The world screamed.
Not with sound—but with a collapse of meaning.Color drained. Shapes unraveled. Time twisted like wet parchment wrung by invisible hands.
Nox's fingers trembled as he held the disintegrating second together.He felt himself slipping—mind fraying, thoughts thinning, breath shaking.
The girl reached toward him, her hand barely solid.
"Nox! Come through with me!"
He wanted to.But the voice's command echoed again, colder than the breaking sky.
"Only one may cross. A collapsing second cannot bear more than a single truth."
Nox clenched his teeth.
If he went through, she would vanish.If she went through, he would be swallowed by the dead moment.
His heart hammered painfully.
He didn't know her.He didn't owe her anything.
But—
She had been trapped here alone.For years? Decades? Timeless, endless repetition.
He could not walk away from that.
"You go," he said.
Her eyes widened in horror. "No. No, no—Nox, don't you dare—"
"You've been trapped here longer than I've been alive," he said, voice shaking but firm. "You deserve a way out."
The sky cracked open above them.A shard of light split the ground.
She grabbed his collar, desperate."I won't survive out there alone! My body—my mind—they're tied to this fragment! I won't last long without help!"
"You'll still have a chance," he said. "More than you do here."
"No! Come with me! We can try—"
"Try and both die?" He shook his head. "This world won't allow it."
Another collapse wave hit.The bubble around them shattered like glass.
Nox's legs collapsed beneath him.He forced the rift to stay open with the last of his strength.The mark on his hand burned white-hot, as if carving through his soul.
The girl sobbed, clinging to him.
"I won't leave you. I won't—!"
He placed a trembling hand on her shoulder.
"Live," he whispered. "At least one of us should."
She shook her head violently, tears flickering as her form destabilized.But the rift shuddered, shrinking.
If she didn't go now—Both of them would vanish.
Nox made the decision for her.
He pushed her—gently, but firmly—straight into the rift.
Her scream echoed through the collapsing second.
"NOX!"
Her outstretched hand vanished into the darkness as the rift swallowed her whole.
And then—
It snapped shut.
Silence.
Nox's arms dropped to his sides.The mark dimmed to a dull glow.
The collapsing second folded in on itself like a crushed sphere.The air thinned.The ground flickered.Stars went out.
He was alone.
The voice drifted back, soft and unreadable.
"A choice made. A path carved. You have severed your second."
Nox fell to his knees as the last pieces of the moment dissolved into shimmering dust.
"What… happens to me now?" he whispered.
The voice answered:
"You fall."
The world vanished beneath him.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
Then—
A distant impact.A cold wind.A real sky.
Nox gasped and opened his eyes.
He lay on the stone floor of a vast hall lit by floating lanterns.Shadows moved between pillars.Boots approached.
A tall figure in layered robes stepped forward, gaze sharp and unreadable.
"You," the figure said, voice echoing. "The Verge answered. You are the one who tore a moment open."
Several others whispered in astonishment.
"He returned.""A new bearer?""Impossible—the Astrarium should have shattered—"
Nox blinked up at them, still dazed.
"Welcome," the robed figure said, extending a hand.
"To the Order of the Last Hour."