“So he wants to lure us in? Then let him,” Ravian said in a cold tone Elara had never heard before, his voice like a blade ready to carve through fate itself. “Let’s see who gets erased first.”Suddenly, from within the gigantic symbol of light, a majestic and endless voice echoed out, shaking the space around them until their bones felt as though they were cracking apart.“Anomalies identified: Ravian Arbian and Elara Arbian. Correction pattern will now be activated. Prepare for existential disintegration.”The voice vanished, leaving behind an oppressive echo that tightened around their chests. The massive gate began spinning faster, releasing waves of energy that felt like thousands of needles stabbing into their consciousness at once, slicing through their souls to the deepest core.“He’s not waiting for us to come to him,” Elara gasped, dropping to her knees beneath the overwhelming pressure, her breaths ragged with despair and fury. “He’s coming for us now!”Ravian immediately p

“Fight well, defective variable. I will enjoy the moment when you realize that every rebellion of yours... was already written into the design of this pattern millions of years ago.”The voice vanished, leaving behind a cold echo that seemed to freeze Ravian’s very marrow. The dimensional tunnel that should have been their escape now felt like the throat of a colossal beast swallowing them alive. Ravian drew a sharp breath, trying to ignore the whisper as they were hurled out of the dimensional rift and slammed violently onto trembling ground.Dust scattered around them. Ravian immediately pushed himself up, his combat instincts screaming. Yet the sight before him made him freeze in place.They were not in an empty wasteland. They stood in the middle of a vast hanging garden beneath a giant glass dome that revealed a deep blue sky with twin moons. In the distance, crystal towers glowed with harmonious light, radiating an order completely different from the chaos of their headquarters.

“I still exist.”The voice was not merely a vibration in the air, but a proclamation that tore through the silence of nothingness itself. Ravian felt his consciousness like shards of glass struggling to fuse back together in the middle of an eternal snowstorm. White. Everything was white. There was no gravity, no direction, only a void so pure that it felt painful.“Ravian? Brother? Can you hear me?”Elara’s grip on his arm felt like the only anchor left in the entire universe. Ravian slowly opened his eyes. His world was still spinning. The remnants of the Sky Guardian’s energy explosion still burned behind his eyelids.“I’m here, Elara,” Ravian whispered, his voice hoarse, as though his vocal cords had just been recreated from stardust. “Don’t let go. Never let go.”“I won’t,” Elara replied. Her breathing came fast, trembling between restrained sobs. “What is this place? White... everything is so empty.”“This is the in-between,” a deep, authoritative voice emerged from every direct

“Wake up, Elara! Please, don’t leave me now!”Ravian’s voice was hoarse, breaking beneath the thunderous explosions of distant stars that rang like funeral bells for the universe itself. His hands, now pale silver, trembled as he gripped his sister’s shoulders amid the ruins of a monastery that had lost its sanctity. Above them, the gigantic black hole pulsed violently, surrounded by golden rings spinning at a speed that mocked the laws of physics.“Brother...?” Elara whispered weakly, her eyelids trembling before finally opening.“Yes, it’s me. I’m here,” Ravian exhaled in relief, though the breath burned like fire in his lungs.Elara tried to focus her gaze, but she gasped and pulled back the moment she saw Ravian’s hands. “Brother... your hands... your face... what happened?”Ravian looked down at his own arms, marked by permanent golden lines, remnants of the failed forced integration. “This is the price I had to pay to keep us from being erased, Elara. I stole a fragment of their

“So, you’ve returned. But part of your soul stayed behind there, didn’t it?” Master Han’s voice broke the suffocating silence inside the strategy chamber of the central headquarters.Ravian Arbian did not answer immediately. He stood before a massive crystal window overlooking the endless sea of stars, his pale silver-glowing hands folded behind his back. The golden lines etched across his skin seemed to pulse in rhythm with a heartbeat that now felt colder, more... calculated.“I came back carrying the key to destroy the key itself, Master,” Ravian whispered. His voice sounded deeper now, carrying an inhuman echo. “But you’re right. I no longer feel like the Ravian who left this place two weeks ago.”Elara stepped closer, her warm fingers touching her brother’s silver arm. She could feel the terrifying vibration of energy beneath his skin. “No matter what price you paid, it was a sacrifice that saved all of us. Don’t let that pattern devour your conscience.”“Conscience is the only r