The return from the Garden was not a journey but a severance. One moment they stood among crumbling vines, the next they were hurled through a vortex of starlight, crashing into the mortal realm beneath a fractured sky.
Above them, the heavens roared.
Clouds burned gold. A rain of meteors cascaded like divine tears. And from the gaps in the sky, things began to fall—gods, or what was left of them.
"Something's wrong," Kaelira said. "The Astral Veil is tearing."
System Disturbance:
Reality Anchor Failure Imminent
Error Code: [Sovereign Descent]
Causality Thread Severed in 12 Realms
Belarion didn't answer. His gaze locked on a figure descending through the fire—a woman with wings of stained-glass light, trailing stardust. Her face was veiled, but her aura was undeniable.
"A High Oracle," Kaelira whispered. "No... an Oracle Queen."
Descent of the Oracle Queen
She landed gently, the destruction parting around her presence. Her voice echoed without sound, her lips unmoving:
"You seek the Third Commandment. It does not exist in this version of reality."
Belarion stepped forward. "Then I will remake reality until it does."
The Oracle Queen tilted her head. "Reckless. Admirable."
She held out a crystalline sphere—swirling with fragments of worlds and timelines.
Artifact Received: Sphere of Continuum Dissonance
Function: Re-Aligns localized reality threads for 90 seconds
"With this," she said, "you may touch a truth not meant to be. But beware. You will meet the one who chose not to choose."
Before Belarion could speak, the sky ruptured again. Thunder without lightning. The Erasers had arrived.
Collapse of the Skyguard
Three Erasers descended—towering humanoids clad in robes of starlight, faces covered in shattered mirrors. Behind them, legions of lesser entities followed: timelines given form, regrets made flesh.
Kaelira drew her blades. "We hold here. No matter the cost."
Combat Engaged: Astral Erasers x3
Elite Status: Reality Enforcement Delegates
Weakness: Logic Inversion, Quantum Denial
Belarion summoned the Arcwheel.
It spun wildly, drawing in the two commandments already engraved upon it. Silence. Forgetting. A paradox brewed, and he fed it power.
"Rewrite," he said.
Reality bent.
Kaelira became a hundred versions of herself, striking from every possible future. The Erasers tried to calculate the attack. They failed.
One fell.
The second tried to retreat. Belarion pointed, invoked the [Mind Void], and erased its concept of escape.
The third remained.
"Not enough," Belarion gasped. "We need the final piece."
System Update: Reality Fragmentation Reached Threshold
Arcwheel Status: Two-Thirds Complete
Action Required: Forge the Unwritten
To be continued in Chapter 18: The Thirteenth Domain