The day everything shifted.The Rising Sect Hall awakened before dawn.Light swept across metal towers and suspended bridges, illuminating banners newly stitched with the Sect emblem—a rising three-ring sigil, designed by Mandy, stabilized by Sylvia, approved by Kai with a faint smile that no one admitted they noticed.Hundreds of new disciples gathered in the courtyard, buzzing with excitement, nerves, and the kind of awe usually reserved for miracles.Alien species of every shape and culture filled the space:— blue-skinned Merelans with crystalline eyes— insectoid Vresh clicking anxiously— armored dwarven Teuk forging tiny trinkets— floating wisp-folk glowing like fireflies— and even a few silent, masked wanderers no one recognizedThe Rising Sect had existed for only one week.And it was already a phenomenon.But today… it would become something more.It would be testedKai stepped onto the upper balcony exactly as the first artificial sunbeam crossed the courtyard.Every head

At first, no one noticed.Not the scholars in the mind labyrinth.Not the warriors in the crimson arena.Not the meditators by the spirit river.Not the masked wanderers adrift in the golden void.But the Gates noticed.The beams of light flickered once—a soft tremor, almost like a heartbeat skipping.Kai felt it instantly.His head snapped up.Sylvia stepped forward.“You felt that too, right?”“It wasn’t the Origin Core,” Kai murmured.“That was external.”Simon’s wings twitched sharply.“A presence approached the Gates.”Sahra drew her curved blades.“Kai… what’s coming?”He didn’t answer.Because another tremor arrived—heavier, deeper—as if something vast and ancient brushed against the boundaries of the trial realms.Then—BOOM.A shockwave rippled through all four Gates.The light pillars warped, twisting into thin spirals, growing unstable.Mandy grabbed Kai’s arm.“The disciples are all inside there! Kai—you have to do something!”He stepped forward—and the world changed.

The Golden Paradox did not die quietly.It tore itself apart with the sound of worlds grinding into dust.The sky peeled open like thin paper.The ground folded inward like a closing eye.Every reflection of Lerien—twisted, perfect, monstrous—shattered into golden vapor.Only one remained standing in the center:The real Lerien.Her breathing was still ragged.Her hands still trembled.But the chains that had once bound herwere now dust at her feet.Her hair floated behind her as if underwater.Her irises glowed pure white—not the white of blindness,but the white of an empty pagewhere fate has not yet dared to write anything.The Golden Paradox recognized her.It whispered through the cracking air:[UNWRITTEN ONE][FORBIDDEN POSSIBILITY][ULTIMA THREAD—ACTIVE]Lerien swallowed, voice barely a whisper:“…So this is what I am?”Her echo—her perfect doppelgänger—staggered backward,its form glitching in terror.“You—You were supposed to break.You always broke in every timeline.Ev

The moment Lerien pulled Kai through the brightest thread, the world spun— Not like teleportation. Not like dimensional shifting. This was different. The thread they stepped on buckled. Split. Frayed. Kai reacted instantly, grabbing for Sylvia, Mandy, Simon, Sahra— anyone nearby— But the thread snapped like overstretched glass. Light erupted. The team fell away like stars scattered across a void. And Kai’s hand closed around only one person: Lerien. He held her tight as the collapsing fate-path twisted and swallowed them. Lerien screamed, “Kai—don’t let go—!” “I won’t!” The void swallowed everything When the light faded, Kai found himself lying on soft ground. Not grass. Something stranger— a surface like woven light. Warm. Quiet. Empty. He sat up fast. “Lerien—!” She was right beside him, also sitting up, blinking. “Kai…? We made it?” Kai looked around. There were no stars. No sun. No horizon. The world around them seemed drawn in faint colors— unfi

For the first time since they had met him,Kai was gone.Not “left the realm for a mission.”Not “vanished into a system glitch.”Not “stepped into a different dimension.”Gone.Truly, unnervingly gone — and Lerien with him.Sylvia walked at the front of the group, arms crossed tightly, jaw set in a way that meant No one should talk to me right now unless they want to lose a limb.Her silver hair shimmered with suppressed storm energy —Kai’s lightning, buried inside her from the last resonance, reacting to her mood.Behind her, Mandy jogged to keep up.“Okay, so… good news first, right?” Mandy said, voice thin with anxiety.Sahra shot her a sideways look.“What good news? We lost our leader, a Fateborn anomaly, and possibly the only person who can beat outer cosmic horrors. What part of that screams ‘good’ to you?”Mandy winced.“Right… fair…”Simon walked with deliberate calm, his Celestial coat flowing faintly behind him, wings hidden but tense.“My lord is alive,” he said.“I can