Chapter 39: Choir's Final Measure
Aboard the Choir's obsidian flagship—drifting just beyond Jupiter's collapsed moon-station—Lior stood within the central nexus chamber. His once-human form flickered with Rift static, eyes smoldering with chaotic light. Dozens of Choir Lords floated around him, their forms veiled in shifting holograms and ritual scripts.
"The Vault is breached," murmured one, its voice discordant. "The Fifth Fractal walks among the mortals."
"We foresaw this," Lior replied, but his tone was unsettled. "What we did not foresee was the Codex choosing him."
A tall figure approached—taller than the others, draped in transdimensional armor. Lady Serephene, Warden of Entropy. Her voice was a whisper that made stars flicker. "Then we change the shape of destiny. Deploy the Obelisk."
All the Choir Lords went still.
"You would risk obliteration?" another asked.
"We risk extinction if we hesitate," Serephene answered. "Kaito is not merely a threat. He is the key to the Architects' return. We sever the key."
Lior hesitated.
He remembered Eris.
He remembered being human.
"Do it," he said.
Back on Earth, in the reborn Nexus Prime, alarms screamed.
The sky split apart.
And the Obelisk fell.
A structure the size of a continent, blacker than space itself, descended like a dagger toward the Earth. Its surface pulsed with anti-life equations—mathematics designed to unmake existence.
Kaito turned skyward.
His breath caught.
"This… this wasn't part of the Codex," he whispered.
Eris reached for his arm. "Because it wasn't written. It's the Choir's Final Measure. They've rejected fate."
Yuri raised his gauntlet. "We need to evacuate—now."
"No," Kaito said. "We stand. We answer them."
He looked at Elyra. "You said I'd have to choose. I choose now."
He raised both arms.
The Fifth Fractal spiraled around him.
And he ascended.