The revival began without ceremony.
Chronos Dust was introduced slowly, forming a shimmering halo around Elara's body. Time itself slowed in that space, each second stretched thin to prevent death from advancing further. The Temporal Core fragment pulsed in response, its light steady but strained, as though resisting the task it had been forced to perform.
Lyra worked in complete silence, her hands moving with mechanical precision. Every calculation carried irreversible consequences. There would be no second attempt.
Kaito stood at Elara's side, holding her hand, grounding her to the present. The Astro Blade lay across his back, its hum low and mournful.
When the energies finally aligned, the air in the medical bay grew heavy, charged with unseen pressure.
Light erupted.
Elara's body arched violently as power surged through her, forcing breath back into lungs that had already surrendered. For a terrifying moment, she went completely still. The monitors flatlined.
Then she inhaled sharply.
Her eyes opened, glowing with green and gold light that did not belong to the living. A scream tore from her throat, not of pain, but of revelation so vast it shattered language itself.
The scream faded. The light dimmed.
Elara collapsed forward, breathing, alive.
When she finally spoke, her voice carried a reverence that chilled the room.
"I crossed beyond," she whispered. "There was no darkness. There was a threshold."
She described a place where existence thinned, where the universe strained against itself. There, she had seen colossal Gates suspended at the edges of reality, sealed not by machines or force fields, but by living anchors.
"Keys," she said softly. "Bound to beings powerful enough to end wars. Or begin them."
Lyra felt a cold weight settle in her chest.
"And if the Gates open?"
Elara met her gaze.
"Reality will be forced into conflict. Not to destroy itself, but to decide what deserves to remain."