Ethan's hand trembles above the options:
[ACCEPT] | [REJECT] | [DEFRAGMENT]
Thronewrought Kaelen's voice seeps into his mind like oil into water.
"You're not ready to bear what's coming. I carved the path. I bled for it. And you—you inherited it like a scavenger."
Images flood Ethan's mind—memories not his, but Kaelen's:
Walking through the ash of a ruined capital, carrying a child's body.
Standing before the Council of Twelve, betrayed and sentenced to erasure.
Sealing something beneath the Dead Throne—something alive.
Ethan slams his hand down on—
[DEFRAGMENT]
The system screams. So does Kaelen.
[Initiating Defragmentation Protocol…][Mindsync Engaged: ETHAN CROSS / KAELEN VARROS][Cognitive Stream Merging… Partial Fusion Initiated.]
The world fractures. Ethan collapses—half of his vision showing the present, the other half lost in Kaelen's fading past. The sarcophagus shatters. Thronewrought Kaelen steps free—but he's flickering, unstable.
And then Aelira finds him.
She doesn't hesitate. "Tell me that's still you."
"I think…" Ethan gasps, "I'm both."
Thronewrought laughs—and the two Ethan-Kaelen forms split, each holding part of the Twinheart bond. The System declares:
[Critical Conflict Detected: Dual Host Paradox.][Only one Sovereign may ascend.]
Aelira looks between them, her power glowing white-hot.
And the battle begins—not just of fists or flame, but of memory, identity, and soul.