The explosion sent a shockwave through the solar system that knocked the satellites of Earth out of orbit. When the light faded, the moon was no longer a sphere. It was a Broken Pearl, held together only by the lingering gravity of Kane's void-threads.
Kane lay on a floating slab of lunar rock, drifting a thousand miles above the new crater. His armor was gone. His Rank 9 body was a charred, smoking wreck. But in his hand, he held a fragment of the Reaper's bone-staff.
[SCAVENGE SUCCESSFUL: FRAGMENT OF THE AEON-STAFF] [RANK 10 DATA INTEGRATING...] [EVOLUTION PROGRESS: 12%]
"He... he did it," Sully whispered from the Citadel, her knees hitting the deck. "He survived a Reaper."
But on the moon's surface, the Reaper wasn't dead. He stood up, his rags tattered, his bone-frame cracked. He looked up at the Citadel, then at the broken moon beneath his feet.
He didn't attack again. He raised his hand, and the bone-ship drifted down to pick him up.
"The infection has spread," the Reaper said, his voice drifting across the vacuum to Kane's ears. "You have taken a piece of the Law, Void-Archon. You think you are a hero. But you have just signed the death warrant for your entire galaxy."
"The Reapers will not return alone," the Reaper continued as his ship faded into the dark. "Next time, the Hegemony will send a Gardener. And a Gardener does not use a blade. They use a Fire that cleanses the entire timeline."
Kane watched the bone-ship vanish. He tried to speak, but his lungs were filled with lunar dust and silver blood.
He looked down at Earth. He could see the fires of the "Void-Witches" burning in the cities. He could see his squad, trying to hold the world together. And he realized that the Reaper was right.
He wasn't a savior. He was the reason the galaxy was going to burn.
"Let it burn," Kane whispered, his eyes closing as he drifted into the cold dark. "We'll just... eat the ashes."