The moment the entity spoke those words, the pressure surrounding the battlefield changed again.
Not heavier.
Expectant.
The sky above us groaned like something enormous was shifting behind it, and the black fractures stretching across the heavens widened another fraction. Thin pieces of darkness began falling slowly from the cracks, dissolving into the air before touching the ground.
The Door was opening.
Not fully.
But enough for reality itself to start reacting.
I could feel it inside my chest.
Every pulse of my heartbeat now echoed with the same rhythm coming from beyond the sky, deep and ancient, like something on the other side was slowly awakening in sync with me.
The voice returned immediately.
You are closer now.
My breathing tightened.
Not from fear anymore.
From resistance.
Because the closer that presence came, the harder it became to tell where my own thoughts ended and its influence began.
The entity standing near the fracture remained motionless, but the pressure around its body had stabilized now, as though the opening Door was allowing it to exist here more naturally.
That alone terrified me.
The man beside me slowly stepped closer again.
"You cannot let it complete synchronization."
I kept my eyes on the widening fractures in the sky.
"What happens if it does?"
This time he answered immediately.
"The Door opens completely."
Silence.
Even the air seemed to stop moving around us.
Rin stared upward uneasily.
"And if that happens?"
The man's expression darkened.
"This world stops belonging to humanity."
Cold spread through my chest.
The entity answered calmly.
"This world was never theirs alone."
The battlefield trembled again.
Not from anger.
Truth.
That was the worst part.
Every word from the entity felt terrifying because some part of me instinctively recognized honesty within it.
The previous chosen one.
The inherited memories.
The endless calling beyond the Door.
None of it felt fabricated.
It felt ancient.
Real.
Faye stepped beside me carefully, her voice quieter now.
"You're still fighting it, right?"
I looked at her.
That question hurt more than she realized.
Because I no longer knew what "fighting it" truly meant.
Rejecting the Door completely felt wrong.
Accepting it completely felt worse.
I stood trapped between two impossible truths.
The entity's gaze shifted toward Faye.
"He is afraid."
I clenched my jaw immediately.
"You don't get to speak for me."
The entity looked back at me calmly.
"You are afraid that becoming more will erase who you are."
Pain flashed through my chest.
Because it was right.
The previous chosen one had disappeared into the Door.
The memories inside me proved that much.
But what terrified me most was not dying.
It was surviving as someone else.
The sky cracked again.
This time the sound resembled a scream.
Massive fractures spread across the heavens, and through them I finally saw it more clearly.
The Door.
Far beyond reality.
Far beyond the sky itself.
Gigantic.
Endless.
Covered in shifting black symbols that moved like living things across its surface.
And behind it—
Something moved.
The pressure descending afterward nearly brought everyone to their knees.
Rin collapsed completely.
Lira could barely breathe.
Even Faye struggled to stay standing now.
But my body reacted differently.
The moment I saw the Door clearly, the synchronization inside me surged violently.
Not painfully.
Naturally.
The black fractures spread across my neck now, faint glowing lines moving slowly beneath my skin like veins filled with darkness.
The entity whispered softly.
It recognizes you completely now.
The Door pulsed.
My vision blurred instantly.
Another memory slammed into me.
The previous chosen one standing before the Door while countless voices called from behind it.
Not threatening.
Welcoming.
He had been terrified.
But also relieved.
Because for the first time in his life…
Something had understood him completely.
The emotional weight of that realization nearly broke me.
Loneliness.
That was the true weakness the Door exploited.
Not ambition.
Not greed.
Isolation.
The entity watched me carefully.
"You understand now."
I stared at the ground beneath me, breathing unevenly.
"…He wasn't evil."
"No."
The answer came softly.
"He was abandoned."
The man beside me looked furious now.
"That's not the whole truth."
The entity turned toward him slowly.
"You left him alone once he began changing."
"I tried to stop the corruption!"
"You feared him."
"I feared losing him!"
Silence exploded across the battlefield.
Because both of them were telling the truth.
And deep down…
I understood both sides.
The previous chosen one had not simply transformed into a monster.
He had slowly lost himself while everyone around him became too afraid to stay close.
And eventually…
The Door became the only thing that still accepted him.
The realization hit me so hard my chest ached.
Faye suddenly grabbed my hand tightly.
The contact shocked me back into the present instantly.
Her expression remained steady despite the pressure crushing the battlefield around us.
"You're not alone."
Simple words.
But they cut deeper than everything else.
The synchronization inside me faltered slightly.
The voice beyond the Door reacted immediately.
Dangerous.
Not angry.
Worried.
The entity's eyes narrowed for the first time.
"Attachment increases instability."
"No," Faye answered before I could speak.
"It keeps him human."
The battlefield fell silent again.
The Door pulsed once more beyond the fractured sky.
Harder this time.
The cracks widened further.
And then—
A sound echoed from beyond reality itself.
A knock.
Slow.
Heavy.
Ancient.
Every person on the battlefield froze instantly.
Because something…
Was knocking from the other side of the Door.