DESYREBOUND

The corridor narrowed as they advanced, steel bones of the station groaning with unseen weight. Kael's steps slowed, his eyes darting across walls lined with fractured light and half-formed geometry. The static hum was louder here — like the Rift itself was breathing.

"Residual energy is off the charts," Julienne muttered, her eyes scanning her visor overlay. "This boss is either hiding or... incubating."

"Feels like we're walking into its stomach," Levi muttered.

Charlotte glanced back over her shoulder, uneasy. "Where's Cyrhelle?"

"She was right behind—" Min-ji stopped mid-step.

Her voice broke off.

Everyone turned.

At the far end of the corridor—Cyrhelle hovered several inches off the ground, sketchbook pages fluttering open by themselves, spinning in the air like a blooming fan. Her eyes were wide — glowing — but unseeing.

And her Desyre was pouring out of her in waves.

Not leaking.

Not sparking.

Flooding.

Glowing trails of spectral ink spilled from her fingers and formed into shapes mid-air — murals etched into nothing, projected across walls, floors, even the air itself. And they moved.

One massive mural depicted a forest — trees whipping in an invisible wind.

Another showed a wolf-headed serpent tearing through a battlefield of illusions.

Another: a burning city… and someone standing alone in the center. A silhouette not unlike Kael.

Her sketches weren't just art anymore.

They were alive.

Kael froze.

"Cyrhelle."

She didn't respond.

Her breath was shallow. She looked like she was drowning in her own Core — but still drawing. Still casting. The pages spun around her like blades, some slamming into nearby debris and manifesting it into living constructs — stone soldiers, birds of flame, twisted constructs of memory and fear.

One of the living illusions turned and hissed.

At them.

Julienne took a step back. "This isn't a cast. This is a full Core breach."

Levi swore. "She's evolving. Mid-Rift."

"No control," Min-ji added, eyes wide.

A swirl of violet Desyre surged behind Cyrhelle, and from it emerged a massive painted dragon — a creature drawn in thick, animated brushstrokes, like a living ink-wash come to life. Its roar wasn't sound. It was pressure.

The mural lashed forward.

Kael was the first to move.

He hurled his whip to catch one of the phantom creatures, pulling himself toward Cyrhelle to break her focus — but a wall of writhing brushwork erupted between them, forcing him back with a burning shockwave.

She wasn't casting anymore.

She was becoming the spell.

---

Above — in the observation chamber:

Alarms flared.

> "Desyre Overload Detected – PaintScape Core Breach – Containment Impossible."

The Veil instructor narrowed her eyes. "We continue monitoring."

"You can't be serious," the same WAA Ascender from earlier growled. "That's a Living Mural. Untethered."

"She hasn't collapsed yet."

"She's not going to collapse, she's going to kill them!"

Another Ascender shouted, "Deploy override team! Get her out—"

"No!" the Veil instructor snapped. "Do not interfere!"

One of the Ascenders stepped forward anyway.

"You already made us watch once. That Wyrm nearly killed Enzo. We are not repeating that."

---

Back in the field—

"Kael!" Julienne shouted over the storm of images and fire. "The whole Rift's destabilizing!"

Kael stood inside the mural storm, eyes squinting against the illusionary light. A battlefield had grown from the floor — not real, not drawn… but remembered. Cyrhelle's thoughts were shaping the terrain now: distant towers, collapsing bridges, people from a life they didn't recognize.

"What are we looking at?" Min-ji whispered.

"Her memories," Kael said. "And her fears."

Then the creatures began attacking.

Not all at once.

Not randomly.

Tactically.

Stone soldiers went for Levi and Vin.

A storm of painted fire birds hammered toward Julienne and Min-ji.

Kael turned just in time to block a shard of hardened ink, shaped like a blade, aimed for his chest.

"Damn it," Julienne growled, rolling under an illusion of a falling skyscraper. "It's copying Rift behavior. She's building her own damn world!"

Vin slammed a charging wolf construct against the wall with a roar. "She's not herself!"

"She's still in there!" Kael shouted back. "We just have to reach her!"

He leapt through a swirl of burning parchment and illusion, dodging a tidal wave of sketch-beasts.

"Cyrhelle!"

Kael's voice cut through smoke and spiraling ink, but she didn't hear him.

The illusion of her burning city expanded across the battlefield. Towers folded outward like canvas peeling in wind. A street split beneath Min-ji's feet, nearly dropping her into a pit of sketch-fire — only for Charlotte to yank her back just in time.

"I'm losing tracking!" Julienne called. "None of this is on the HUD!"

Kael's mind raced. The mural had become a memory-weapon — powered by her evolving Core, but aimed at everything. The Merge Rift was no longer the danger.

She was.

---

Above the field — Observation Deck

Sirens still blared.

The viewing dome flashed red, panels locking into emergency shielding. Onscreen, painted beasts tore across terrain, mixed with collapsed simulation code and smoke. A storm of Desyre. Chaos.

Squad One stood tense by the second gate — armor on, weapons drawn. David cracked his knuckles. Elise pulled back her bowstring. Enzo's limp forgotten, his eyes locked on the field.

"We're going in," Elise said.

"Now," David added.

But as they stepped forward, a wall of light surged between them and the gate.

A WAA Ascender in silver tactical uniform blocked the path, palm raised.

"You're not."

David stared. "Move."

"This isn't your mission."

"She's going to kill them."

The Ascender's voice stayed cold. "And we'll stop it."

"You watched last time!" Elise snapped. "You watched when we almost died to that Wyrm-Class because Veil said to wait. Not again."

Others moved behind her. Squad One wasn't bluffing. They were stepping forward whether approved or not.

The WAA officer didn't flinch. "We said you're not going in."

Then he turned to his shoulder comm.

> "Alpha units. Full Rift entry. Objective: stabilize rogue Desyre entity and neutralize simulation boss."

Another Ascender nearby raised a hand. "We've got live students in there."

The officer nodded once.

"Then we make sure they leave breathing."

---

Inside the Rift

Kael rolled through burning ink, dodging another falling memory — a collapsing cathedral painted in static.

Cyrhelle floated now — eyes wide, glowing bright as runes spiraled along her cheeks. The mural had grown across the ceiling. Trees. Wolves. Skyscrapers. Broken buildings. Symbols from three different cultures, stitched together into madness.

"She's not just evolving," Julienne panted. "She's broadcasting. Her whole emotional history — raw, unfiltered — it's making the Rift itself a canvas."

"Then paint over it!" Levi shouted, swiping a stone soldier aside with a full gauntlet swing.

Kael reached the base of the illusion storm. He could see her now — half-conscious, hands twitching with unformed sketches around her, whispering without meaning to.

"Mom… I'll fix it this time… it's not burning if I can draw it…"

That's when the Rift itself shifted.

A deep, metallic growl echoed through the arena — not from Cyrhelle.

But beneath her.

A section of the mural cracked wide. The ground shattered.

And something climbed out.

The true boss.

It was enormous — not drawn, not illusory. Real. A Rift-class chimera, towering over them, parts of its armor mimicking Cyrhelle's drawings. It had absorbed the Living Mural's Desyre and used it to evolve faster — a beast sculpted in art and chaos.

Charlotte's voice cracked. "That thing's been feeding on her."

Vin stepped in front of her, blades drawn. "If it's hungry, it picked the wrong squad."

---

Suddenly, a pulse of silver light tore through the field.

Two figures dropped in midair — real Ascenders, not simulations. One smashed into the mural-dragon with a seismic fist, shattering it into liquid ink. The other launched straight at the chimera-boss with a glowing halberd, cleaving down its first claw before it could reach Cyrhelle.

"WAA Alpha Response Team," one of them barked. "All students — fall back behind the second perimeter!"

"No chance!" Julienne shouted, still firing upward with the Vulcan Edge. "She's still exposed!"

Kael didn't fall back either.

He stepped forward, again — toward Cyrhelle.

More images flickered behind her. People. Voices. Regret.

He didn't speak this time.

He just grabbed her wrist, anchoring her. "It's not burning. It's memory."

Her eyes snapped into focus.

The drawings stuttered.

And the mural began to collapse.

---

Above, the Veil instructor finally turned away from the screen — unreadable.

A nearby WAA officer glanced at her. "Was there no fallback plan for this?"

She didn't blink. "Every Ascender's Desyre responds uniquely to stress. We needed to see how far the thread would stretch."

"You tested a child's limit in live conditions."

"We tested everyone's limit," she replied. "Because no two Ascenders break the same way."

The officer's jaw clenched. "You still gambled with real minds. Real consequences."

She only nodded. "And now we understand where the line is."

The officer turned back toward the glass — eyes narrowing, voice low.

"At what cost?"

---

Back in the field, the final blow landed.

The chimera-boss fell, halberd buried in its spine, Desyre exploding outward in a controlled pulse. Kael shielded Cyrhelle's body as the force passed.

The mural peeled from the air like paper lit by wind.

Simulation shutdown began.

> [Trial Terminated – Unauthorized Rift Progression. All Squad Data Logged. Emergency Medical En Route.]

Cyrhelle collapsed into Kael's arms.

The battlefield faded.

And with it, the last echoes of her fear-painted world.