Chapter Text
Chapter Seventeen: The Severing
The world went silent.
Clouds froze mid-roar. Wind stuttered. Light warped.
Time itself held its breath as Chloe’s glowing hand shot toward the Thread binding her heart to Mark’s.
The moment her fingers touched the blazing line of light—
the universe screamed.
A shockwave of gold and white exploded outward, fracturing the sky like shattering glass. The city below was drenched in blinding radiance. Sirens died. Birds fell silent. The air trembled as if afraid to exist.
Mark convulsed in Chloe’s arms, the Thread ripping through him like molten wire.
“CHLOE—STOP—”
His voice cracked, strangled, barely a sound.
Chloe sobbed as she forced more pressure into the Thread, fingers digging into pure, burning magic.
Her tears sizzled on her cheeks, dripping like liquid starlight.
“I’m sorry, Mark,” she whispered.
“I love you. But I can’t let you die for me.”
The Thread writhed like a living thing, resisting her, tightening around both their chests until they arched backward in unison.
Their pulses synced.
Their breaths synced.
Their hearts synced.
And the pain—
the pain tore through them like two suns colliding.
Chloe gritted her teeth, crying out as the golden bond began to split, a jagged crack forming in the middle.
Mark screamed, clutching her arms.
“Chloe—PLEASE—don’t do this—”
“I have to,” she sobbed.
“Please—please forgive me—”
The crack widened.
The Thread flickered, unstable, shrieking with celestial fury.
The world trembled.
And then—
A shadow blotted out the sky behind them.
The Hunter.
Its Ritual Form—towering, monstrous, wings of obsidian void—lunged toward them, violet blade raised.
“FOOLISH LIGHTBEARER.”
Its voice fractured the clouds, shaking the planet.
“A RUPTURED THREAD WILL UNMAKE THIS WORLD.”
Mark tried to push Chloe behind him, but his limbs were shaking, muscles failing.
Chloe shielded him with her body, golden light flaring like a sunspot.
“It’s going to kill him!” she choked. “I don’t care what happens to me— I won’t let this bond drain him dry!”
The Hunter’s six burning eyes narrowed.
“THEN YOU WILL KILL FAR MORE THAN YOURSELF.”
It dove toward her.
But Chloe released the Thread entirely—
and instead thrust both hands forward.
A blinding beam of solar light erupted from her body—raw, wild, unstoppable.
It slammed into the Hunter, engulfing it in fire so bright the sky turned white.
The Hunter roared, claws carving gouges in the air, but it was overwhelmed—
driven backward through its own ritual sigils, wings cracking under the force.
Mark blinked through the glare, heart pounding.
“Chloe—Chloe, stop—you’ll burn yourself out—”
“I don’t care!” she cried, tears scattering in molten droplets.
“I won’t let it hurt you anymore!”
Her light surged, brighter, hotter—
enough to cast shadows all the way to the ocean.
The Hunter hit the distant clouds with a cataclysmic boom, falling like a meteor trailing violet fire.
Chloe gasped, knees buckling midair.
Mark rushed to steady her—
and that was when the Thread struck back.
Not in pain.
Not in fury.
In panic.
It snapped back into place violently—
reconnecting to Mark’s chest with a lance of light that knocked the air from his lungs.
Chloe’s eyes went wide.
“No—NO—NO—please—stop—!”
But the Thread clung to him.
To them both.
It wasn’t a bond.
It was a living instinct.
A survival mechanism.
The Thread didn’t WANT to be severed.
Mark coughed blood, shaking. “Chloe—what’s happening—”
She held his face, desperate. “It’s trying to heal itself. It’s—it’s trying to merge us completely.”
Mark froze.
His pulse stuttered.
“What… what does that mean?”
“It means if it completes the merge…”
Her voice broke.
“Your heart will stop.
And mine will burn out.”
Mark’s breath hitched.
“Chloe—”
She leaned her forehead into his, sobbing softly.
“I can’t lose you. I can’t. I would rather die than watch this Thread consume you.”
He wrapped his arms around her—weak, trembling, but full of absolute certainty.
“You’re not losing me,” he whispered.
“Not now. Not ever.”
Chloe cried harder, clutching him as the Thread pulsed violently again.
Every heartbeat felt like a countdown.
The Satellites Ignite
At the edge of space, the orbital kill array rotated, lining up with the glowing target on Earth.
Energy built—
hot, blinding, lethal.
Eve and Bulletproof tore through the heavens, Rex trailing behind with an armful of stolen explosives.
“Oh hell no,” Rex shouted. “If Cecil thinks he’s nuking my friends—”
“Shut up and blow the panel!” Eve snapped.
Rex slapped the charges onto the control module.
“CLEAR!”
A massive shockwave rippled through orbit as the satellite wiring detonated.
But the core—
the firing system—
remained intact.
Eve screamed in frustration. “No—no, no—DAMMIT!”
Below them, the kill array’s barrel glowed, charging.
A second later—
Cecil’s voice crackled through the emergency comms, broken and tired:
“…Eve… I’m sorry…”
The Light Fades
Mark collapsed.
One moment he was holding Chloe—
the next, his body sagged forward, unconscious, blood glowing faintly gold as it dripped down his jaw.
“MARK!”
Chloe caught him, panic exploding in her chest.
But the Thread—
the damn, living, cruel Thread—
glowed brighter.
It was using him.
Feeding on him.
Chloe screamed as she held Mark’s limp body in her arms.
“No—no—please—please don’t do this—don’t TAKE HIM—”
But the Thread tightened.
Her vision blurred.
Mark’s pulse weakened.
And above the clouds—
the orbital array fired.
A beam of white-hot death streaked toward her—toward them both.
Chloe turned, shielding Mark with her body as the beam tore through the sky.
Her glow intensified—
She couldn’t survive this.
Mark definitely couldn’t.
And as the world-ending blast descended, Chloe whispered into Mark’s unconscious ear:
“I choose you. Every time. Every world.”
Light swallowed them whole.