Chapter 36: DESCENT INTO THE CORE
The desolate wasteland behind Kaito slowly faded into mist as he pressed forward, following the pulse he now recognized not just in the ground, but in his own chest.
Each step he took felt heavier, like he was being pulled deeper into a gravity that went beyond physical force—like he was descending into the truth of the world, the truth of himself.
Ahead, a rift opened.
Not like the violent tears the Abyss had carved across the land, but something quieter—more ancient. It shimmered like a curtain made of shadows and starlight, revealing a path lined with obsidian pillars that twisted into the void above.
The sky here was no longer violet. It was black, but alive with patterns of glowing symbols that drifted like constellations across a cosmic sea.
Kaito exhaled sharply.
He wasn't in the world anymore. Not entirely.
He had stepped into the Abyssal Core—the heart of the void where time, thought, and memory bled into one another. Here, even his footsteps didn't echo. It was as if the world refused to acknowledge sound.
Suddenly, the silence shattered.
"Welcome, Kaito."
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere all at once. It wasn't Nyra's. It wasn't the Guardian's. It wasn't even the whispers he had come to understand.