The first creature was gone.
But the seams were still there.
And they were getting wider.
---
Kai stood in the plaza watching the vertical crack tremble in midair. The air around it warped like heat rising from asphalt.
Lira stood beside him, writing quickly again.
"You look worried," she said.
"I am."
"That's new."
"Usually I don't see the problem multiplying in real time."
She glanced at the seam.
"…Fair."
---
Across the city, alarms began echoing through the streets.
Not panic alarms.
Archive alarms.
The kind used when something truly dangerous appeared.
Kai looked up.
"That's not good."
Lira followed his gaze.
"How many?"
Before he could answer, Serah's voice came through a public broadcast system.
"Attention citizens of Veyra."
Her voice was calm.
Too calm.
"Multiple spatial fractures have opened across the city. Archive units are responding. Please avoid all seam locations immediately."
Lira raised an eyebrow.
"That sounded rehearsed."
Kai sighed.
"That's because it probably was."
---
Inside the Archive command center, screens showed the city from above.
Red markers flashed across the map.
Sixteen seams.
Then seventeen.
Serah leaned over the console.
"Entity activity?"
"Confirmed in four locations," a technician said.
Marrow watched silently.
"Patterns?" Serah asked.
The technician hesitated.
"They're not random."
Marrow nodded slowly.
"Of course not."
Serah turned.
"What do you mean?"
Marrow pointed to the map.
Every seam had opened near a major population hub.
Markets.
Transit stations.
Public squares.
"They're testing response density," Marrow said.
Serah's eyes widened slightly.
"You're saying the fracture is studying us."
"Yes."
"And the creatures?"
Marrow's voice lowered.
"Prototypes."
---
Back in the plaza, the seam flickered violently.
Kai stepped closer.
Aris stood nearby with several followers.
"You should close it," she said.
"I'm trying to understand it."
"That approach almost got someone killed."
"Almost."
She folded her arms.
"You're too calm."
"And you're too certain."
Their eyes locked.
Two philosophies again.
Lira whispered behind them.
"Guys…"
They turned.
The seam was widening.
The air split open like tearing cloth.
And something started climbing through.
Not one creature.
Three.
The crowd screamed.
Kai stepped forward immediately.
"Everyone back!"
Aris grabbed another metal rod from the ground.
"Guess the debate's over."
The first creature dropped to the pavement.
Then the second.
Then the third.
Each of them flickering between forms.
Kai felt the warmth inside his chest surge again.
The fracture pulsed violently in response.
Above the city, the crack in the sky glowed brighter than it had since the cycle restarted.
Kai stepped into the plaza center.
He didn't shout.
Didn't panic.
But something about his presence shifted the atmosphere.
Even Aris paused.
"You're going to try that alignment thing again," she said.
"Yes."
"With three of them?"
Kai exhaled slowly.
"Let's see if reality listens."
The creatures moved.
All at once.
The fight had begun.
---
High above Veyra, the fracture pulsed again.
Not curious this time.
Interested.
---
— End of Chapter 34 —
---