Chapter 41 — The Map of Living WoundsThe wind on the black diamond shore was sharp enough to cut thought.Cold, ancient, thin.The world felt emptier here — as if sound feared to echo too loudly and attract the attention of something listening beneath the skin of reality itself.Auren stood facing the frozen ocean, its towering crystal waves glittering like a graveyard carved from broken starlight. The sigil pulsed faintly in his hand, a heartbeat that did not belong to him.Lyra broke the silence first, brushing glass sand from her robes.“We can’t keep wandering blind,” she said. “The next lock won’t just reveal itself.”Corren snorted. “And here I was hoping it would send us a polite letter.”Eira didn’t smile. She was staring at Auren.“Something changed in you down there.”Everyone fell silent.Auren didn’t deny it.He couldn’t.“…The lock didn’t just react to me,” he said slowly. “It connected to me.”Lyra approached cautiously. “Meaning?”Auren lifted his palm.The sigil glowe

CHAPTER 43 — The Grand Convergence StirsThe deeper they traveled into the Corridor of Echoes, the more the air tightened around them. Not metaphorically—literally. The walls pulsed inward, then outward, like a giant creature breathing shallowly. Light followed their footsteps, blooming beneath each stride as if the corridor itself recognized Alexander’s presence.Aramis led them into a chamber shaped like a vast, hollowed sphere of polished obsidian. Runes spiraled over every surface—thousands, maybe millions, all glowing faintly, like constellations trapped beneath molten glass.Seraphina inhaled. “We’re close. I can feel the ley-thread vibrations. The Convergence is awakening.”Rowan raised a brow. “Awakening? Places shouldn’t wake up.”“They shouldn’t,” she agreed. “And yet—everything today seems eager to rewrite its own rules.”Alexander stepped forward. The moment he crossed the threshold into the center of the sphere, the runes flared with blinding brilliance. A hum filled the

CHAPTER 45 — Falling Through the Fractured WorldThere was no ground.No sky.No direction.Only the freefall.Alexander plunged through a world of shattered light as the Sphere of Convergence crumbled to dust above him. The air screamed past his ears. Pieces of the chamber — runes, debris, fragments of shadow — spiraled beside him like broken planets caught in collapse.He twisted midair, searching desperately for the others.“SERAPHINA!” he shouted into the void.A glimmer of golden light spun just below him.He dove.Wind tore at his clothes, the Resonance Core burning inside his chest as he angled himself downward, reaching — stretching —There!Seraphina tumbled through the abyss, unconscious, golden magic flickering weakly around her like dying embers.Alexander flattened his arms, pushing all strength into a desperate dive. His fingers brushed hers—Got her.He pulled her into his arms, her breath shallow, her skin cold.“Come on,” he whispered. “Don’t leave me. Not now.”A voi

CHAPTER 47 — The Gate of UnravelingThe desert ended too suddenly.One moment Auren and the others were wading through dunes that shifted like restless beasts under their feet, and the next the world simply… stopped. It wasn’t a cliff. Wasn’t a canyon. Wasn’t a change of terrain.It was a boundary.A perfect, circular line carved into the earth with impossible precision, as though a god had set down a burning compass and traced a sigil around the end of the world.Beyond the line, there was nothing.No sand.No sky.No sound.Just a vast curtain of shimmering emptiness — like a sheet of glass catching light that wasn’t there.The others froze behind Auren.Corren swallowed. “So we finally found it. The Gate of Unraveling. Looks cozy.”Lyra smacked his arm. “Can you not joke in front of the place that may or may not rewrite reality?”“I joke when I’m terrified,” Corren muttered.Auren didn’t hear them.Because as he stared into the shimmering void, his sigil began to burn.Not painfull

CHAPTER 49 — The First Fragment’s BargainThe bridge of light stretched endlessly into the void, each step echoing as if the universe itself were listening. Around them, the Veiled Sanctum trembled with anticipation. The shimmering fragments of past and possible futures swirled like restless spirits, each whispering fragments of Auren’s memories — some joyful, some terrible, some never spoken aloud.The First Fragment hovered at the center, radiating brilliance so pure that it hurt to look at. Her form flickered between solid and ethereal, as if she could decide at any moment whether she wanted to exist in this reality at all. Yet she didn’t attack. She waited, watching Auren, letting the tension rise like a tide threatening to drown the entire group.Auren’s heart pounded. Every fiber of him screamed to turn and run, yet he knew there was no escaping this trial. His mother’s words, etched in fragments in his mind, echoed: “The Sigil’s burden must be chosen, never forced.”Eira steppe