The ground beneath Emma’s feet cracked open like a giant egg. Black smoke poured out, and something enormous began climbing through the crack.

"Run!" Kael shouted, grabbing Emma’s hand.

But before they could move, the thing spoke. Its voice sounded like a thousand people talking at once.

"Hello, Emma Moon. I’ve been waiting so long to meet you."

The creature that emerged wasn’t like anything Emma had ever seen. It looked like a person, but also like a skeleton, but also like smoke. Sometimes it was solid, sometimes see-through. Its eyes glowed red like hot coals.

"What are you?" Emma whispered.

"I am the Necro-Sovereign. I exist between life and death. I am neither alive nor dead, but both at the same time."

All around them, the other versions of Emma stepped back in fear. Even Future Emma looked scared.

"You’re the real enemy," Shadow Emma said. "Not the Devourer."

The Necro-Sovereign laughed, and the sound made everyone’s teeth hurt. "The Devourer was just my pet. A hungry little beast that collected souls for me. Like a dog fetching sticks."

Emma’s heart pounded. "What souls?"

"Special ones. Souls from your family line, Emma. Your great-great-grandmother. Your great-uncle. Your cousin who died when she was five. All of them had the same gift you have."

"My family can bring people back to life?" Emma asked.

"Only some of them. Maybe one person every few generations. But their souls are special. They’re like keys."

The Necro-Sovereign moved closer. With each step, flowers died and grass turned brown.

"Keys to what?" Kael demanded, stepping in front of Emma.

"To the greatest spell ever created. A spell that will let me live forever and control every soul in every world."

Emma felt sick. "You’ve been killing my family for years."

"Not killing. Collecting. Their deaths gave me power. But I needed something more. I needed someone alive with their gift."

"Me," Emma said quietly.

"Yes. You’re the last one, Emma. The last person in your family who can bring back the dead. Without you, my spell can never work."

Marcus stepped forward, his sword glowing. "We won’t let you have her."

The Necro-Sovereign waved its hand, and Marcus froze like a statue. "You can’t stop me, little wizard. I’ve been planning this for three hundred years."

Emma stared at the horrible creature. "What do you want from me?"

"Join me willingly. Use your power to help me cast the final spell. Together, we’ll rule over life and death itself."

"Never," Emma said.

"Think carefully," the Necro-Sovereign said, its voice getting softer and more dangerous. "I’ve been watching your family for a long time. I know about your parents."

Emma’s blood went cold. "What about them?"

"They’re not really dead, Emma. I have their souls trapped in my collection. They’ve been suffering for months, waiting for me to decide their fate."

"You’re lying," Emma whispered.

The Necro-Sovereign smiled, showing teeth like broken glass. "Would you like to see them?"

It waved its hand, and two glowing figures appeared in the air. Emma’s heart almost stopped. It was her mom and dad, but they looked terrible. They were screaming without making sound, reaching toward her with desperate hands.

"Mom! Dad!" Emma tried to run to them, but Kael held her back.

"It’s a trick," he said.

"Is it?" the Necro-Sovereign asked. "Touch them and see."

Emma reached out with shaking fingers. The moment she touched her father’s glowing hand, she felt his pain. He was trapped in darkness, cold and alone, calling her name over and over.

"Stop it!" Emma screamed, pulling her hand back.

"I can end their suffering," the Necro-Sovereign said. "Join me, and I’ll set their souls free. They can live again, truly live, not just exist as painful memories."

Emma looked around desperately. The other versions of herself were all shaking their heads.

"Don’t trust it," Future Emma said. "In my timeline, it made the same promise. It was lying."

"But what if it’s not lying this time?" Emma asked. "What if I can really save them?"

"It’s using your love against you," Battle-Scarred Emma warned. "That’s what evil does. It takes the thing you care about most and uses it as a weapon."

The Necro-Sovereign laughed again. "Listen to them, Emma. They want you to let your parents suffer forever."

"That’s not true!" Emma said.

"Isn’t it? You could save them right now. All you have to do is say yes. Use your power to help me, and your family lives. Refuse, and they stay trapped in darkness while you watch everyone else die too."

Emma felt tears running down her face. How could she choose between her parents and the rest of the world?

"I need time to think," she said.

"Time?" The Necro-Sovereign’s eyes flashed. "Look around you, child."

Emma looked up and gasped. The cracks in reality were spreading faster now. Through them, she could see worlds dying. People running and screaming as the dead chased them. Children crying for parents who had gone crazy.

"Every second you wait, more people die," the Necro-Sovereign said. "Every minute you hesitate, the suffering grows. Is your guilt worth more than their lives?"

Kael squeezed her hand. "Emma, don’t listen to it."

"But it’s right," Emma whispered. "People are dying because of me. Because I won’t make the hard choice."

"The hard choice isn’t joining that thing," Shadow Emma said. "The hard choice is fighting it even when you’re scared."

"Easy to say when it’s not your parents trapped in pain," Emma shot back.

Shadow Emma’s face went soft. "It is my parents, Emma. In my world, I watched them die. I know how much it hurts. But joining the Necro-Sovereign won’t bring them back. It’ll just make their deaths meaningless."

"You don’t know that!"

"I do. Because I tried it. In the darkest timeline, there’s a version of you who said yes. She helped the Necro-Sovereign cast its spell. Want to know what happened?"

"What?"

"It lied. Her parents stayed dead. But everyone else died too. The entire multiverse became a graveyard with her as the only living thing left."

Emma felt like she couldn’t breathe. "How do you know this?"

"Because," Shadow Emma said quietly, "I am that version of you."

Everyone went silent. Even the Necro-Sovereign stopped moving.

"What?" Emma whispered.

"I’m from the timeline where you said yes. Where you trusted it. Where you helped it destroy everything." Shadow Emma’s eyes were full of pain. "I’ve been trying to stop you from making my mistake."

"But if you helped it, how are you here?"

"Because at the very last second, I realized the truth. The Necro-Sovereign doesn’t want to rule the multiverse. It wants to become the multiverse. It wants to replace every living thing with copies of itself."

The Necro-Sovereign’s smile got wider and more horrible. "Smart girl. Though you figured it out too late to save your world."

Emma stared in horror. "You want to turn everyone into you?"

"Not turn them into me. Become them. Absorb their memories, their personalities, their souls. Imagine it, Emma - a universe where I am every person who ever lived. Where every thought, every feeling, every dream belongs to me."

"That’s insane," Kael said.

"That’s perfect," the Necro-Sovereign corrected. "No more war. No more pain. No more death. Just me, living every possible life at once."

Emma felt sick. "But that’s not really living. That’s just you pretending to be everyone else."

"Does it matter? The result is the same. Peace across all realities."

"It’s not peace if you’re the only one left!"

The Necro-Sovereign’s patience was running out. Emma could feel anger radiating from it like heat from a fire.

"Enough talk. You have thirty seconds to decide, Emma Moon. Join me willingly, or watch me take your power by force. Either way, my spell will be complete."

"And if I help you, you’ll really free my parents?"

"I’ll absorb their souls into myself, yes. They’ll live forever as part of me."

Emma realized the horrible truth. "That’s not freeing them. That’s making them prisoners inside your mind."

"Same thing."

"No, it’s not!"

The Necro-Sovereign raised its hand, and dark energy crackled around its fingers. "Ten seconds, Emma."

Emma looked at her parents’ suffering souls, at Kael’s worried face, at the other versions of herself who had fought so hard to help her.

She looked at the dying worlds through the cracks in space.

She thought about everyone she loved and everyone she’d never met but wanted to save.

"Time’s up," the Necro-Sovereign said.

Emma took a deep breath and made her choice.

But before she could speak, something unexpected happened. Marcus, who had been frozen like a statue, suddenly broke free from the spell. His sword blazed with white light as he charged at the Necro-Sovereign.

"Emma, run!" he shouted.

The blade struck the creature in the chest. The Necro-Sovereign screamed, a sound like breaking glass and dying stars.

But instead of falling, it smiled.

"Thank you, wizard. I was hoping someone would try that."

The sword stuck in its chest began glowing red instead of white. Marcus tried to let go, but his hands were stuck to the handle.

"What’s happening?" Emma screamed.

"He just gave me his magic," the Necro-Sovereign said happily. "Now I don’t need your willing help anymore. I’m strong enough to take your power by force."

Marcus was aging rapidly, his hair turning white, his face wrinkling. The sword was draining his life.

"Stop it!" Emma begged.

"I will, if you agree to help me. Save your friend’s life. All you have to do is say yes."

Emma watched in horror as Marcus grew older and weaker. In seconds, he would be dead.

Kael grabbed her shoulders. "Whatever you’re thinking, don’t. It’s another trap."

"But Marcus is dying!"

"And if you help that thing, everyone dies!"

Emma looked at Marcus, at her parents’ trapped souls, at the cracking reality around them.

She had to choose between saving one person and saving everyone.

The hardest choice of her life.

And she only had three seconds left to make it.