“Let it break.” The words settled inside me like a vow.
Kessler stood in the center of a collapsing world with white light burning beneath his skin and death closing around us from every direction, and still, somehow, he chose me.
The convergence engine screamed beneath the platform. Not metaphorically. The sound tore through the chamber like something alive dying slowly. Every monitor flashed violently.
UNSUSTAINABLE SELECTION. PRIMARY HOST REFUSING STABILIZATION.
The entire facility lurched hard enough to throw several survivors to the floor. Metal beams groaned overhead while fractures spread rapidly across the ceiling. Somewhere deeper in the structure, an explosion thundered violently through the lower levels, and smoke began pouring into the chamber in thick gray waves.
The arch
