The darkness enveloped me completely. It was like I was falling through nothingness, no up, no down, just endless void stretching in all directions. I tried to scream, but no sound escaped my mouth. My body felt weightless, like I was drifting in a dream that had no end. The pull of the vortex had taken us all—Elias, the Faded, and me—and now... now I was alone. He was gone. 
Or so I thought.
A faint light appeared in the distance, a small glimmer in the vast emptiness. It grew brighter, pulling me toward it, as if it was the only thing left in this infinite abyss. My heart raced as I moved toward it, my limbs still heavy, as if I were fighting against an invisible current.
The closer I got, the more the light took shape. It was no longer a distant star—it was an orb, floating in the center of the void. The same orb that had powered the machine, the one that had caused the rift in the first place. But now, it was different. Its glow was softer, gentler, like it was calling me. And as I reached out toward it, I felt a strange warmth spreading through my chest.
I had to stop. I had to think of anything. I had to remember. The memories—flashes of timelines, of choices, of lives I had never lived—came rushing back in a chaotic storm. I remembered the machine, the project, the rift that had torn reality apart. I remembered Elias. His face, his voice... he’s gone, I thought. The vortex took him. I couldn't save him.
But then the light pulsed again, and something shifted in my mind. It wasn’t just the orb. There was something familiar about this place, about this moment. Like I had been here before.
The voice came again. I can definitely hear it. It’s so near yet so far. 
"Liora..."
I froze. My name echoed through the emptiness, soft and familiar, like a whisper in the wind. But it was wrong. It wasn’t the voice I had heard earlier—the one calling from the rift. This was something different, something more... intimate.
I turned, instinctively searching for the source, but there was nothing. Just the orb, the pulsing light that beckoned me and shining right through me. 
"Elias?" I whispered, half expecting him to appear in the darkness, but nothing. No response. No Elias. Just nothing. 
"Liora, come closer," the voice urged. It wasn’t Elias’s voice. It wasn’t even a human voice. It was... mine. My own voice. The voice sounded like me, but older, more knowing and more substantial. 
A cold chill ran through me, and a strange, haunting feeling gripped my chest. This wasn’t just the rift. It wasn’t just a time loop. There was something deeper, darker at play here. Definitely more than what I thought this could be. 
I stepped forward, toward the orb. My mind screamed at me to turn away, but my body moved without hesitation. My curiosity is even making me move closer. The closer I got, the stronger the pull became, like invisible strings tying me to it, dragging me closer to the heart of the rift.
"Who are you?" I whispered, the words escaping my lips before I could stop them. My heart beating like I was from a chase. 
And then, the orb shifted. It no longer looked like the orb I had seen before. The light surrounding it began to distort, forming shapes, figures, memories. Faces, flashes of moments in time—some familiar and some are foreign. And there, in the center of it all, was me. 
Or was it me?
The figure in the center of the orb was me—but not me. She was older, her eyes filled with a knowing sadness, her face etched with the weight of centuries. She looked at me, and in her eyes, I saw everything. I saw the lives I had lived, the choices I had made, the path that had brought me here. And the choice I made. 
"Liora," she whispered, her voice blending with mine. "You’ve come to find the truth."
I took a step back, my heart racing. "What is this? What’s happening? I don’t understand any of this.” 
The figure smiled sadly, her eyes full of sorrow. "You’ve crossed the boundaries of time, child. But now you must face the consequences."
"What consequences?" I asked, my voice shaking. "What happened? What did I do?"
The figure’s expression hardened. "You activated the rift. You unleashed the machine. The loop—you created it. But you weren’t meant to remember."
My breath caught in my throat. "I didn’t—I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know. I don’t even remember anything from all of this."
"You were always meant to," the figure replied, her voice now filled with an edge of finality. "You were chosen. The machine needed someone who could break the cycle, someone who could remember it all, even when it was erased. And you were the chosen one. You are the key."
I shook my head, struggling to comprehend what she was saying. "I don’t understand. What do you mean I’m the key?"
"You will see soon enough, just not yet.” the figure said cryptically. "But first, you must choose. Will you embrace your fate? Or will you let the loop consume everything? By mean everything‚ including you?"
The orb began to pulse, the light intensifying, and I felt my mind split—two realities colliding. My vision blurred, the memories flooded back again—every version of me, every choice, every possible future, each one fracturing the timeline even more.
The voice came again, louder this time and even pulling me more closer. "Liora..."
The orb trembled, the walls of the void shaking as if reality itself was coming undone. And in that moment, I realized the truth—the rift wasn’t just about time. It was about me. I was the one who had caused the unraveling. I was the one who held the power to stop it—or let it all fall apart.
"Make your choice, Liora," the figure whispered, her voice fading as the light reached its peak. "Before it’s too late or you will regret it...again."
And just as I reached out to make my decision, the light exploded, engulfing me completely.
Everything went white.
I gasped as the light consumed me, burning through my senses like a thousand suns. It wasn’t pain, but a sharp, suffocating pressure, a force pulling me apart and remaking me in ways I couldn’t comprehend. My body felt like it was disintegrating, each atom being stretched and torn across time and space.
The figure in the orb faded from my vision, her last words echoing in the void as the light reached its apex. "Before it’s too late..."
The moment those words left her lips, everything shattered.
The light didn’t just vanish—it exploded, sending me hurtling through a tunnel of darkness, disorienting me as I tumbled through what felt like an endless corridor. The echoes of the rift whispered through my mind, but there were no words this time, no warnings. Just a pulse—steady, rhythmic, like a heartbeat.
I tried to scream, but my voice was lost. I couldn't get anything out of my mouth. I couldn't even open it. And I couldn’t even feel my body anymore. There was no ground beneath my feet, no air to breathe. I was weightless, floating through an abyss that seemed to stretch on forever.
Suddenly, the chaos stopped.
A heavy silence replaced the crackling energy, and for a moment, I thought I might be dead. I waited for my senses to return, for something—anything—that would anchor me back to reality. That maybe‚ I can still say that this is just maybe a dream. Cause this is more than what I imagined to be. 
And then, the light returned, but it was... wrong.
It was not the soft, beckoning glow from before. Now it was harsh, cold, and blinding—like staring directly into the heart of a storm. The walls of the tunnel around me began to ripple, the very fabric of reality warping and bending in ways that made my head spin.
I tried to move, but nothing happened. My limbs were frozen, locked in place by an invisible force. The light pulsed again, more intensely now, each beat reverberating through my skull.
I felt a presence behind me. It wasn’t Elias. It wasn’t the figure from the orb. It was something else—something older, something familiar.
"Liora..."
The voice came from behind me again, low and resonant. This time, I recognized it.
It was me.
I twisted my head around, but there was nothing there. Just the oppressive darkness, the blinding light, and the steady pulse of the rift.
"Liora..." The voice repeated, now almost desperate. "I need you to remember."
And then, as if on cue, the tunnel around me began to collapse. The walls tore apart, and I was falling again, but this time, I wasn’t alone.
A shape—tall, silhouetted in shadow—emerged from the darkness, walking toward me with purpose. The closer it came, the more I realized who it was.
It was me, but older. Worn. Dark circles under her eyes, her hair longer, streaked with gray. Her face was etched with lines of regret and sorrow, as if she had seen the unraveling of worlds. She reached out, her hand trembling slightly.
"You’re too late," she whispered, her voice a mirror of my own. "It’s already started. We’ve already lost."
My breath caught in my throat. "What are you talking about? Who are you?"
She closed the distance between us, her eyes hollow. "I’m you," she said. "The one who failed. The one who let the loop go on. But you can still fix it... if you make the right choice."
My mind reeled. This was impossible. This wasn’t real. But the feeling—the haunting weight of her gaze—told me otherwise. It was real. It had to be.
"How do I stop it?" I asked, desperation creeping into my voice.
She shook her head slowly, her expression pained. "You can’t stop it. You’re part of it now. But you can choose—choose whether to erase everything or let it all unfold."
The light pulsed again, the tunnel contracting, forcing me to my knees. My chest tightened, the weight of the rift crashing down on me like a flood of memories. The experiment. The choices. The timelines.
"Liora..." The voice in my head whispered, growing louder with each passing second. "The rift... it’s your doing. Your power. You must choose now. Choose."
Tears blurred my vision. This wasn’t just about time anymore. It was about me—my past, my choices, and the very core of who I was.
The older version of myself reached out one last time, her hand trembling as she brushed against my cheek. Her eyes locked onto mine, filled with understanding and fear.
"You already know what you have to do. Don’t make the same mistake I did."
And then, as she faded into the light, she left me with one final warning:
"It’s already started... And now, there’s no going back."
The tunnel collapsed completely, the light searing into my vision as I was pulled into the blackness once again. The rift’s pulse, the heartbeat of the loop, continued, dragging me down into its abyss.
And then, everything went silent. Like there was nothing at all.