Chapter 72: The Void Between Worlds
The darkness surrounding Eren gave way to... nothing.
Not blackness, not shadows, not even the empty void that lay between realms. It was a peculiar absence—the lack of anything that could be perceived by mortal senses. No sound, no light, no texture beneath his feet. Even the air had no temperature, as if the concept of hot and cold had never existed here.
Eren’s eyes strained in the emptiness, seeking something—anything—to fix upon. His mind, accustomed to processing sensory information, rebelled against this sensory deprivation. His chest tightened with a primal fear that threatened to overwhelm his carefully cultivated control.
"Breathe, Veilwalker," Kaida’s voice somehow reached him, though it seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. "Your mind struggles to comprehend what it has never been designed to perceive. We stand in the space between existence and nonexistence—the threshold where reality can be reshaped."
Eren forced his breathing to steady, focusing on the only anchor he had in this non-place: Kaida’s presence beside him.
"What is this?" he managed, his voice sounding strange even to his own ears—hollow and directionless. "Where have you brought me?"
"Not where," Kaida corrected, her form gradually becoming visible beside him—not through any light that revealed her, but as if his mind had finally found a way to perceive her presence. "When. We are seeing the moment before moments begin, the space before space exists." Her kaleidoscope eyes fixed on him with unsettling intensity. "Can you see it now, Veilwalker? Can you perceive the truth of our world?"
As if her words had triggered some dormant ability within him, the nothingness began to shift. Tiny motes of light appeared, swirling together to form images—distant, fragmented visions that coalesced into recognizable scenes.
"You can see it all," Kaida whispered, her voice reverent. "Everything you see here is the way our world will end if we continue with the elements."