2023-06-19 17:07:43
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4-48
Andrew woke to silence that felt artificially enforced rather than naturally earned.It pressed against his senses with an unnerving precision, like a system holding its breath.He lay unmoving for several long seconds, afraid that movement itself might trigger retaliation.The Sapphire beneath his sternum was inert, colder than it had ever been before.No pulse answered his cautious focus.No resonance acknowledged his existence.Panic threatened to rise, sharp and feral, but Andrew strangled it before it reached his throat.He had survived worse than emptiness.When he finally pushed himself onto an elbow, pain answered immediately and enthusiastically.Every joint protested as if resentful of being asked to function again.The chamber was gone.In its place stretched a vast plain of cracked obsidian, extending endlessly beneath a sky drained of color.No horizon was visible, only gradients of gray folding into one another.Andrew’s breath fogged faintly in the air, though there was
4-47
The throne did not activate immediately, and that delay unsettled Andrew more than sudden violence ever could.Silence pooled inside the chamber, thick and deliberate, pressing against his ears like an accusation waiting to be spoken.Noir straightened slowly, his movements stiff as if invisible restraints tugged at his joints.The cracks along his arms glowed brighter, leaking shadowed light that flickered with unstable rhythm.“You feel it,” Andrew said, forcing his voice steady despite the tremor in his legs.“This place isn’t choosing yet. It’s waiting.”Noir exhaled sharply, eyes never leaving the empty throne at the chamber’s center.“It’s verifying compatibility,” he replied. “Seeing which of us breaks first.”The walls began to shift almost imperceptibly, reliefs of shattered suns rearranging themselves.Stone groaned as ancient mechanisms awakened, responding to proximity rather than command.Andrew took one step forward, and the chamber reacted instantly.A wave of pressure
4-46
Andrew did not fall so much as he was unstitched from where he belonged.Space peeled away in layers, each one tearing loose with a sensation like breath being stolen mid-inhale.There was no up or down, only momentum without direction and time without patience.His body tumbled through overlapping fragments of places that never fully existed.He saw cities mid-construction and mid-collapse simultaneously, buildings flickering between futures.He saw oceans frozen in vertical walls, waves paused like indecisive thoughts.Pain arrived late, dragging itself behind awareness like an afterthought.Every nerve screamed out of sequence, confused about what it was supposed to protect.Andrew tried to summon the Sapphire instinctively, reaching inward the way he always had before.The response came delayed, distorted, like an echo bouncing through unfamiliar caverns.Light bled through his veins unevenly, blue-white pulses stuttering instead of flowing.It felt less like power now and more li
4-45
The first thing Andrew noticed when consciousness fully returned was the sound of breathing that was not his own.It was slow, deliberate, and layered beneath the ambient hum of fractured reality, creating an unsettling counterpoint.He opened his eyes cautiously, every muscle tense with the expectation of resistance.The world did not recoil this time, but it did not welcome him either.Andrew lay inside what appeared to be a circular chamber carved directly into black stone.The walls were smooth yet alive with faint, moving sigils that pulsed in irregular intervals.Each symbol carried a resonance disturbingly familiar to his Sapphire.Not identical, but close enough to feel like a distorted reflection.He pushed himself into a sitting position, jaw tightening as a dull ache rippled through his spine.The pain was manageable, but the absence of feedback from the Sapphire was not.“Still alive,” a voice said calmly from somewhere behind him.Andrew turned sharply, instincts flaring
4-44
The moment Andrew opened his eyes, the world felt heavier than it ever had before.Not physically crushing, not painfully oppressive, but fundamentally resistant, as if reality itself hesitated to acknowledge his existence.The sky above the fractured city trembled faintly, its color unstable, shifting between shades that should not logically coexist.Clouds froze mid-drift for a fraction of a second before resuming their motion, creating an unsettling rhythm that made Andrew’s chest tighten.He tried to sit up, and pain answered him immediately.It was not the sharp agony of broken bones or torn muscle, but something deeper and colder, radiating from beneath his sternum.The Sapphire pulsed weakly inside him, its once steady resonance now irregular, like a heart struggling to remember its purpose.Andrew clenched his jaw and forced himself upright anyway.His breath came slower than usual, measured not by exhaustion but by uncertainty, as if his lungs were negotiating with time itsel
4-43
The fused being walked through the ruined city like a silent storm given form, each step trailing faint ripples of light and shadow that bent the air in unnatural curves. The sky remained torn above him, the cracks glowing with a slow, pulsating radiance that resembled a heartbeat too large for any mortal world to contain. The atmosphere trembled softly, as if the world were whispering ancient instructions through the wind.Behind him, the team followed at a cautious distance, unsure whether they were witnessing salvation or calamity wrapped in familiar faces. Jiro kept one hand hovering over his weapon but did not draw it, knowing full well that anything he wielded would be meaningless against the fused king. Yuki held Sahara tightly as the seer trembled with each step the being took, sensing visions too powerful for a child’s body to endure. Rayan and Mika walked silently, trading glances that conveyed questions none of them were ready to voice.The being stopped at the edge of a cr
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