That afternoon, the sky wasn't fully orange.
Gray streaks cut through the warm light, like something was wrong beneath the surface.
Aeris stood near the university gate, his bag hanging loosely from one shoulder. He should've gone home hours ago.
But his feet wouldn't move.
Not since midday.
Not since the moment the image of that chair flashed in his mind again...
the dust, the pattern…
and the light.
A flicker.
A whisper.
"Aeris."
Lyra's voice pulled him back.
She stood by the fence, her hair swaying in the evening breeze. Normally, she would smile. Tease him. Say something light.
Not today.
Her eyes were different.
Sharp. Focused.
Heavy.
"I know you've seen it," she said.
Aeris's jaw tightened.
"Seen what?"
She stepped closer.
"The dust. The square pattern beneath the chair."
His hand clenched instantly.
Silence pressed in around them.
Cars passed. People walked by. But none of it felt real anymore.
It was like the world had blurred...
Leaving only this conversation behind.
"The chair can't be destroyed, can it?" Lyra continued.
Aeris snapped his head toward her.
"Did you go into my house?"
"No."
A pause.
"I didn't need to."
That answer hit harder than a confession.
She looked straight into his eyes.
"The shimmer appeared, didn't it?"
Aeris's breath caught.
For a split second...
Just one...
His mind betrayed him.
Last night.
The dust didn't just form squares.
At the center...
Light.
Small.
Faint.
But alive.
The first shimmer.
"You saw it," Lyra whispered.
Not asking.
Confirming.
Aeris looked away.
"Even if I did, it's none of your business."
"It is."
The wind died instantly.
Lyra stepped closer. Too close.
"That world has started calling you."
"I'm not going anywhere," Aeris snapped.
"I don't care about some 'world' I've never seen."
Lyra smiled faintly.
Not kindly.
Not warmly.
But like someone watching a storm she already knew would come.
"You think this is random?"
No answer.
"That chair has been in your house since before you were born."
Aeris froze.
"Don't," he said sharply.
"Don't bring my house into this."
"Then let's talk about your parents."
His breath stopped.
"What?"
Lyra didn't look at him this time.
She looked at the sky.
"You already know they didn't just leave."
The world narrowed.
The air felt thinner.
"I don't joke about that," Aeris said, his voice low.
"I'm not joking."
Silence.
"And your mother told you something, didn't she?" Lyra continued. "Not everything. Just enough to keep you quiet."
Aeris's pulse began to pound.
"What remains unfinished…" Lyra said slowly,
"Desn't disappear."
"Enough."
His voice cracked this time.
But Lyra didn't stop.
"Do you know why the chair can't be destroyed?"
No answer.
"Because it's an anchor."
She raised her hand slightly. The air around her fingers seemed to distort..
Just for a second.
"Anchors don't exist alone. They connect two sides."
Aeris shook his head.
"That doesn't make sense."
"It doesn't have to."
Her eyes locked onto his.
"The shimmer appeared. That means the gate is stabilizing."
"Gate?"
"The dust pattern isn't complete yet. But once the shimmer forms…"
She stepped closer again.
"The door can open."
Aeris stepped back instinctively.
"You want me to go in there?"
Silence.
For a moment..
Just a moment..
Lyra hesitated.
"I don't want you to go."
A beat.
"I need you to go."
The difference landed like a weight in his chest.
"Why me?"
"Because it chose you."
"I didn't choose anything!"
"You don't get to."
The words hit harder than expected.
The sky darkened. Streetlights flickered on one by one.
Lyra's voice softened but only slightly.
"There's something inside that world. Something unfinished. About your father. About your mother."
Aeris's thoughts spiraled.
"Then you go," he said.
"If you know so much."
Lyra smiled again.
"I can't."
"Why?"
"I don't have an anchor."
Silence.
"The chair responds to blood," she continued.
"And that blood… is yours."
Aeris felt it again.
That memory.
The shimmer.
The room.
Cold.
Too cold.
As if something had been waiting for him.
"What's in there?" he asked quietly.
Lyra didn't answer right away.
Then...
"Something that shouldn't come out."
Aeris's chest tightened.
"I can ignore it."
"You can," Lyra nodded.
"But then the gate will open anyway."
His heart skipped.
"What?"
"If you don't go in something else will come out."
Silence.
Heavy.
Suffocating.
"And when that happens," Lyra said quietly,
"you won't be able to stop it."
The streetlight above them flickered.
For the first time...
Aeris noticed it.
Fear.
In Lyra's eyes.
"You've been there before," he said.
She didn't answer.
That was enough.
"What are you hiding from me?"
Lyra inhaled slowly.
"What I'm hiding… isn't the world."
"Then what?"
Her gaze locked onto his.
"It's what happened the last time someone tried to close the gate."
Aeris's heart slammed against his ribs.
"Who?"
A pause.
Then...
"Your father."
Everything went silent.
Not just around him.
Inside him.
And suddenly..
The shimmer didn't feel small anymore.
It felt like a warning.
Three nights later...
It appeared again.
Stronger.
The dust beneath the antique chair no longer drifted aimlessly.
It moved with purpose.
Aligning. Locking. Forming a perfect square.
Aeris stood frozen in the living room.
Watching.
Waiting.
The air felt heavier.
Colder.
Like the room itself was breathing.
"There's still time to stop," Lyra said behind him.
He didn't turn.
At the center of the formation...
The shimmer expanded.
Not a flicker anymore.
A surface.
Vertical.
Alive.
Rippling like liquid light in shades of silver and violet.
A door.
"You're coming with me," Aeris said.
Lyra hesitated...
Just slightly.
"If you step forward… I won't let you go alone."
The pressure in the room spiked.
The walls felt distant.
The clock stopped ticking.
Aeris stepped forward.
Lyra followed.
And the world..
Collapsed.
No falling.
No light.
Just distortion.
His body stretched. Compressed. Torn between directions that didn't exist.
Sound shattered.
Color broke.
Then..
Nothing.
Aeris hit the ground.
Hard.
He gasped and opened his eyes.
The sky above him...
Was wrong.
Violet.
Silver.
Endless.
The stars were too close.
Too bright.
Too real.
Lyra stood beside him.
Tense.
But not surprised.
"We're here," she whispered.
Aeris slowly looked forward.
And froze.
A city stretched before them.
Massive.
Silent.
Beautiful...
And empty.
Buildings curved like flowing glass. Their surfaces pulsed faintly, like something alive inside them.
The ground beneath their feet shimmered like frozen light.
Eyllwe.
The first city.
"Something's wrong," Lyra said.
Aeris already knew.
The silence wasn't peaceful.
It was dead.
Then...
Footsteps.
Multiple.
Slow.
Deliberate.
From the curved road, figures emerged.
Five of them.
Their eyes locked..
Directly onto Aeris.
Not Lyra.
Him.
One woman stepped forward.
Her long silver hair fell to her waist. Her face was calm but her eyes…
Exhausted.
"We've been waiting," she said.
Aeris felt his chest tighten.
"For what?" he asked.
The woman tilted her head slightly.
"For you."
A pause.
Then..
"For the son of the man who failed."
Silence.
Aeris's breath stopped.
"What… did you just say?"
The woman's gaze didn't waver.
"Your father came here once."
A step closer.
"And he couldn't close it."
The air grew colder.
"He made it worse."
Aeris's vision blurred for a second.
"No… that's not.."
"And now," she continued quietly.
"You're here to finish what he couldn't."
A long pause.
Then the final blow...
"Or repeat his mistake."
The woman studied Lyra for a moment longer before turning back to Aeris.
"My name is Lethra," she said calmly.
"I am the Keeper of the Core."
"The Core?" Aeris repeated.
Lethra didn't answer immediately. She simply turned and pointed toward the center of the city.
"The heart of Eyllwe."
Only then did Aeris notice it.
At the very center, towering above everything else, stood a massive crystalline structure. It pulsed faintly. Like a heartbeat struggling to stay alive.
And around it…
Cracks.
Thin at first.
Then spreading.
Like glass on the verge of shattering.
A chill ran down his spine.
"When did this start?" Lyra asked, her voice tight.
"The moment the first shimmer appeared in your world," Lethra replied.
"Since then… the pressure has only increased."
Aeris's throat went dry.
So it was real.
What happened in his living room… was breaking an entire world.
"You are the anchor."
The voice came suddenly.
Not from outside.
But inside his head.
Aeris froze.
"Did you hear that?" Lyra asked quickly.
He nodded slowly.
"I have been waiting," the voice continued, calm… patient… wrong.
"For your bloodline to return."
A figure began to form near the Core.
Not fully solid.
Not fully shadow.
Something in between.
A silhouette.
A presence.
Aeris's eyes narrowed.
"You're not my father."
The silhouette let out a low, echoing laugh.
"No," it said.
"But I helped him hold this world together."
Lethra's face paled instantly.
"Don't listen to it!"
The cracks across the Core pulsed wider.
"Without me," the silhouette continued,
"this city would have collapsed long ago."
Aeris clenched his jaw.
"Then why is it collapsing now?"
A pause.
Then..
"Because your father failed."
The words hit like a blade.
Aeris's vision blurred for a second.
"No…"
"He opened the gate too wide," the silhouette went on.
"And something slipped through."
Images suddenly flooded Aeris's mind...
His father.