The moment Adrian stepped through, the world didn't change.
It disappeared.
There was no transition, no sense of movement, no feeling of crossing a distance. One moment he stood within the stabilized layer he had just claimed, and the next—
There was nothing.
Not darkness.
Not emptiness.
Not even space.
It wasn't something that could be described as absence either. It was simply a state where nothing around him existed in a way his senses could interpret.
And yet—
He was still there.
Adrian didn't move immediately.
Not because he couldn't.
Because there was nothing to move through.
The system pulsed faintly within him, quieter than ever, not suppressed, not weakened, but distant, as if it no longer had a reference point to operate against.
The bond remained.
Clear.
Present.
Unbroken.
That—
Was the only thing that felt real.
Behind him—
There was nothing.
No Lyra.
No Kaelith.
No Seraphine.
No Aria.
No Elara.
For the first time since everything began—
