The golden-blue light pen radiated brightly in the palm of future Davin’s hand, reflecting the glimmer of the billions of fading consciousness threads surrounding the Nexus hall.

Davin stood frozen before his older twin. His breathing ragged and irregular, his mind churning in a storm of extraordinary confusion. The heaviest choice in the entire history of his existence now lay right at his fingertips.

On one hand, he held absolute power to take that pen, write the final line upon the blank pages of The Ledger, and erase all simulations entirely. That action would collapse the virtual worlds and awaken the billions of human souls trapped in mass coma back on the original earth—letting them face harsh reality, true death, or genuine eternity without the mask of illusion.

Yet, on the other hand... what did those worlds mean to the beings living within them?

Inside Davin’s head, brief flashbacks raced by. He saw the face of Lyra, who smiled cynically yet sincerely before sacrificing her life in the cyberpunk megacity of Neo-Veridia. He saw the faces of Oakhaven’s villagers fighting to preserve the warmth of their lives amidst a fragile memory world. He also heard Valeri’s voice in Aethelgard, assuring him that even if the world's foundation was digital code, the choices and pain they felt were real.

If he erased this simulation, those millions of artificial existences—possessing their own emotions, tears, and souls—would vanish instantly, including himself and his future version.

Was wiping out everything for the sake of a cruel reality a form of salvation? Or was that act merely the ultimate despair of an Architect fleeing his responsibility?

"I..." Davin whispered haltingly, his hands trembling as he stared at the light pen offered before him. He pulled his hand back slowly. "I don't know... If I erase all this, then what was the meaning of their sacrifices? What was the meaning of Lyra's death?"

Future Davin stared at him with sharpened eyes, yet laden with profound agony. "Their sacrifices aren't real, Davin! They are merely echoes of a consciousness trapped in a nightmare cycle! Every day we let this simulation run, the more artificial pain we create!"

"But that pain is real to me!" Davin shouted, his voice fracturing the Nexus hall's silence, echoing and bouncing among the giant pillars. "I felt that loss! If we end everything now, we're nothing more than murderers taking illusory lives just for our own peace!"

"We have no other choice!" future Davin snapped, his voice rising, stained by despair accumulated over thousands of years. "Look around you!"

The older man gestured toward the billions of consciousness light threads surrounding the hall.

Those golden strands now flickered very faintly, the vast majority having turned to grey ash snapping one by one.

"The Nexus is collapsing! Our time is up! If you hesitate any longer, not only will this simulation break, but the entire human consciousness on the original earth will be locked inside an eternal void with no salvation possible!" future Davin cried out urgently, thrusting the pen closer to present-day Davin's chest. "Write the destiny, Davin! End this now!"

Davin clenched his jaw tight, turning his face away from the pen. He stepped back a pace, refusing to make a decision under duress.

"No. There has to be another way... There must be a path where we don't have to erase everything..."

The atmosphere between the two versions of himself suddenly spiked to a boiling point.

When present-day Davin displayed profound doubt and refused to take the pen of destiny, the expression on future Davin’s face shifted drastically within a fraction of a second. The look of regret and exhaustion vanished entirely, replaced by a flash of cold and savage fury.

"If you won't do it willingly..." future Davin's voice morphed into a cold, threatening tone, "...then I will force you to complete this destiny."

Zzzt—Boom!

Before present-day Davin could react, his future self hurled the light pen into the air, then slammed both hands down onto the black marble floor.

A cataclysmic shockwave of golden-blue energy exploded from future Davin's body, sweeping across the hall floor and striking present-day Davin, hurling him far backward to crash hard against a giant stone pillar.

Crash!

Davin coughed harshly, feeling an extraordinary wave of pain strike his chest. He whipped his head up quickly, watching his future version step forward with eyes glowing bright with the blazing symbols of The Ledger.

"Forgive me, my past," future Davin spoke coldly, raising his hand charged with pure cosmic energy to launch the finishing strike. "If you refuse to press the stop button, then I will erase you from this timeline first!"