The world was still. Silent. Empty. I couldn’t tell if I was floating, or if I had fallen into some kind of black abyss. My limbs were heavy, my chest tight with an unspoken weight. I opened my eyes slowly, but all I saw was darkness, a thick, suffocating void that seemed to stretch on forever. There was no sound, no movement. Just the heavy pulse of something powerful, lurking just out of reach.
Then, like a whisper in the wind, I heard it.
“Liora…”
The voice was faint, almost drowned out by the oppressive silence, but it was familiar. It was his voice.
“Elias?” I called out, my voice barely a murmur in the endless void.
“Liora…”
The voice came again, this time clearer, stronger. I tried to move toward it, but no matter how hard I reached, I couldn’t seem to close the distance. It was as if the darkness itself was keeping me from him, pulling me deeper into the nothingness.
“Elias, where are you?” I cried, panic rising in my chest. “Please… help me!”
Suddenly, the darkness flickered. A light—distant and faint—began to pierce the blackness, like the first star of the evening. I didn’t hesitate. I ran toward it, ignoring the overwhelming sense of fear clawing at my insides.
The light grew brighter with every step I took, and I began to make out shapes within the glow. Familiar shapes. People. But they weren’t just people. They were the ones I had loved, the ones I had lost, all standing there, watching me with expressions I couldn’t quite read.
“Liora…” Elias’s voice was louder now, and as I stumbled toward the light, I saw him.
He was standing there, but something was different. His face was pale, his expression unreadable. The light that surrounded him was strange, almost wrong.
“Elias… what’s happening?” I asked, my voice trembling.
He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, his gaze shifted toward the others. The people who had stood by my side. Those I had tried to protect. And then, his eyes met mine again.
“You have to decide, Liora,” he said, his voice heavy with a burden I couldn’t understand. “You’re the only one who can.”
“Decide?” I repeated, my heart racing. “What do you mean? I’ve already made my choice. I ended the rift. I—”
“No.” His voice was sharp now, cutting through my confusion. “That wasn’t the choice. The rift hasn’t been ended—it’s only been delayed. And it’s not just about saving the world, Liora. It’s about you.”
My stomach churned. “What do you mean, ‘about me’? I—I did everything right. I chose to end it. I chose to give up everything for—”
“No,” he interrupted, taking a step forward. “You didn’t end it. You thought you were fixing things, but you were just buying time.”
I shook my head. “No. That can’t be true. I saw the rift close. I saw it—”
“The rift is you,” Elias said, his voice softening. “It was never just a rift, Liora. It was born from your choices, from your fears, from your regrets.”
I stepped back, my chest tightening. “No… that’s not possible. I—I ended it.”
Elias’s face grew dark. “What you closed was just one part. The smallest part. The true rift is within you. It’s your soul—your inner chaos, the battle between light and darkness that you’ve been running from all along. That’s what the rift feeds on. That’s what it needs.”
“No… no!” I gasped. “That can’t be it. I won’t… I can’t—”
“You must choose again, Liora,” Elias whispered, his eyes full of sorrow. “You have to face the truth inside you. You have to accept it. Or else, everything will be lost.”
My hands trembled as the weight of his words crushed down on me. I had failed. I had failed everyone.
I turned to look at the others. They were silent now, their faces a mix of sorrow and understanding. It was like they knew what had to be done, but they couldn’t do it for me. This was my battle.
I looked back at Elias, my heart breaking. “What do I do? How do I stop this?”
He stepped closer, his presence a warmth that I clung to, even as the rift pulsed around us. “Only you can close it for good, Liora. You must choose what part of yourself you will give up—your darkness, or your light.”
Tears welled in my eyes as the enormity of his words settled over me. The rift wasn’t something I could just destroy. It was a part of me, a part of my soul. The fear, the anger, the regret—those emotions had always been buried deep inside me. Now, they were coming to the surface, threatening to consume everything.
I closed my eyes, my heart pounding, as I felt the rift’s energy surge within me, the weight of the choices pushing me to the brink.
And then, the ground shook again. The tear in the sky, the rift that had once been contained, began to pull at me. Not just the world, but me. It was reaching into the deepest parts of me, into the very core of my being, trying to drag out the darkness I had locked away for so long.
I gasped, struggling to stay grounded. “No… please, not now… I can’t—”
Suddenly, everything went still again.
But this time, it was different. A voice, deep and cold, filled my mind.
“You’re out of time.”
The rift swelled with a terrible roar, and I realized—there was only one way left to stop it.
I had to face my true self.
And in that moment, I knew what I had to do.
But as I stepped forward to confront my darkness, a sharp pain shot through my chest. The sky cracked open one last time, and something else—someone—stepped through the rift.
"Not so fast, Liora."
I froze, my blood running cold.
It was him.
The one I thought I had left behind.
And now, the final choice was no longer just mine.
The world around me cracked, and the rift pulsed violently once more. My heart hammered in my chest as I turned, my eyes falling on the figure that stepped through the tear in the sky.
"You're... alive?" I whispered, disbelief lacing my voice.
The man before me—Kai—was the last person I expected to see. I thought I had left him behind in another lifetime, another version of this chaotic world. His face, once familiar and comforting, now felt like a ghost, a reminder of everything I had lost and everything I had tried to escape.
Kai's eyes gleamed with a cold, calculated glint. His lips curled into a smile that wasn’t at all comforting.
"You thought you could end it, Liora? You thought you could fix this?" he sneered. "You don't understand. This isn't something you can just close with a decision or a sacrifice. The rift is you—we are the same. And until you embrace it fully, it will never end."
I took a step back, the weight of his words sinking deep into my bones. “No... that’s not true. I can end it. I did everything right. I—”
“You didn’t,” he interrupted, his voice growing sharper. “You’ve only delayed the inevitable. The rift isn’t about fixing the past. It's about the future. The future we can create.”
I shook my head, my pulse racing as the world around us trembled. The ground beneath us cracked wider, swallowing the sky. I couldn’t breathe. The rift was opening again. No, not again!
“Bakit mo ba ito ginagawa?” I whispered, my voice trembling. “Bakit mo ba ito gustong mangyari? I thought you were—”
"Changed? Redeemed?" Kai laughed bitterly. "I am what I am, Liora. And so are you. We can either destroy this world... or we can reshape it. Together."
I felt the pull of the rift, tugging at me, pulling me toward Kai. The energy was overwhelming, suffocating. I looked at him, at the twisted expression on his face, and realized—he wasn’t the man I had known. This was something far darker, a version of Kai that had embraced the chaos of the rift.
I looked at Elias. His form stood behind me, watching quietly, a shadow of the person I remembered. His expression was a mixture of sorrow and understanding. He knew the truth. He knew what I had to do.
"You have to make a choice, Liora," Elias said softly. "You can stop the rift... but it will cost you everything. This time, it’s not just about saving the world. It's about saving yourself."
The ground shook again, and the rift began to stretch wider, threatening to swallow the world whole. My mind spun. I couldn’t fight this. The power of the rift, the power that had haunted me from the beginning, was too much.
"Embrace it," Kai said, his voice low and enticing. "Let go of the fear. We can be unstoppable, Liora. We can be the rift."
“No…” I whispered, shaking my head. “I will not become you. I won’t let this consume me.”
Suddenly, I felt the rift’s power surge through me, its darkness flooding my veins. It was like drowning in the deepest ocean, but I refused to give in. I had to fight. I couldn’t let Kai win, couldn’t let the rift take over completely.
But then I felt it—the choice. The only way to end it.
I turned to Elias. His eyes met mine, and for a brief moment, there was peace. I realized then what I had to do. I wasn’t just choosing between light and dark. I wasn’t just choosing between saving the world or saving myself.
I was choosing to let go.
“Liora…” Elias whispered, his voice full of regret, but there was understanding in his eyes. “You don’t have to do this alone.”
With one last glance at Elias, I closed my eyes. The rift pulled harder, but I let it. The darkness inside me, the chaos, the regrets—I let it all rise to the surface. I felt my fear, my pain, my anger, everything that had haunted me for so long.
And I released it.
In an instant, the rift’s power exploded outward, a blinding light that enveloped everything. The ground shook violently, and I could hear Kai’s desperate scream as he tried to hold on, but it was too late.
The light expanded until there was nothing left but a pure, unblemished silence.
When I opened my eyes again, the world had changed. The rift was gone. The chaos had dissipated. There was only peace. A quiet, still peace.
And yet... something felt off. There was something missing. The rift was gone, but so was the connection to the power that had defined everything.
I turned to look at Elias, but he was gone. There was no trace of him left, only the emptiness of a world restored—but at what cost?
And then, as if the universe itself was speaking, I heard the faintest whisper on the wind.
“This is not the end, Liora…”
My breath caught in my throat. That voice. It was Kai’s.
And just like that, I realized the truth.
The rift was gone—but the story was far from over.