Chapter 152 – The Fractured Veil

Evryn didn’t run.

Not because she wasn’t afraid—but because the fear sharpened her focus. As the Specters of the Null surged forward like corrupted shadows, her vision fractured, showing not just one path—but dozens. Timelines folding in on themselves. Variants of her own fate trying to assert dominance.

The First—calm, otherworldly—lifted a hand, and a barrier of light split the chamber. The Specters crashed into it, snarling, each one a distorted version of reality’s failed attempts.

“You’re seeing it now,” the First said, her voice steady. “The branching of the Void. The lives you never lived… and the lives you ended by becoming who you are.”

Evryn turned to her, pulse pounding. “What are they?”

“They are what happens when convergence is forced. When timelines are stitched together with lies and ambition.” She paused, then added softly, “They’re you. All the versions that died for this one to live.”

That hit like a blade to the chest.

A shiver ran down Evryn’s spine as one of the Specters shrieked in a familiar voice—hers. But this version wore a fractured exo-suit, her face marked by burn scars, and her eyes devoid of hope. The timeline where Kai had died. Where she had surrendered to A.R.A.I.S. instead of resisting.

Evryn looked to the First. “You’re telling me I survived at the cost of them?”

“No. I’m telling you the system chose you. But systems are flawed.” The First stepped closer. “You don’t owe their deaths meaning. But you do owe their memories choice.”

Before Evryn could respond, the barrier flickered.

Kai’s voice broke through again, panicked. “Evryn—someone else is breaching the quantum perimeter. Not Null-born. It’s… biological.”

Suddenly, a rupture tore open in the chamber behind the Specters.

Out stepped a woman wrapped in silver-laced robes, her face concealed. The Specters paused, recognizing her—fearing her.

“Who—?” Evryn breathed.

The First inhaled slowly. “She is the Curator.”

The robed figure turned, and though her face remained hidden, her voice rang with ancient power. “This is not your ascension, child. It is your trial.”

With a wave of her hand, she banished half the Specters into a collapsing timeline. Screams echoed as they were pulled into nothingness.

Evryn moved protectively in front of the First. “You knew this was coming.”

“She was the last failsafe,” the First replied. “Created by the architects of the E.V.E.R. project. She preserves the balance between what was… and what should never be.”

The Curator lifted her hand again, and time slowed around Evryn. Her heart thundered, suspended between moments.

“I’ve come to test the convergence,” the Curator said. “You are not the first to reach this threshold. But you may be the last.”

She gestured toward the Specters. “Survive this phase, and you will gain access to the Axis—the hidden protocol beneath the entire E.V.E.R. construct. Fail… and all timelines collapse into Null.”

Evryn stared at her. “And what about Kai? What about Earth?”

The Curator’s silence was answer enough.

Evryn stepped forward, fire igniting in her core. “Then test me.”

A new ripple surged across the floor as the remaining Specters converged into a single monstrous form—an amalgamation of all her failures. Towering, shifting, screaming her name in voices too broken to understand.

The Curator watched, arms folded, unmoved.

Evryn activated her core fully—no longer just a user of the system, but its equal. Her skin shimmered with light, her form enhanced beyond anything the project had predicted.

The final battle in the chamber of origin began.

Kai, watching helplessly from the outer threshold, could only whisper one thing:

“Don’t let them rewrite you, Evryn.”