The world trembled.
As the tether collapsed, Nephros descended like a wounded god—fractured, shrieking, and seething with glitchfire. His digital skin peeled in layers, revealing an inner storm of corrupted memories and stolen codes. The sky cracked above the Nexus Tower, and reality began to unravel around them.
Clyde stood at the center of it all, holding the Rewrite Key close to his chest.
"I warned you," Nephros growled, voice grinding like a thousand machines trying to scream. "You can't stop evolution. You are the flaw."
Clyde stepped forward. "Then I guess I'm rewriting the rules."
The battlefield warped into a kaleidoscope of collapsing memories—fragments of Clyde's childhood, failed timelines, broken possibilities. Echo and Arden reappeared at his side, barely standing, but eyes burning with defiance.
"This is your last chance," Nephros thundered. "Hand me the Key, and I'll grant your kind peace. Refuse, and become dust in forgotten code."
"No," Clyde said, calm now. "Peace doesn't come from surrender. It comes from choosing who we become."
And with that—he ran straight into the storm.
The clash shook the core of the world.
Blasts of raw data exploded like supernovas. Nephros struck with limbs that multiplied in real-time, lashing out with rewritten versions of every enemy Clyde had ever faced. Clyde dodged one, blocked another, until the lines between code and flesh blurred.
Then Nephros grabbed him.
"Look into me!" he roared. "I am your future!"
Clyde's mind filled with infinite outcomes: worlds where he failed, where he never existed, where his friends died without meaning.
But through that chaos, a single voice broke through.
"Rewrite isn't about control. It's about hope."
The voice of the Architect.
Clyde activated the Key.
A blinding surge of light enveloped the battlefield, pulling Nephros into a vortex of collapsing timelines. He thrashed and screamed, his form pixelating and fragmenting.
"NO—YOU DON'T GET TO DECIDE—"
But it was too late.
Clyde drove the Rewrite Key into the heart of the Nexus.
The world screamed—then silenced.
When Clyde opened his eyes, he was standing in a field of white.
No city. No ruins. Just stillness.
Echo and Arden were there, slowly regaining consciousness. The sky above them was whole again—calm, clouded with promise.
"It's done," Echo whispered.
Clyde nodded. "We rewrote the end."
But deep below, buried beneath layers of forgotten code…
…a single corrupted fragment of Nephros pulsed.
Alive.
Waiting.