The depths of the Nexus were silent, but it wasn’t a comforting silence. This quiet carried tension, as though concealing secrets waiting to erupt. Melania held the Nexus of Balance, feeling its energy pulse faintly in her hands, spreading through her body as if testing her resolve.
“Are you sure we should do this here?” Kairen asked, glancing uneasily at the dim glow emanating from the Nexus’s core. His voice was muffled, swallowed by the surrounding emptiness.
Melania took a deep breath, forcing herself to remain composed.
“Balance cannot be found by avoiding the truth. If we want to understand what’s wrong with our Eternity, we must face its heart.”
Endar stood slightly apart, silent. His gaze was fixed on the Nexus, but his expression betrayed more than simple curiosity. He knew this sphere could reveal more than they were ready to face.
“Then we begin,” he finally said.
Melania nodded and raised the Nexus above her head. The sphere flared to life, blinding them with its radiance. The space around them twisted — threads of light and shadow, woven into the fabric of the Nexus, came alive, spiraling around them in an illusion of infinite motion.
“What is this?” Kairen shouted, shielding his eyes with his arm.
“It’s the beginning,” Melania replied, though she was unsure of her own words.
The light grew sharper until it burst, leaving them in a place entirely detached from reality. They stood on a smooth surface resembling black glass, which reflected their every movement. Above them stretched a void, pierced only by thin threads of light twisting into infinity.
“Where are we?” Kairen asked, glancing around.
“This is the mirror of our creation,” Endar said quietly. “What Eternity truly is — stripped of pretense and masks.”
The Nexus pulsed again, and before them appeared a colossal sphere of light and shadow — the embodiment of their Eternity. But its appearance made them recoil. The sphere was fractured, its surface riddled with pulsating cracks leaking darkness.
“Our Eternity…” Melania whispered, horror creeping into her voice.
“It’s breaking,” Endar said dryly, stepping closer.
“Why?” Kairen demanded, his voice edged with frustration. “We created it. We gave it a foundation. Why is it falling apart?”
“Because it reflects us,” Endar replied, turning to them with a sorrowful gaze. “Our fears, our doubts, our contradictions. All of it is woven into its fabric.”
Melania felt a cold weight settle over her heart. She stepped closer to the sphere and touched one of the cracks. The moment her fingers made contact, a vision enveloped her.
She saw the moment of their creation. Eternity had been born of light, but shadows had lurked around its edges, unnoticed. Her own fears for the future, her doubts about their choices, her need for control — all of it had seeped into the foundation of the world they had built.
When the vision faded, her legs gave way, and she fell to her knees.
“This is our fault,” she said, her voice trembling as she bowed her head. “We couldn’t create a pure Eternity because we were flawed ourselves.”
Kairen gritted his teeth, struggling to process what he’d seen.
“So what now? Do we just let it crumble?”
“No,” Endar said firmly. He turned to them, his gaze cold and resolute. “We can’t allow that. But to fix Eternity, we’ll need to fix ourselves.”
“And how do we do that?” Kairen asked, crossing his arms defensively.
“First, we accept the truth,” Endar said, extending a hand to Melania to help her rise. “Then, we learn to live with it. Balance isn’t about perfection; it’s about harmony between light and shadow.”
Melania, though her heart was heavy with guilt, felt a faint spark of hope.
“Then we need to understand these cracks,” she said, clutching the Nexus tightly. “If we can learn their nature, we can find a way to heal them.”
The Nexus flared again, and the sphere of Eternity began to shift, revealing scenes of the past, exposing their deepest mistakes.
Each vision was painful, but they knew there was no other path. They weren’t just fighting for Eternity; they were fighting for themselves.