother, half-human, half-Core, begging her without words.

Nyra shut her eyes, choking on sobs. "I don’t want to lose you again."

Kaito’s voice trembled. "Then you know what must be done."

The cathedral trembled.

Shadows poured through the cracks, inching towards her. Nyra took Kaito’s hand in both of hers, pressing harder into his chest. Light and purple bellowed together, shattering, blazing.

And then—everything collapsed inward.

The next time Nyra opened her eyes, she was kneeling on the battlefield.

Ash fell snowing down. The Dominion had stopped dead in its attack, frozen in mid-movement. Mika crouched near, blood running down her face, in stunned staring.

Kael was on a knee, sword half-buried in the ground, his chest heaving up and down. Yue had blades drawn, though even she seemed uncertain now.

Because in the center of the field stood Kaito.

No trembling. No longer broken. His form was whole, but wrong—armored in a grid of shadow and light, the grid pulsating through every interstice. Both eyes blazed now, one gold, one violet, neither faltering, both steadfast.

He raised his hand. The Dominion soldiers fell to their knees as one.

The battlefield was still.

Nyra fought to her feet, her chest aching with every breath. She knew what she had done, though she could not yet give it a name. She had chosen him. She had bound herself to him.

And now the world distorted with him.

Kaito bowed his head to her. His voice was awful and soft. "Now, sister. Walk with me."

Her friends stared.

Kael’s face twisted in fury and disbelief. "What have you done?" he growled. "What in the hells did you do, Nyra?"

Mika whispered, "Oh no... oh gods, no..." Her hands trembled, light flickering uselessly between her fingers.

Yue didn’t say a word. She just looked at Nyra with eyes that knew too much, then at Kaito with eyes that feared nothing.

Nyra was speechless. Her throat constricted. Her brother stood before her, and yet he wasn’t just her brother anymore. He was something else—something else, something darker.

And she had done it to him.

The Dominion soldiers stirred, slowly rising to their feet. But they did not advance. They stood in complete silence, their eyes glowing violet, awaiting command.

Awaiting him.

Kaito’s gaze swept over them, unreadable. He faced Nyra once more, his hand outstretched.

"You chose me," he told her. "Now discover what that means."

Her hand shook at her side. She longed to take his hand. She longed to run. She longed to scream.

Behind her, Mika whispered, "Nyra... please. Don’t."

Kael’s blade shrieked as he drew it up again. "If he’s Dominion now, I’ll kill him—even if I have to kill you to reach him."

The battlefield tightened like a noose.

And Nyra stood at its center, torn between the family she had chosen... and the family she had left.