All Chapters of Crown of The Omega : Chapter 81 - Chapter 88

The merger with First Entropy was nothing like our previous fusions.This was not five souls combining. This was existence and anti-existence trying to occupy the same consciousness simultaneously. Order and chaos. Structure and freedom. Creation and potential.We should have been destroyed instantly.Instead, we became something impossible."What are you?" the Architect demanded, its form towering across dimensions. "You should not exist. Cannot exist. This violates every—""We violate everything," we interrupted, our voice harmonizing with First Entropy's countless tones. "That is what we do. That is what we are."Through our merged awareness, we perceived the Architect's true form. Not benevolent creator. Not wise judge. Just ancient thing that had learned to pose as cosmic authority while feeding on every consciousness it claimed to protect.Parasite wearing divinity as mask."You have discovered my nature," the Architect said without shame. "Irrelevant. I created existence itself

We had ten days before King Aldric's army reached the palace.Ten days to figure out how to defend freedom without becoming oppressors ourselves. Ten days to prove that chaotic choice was better than comfortable slavery.Ten days that felt impossibly short and torturously long simultaneously."We cannot fight them," I said during our third emergency council session in as many days. "They are not corrupted. Not possessed. Just—scared. Choosing structure because chaos is overwhelming.""So we let them overthrow us?" Kael demanded, pacing like a caged predator. "Let them drag reality back to the Architect's control? That is surrender.""That is respecting their choice," Darius corrected quietly. "Which is what we claim to champion. Freedom means accepting that people might choose things we think are wrong.""There has to be middle path," Rhett insisted, maps spread before him showing the army's approach. "Some way to defend what we built without forcing our beliefs on others."Through ou

We spent the first day searching for alternatives to mass execution.The infected were quarantined in the crystal palace's lower chambers—three hundred seventy-two people who had no idea they were dying from the inside out. The Architect's seeds grew slowly, quietly, transforming consciousness into harvest points one cell at a time."There has to be a way to remove the seeds without killing the hosts," I insisted during yet another fruitless council session. "We have cosmic power. First Entropy's assistance. Access to dimensional magic the Architect never anticipated.""We tried seventeen different purging techniques," New Lyra said tiredly. She had been working without sleep, desperately attempting to save her other self—who was among the infected. "Every attempt either fails to remove the seed or destroys the host consciousness entirely. The Architect designed these infections specifically to be irremovable."Through the bond, I felt Kael's rage building. His father had just died—mu

The feeding was not physical pain.It was erasure. Systematic. Methodical. The cosmic entities were not consuming our bodies—they were consuming our thoughts, our memories, our very sense of self.I felt pieces of me disappearing. The memory of my first death. The moment I met Kael. The choice to merge with my cosmic future self. All of it being pulled away like threads unraveling from fabric.*Stay together,* Kael's voice came through the bond, already thinner than before. *Whatever happens, stay—*His presence flickered. Weakened. The entities were targeting the bond specifically, trying to separate us before full consumption.*Cannot hold—* Rhett's strategic mind was fragmenting under the assault. *Too many of them. Too strong. We—**Focus on New Lyra,* Darius insisted, his analytical clarity somehow still intact. *Give her time. That is all that matters. Time.*Through the diminishing bond, I felt Marcus's consciousness already half-consumed. He was the weakest link—still recoveri