The perfect doorway had disappeared.
But Kael couldn't forget the words.
You were never supposed to survive.
He stood beneath the restored stars, staring at the place where the mysterious being had vanished.
Eryx approached him.
"Are you going to follow it?"
Kael shook his head.
"Not yet."
"Why?"
Kael looked at his hands.
"Because I don't trust someone who refuses to tell me why I was created."
Aetherion remained silent.
Kael turned toward him.
"And you're still hiding something."
Aetherion sighed.
"I knew this moment would come."
Nox stepped closer.
"So did I."
Kael looked between them.
"Then tell me."
Nox's crimson eyes narrowed.
"The Star Eater wasn't created by the Architects."
Kael froze.
"Then who created me?"
Nox looked toward the stars.
"Not one being."
"An entire civilization."
Kael frowned.
"What civilization?"
"The Firstborn."
The name seemed to make Aetherion uncomfortable.
Nox continued.
"They existed before the universe was divided into galaxies."
"They discovered a force that could manipulate the laws of existence."
"Creation."
"Destruction."
"Time."
"Space."
"And the force they called..."
He looked directly at Kael.
"...the Origin."
Kael's chest tightened.
"The Origin?"
Nox nodded.
"The Firstborn believed the Origin could create the perfect guardian."
"They experimented for thousands of years."
"Every attempt failed."
"Until you."
Kael stared at him.
"Me?"
"You were the first successful vessel."
Eryx stepped forward.
"And I?"
Nox looked at him.
"You were created as his counterpart."
Kael looked at his brother.
"So we were both experiments."
"No."
Aetherion finally spoke.
"You were more than experiments."
"You became their children."
Kael's expression softened.
For a moment, the memories of him and Eryx beneath the newborn star returned.
Then another memory surfaced.
The Firstborn stood before Kael and Eryx.
The civilization was dying.
Their universe was collapsing.
They needed someone to save them.
Kael stepped forward.
"I'll do it."
Eryx grabbed his arm.
"No."
Kael smiled.
"I can handle it."
The memory changed.
Kael stood alone before the Origin.
The power entered his body.
His scream shook reality.
Stars began appearing around him.
Then disappearing.
He became the Star Eater.
But something went wrong.
The Origin didn't simply give Kael power.
It awakened something inside him.
Something the Firstborn hadn't created.
Something that had been sleeping within the Origin itself.
Kael's eyes widened.
"What was inside the Origin?"
Nox looked at Aetherion.
Aetherion answered.
"We don't know."
Kael frowned.
"You don't know?"
"We only know what happened afterward."
"The Firstborn disappeared."
"Their universe collapsed."
"And you..."
Aetherion looked at Kael.
"...were the only one who survived."
Silence.
Kael stared at the stars.
"So I wasn't created to destroy stars."
"No."
"You were created to survive the death of a universe."
Kael's heart pounded.
"And the creature we just saw?"
Nox answered.
"It was searching for you."
"Why?"
"Because the Origin inside you is the only thing capable of opening the path to its own birthplace."
Kael looked toward the sky.
The perfect doorway suddenly appeared again.
But this time...
It wasn't behind the mysterious creator.
It was above Kael.
A voice echoed through the universe.
"You wanted the truth."
"Then come and see where you were born."
The doorway opened.
Beyond it was a world Kael had never seen.
A world filled with countless dying stars.
Eryx stood beside him.
"Are we really doing this?"
Kael smiled.
"We've come this far."
He stepped toward the doorway.
Then stopped.
He looked back at the First World.
At the Guardians.
At Nox.
At Aetherion.
Then at Eryx.
"Let's find out who we really are."
The brothers stepped through.
The doorway closed behind them.
And for the first time...
Kael entered the place where the Star Eater was born.