Then, with a slowness so unnatural that it felt as though time itself had begun kneeling before its existence, the creature raised its enormous hand toward the heavens above Valthorin, and almost immediately the darkened sky responded—not with thunder, nor with storms, but with vast spiraling fractures that spread endlessly across the atmosphere like cracks forming through fragile glass, each one radiating an eerie pale glow that illuminated the ruined valley below in pulses of cold and dying light.
Every person still standing within the city froze.
Not because they understood what was happening.
But because some ancient instinct buried deep within the soul of every living creature was screaming that the world itself was no longer stable.
The air grew heavier.
Breathing became difficult.
Mana throughout the battlefield fluctuated violently, surging and collapsing in uneven waves that caused lamps to burst, spells to destabilize, and even the remains of the shattered Gate behind the creature to pulse erratically like a wounded heart.
Kyūsei stared upward in horror as the fractures spreading through the sky slowly widened, revealing not darkness beyond them—
but depth.
An endless, moving depth that looked less like another world and more like an ocean suspended beyond reality itself, where colossal shadows drifted slowly through impossible distances beneath flickering lights that resembled drowned stars.
"…what is that…?" he whispered.
Beside him, Kazuto's expression had lost its usual carelessness completely.
For the first time since Kyūsei had met him, there was genuine tension in his eyes.
"…that," Kazuto said quietly while tightening his grip around his sword despite the blood still dripping from his shattered hands, "is probably something humanity was never supposed to see."
The creature lowered its gaze toward them again, and now that the sky itself had opened behind it, its silhouette no longer resembled a mere monster standing atop the summit of a ruined temple.
It looked like a doorway.
Something standing between worlds.
Something allowing other things to look through.
And Kyūsei suddenly understood why the abyss inside him had reacted so violently since the moment this battle began.
It was calling home.
The realization sent a wave of nausea twisting through his stomach.
No.
No, he refused that.
This world—with its dangerous cities, loud companions, brutal dungeons, stupid arguments, warm meals, painful training, and ridiculous people who kept risking their lives for one another—had already become more real to him than the lonely existence he had left behind on Earth.
He would not allow some cosmic nightmare to claim ownership over him simply because part of its power happened to exist inside his body.
"I'm not yours," Kyūsei muttered under his breath.
The abyss within him laughed softly.
Not mockingly.
Almost knowingly.
That terrified him even more.
Far below the summit, panic had begun spreading throughout the surviving citizens of Valthorin as the sky continued breaking apart overhead. Some people dropped to their knees praying while others fled deeper into the city ruins despite having nowhere truly safe left to run.
Even the adventurers who had survived the earlier battle against the undead were now staring upward with pale faces filled with helpless disbelief.
S-rank disasters.
Ancient calamities.
Forbidden beings.
None of those legends had ever described something like this.
Lena stepped forward slowly, silver mana flickering around her body as she continued observing the fractures above with sharp analytical focus despite the cold fear visible beneath her composure.
"…it isn't fully opening," she said at last.
Mira glanced toward her immediately.
"You sure?"
"Yes," Lena answered quietly, though not confidently. "If whatever exists beyond those fractures completely enters this world…" She paused briefly before finishing in a much softer voice. "…Valthorin won't matter anymore."
Rufus swallowed so hard it was audible even from several meters away.
"I would personally prefer if reality did not end today."
"Reasonable," Mira replied.
Garron simply tightened his grip around the massive broken pillar he now carried as a weapon, his enormous frame still standing despite the blood covering nearly half his body.
"Then stop thing before bigger things come through."
Simple logic.
Unfortunately correct.
At the summit, the creature slowly extended one hand outward toward the fractures spreading across the heavens, and immediately the abyssal space beyond them began moving more violently, as though countless massive entities hidden within the endless darkness had suddenly noticed the opening widening further.
Kyūsei felt cold sweat run down his back.
Something was looking back.
No—
Many things.
An unbearable pressure descended across the battlefield as faint shapes began emerging behind the cracks in reality itself, their forms too enormous and distant to fully comprehend, yet undeniably alive.
One possessed countless burning circles rotating around its body like celestial rings.
Another resembled an endless mass of wings drifting through darkness without a visible form beneath them.
One simply looked like a giant eye opening slowly somewhere beyond existence itself.
Kyūsei's breathing became uneven.
Every instinct screamed at him not to look directly at them.
Unfortunately, one of them looked back.
The moment that distant eye shifted toward him, pain exploded through Kyūsei's skull so violently that he nearly collapsed instantly.
Visions flooded his mind.
A black ocean stretching endlessly beneath a dead red sky.
Towering gates larger than continents.
Countless kneeling figures covered in chains.
A voice whispering from somewhere impossibly far away:
The vessel lives.
Kyūsei staggered backward violently, clutching his head as blood dripped from his nose onto the stone beneath him.
"KYOUSEI!" Kazuto grabbed him before he could fall completely.
The visions vanished instantly.
But the fear remained.
Kyūsei's hands trembled uncontrollably.
"…it saw me," he whispered hoarsely.
Kazuto's face darkened immediately.
"What did?"
Kyūsei slowly lifted his gaze toward the broken sky above them, where the distant shapes continued drifting behind the widening fractures like gods observing insects from beneath dark water.
"…something beyond that thing."
For the first time since the battle began, Kazuto looked genuinely shaken.
Not nervous.
Not tense.
Afraid.
And that terrified Kyūsei more than anything else he had seen today.
The creature standing before them suddenly spread both arms outward slowly, and the fractures across the heavens widened even further as waves of abyssal energy poured into the world in enormous spiraling currents, causing the ruined temple beneath them to tremble violently.
The summit began collapsing.
Stone cracked beneath everyone's feet.
Entire sections of the ancient structure broke apart and plummeted into the valley below.
"It's trying to fully open the breach!" Lena shouted from lower down the stairs.
Kazuto's expression hardened instantly.
"No," he muttered.
Then louder:
"NO."
Wind exploded around him violently.
Not like before.
Not controlled.
Not refined.
This was rage.
For the first time since meeting him, Kyūsei felt killing intent radiating from Kazuto strongly enough to distort the air itself.
The creature turned toward him curiously.
Kazuto slowly raised his sword, blood running down his arm while violent currents of compressed mana spiraled around the blade hard enough to tear apart nearby stone.
His voice, when he spoke again, was frighteningly calm.
"You opened the sky," he said softly.
The creature watched him silently.
Kazuto smiled.
Cold.
Dangerous.
"And now I'm going to cut it closed."