The Harrower hit the ground like a dying star—cracks spread across the Forge's floor, pulsing with warped light. His body shimmered between forms: Kade's face, then a soldier's, then something monstrous with twisting arms and hollow sockets.
"You were never meant to exist," the Harrower said, its voice overlapping dozens of others. "And yet you breathe. Curious."
Kade held his blade tightly. The Vergepiercer. A weapon born from forgotten timelines. It trembled in his grip, responding to the Harrower's presence.
Aurelle stood beside him, palms glowing with golden hexes. "What is that thing?"
"A walking paradox," Caela said weakly, still recovering. "It devours timelines that collapse… and the echoes of the people in them."
Lira drew her twin pistols, eyes narrowing. "So it's a cannibal of possibilities."
The Harrower turned its many-eyed gaze to her. "Sharp tongue. I've eaten sharper."
Without warning, it lunged.
Kade swung. The Vergepiercer cut through the Harrower's tendrils with a hiss of unraveling time. The creature recoiled, screeching in pain—not from the wound, but from the memory it tore from it.
A flash—Kade saw a young boy, alone in a void, screaming for a mother who never existed.
He staggered. "W-What…?"
Caela gritted her teeth. "It bleeds memories. Be careful. Its pain is addictive."
The Harrower retaliated, warping space. One moment, it was across the room. The next, behind Lira.
"Lira, down!" Kade shouted.
She dropped as a jagged limb swung past, narrowly missing her neck. Aurelle blasted the beast with a golden seal—it staggered back, but only briefly.
"You can't kill it conventionally!" Caela warned. "It exists across versions. You must anchor it to this moment!"
Kade looked down at his blade. The Vergepiercer hummed with energy, vibrating like it was itching to strike.
Anchor it…
"Buy me time," he whispered, then darted forward.
Lira covered him with gunfire, sending echo-rounds to slow the Harrower's movement. Aurelle carved glowing runes mid-air, forming a prison of symbols. Caela limped toward a central sigil on the ground, pressing her hand to it.
The room lit up.
"Kade!" Caela shouted. "Now!"
The Harrower charged. Kade didn't back down.
He thrust the Vergepiercer into its chest—
Time stilled.
Not paused.
Stilled.
Even the Forge's flame froze.
Kade floated in a sea of shattered reflections. Hundreds of Harrowers surrounded him—each one from a different path, each twisted differently. Some had wings. Others had hundreds of mouths. Some… wore his face.
One stepped forward.
"You could've been one of us," it said. "You still could."
"No," Kade replied. "I'd rather be forgotten than become you."
He tightened his grip—and willed the blade to choose.
Light exploded.
Every Harrower screamed in unison as threads pulled taut—binding them.
Caela's voice echoed through the collapsing illusion:
"Kade! Anchor it now!"
He roared—and slammed the blade deeper.
The Vergepiercer drank the Harrower's existence.
It wasn't just a kill. It was an erasure.
The Forge chamber cracked. Time rushed back in. The Harrower's body trembled, dissolving, screaming across dimensions as it shattered into blue ash.
Then…
Silence.
The group stood panting in the wreckage. The Forge's light dimmed. The gate behind them collapsed.
Kade fell to one knee. The Vergepiercer pulsed once, then dimmed.
Caela walked over, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"You did it," she whispered. "You unmade a Harrower."
Kade looked at her. "What… does that make me now?"
She met his gaze. "It makes you a threat. A beacon. Others will come now."
Lira stepped forward. "Then we get stronger. We fight."
Aurelle nodded. "If the Harrowers hunt him, then we make sure they regret it."
But Kade was still staring at the fading ashes.
In that moment, he saw something flicker within them.
A piece of a vision.
A girl—eyes glowing violet—sitting on a throne made of shattered timelines, whispering his name.
"Kade Vern. You are not the first. Nor the last."
Then the vision vanished.
Kade stood slowly, tightening his grip on the blade.
"We're not done yet," he said. "Not even close."
---
End of Chapter 28