She snapped it shut instantly and stumbled back, turning away from the barrier as if it were looking back at her.
She dragged air into her lungs, hard, fast, like she'd been underwater, her heart hammering.
Her throat tightened.Impossible...Skarnyx…?
The thought hit her like a bad taste she couldn't swallow.
Outside—
Gord caught himself standing in front of a place he didn't know about anymore.
He stood ready for anything, his hand resting on the hilt.
He looked down.
Bones.
Not fresh. Not wet. Not even fully intact.
A heap of crumbling, desiccated bones tangled with a few strands of hair—like something had been left under the sun for years, then crushed into a pile.
Valdar was barely known.
But it looked wrong—like random ruins of an ancient civilization.
Buildings sagged in place, their wood rotting, stone cracked and worn like time had been accelerated and then abandoned halfway. Streets lay open and empty.
And the people—
There were no bodies.
Just remnants.
Bone fragments.
Gord's face didn't move, but something inside him cracked, silent and deep.
Then a hand touched his shoulder from behind.
Gord jolted forward, reflexes sharp, and spun—loosening the strap of his sheath and drawing it like a sword in the blink of an eye.
But the cold mask on his face shattered.
His eyes went wide, pure disbelief ripping through him.
Hyran stood there in front of him.
And the upper right part of his head—down through his shoulder and into the middle of his abdomen—was simply gone.
Not torn.
Gone.
A hollow, horrific cavity where a body should've been.
His eyes were empty.
And his silence—unlike anything Hyran ever gave them—was worse than the wound.
Back inside—
Moriana was leaning her back against the Stellarium shield, her fingertips still pressed to its surface. Her eyes were open—but unfocused, fixed on nothing in particular.
Her jaw hung slightly loose. Her breath came shallow, uneven, fogging the air in front of her lips without intent.
The memory of that ominous vision from a year ago clawed its way back into focus, sharp and unwanted. The noise inside her head swelled—twisted words, mad screams, overlapping echoes with no source.
After mere seconds, a groan cut through the chaos in her mind.
"Mo… na…"
Moriana blinked.
"Huh?"
Zarius's voice reached her, distant and hoarse, as if coming through thick water."…For fuck's sake… wake up!"
Hands grabbed her shoulders and shook her hard.
The fractured images in her head started to fade.
The noise was vanishing slowly.
Only Zarius remained in front of her—his mismatched eyes wide, panic stripped bare on his face.
"Moriana!" he barked."Pull your shit together!"
Air rushed back into her lungs in a sharp gasp.
She was back.
Her vision wavered, the world snapping back into place piece by piece.
"Zarius…?" she muttered.
Her head jerked up as she sucked in another breath.
Her eyes darted around.
Veda was hunched forward a few steps away, Yulia slung over her back. Veda was panting hard, shoulders shaking, Yulia's hair stuck to her cheek with sweat and dust.
Orzik was sitting off to the side, his head buried between his shaking hands, words spilling out too fast to stop.
"It's okay… they're far away from this… no need to worry… it's okay."
Moriana turned back to the shield.
She pressed her face close to it again, her forearm folding against the black surface—same motion as before, but slower, heavier.
The Stellarium began to unravel.
The dark surface loosened, the gap widening just enough to reveal the outside.
Gord was sitting there, just beyond the shield, restless—fidgeting, craning his neck to look over his shoulder again and again.
The moment he saw the opening, he shot to his feet and rushed through."Are you safe, Princess?"
Moriana didn't answer.
Her voice tore out of her instead, words coming fast, high, and shaking:
"Where's Hyran?!"
Gord halted mid-step. He lifted his thumb and pointed behind him, over his shoulder.
"He said it's over," Gord replied. "So you can lower the shield."
Moriana followed his gesture—and froze.
Her breath caught the instant her eyes met him.
Then she flicked her forearm twice.
The Stellarium shattered into black dust and scattered into the air, dissolving around them.
Veda's legs trembled. A sharp tremor ran through her as the full sight hit her at once. She sucked in a breath, voice cracking.
"This… this can't be real."
Over Veda's shoulder, Yulia whispered, her eyes barely open.
"Well... looks like it is."
Orzik froze, his lips trembling.
"No… no— it can't—" slipped out of him, raw and involuntary, before he turned back, eyes darting as if checking something behind them.
Zarius stiffened beside them, his breath hitching.
"H—how is this even possible?" His voice came out broken, raw with disbelief.
He swallowed hard before forcing the rest out.
"Not even the strongest Handler could do this...?"
Then they all saw him.
Hyran on the other side.
He moved slowly, what remained of his body swaying with each step. Without a word, without urgency, he stooped and set his jaws over a nearby skull.