Andrew drifted in a darkness so absolute it felt thick and liquid, clinging to his thoughts like ink seeping into the cracks of an already fractured mind. There was no sound, no ground, no sensation except the distant echo of a fading heartbeat—his own, dissolving slowly into the void surrounding him. He tried to inhale, but the darkness pressed against his lungs like invisible weights, suffocating and relentless in its silent insistence.He could not tell if minutes, hours, or an eternity passed before a thin spark of cold blue light flickered within the abyss, pulsing once with a weakened rhythm that barely registered as life. The light grew slightly, then dimmed again, as if struggling to decide whether to continue existing or finally collapse into nothingness.Another heartbeat.Barely.Andrew tried to speak, but his voice failed, collapsing into silence that swallowed even the attempt. He reached toward the flickering light, but his arm refused to move, the darkness clinging arou

The chamber following the Gate of Sacrifice shifted into a suffocating twilight, thick with floating dust motes that glowed faintly like dying embers suspended in still air, creating an atmosphere both serene and unnervingly oppressive. The sky—if it could be called a sky—throbbed with roiling crimson clouds that churned slowly overhead like congealed blood reacting to unseen cosmic pressure that saturated the entire Gate dimension.Noir carried Andrew closely, one arm wrapped under his knees and the other bracing his back, while Andrew’s head rested limply against Noir’s shoulder, his breathing shallow and painfully erratic. The Sapphire embedded in Andrew’s chest flickered sporadically, each pulse dimmer than the last as though its light were retreating deeper into his body to escape the damage it had sustained.Yuki rushed forward the moment she saw Noir emerge from the collapsing corridor, her hands already glowing with frantic white healing energy. “Put him down, Noir,” she plead

The Gate did not shift gently this time. It detonated.Light—not white, not gold, but a blinding fusion of every spectrum that ever existed—erupted outward, consuming the chamber like a supernova blooming in slow motion. The ground vanished beneath their feet. The ceiling dissolved into sky. The sky dissolved into nothing. Reality peeled itself open like a curtain pulled by invisible hands that belonged to something ancient enough to shape worlds without touching them.Andrew fell first, his body too weak to resist the gravitational collapse forming in the center of the void. Noir reached for him instantly, movements instinctive and frantic—but invisible force gripped both of them and pulled them apart.Yuki screamed Andrew’s name.Sahara called Noir’s name.Jiro cursed under his breath.Rayan yelled something incoherent.Mika reached for anyone she could touch.Then everything stopped.The void around them froze into a sphere of glowing symbols—runic shapes rotating slowly like celes

Andrew’s body descended slowly, carried by gentle waves of blue-white luminescence that shimmered like liquid starlight before dissolving into the chamber’s dim light. His feet touched the ground first, but his knees buckled immediately—Noir lunged forward instinctively, catching him before he could fall again. Andrew’s chest rose and fell with steady breaths, but the rhythm felt unfamiliar, as though the Sapphire inside him beat to a tempo he had never heard before.The others gathered around him cautiously, unsure whether to celebrate or brace for another collapse. The air hummed faintly, thick with residual power from the ritual, still vibrating through their bones like the echo of a cosmic chord slowly fading into silence.Andrew blinked slowly, his newly formed irises glowing with an unnatural shade of pale sapphire threaded faintly with white. The change was subtle yet undeniable—his gaze felt deeper, emptier, older, and far more fragile than before.Yuki reached forward hesitan

For a moment, after the constructs crumbled into dust, the chamber stilled.The dual energies—gold and shadow—receded into the walls like retreating tides, leaving the air eerily quiet. Too quiet. A silence so absolute it felt sharpened, like the edge of a blade pressed lightly against the back of every heir’s neck.Andrew leaned against Noir, breath trembling, body still weakened from the prior trials. Noir held him cautiously, not out of fragility but fear—the fear that one wrong grip, one wrong heartbeat, one wrong resonance might harm Andrew through their new bond.“Are you okay?” Noir murmured, his voice low and rough.Andrew nodded slowly. “Yeah… just tired. But I can move.”Noir didn’t let go.Jiro wiped sweat from his brow. “We need to keep moving before Solus tries anything again.”Yuki’s head snapped toward him. “Don’t say that name so casually. The Gate reacts to him.”Rayan pointed nervously at the air. “Uh… speaking of reactions… does anyone else hear that rattling noise?