Nara lay sprawled where she'd fallen, wings half-buried in scorched rusted dirt. Her lungs burned with every shallow breath she took. Somehow, she managed to lift her head just in time to see the guardian stretch, distort, and then vanish, pulled into Kaito's left eye.
Her breath caught.
"…What…?" She whispered.
Her ears rang violently. Despite that, she forced what little essence she had left into her hearing, veins along her temples flaring as she strained to listen. But there was nothing.
"I can't even hear them… But how?" She murmured, disbelief mixing with fear.
"How did he… do that…?"
In the distance, Sylas stood rigid, his sword almost forgotten at his side as he stared at the being in control of Kaito's face as the nebula-like essence curled lazily around their body.
They hadn't even looked back at him yet. Sylas clenched his fists.
"You keep mentioning my brother's name like you know him." His voice shook—not with fear, but with something long buried and finally breaking free.
"Kaito never met him. He couldn't have."
The being didn't respond. Sylas took a step forward before being warned by Atlas in his head not to get any closer.
"No matter how far I travel, no matter the planet, the star system, no one remembers him. Despite him being one of the Twelve Cosmic Disasters. He stood beside Elara. Beside Talon. Beside the other nine who graduated from the Ashen Star Traveler Academy, the most prestigious academy in the known universe. Founded by the first elves to ever walk the stars."
His breath came uneven.
"They were legends. Monsters. Heroes. Every single one of them became an S-rank captain the moment they graduated."
He paused momentarily.
"…Every single one except my brother."
His jaw clenched as the memories forced themselves forward.
"After graduation, he was supposed to become the next head of our race, the Keldons. One of the four core elf races."
His sword trembled.
"The ceremony was prepared. The elders agreed. Even our parents. And then right before the day came… he vanished."
He continued, voice cracking slightly.
"Once he did, everyone acted like he never existed. The elders. The people. Even our own parents and siblings."
He looked away, teeth grinding as tears welled in his eyes.
"They spoke to me like I was lying. Like I'd made him up. Like I was insane."
His gaze snapped back, fierce despite his watery eyes.
"But I know I'm not." He growled.
"My memories are real—My brother was real!"
He took a moment to compose himself before continuing.
"I was next to attend the academy. Next in line to being the new leader after him... But I wouldn't stop asking about him."
His voice hardened.
"So the elders stripped me of my crown. Cast me aside. I became the black sheep of my family. Cut off from my parents. From my siblings… everyone."
He exhaled slowly.
"…So I left. I've been searching for answers ever since."
Finally… she spoke. Her feminine voice layered with Kaito's subtly.
"I know of your brother because my sight is not bound by distance, memory, nor time. My true power is not something a mortal could comprehend, even if I tore your soul open and poured the truth inside."
She glanced down at her hands, flexing her fingers as if testing the limits of Kaito's body.
"This vessel…" She said softly, almost irritated.
"It is but a mere cage. A cage he put me in…"
Sylas swallowed.
"…What do you mean?"
She looked back at him, mismatched eyes piercing straight through him.
"This boy is different from most. He seeks what she sought long ago… I can feel it. And as he grows stronger… so do I."
The nebula essence pulsed.
"And when he reaches the threshold required, I will take control and I will kill the one who seeks to destroy my universe… The same one who took your brother."
Sylas's heart stuttered.
"…Took him?" His voice cracked despite his effort to stay calm.
"What do you mean took him? Who is this person? Where are they?" His words came faster now, years of restraint splintering apart.
"Where did they take my brother!?"
She watched him unravel with quiet amusement. Then she smiled.
Not kindly nor cruelly.
Instead knowingly.
"Have you ever heard the story of the goddess of this universe… Lyra?" She asked softly, tilting their head.
Sylas froze slightly.
"…Lyra?" He repeated.
The name stirred something in his head, a memory with his brother.
"…Yes. My brother told me a story once about her when we were young." His eyes flickered as memories surfaced.
"Its said she was the creator of this universe. That she spread her essence across every world… so all life would be connected. Our people called it a cosmic fairytale and the elders banned every text that mentioned her. But my brother believed in her. He always did. He kept some text hidden with him, but it was incomplete and he never managed to find to remaining."
Her gaze softened just slightly.
"Oh, how predictable…" She murmured.
"The ones closest to truth are always silenced first."
Her voice lowered.
"Lyra was not born a goddess. She was once mortal from the universe before this one. She was gentle. Fragile. Curious. And kind to a fault… One day she came across a tree that grew differently from the ones on our world. It bared no leaves and seemed to be dead or even cursed. But it wasn't."
Sylas's brow scrunched up slightly. The being continued.
"From it grew a single fruit. Due to her curiosity… she ate it. Once she did, she became the first being to wield cosmic essence."
Her voice echoed faintly across the battlefield.
"She ascended beyond mortality. Beyond limitations. Her light brought harmony to star systems. Peace to civilizations that had only known war."
Her tone sharpened.
"But light casts shadows."
Her gaze hardened.
"The one she loved most, her own husband, felt eclipsed by her radiance. Betrayed. He believed that power should have been his… So he conspired with others and they betrayed her. They imprisoned her. Tortured her. For centuries. And yet, she never screamed. She never cried. Never begged them to stop. Because she still believed in their goodness.
The being's tone was almost… reverent.
"Until one day a tear fell. She finally weeped, but not for herself… she wept for them. The ones who betrayed her."
Her gaze lifted skyward.
"That single tear… shattered the universe she was born into." Her layered voice reverberated.
"Reality imploded and space folded in on itself. And from that destruction… this universe was born."
Sylas's eyes widened.
"A new beginning." She said calmly.
She looked back at him.
"Lyra scattered her essence across all worlds in what you all call cosmic wells. And even after everything they did to her…she rebirthed them too…"
Sylas staggered back a step.
"She gave her betrayers a second chance?"
Her gaze darkened.
"Yes… and she was wrong."
The ground beneath Sylas's feet felt unsteady. The being continued, voice sharpening.
"The same man who imprisoned her now seeks to destroy the universe she created. Replace it with one of his own design. The same man she shared her love with. The same man who has your brother. The same man—" She said as she raised a single finger and pointed at him.
"—who looks just like you."
The world tilted for Sylas at these words. His mind reeled, denial and horror colliding all at once.
"That's impossible…" He breathed.
"You're lying—"
She chuckled. Her layered voice with Kaito's that sound both elegant and cruel.
"You house one of her guardians." She said lightly.
"Which makes you… interesting. Perhaps if I absorb you… I'll finally have answers to questions I've long forgotten."
Atlas's voice screamed inside Sylas's skull.
"MOVE! NOW!"
It was too late.
The ground beneath Sylas erupted.
Crystalline spikes burst upward from the ground. The same crystals the guardian once used. Pain tore through him as the jagged structures impaled his legs, his arms, his torso, pinning him in place like an insect caught in amber.
He screamed in pain and agony. Blood spilled down crystals as his body trembled violently.
The black-hole eye, the same one that had devoured the guardian without leaving even a whisper of essence behind, began to glow. Its accretion ring spun faster, space tightening around it as if reality itself were being pulled toward a singular point. But before anything happened, a presence slammed down between them.
The ground cracked outward in a perfect circle as a tall porcelain figure descended from the sky, landing with almost impossible grace. Sunlight from the red star reflected off her sleek, organic porcelain white frame. It was Astra.
She stood a couple meters tall with four arms, the two smaller arms protruding from the elbow points of her primary ones. Her four crimson eyes locked onto the being inside Kaito with cold precision.
"It appears that the examinations have concluded." She said calmly, her voice carrying across the battlefield like a decree.
"And because of that… I may now participate."
The gray wristband around Kaito's arm flared red. The being hissed, fingers twitching as the nebula essence around Kaito's body violently sputtered.
"Tch…" She seethed, irritation bleeding through her layered voice as she looked down to the device.
"Interesting…" She mused darkly.
"It nearly severed the flow of our essence outright. Only mere droplets are flowing through… not even enough to use my eye."
Before she could tear it free, the sky darkened slightly above them. One Astra became many.
Twenty. Thirty. Even more. The clones dropped like falling rain, encircling them in a perfect radius. In unison, all four arms of every Astra snapped forward and the sound of smooth metal screamed.
Sleek, silver-black metallic ropes shot outward, wrapping around Kaito's limbs, torso, neck. They coiled tight, biting deep, locking every joint in place. Once bound, the ropes glowed red, siphoning off their essence.
The being snarled as the ropes drank. All of her and Kaito's essence was being swallowed away in violent gulps.
"…You're trying to render me unconscious." She growled.
She pulled, but the ropes didn't budge. The nebula essence flickered… then thinned… then began to fade entirely. The star and singularity pupils dimmed and Kaito's eyes, his real brown eyes, started to return.
Behind them, Sylas screamed in pain as two Astra clones tore him free from the crystal prison. The spikes dissolved as they lifted him into the air, blood trailing behind.
"No—!" The being roared, straining against the bindings as Sylas was carried skyward toward a waiting medical ship.
Her gaze burned.
More clones descended, collecting the remaining fallen—Finn, Rikona, the Thalorians, even Nara—lifting them gently but without care.
The first Astra approached slowly, footsteps deliberate.
"I have questions and you will answer them." She said flatly with her dual robotic and human-like voice.
The being chuckled at such a statement.
"What makes you believe that I would listen to something like you?"
Astra stopped a few feet away then spoke.
"Because if Kaito dies… so do you. That is the universal law binding a yoki and its celestial guardian."
Silence fell and the being froze momentarily.
"…Petty lies." She spat.
"You wouldn't dare kill this boy. So why speak of nonsense like that?"
Astra tilted her head.
"It seems you mistake me for someone who values life." She said calmly.
Her four eyes narrowed.
"My priority is knowledge. I lust for information. I yearn for data that allows ascension. And the data contained within that human mind—even post-mortem—would be… exquisite."
The being's brow scrunched up, anger seemingly taking over, but she smirked. Astra's four eyes widen realizing the trap she walked into.
Crack!!!
Crystals erupted from Kaito's body. Jagged, violent shards burst outward like a living porcupine, shredding several of the metallic ropes. One arm tore free, blood spraying as his sandy flesh tore open.
A hand rose palm forward towards Astra. Purple lightning arcs crackled around the freed arm and she whispered, almost fondly.
"Raiden…Canon."
A beam of pure violet annihilation erupted from the palm, so massive it dwarfed the battlefield, the size of a skyscraper laid on its side, swallowing the majority of the Astra clones whole before they could react, including the one standing right before them.
The mountain range Sylas had once cleaved was gone. Not shattered, simply erased. Reduced to nothing as if it never existed in the first place.
The beam didn't stop.
It curved upward, tearing through the atmosphere, slamming into the tidally locked moon where the examinees raced to with the speed of light.
The explosion vaporized half the moon away and left it forever carved into a crescent.
Even after all that, more Astra clones came. They're numbers growing in the hundreds. They descended, wrapping Kaito completely in the same metallic ropes until only his mouth remained free.
They drained the last remaining essence out of his body until his body forcefully began to give out.
Despite it all… the being laughed. A manic, echoing laugh that vibrated through the bones of the planet.
As consciousness slipped away… As darkness closed in, she whispered three final words.
"Long… live…" Her voice faded out until it was only Kaito's heard again.
"…Lyra."