The chamber plunged into shadow.
The blue light atop the pillar snapped off with a sharp crack.
Kael stood still.
His LIGA disc pulsed with a full-alert warning.
But no system could identify what was approaching.
---
Then he saw it.
A silhouette emerging from the watery darkness behind the pillar.
Tall.
Spectral.
Eyeless — yet it could see him.
It wasn't a physical creature.
It was a displaced consciousness,
a fracture in time shaped into presence.
—
A voice — or perhaps many — echoed all around:
— Arkana defied us.
She sealed the rift…
but she did not destroy us.
And you…
are the continuation.
Kael raised his disc, projecting a containment field.
But it shattered the moment the entity touched it.
It moved forward — not with anger… but with curiosity.
— You do not belong to one time.
You carry many.
You are… a portal.
---
Kael stepped back.
For the first time, he felt true fear.
Then, something unexpected happened:
the very structure of the base responded.
Symbols along the wall ignited.
The pillar reactivated.
And a message glowed in the LIGA's core language:
"Final defense authorized. Arkana Code."