I woke with a gasp, my body slamming into cold, hard stone. The light was gone, replaced by an impenetrable darkness that seemed to swallow everything whole. The pulse of the rift had stopped, but its weight still pressed on my chest, suffocating me with its unseen force.
For a moment, I didn't know where I was. The ground beneath me felt uneven, jagged like broken glass. Slowly, I pushed myself up, my hands shaking as I scanned my surroundings. There were no walls, no structure-just an endless stretch of barren earth, stretching out in all directions.
"Liora..."
I froze. That voice again. It came from behind me, soft, almost a whisper, but I knew that it was calling to me. I turned around, my heart pounding in my chest.
And there, standing in the distance, was a figure. Its outline was blurred, as though it were made of smoke, shifting and flickering in the dark. I couldn't see its face, but the moment I laid eyes on it, I knew it was watching me.
My heart raced, a strange feeling of dread creeping up my spine. "Who... who are you?" I whispered into the void, my voice sounding so small in this empty place.
"Liora..." the voice repeated, this time clearer, more insistent. "You have to remember. You have to understand what you did."
I felt my knees weaken, and I dropped to the ground, clutching my head as the memories flooded in. The experiment. The rift. The destruction. The choices I had made.
The figure stepped closer, and for the first time, I could make out its face. But it wasn't just any face-it was mine. Older, battle-worn, eyes haunted with regret. The same person I had seen in the rift. The one who had failed.
"You..." I gasped, my voice breaking. "You're me."
The figure nodded slowly, its eyes sorrowful. "Yes, Liora. I am you. And I've come to warn you."
"Warn me about what?"
"That there's no way to undo it."
"But I don't remember..." I stammered, trying to fight the fog in my mind. "What happened? Why is this happening?"
"You made a choice," the figure said, its voice tinged with both sadness and bitterness. "Pinili mong istop ang destruction... but you didn't realize that stopping the loop would destroy everything. Every timeline. Every reality."
I shook my head, trying to push away the guilt that began to rise in my chest. "I didn't mean for this to happen. I just wanted to fix things."
"You can't fix it," the figure whispered, stepping even closer. "Not without paying the price."
The darkness around me seemed to close in, the ground beneath my feet trembling, the very air vibrating with power. "What price?" I asked, my voice trembling.
The figure raised a hand, its fingers glowing with an eerie, ghostly light. It reached toward me, and I instinctively stepped back. But its hand didn't stop-it reached into me, gripping something deep inside my chest.
I gasped as I felt something sharp twist inside me. A flood of memories-my failures, my choices, the timelines I had shattered-came crashing down upon me, each one more painful than the last.
The figure spoke once more, its voice like a distant echo. "You have to make a choice, Liora. Destroy the rift... or become part of it forever."
The light in its hand burned brighter, and for a moment, I saw the faces of the Faded-their twisted, tortured forms-before the figure's words rang through my mind once more:
"Choose, Liora. Choose now."
I could feel my heart racing, my breath coming in short gasps. The weight of the rift was too much to bear, and the choice-it was impossible. If I destroyed the rift, everything would collapse. If I didn't, I would be trapped in this endless loop, forever a part of the rift's endless cycle.
Tears filled my eyes as I collapsed to my knees, the figure's face flickering before me. "Please," I whispered, "Tell me what to do."
The figure smiled sadly, its expression full of pity. "I can't tell you. This is your choice to make. But know this: Whatever you decide, there's no going back."
And just like that, the figure vanished, leaving me alone in the darkness once again.
I was left with nothing but the weight of the rift's pulse, the echoes of my choices swirling around me. The choice-my choice-was mine to make.
The world around me was silent now, but my mind was a storm. The weight of the choice pressed down on me like a thousand tons, each second feeling like an eternity. What would happen if I destroyed the rift? Would everything cease to exist? Or would it all just continue in an endless loop, the same people, the same pain, the same destruction?
The pull of the rift grew stronger, the darkness around me almost suffocating. My body ached with the tension, but there was one thing that kept me grounded: Elias. I couldn't forget him. He was still out there, somewhere. And I couldn't let this destruction-this rift-be the end of it all.
I stood up, my mind made up. "I will fix this," I whispered, may halong determinasyon. 
But even as the words left my mouth, the ground beneath me began to tremble again. The rift was shifting, warping, pulling everything around it into its chaos.
"No," I breathed, panic rising in my chest. "Huwag muna!"
Before I could react, a bright light flashed in front of me, blinding me with its intensity. I covered my eyes, the light too much to bear.
And then, everything went silent.
The rift stopped. The tremors ceased. The light faded, leaving only darkness in its wake.
For a moment, I thought it was over. But then, a voice cut through the silence, chilling me to my core.
"You've made the wrong choice, Liora."
I froze. The voice... it was familiar.
I turned around slowly, my heart pounding in my chest.
There, standing in the dark, was Elias.
But something was wrong. His eyes-his once familiar, comforting eyes-were empty, void of life. His face was pale, his body thin and frail.
"You..." I gasped, stepping back. "Elias?"
He smiled, but it wasn't the smile I remembered. It was hollow, twisted.
"You chose wrong, Liora," he said, his voice low, almost mechanical. "And now... you will pay the price."
And before I could react, the darkness engulfed me once again.
The darkness swallowed me whole, leaving nothing but cold, suffocating silence. My breath was ragged, each inhale a struggle against the weight of the void that pressed in from every side. I tried to reach out, but my arms felt as though they were bound by invisible chains, each movement heavy and slow, as if I were trapped underwater.
"Elias..." I whispered, my voice barely audible in the oppressive silence.
His image lingered in my mind-the pale, lifeless face, the eyes devoid of the warmth and understanding I once knew. His words echoed in my ears, cruel and haunting: "You chose wrong, Liora. And now... you will pay the price."
I couldn't shake the feeling that everything had changed. The rift wasn't just an anomaly-it was a force, a living thing. And now, Elias, or whatever was left of him, was a part of it. Was he lost to the rift like the others? Was he now a prisoner, just like me?
But before I could gather my thoughts, the air around me thickened, and the world began to twist. I felt the ground shift beneath my feet, as though reality itself was warping. I staggered forward, trying to steady myself, but the sensation of being pulled in every direction was overwhelming.
Then, a bright, searing light pierced the darkness, and I felt my body jerk forward, as if something-or someone-was calling me toward it.
In the distance, I saw him again. Elias.
He stood at the edge of the light, his figure outlined by the blinding glow. His eyes were locked on me, but there was no recognition in them, only a cold emptiness. He was waiting for me.
I tried to move toward him, but my body wouldn't cooperate. The rift was pulling me in every direction, the pull so intense that it felt like my very soul was being torn apart.
"Liora..." Elias's voice came again, but this time, it was different. The tone was chilling, filled with an eerie finality. "You made the wrong choice. And now you must face the consequences."
The light flared brighter, and in an instant, the darkness around me shattered. The world snapped back into place-except it wasn't the same world.
I was standing in the heart of a ruined city, the buildings crumbling, the streets torn apart as if the very earth had been torn asunder. The sky above was dark and twisted, a swirling vortex of energy that stretched into the unknown.
And standing before me was Elias-or something that looked like him.
He was no longer the person I knew. His face was gaunt, his body skeletal, as if the rift had drained him of everything that made him human. The eerie, lifeless eyes that had once been full of hope now stared at me with nothing but cold indifference.
"Elias..." I whispered, stepping back in fear.
He didn't answer. Instead, he raised his hand, and the ground beneath me began to crack and shift. The city itself seemed to breathe, the remnants of once-vibrant life now reduced to dust and ash.
"You can't stop it, Liora," he said, his voice hollow and distant. "You can't fix what's been broken. The rift is beyond your control now. It's alive, and it will devour everything."
"No..." I gasped, the weight of his words sinking in. "I can still fix it. I can still-"
"You can't," Elias interrupted, his voice growing colder. "You don't even understand what you've done. The rift was never meant to be fixed. It's not just a loop-it's a prison. And now we're all trapped in it."
I shook my head, tears blurring my vision. "No... this can't be true. We can stop it. We can undo it."
Elias's eyes narrowed, his expression darkening. "You think you can change fate, Liora? You think you can undo what was done? You've already made your choice. The rift chose you. And now, you belong to it."
Before I could respond, the ground beneath me began to crumble, the city collapsing around us. The vortex above us roared to life, its energy crackling like a storm. I could feel the rift pulling at me, dragging me toward it, as if it had sensed my resolve.
"Elias, please!" I screamed, my voice cracking. "We have to end this! We can't let it consume us!"
But Elias didn't move. He stood there, a broken shell of the person I once knew, and I realized with horror that I was no longer speaking to him.
I was speaking to the rift.
The rift, which had now fully manifested before me in the form of the entity I once called Elias, spoke once more.
"You're too late, Liora," it said, its voice dripping with finality. "The price has been paid."
And with those words, the world around me collapsed into darkness once again.
The ground beneath me gave way, and I fell. The sensation was like sinking into a bottomless abyss, napaka gaan pa ng katawan ko. There was no sound, no movement-just an all-encompassing blackness that threatened to swallow me whole.
I screamed, my voice swallowed by the void, but there was no response. No answer. Just the cold emptiness.
But then, in the distance, a faint light appeared. It was small, flickering like a candle in the dark. I couldn't explain why, but I felt drawn to it, like it was the only thing in this endless void that could save me.
I reached out, my hand shaking, and the light grew brighter, larger, until it became a blinding flash. The light consumed me, and everything around me vanished.
When the light faded, I found myself standing in a vast, empty void-a place that felt like the space between worlds. There were no stars, no ground, no sky-just a never-ending stretch of blackness, stretching infinitely in all directions.
And then, a figure appeared before me.
It was Elias.
But not the Elias I had known. This version of him was different-his eyes were filled with sorrow, and his body was bathed in the same eerie glow that emanated from the rift.
"You're still here," he said softly, his voice a whisper against the vast silence. "You're still trapped."
I shook my head, my chest tight with emotion. "Elias... I-"
He raised a hand to silence me. "There's no time for explanations. The rift is collapsing, and when it does, everything will end. Everything you've known will cease to exist. You have to choose, Liora."
"Choose?" I whispered, the weight of his words sinking in. "Choose what?"
"You have to decide, now," Elias said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Do you save yourself... or everyone else?"
Before I could respond, the void around us began to crack, splitting open like a shattered mirror. The ground beneath me shook, and the light surrounding Elias flickered.
"You don't have much time," he said, his voice urgent now. "The rift is collapsing. Choose, Liora. Before it's too late."
And then, in an instant, the light around us flickered out, plunging me into total darkness once more.