The chamber pulsed with unnatural light as the cocoon split open. The girl—no, the Original Rewrite—floated downward, her bare feet touching the ground like a god reborn. Her eyes, silver and glowing, scanned Clyde.
"You passed the threshold," she whispered, her voice layered, as if speaking through every timeline at once. "But only one can overwrite reality."
Behind Clyde, Nova and Rhea tensed.
And then—he appeared.
The Architect.
Not as code. Not as voice. But in the flesh.
Clad in a cloak of shattered data, his face was blank, emotionless—a ghost carved from every failed rewrite. He stood between Clyde and the Original.
"I will not yield," the Architect said. "You are flawed, fragmented. You were never meant to win."
Clyde stepped forward. "No… I was never meant to exist. And yet, here I am."
The final clash ignited.
Code twisted midair as Clyde launched forward, fists laced with light forged from every memory he'd reclaimed. The Architect raised a hand, summoning tendrils of void to meet him. They collided with a soundless roar, shockwaves flattening the chamber's walls.
Rhea joined the fray, her blades slicing through corrupted data, while Nova hacked into the system mid-battle, flooding the battlefield with ancient rewrite protocols that tore into the Architect's form.
But the Architect adapted. Fast.
He shattered into fragments—dozens of him—each attacking with perfect synchronization.
Clyde was knocked back, breath stolen. The Architect loomed.
"You are nothing but a leftover."
"No," Clyde growled, standing. "I'm the result."
He closed his eyes.
And then—
Every failed version of him appeared.
Echoes of Clyde—some broken, some brave, some monstrous—all around him. Together, they charged.
It was no longer one Clyde.
It was all of them.
The Architect screamed, data unraveling, collapsing into sparks of light.
As the Original watched in silence, her eyes welled with something foreign—tears.
When the dust settled, only Clyde stood, bloodied, breathing, alive.
The Architect… gone.
But the war wasn't over.
The Original stepped forward. "Now comes the choice."
And Clyde knew: rewrite reality… or destroy it.