The heavens did not merely crack beneath Kazuto's strike.
They screamed.
A sound unlike anything born within the natural world erupted across the skies above Valthorin as the massive slash carved upward through the abyssal fractures, tearing directly across the unstable opening suspended above the ruined city with such overwhelming sharpness that even the surrounding clouds were severed apart into spiraling walls of white vapor stretching endlessly toward the horizon.
For one impossible moment, the world itself appeared divided.
Below—
The ruined city of Valthorin, trembling beneath collapsing mana currents and burning remnants of battle.
Above—
The endless abyss hidden behind the heavens, where vast unknowable entities drifted through oceans of darkness older than civilizations, now suddenly illuminated by the violent line Kazuto had carved directly across reality itself.
Kyūsei's breath caught in his throat.
Because the slash had done more than damage the fracture.
It had exposed what existed behind it.
Clearly.
And humanity was never meant to see such things.
Far beyond the shattered opening, enormous silhouettes shifted slowly through the abyssal void like sleeping gods disturbed from ancient slumber. Some were so vast that only fragments of their existence could even fit within the visible breach, while others possessed forms that constantly changed each time the human mind attempted to understand them.
One resembled an endless skeletal serpent wrapped around black suns.
Another looked like a cathedral constructed entirely from wings and eyes, drifting silently through the dark sea beyond reality.
And deeper still—
Something moved.
Something so large that the surrounding entities themselves seemed insignificant beside it.
The moment its shadow passed behind the fractured heavens, every instinct within Kyūsei's body screamed so violently that his knees nearly gave out beneath him.
The abyss inside him stirred again.
Not proudly.
Fearfully.
That realization chilled him more than anything else.
Even the abyss feared something.
Below the opening, the creature staggered backward several steps as the unstable fractures above began collapsing inward under the force of Kazuto's attack. Streams of abyssal energy erupted wildly across the sky like bleeding rivers of darkness while enormous pieces of broken space shattered apart and dissolved into glowing fragments that rained down across the valley.
Kazuto remained standing at the center of the ruined summit, sword lowered slightly while blood poured continuously from his right arm in frightening amounts.
The attack had worked.
But it had cost him.
The air around his blade still trembled violently from the overwhelming mana compression he had forced through it moments earlier, and thin cuts had appeared across his own skin from the sheer pressure generated by the technique.
Kyūsei stared at him.
"…you cut the sky."
Kazuto coughed weakly.
"Temporary problem-solving."
"That is not a normal sentence."
"Neither is today."
Then his legs nearly buckled beneath him before he forced himself upright again through sheer stubbornness alone.
The creature observed him silently.
For the first time since emerging from the Gate, its expression no longer carried calm curiosity.
Now there was caution.
Its countless eyes slowly shifted upward toward the collapsing fractures spreading across the heavens, and although its face remained unreadable, something about the tension running through its form made Kyūsei realize a terrifying possibility.
The creature had not expected resistance strong enough to damage the breach itself.
Which meant Kazuto had just done something that should have been impossible.
Lena stepped forward carefully, her silver mana flickering erratically due to the instability spreading throughout the atmosphere.
"The opening is destabilizing," she said quickly while examining the fractures above. "But not fast enough."
Kyūsei looked upward immediately.
She was right.
Although Kazuto's attack had shattered enormous portions of the abyssal breach, dark energy was already gathering again around the damaged areas, slowly attempting to reconstruct the opening.
The abyss was healing the sky.
Rufus stared upward in visible despair.
"Oh, come on. We cut reality apart and it's STILL not enough?"
Mira's eyes narrowed sharply.
"Something beyond the breach is reinforcing it."
The moment she said those words, the distant eye hidden deep within the abyss slowly opened wider.
The pressure descending across the battlefield intensified instantly.
Several surviving adventurers lower in the city collapsed unconscious on the spot as waves of unbearable mental force rolled outward from the heavens.
Kyūsei felt blood trickle from his ears.
The thing beyond the breach was watching them directly now.
No—
Watching Kazuto.
The giant eye shifted slowly toward the swordsman standing at the summit, and suddenly the entire abyss behind the fractures became disturbingly still, as though every entity drifting beyond reality had paused to observe what would happen next.
Kazuto noticed too.
"…I really preferred when monsters just tried eating us," he muttered.
Then the eye blinked.
And the world changed.
Space twisted violently.
The ruined summit warped beneath everyone's feet as gravity itself became unstable, causing broken stone to float upward into the air while enormous distortions spread across the battlefield like ripples moving through water.
Kyūsei nearly lost balance immediately.
"What is happening?!"
Lena's expression darkened.
"It's interfering directly with reality."
"That's something things can DO?!"
"No!"
Unfortunately, that answer changed nothing.
The enormous eye beyond the heavens continued staring downward, and with each passing second the distortions spreading through Valthorin grew worse.
Buildings bent unnaturally.
The horizon warped sideways.
Even the flow of time itself began fluctuating strangely, causing movements to occasionally stutter for brief moments before violently accelerating again.
And then the creature beneath the fracture raised its hand once more.
But this time—
Not toward them.
Toward the eye beyond the breach.
Darkness spiraled upward from its body in enormous streams, connecting the creature to the abyssal entity watching from beyond reality like a bridge forming between worlds.
Kyūsei's face paled instantly.
"…it's trying to fully connect."
The creature spoke softly.
"Open."
The eye beyond the heavens widened further.
And something began descending.
Not physically.
Conceptually.
As though an existence far too massive to truly enter their world was forcing part of itself downward through the fractured reality above Valthorin.
The sky darkened completely.
Mana throughout the valley froze.
Even breathing became difficult.
Every living instinct inside Kyūsei screamed the same message now.
Run.
Run immediately.
Run before something irreversible arrives.
But then—
Kazuto laughed.
Actually laughed.
Tired.
Hoarse.
Completely insane.
"Seriously?" he said while lifting his sword again despite his arms visibly trembling from exhaustion. "You're bringing MORE problems down here?"
The creature stared at him silently.
Kazuto smiled.
Blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
His body was clearly approaching its limit.
Yet his eyes still burned with terrifying determination.
"You abyss things," he said softly while wind began gathering around him once more, "really don't know when to quit."
Then he pointed his blade directly toward the heavens.
And the eye beyond reality looked back at him.