The world shatters around me.

  New Tokyo is gone.

  I’m falling through something that isn’t space, that isn’t time—just a twisting void of shifting images, places, memories that aren’t mine.

  I claw at the air, trying to ground myself, trying to understand.

  I hear Dr. Lynn’s voice—far away.

  But I can’t reach her.

  I can’t reach anything.

  “Your thoughts are fragile,” Xal’Zir’s voice whispers through the abyss. “Your reality is an illusion.”

  Then—I hit the ground.

  I gasp for breath.

  I’m somewhere new.

  A city—but not mine.

  The skyscrapers twist into the sky at unnatural angles, pulsing like living things. The ground flickers, shifting between stone, glass, and something I can’t name.

  Dr. Lynn stands frozen nearby.

  Not unconscious.

  Not trapped.

  Just not moving.

  Like she’s been removed from time itself.

  I grit my teeth.

  “Let her go.”

  Xal’Zir emerges from the shifting skyline, its mask warping as it steps forward.

  "Your mind must evolve, Cosmic Monster. Or it will break."

  I brace myself as it lifts a hand.

  And the world distorts.

  I don’t see it coming.

  Because it’s not a punch. Not a blade.

  It’s an idea.

  A ripple of wrongness that tears through me.

  Suddenly—

  I’m not me.

  I’m a child, standing in a dark alley.

  Rain pours down, soaking my tiny frame.

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  I’m alone.

  My parents’ car crash just happened. I’m standing where I stood that night, staring at the spot where they should be.

  Except—

  There’s nothing there.

  No wreckage.

  No flames.

  No bodies.

  I take a step forward—but the ground dissolves beneath me.

  I’m at the market.

  Where I worked after my parents died.

  But the shelves are empty.

  The lights flicker.

  And everyone I ever spoke to?

  Gone.

  Like they never existed.

  I’m fighting Noctis.

  But when I swing—he isn’t there.

  I’m hitting air.

  The city is silent.

  The Harbinger never came.

  The invasion never happened.

  And I’m just a normal kid.

  A normal kid with nothing.

  Because if this is all fake—

  Then so was I.

  I collapse to my knees.

  Xal’Zir’s voice wraps around me like a vice.

  "You are not real, Cosmic Monster. You were never real. You are a collection of stolen memories, shaped into something that does not belong."

  I clutch my head.

  No.

  This isn’t right.

  This can’t be right.

  But the more I try to push back—

  The more the truth seeps in.

  What if I was never supposed to be?

  What if I was never meant to exist at all?

  I hear laughter.

  Not Xal’Zir’s.

  Akunon’s.

  Echoing from somewhere beyond the veil.

  "Do you see now?" Xal’Zir whispers. "You are an accident. A broken thought. A mistake given form. And you will be erased."

  The world begins to dissolve.

  I feel myself dissolving with it.

  Then—

  A sound.

  A familiar sound.

  The rhythmic beep-beep-beep of a monitor.

  My wristband.

  I glance at it through the haze.

  The red warning light is flashing.

  [COSMIC ENERGY SPIKE DETECTED.]

  My breath catches.

  Not an illusion.

  Not a trick.

  Something real.

  Something constant.

  And then—

  A memory surfaces.

  Not one Xal’Zir is forcing on me.

  A real one.

  The kaiju.

  The moment I caught its fist.

  The moment I felt something awaken inside me.

  The moment I understood.

  The cosmic energy isn’t a mistake.

  It’s me.

  I grab my wristband, ripping it off.

  The energy floods out instantly.

  Xal’Zir recoils.

  "No."

  The ground stops shifting.

  The world stops flickering.

  Dr. Lynn snaps back into motion.

  And I feel it—

  The power surging through my veins.

  Like it’s been waiting for me to accept it.

  I lift my gaze.

  The world around me stabilizes—but not as it was.

  Now?

  It’s mine.

  Xal’Zir lunges.

  But this time—

  I don’t hesitate.

  A blast of pure cosmic force erupts from my hand, tearing through the air.

  Xal’Zir stumbles back, shrieking.

  I step forward, and the ground itself bends beneath my feet.

  My body shifts, expanding—glowing with raw celestial energy.

  Not human.

  Not alien.

  Something else.

  Something born to destroy beings like this.

  Xal’Zir’s form glitches, its mask twisting in panic.

  “This is not possible.”

  I bare my glowing teeth in a grin.

  “Guess what? Neither am I.”

  I launch myself forward.

  Faster than thought.

  Faster than light.

  My fist connects with its mask.

  The impact tears through dimensions.

  The entire reality fractures—

  And then—

  Everything explodes.

  I hit the ground, gasping.

  The real ground.

  New Tokyo.

  The illusion is gone.

  Xal’Zir is gone.

  I lift my hands—still glowing, flickering with cosmic fire.

  Dr. Lynn stares at me, stunned.

  “…Yuri?”

  I take a breath.

  Then—

  I grin.

  “I think I finally figured it out.”