The world wasn't ending. Just the room.
The ivory-white walls of the laboratory weren't crumbling; they were dissolving into raw, colorless mist. The seamless floorboards were evaporating into geometric motes of light. Gravity lurched, flipping sideways, then upside down, as the artificial laws governing the chamber failed.
"SECTOR PURGE INITIATED. LOCAL REALITY UNMAKING IN PROGRESS."
The voice boomed from the vibrating walls, cold and devoid of mercy.
"It's deleting the room!" Primrose screamed, clutching the Sun-Pearl to her chest as the floor beneath her feet turned into vapor. "Caspian! The Core thinks we're foreign agents! It's scrubbing the timeline!"
"What?! Why?!" Caspian roared.
He slammed his black crystal sword into the floor—or what used to be the floor. Instead of hitting stone, the blade sparked against a grid of hard, invisible light that sizzled with arcane energy.
