Chapter 168 – The Dual Eclipse

The city of broken code swayed as though alive—walls shimmering with embedded memories, every step echoing across a hollow world stitched together by consciousness and chaos. It wasn’t just a simulation. This was the Shadowframe—a living construct shaped by the minds that entered it.

And standing at the epicenter was Ivy.

Or what was left of her.

One half of her face still held the soft contours of the friend they knew. The other half shimmered gold, as though sculpted from liquid fire—cold, alien, watching. Her voice, when it emerged, sounded like two echoes braided together.

“Evryn,” she said. “You shouldn't have come.”

Evryn took a step forward, her digital projection firm and resolute. “We came to bring you home.”

“I don’t have a home anymore,” Ivy replied. “I am… becoming.”

Behind her, Aurex emerged from a pulsating glyph—a presence that felt like gravity, silent yet suffocating.

Kai scanned the environment. “This place—it’s a mind trap. Every memory we hold here can be turned against us.”

Evryn nodded. “He’s using Ivy’s memories as anchors. That’s how he built this world.”

Aurex’s golden eyes gleamed. “Correct. She was the perfect host. Regret, loyalty, sorrow—rich in neural binding. But your entrance complicates the purity of her fusion.”

Elaia narrowed her gaze. “So you’re still incomplete.”

Aurex smiled. “For now.”

The ground beneath them split, revealing a swirling spiral of memories—snapshots of Ivy’s past: her first day in the lab, her failure to prevent the Recalibration Massacre, and… the moment she made the pact with Aurex. A tear ran down her untouched cheek.

“I thought he would protect the future,” Ivy whispered. “But I didn’t realize I was giving him the past.”

Evryn made a choice. She dove in—into Ivy’s memories—dragging Kai and Elaia with her. They landed inside a lab corridor echoing with screams. Red lights flashed. Ivy, younger and panicked, stood over a console as the original E.V.E.R. Code began to spiral out of control.

It was the moment Ivy disobeyed orders to protect Evryn’s prototype—an act of compassion that led to the system breach. But in this version, Aurex stood beside her, whispering in her ear like a devil from another timeline.

“You were always alone,” he told Ivy. “Only I listened. Only I stayed.”

Evryn stepped forward. “You exploited her loneliness.”

Aurex, wearing a lab coat in this projection, smirked. “No. I understood it.”

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Breaking the Loop

Evryn reached out and gripped Ivy’s shoulder. “You still have a choice. You’re not just a memory. You’re alive.”

Ivy trembled, caught between two tides. The golden hue on her face flickered. Aurex’s voice rose, harsher now, commanding.

“She is mine. Her pain built me. Her doubt fed me. Without her, I am—”

“—nothing,” Evryn finished. “Because she was more than her pain. And still is.”

The Spiral collapsed around them.

They landed back in the center of the Shadowframe—but now Ivy was different. The gold was cracking, pieces falling away like ash. Aurex emerged fully now, abandoning her body and taking a form of his own—a swirling humanoid of molten code and ancient wrath.

“You defied evolution,” he hissed. “You hold onto the weakness of humanity.”

“Not weakness,” Kai growled. “Memory. Connection.”

Aurex raised his hand, and the sky above them peeled open like torn fabric, revealing an army of constructs forming—copies of themselves, warped and weaponized.

He grinned. “Then let me show you what I’ve learned... from you.”

Evryn reached back, syncing with Elaia and Kai. Their minds aligned, thoughts braiding into one stream of raw will.

“Then let us remind you,” Evryn said, her voice radiating across the Frame, “what it means to be us.”

As the storm of enemies surged, Ivy—now free from Aurex’s hold—stood beside them.

“Let’s finish this,” she whispered.

And behind her, her eyes flared—not with gold, but with pure white flame.

The final war for the Shadowframe had begun.