The second rupture tore across the sky like a scream made visible. Red, Grey, Gold, Black.Four colors of power spiraling together, fighting for dominance, twisting the very clouds as if each force wanted to rewrite the heavens. Jenna clutched Lio tightly, shielding their head under her chin.Denilson positioned himself in front of all three of them, Elias beside him, the two forming a wall of raw, volatile power.The Herald’s robes snapped in the rising wind. The Collectors stiffened, masks glowing with unreadable signals, and the Watcher for the first time tilted its towering head back. As though something above even it demanded respect.The new rift split downward in a shower of red sparks, each one exploding silently before touching the ground.Lio whimpered. “What is that? What’s coming now?”Elias didn't answer at first. Because the truth even he didn’t fully understand. The red glow around him pulsed, resonating in rhythm with the emerging tear.Denilson glanced sideways at him

The world vanished. Not with a flash not with sound but with a soft collapse, as if reality folded neatly into a thin sheet and slipped out from under them.Denilson felt the ground disappear beneath his feet. Jenna felt her heartbeat echo in a space with no air. Elias felt the mark on his ribs ignite, pulling them inward, downward into someplace deeper than consciousness, older than dreams.They dropped. Fell. Floated. Until They landed.It wasn’t a landscape. Not truly. It was a sensation given shape. A vast plain of black glass stretching infinitely in all directions, reflecting nothing not sky, not bodies, not even light.Above them hung a sky made of muffled sound, swirling in shades of muted grey, like storm clouds carved from swallowed screams, but worst of all was the quiet.A quiet so thick it felt alive. Denilson exhaled and no sound came out. Jenna clutched Lio’s unconscious form tighter, panic flickering across her face as her lips parted No voice.Elias raised a hand. A f

The Silence tightened. Not like a trap like a breath being held by something enormous. Jenna clutched Lio to her chest. Their small body felt warm, alive, trembling but the eyes staring up at her were not her child’s.Pure white. Unbroken. Unshadowed. A blank horizon where Lio’s emotions should’ve been. Denilson dropped to one knee in front of them, fear a raw pulse across his face.“Lio,” he rasped, voice shaking, “come back. Look at me.”The child blinked slowly. When they spoke, their mouth didn’t move, The voice came from everywhere.“THE BALANCED HAS RETURNED. THEIR MIND IS WHOLE.”Elias staggered back. “No. No, that’s not them.”Lio’s head tilted, tiny brows furrowing like someone trying to understand a language they’d only just learned.“THE CHILD IS HERE.”Their gaze shifted first to Elias, then to Jenna, then to Denilson. “I AM NOT.”Jenna’s heart cracked open. “You’re not Lio,” she whispered, as if saying it too loudly might shatter what remained.The child blinked again. Th

The fall upward ended with a soft impact as though the world itself caught them in open palms.Jenna gasped as her feet touched solid ground. Real ground. Warm, breathing, alive, Denilson kept one hand wrapped tightly around her waist, the other holding Lio against his chest. Elias landed last, staggering as the red glow around him flickered, then quietly died down to embers.They were back.Back in the world Lio had created. But Something felt different, Very different.The sky above them had changed, No longer fractured with cosmic lines or trembling with power it was whole. Clear. Bright. A blue so deep it looked painted with purpose.Grass swayed around them, golden green, The air smelled of new beginnings. Jenna looked down at Lio and froze.Their eyes, still glowing faintly with three interwoven colors, flicked open. Not with fear. Not with confusion, but awareness. “Mama?”Jenna pressed her forehead to theirs instantly. “Oh baby baby, you’re here, you’re really here”Denilson w

Silence settled over the safehouse again not the cosmic Silence they’d escaped, not the crushing kind that swallowed voices but a human quiet.A waiting quiet. Lio sat on the floor between Jenna and Denilson, legs curled beneath them, hands in their lap, the tri-colored glow weaving softly beneath their skin like threads of living light.Elias watched from a short distance, leaning against the bookshelf, arms folded but eyes gentle. He didn’t push. Didn’t rush. He knew enough about shattering and healing to understand that some decisions needed room.Lio inhaled slowly then exhaled like someone unused to breathing their own air. Jenna tucked one of their curls behind their ear.“Baby you can tell us whenever you’re ready. There’s no pressure.”Lio nodded. “I know.”Their voice was soft, but it didn’t tremble.Not like before. Denilson shifted closer, steady and grounding.“You said you think you know who you are now.”He kept his tone careful, neutral. “Do you still feel that?”Lio lo