---
Elara Veyra hung suspended in a cage of spiraling chrono-energy, her hybrid form flickering like a dying star. The Godforge siphoned her power, thread by thread, weaving timelines into Arius's rigid design. The Core's voice slithered through her mind, offering temptation: "Break free. Burn the tower. Let chaos reign again."
"You… promised order," Elara rasped, her veins crackling with blue fire.
"We lied," the Core laughed. "Chaos is our nature. Arius is a fool—but his ambition makes him useful."
Memories surged—Kael as a child, building sandcastles that collapsed into black holes. Elias's hand on her shoulder, urging her to fight. Zara's scream echoing across the void. With a roar, Elara clawed at the energy binding her, her hands blistering.
"I choose… neither," she snarled, and unleashed a pulse of raw paradox.
The Godforge shuddered.
---
Lila, Jax, and Wren crouched in a ventilation shaft overlooking the Godforge's core. Below, Arius's chrono-sentries patrolled, their armor shimmering with unstable timelines.
"The hack's ready," Wren whispered, her fingers flying over a stolen datapad. "But we need to sync it with Zara's loop. If she can destabilize the temporal frequency from the inside…"
"And if she can't?" Jax growled, priming a plasma grenade.
"Then we're ash," Lila said, plugging a neural jack into her temple. "Zara! You there?"
Static. Then—"Barely," Zara's voice crackled. "Arius's pattern is… a fractal. Repeating. Find the origin thread."
A hologram flared: a single timeline labeled VOX-001, Arius's first victory.
"Destroy that," Zara said, "and the weave unravels."
---
Zara's echo drifted through the loop, her form translucent. Around her, mirrored shards replayed Arius's rise: a younger, softer Arius weeping over a dead city, then hardening, stealing the Chrono Compass, forging the Godforge.
"He's not just a tyrant," she realized. "He's a victim of the Core."
Arius's memory-self turned, his eyes meeting hers across time. "You see? Order is the only salvation."
"Salvation?" Zara spat. "This is slavery!"
She plunged her hand into the shard, seizing the origin thread. Pain erupted—her echo fraying—but she held firm.
"Lila! Now!"
---
The Godforge's core flared as Lila uploaded Wren's virus. Chrono-sentries collapsed, their armor aging to rust. Jax barreled toward Arius, plasma cutter blazing.
"You lose," Jax snarled.
Arius smiled, the Compass pulsing. "You misunderstand. I already won."
He snapped his fingers—and Elara's cage exploded.
---
Elara's paradox pulse rippled outward, shattering the Godforge's weave. Timelines rebelled, fracturing Arius's perfect patterns. But as the tower crumbled, Arius seized the Compass.
"If I cannot rule time," he hissed, "I will unmake its architects."
The Compass flared, targeting all Vosses across history. Zara's echo screamed as her timeline frayed. Elara's hybrid form flickered, her very DNA unraveling.
"No!" Lila lunged, but Arius vanished, leaving a final taunt:
"The Voss line ends with me."
---
The Godforge collapsed, its rubble birthing a singularity. From it emerged a figure—hooded, scarred, gripping a weapon of twisted chrono-glass.
"You saved the city," the stranger said, lowering his hood to reveal Elias Voss's face, aged and battle-worn. "But he is coming. The true architect."
Behind him, the singularity pulsed, reflecting a shadowy colossus—a being woven from the Core's ashes and Arius's rage.
"Meet the Weaver."
---
As Neo-Pandora reeled, the colossus extended a hand, its fingers branching into infinite threads. Elias raised his weapon, eyes grim.
"Arius was just the thread. The Weaver… is the needle."
To Be Continued…
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