The fall into the white void did not end with an impact; it ceased all movement, trapping them in an agonizing, weightless suspension where sound was stripped of air and breath turned to liquid glass inside their throats.The blinding, featureless expanse offered no horizon, no floor, and no sky—only a suffocating, ambient pressure that actively sought to dissolve the boundaries of their physical forms. The kinetic backlash of Kaelen's destroyed core still hummed through their bones, but in this realm of unwritten parchment, blood did not drip—it hovered in suspension as static, crimson beads. Cassian’s shattered knee hung at an unnatural angle, the excruciating pain vibrating through his nerves in absolute silence. Yet, his broad, scarred arm remained locked like iron around Elena’s waist, his single open eye blazed with an unhinged, protective mania as he fought the weightless drift."ELENA!" Cassian tried to scream, but the word emerged only as a silent, desperate vibration against

The silence of the sunlit hill did not bring peace; it screamed louder than the falling mountains, suffocating their lungs with an unearned, pristine quiet.Under the unblemished blue sky, the warm breeze carried the sweet scent of wild clover—a fragrance so alien and cruel after years of ash and iron that it felt like razor blades in Cassian's throat. He collapsed onto his side, his body slamming into the soft grass as the phantom agony of his shattered knee and broken collarbone vanished, leaving his skin unscarred, smooth, and utterly hollow. He scrambled frantically across the clover, his fingers digging into the dirt as he threw his broad frame between Elena and the open horizon, his lungs heaving with a desperate, instinctual panic."ELENA!" Cassian roared, his voice cracking raw, though no blood spilled from his lips onto the pristine green.He locked his hands around her waist, pulling her against his chest as his broad shoulders shook in an unhinged, protective madness. "I’M

The violent snap from the simulation into their true physical bodies did not deliver an awakening; it drove a thousand white-hot iron spikes straight through their nervous systems.The superheated ash of the Third Era clockwork furnace rushed back into Cassian’s lungs, burning like liquid lye. The agonizing reality of his shattered knee and broken collarbone hit him with the force of a falling anvil, pinning his body against the grinding teeth of the cathedral-sized iron gears. Blood—thick, dark, and boiling—spurted from his lips, splattering across the cold iron frame. Yet, even as his vision blurred into crimson static, Cassian’s hand moved on pure, suicidal instinct, driving his blistered fingers into the iron seam to clamp his broad arm over Elena’s waist, locking her against his chest amidst the storm of sparks."ELENA!" Cassian screamed, his voice a ragged, tearing rasp that sprayed blood into the black ash. "I’VE GOT YOU! WE’RE REAL! WE’RE REAL!"Elena gasped, coughing up dark

The roar of the ink leviathan dragging Vane into the abyss did not signal safety; it split the petrified bone amphitheater into nine spiraling, floating monoliths that ascended toward the blood-red horizon.A terrifying, primordial static filled the air, so dense it flattened the breath in Cassian’s chest and turned the surrounding atmosphere into cold, heavy iron. Down below, the dark void of the primordial core churned like a wounded sea, while above, the nine bone judges stood transformed—their white-fire visages extinguished, replaced by twin furnaces of liquid solar ink that burned with the absolute authority of the cosmos. Cassian’s broken knee gave out under the crushing gravitational shift, slamming him onto the cold bone slab. Yet, despite the white-hot agony tearing through his dislocated shoulder, his broad, bloodied arm tightened like an iron vice around Elena’s waist, locking her securely against his broad chest."I’VE GOT YOU!" Cassian bellowed, his voice tearing raw as

The scroll written in Yuri’s burning solar blood did not merely unroll; it radiated a freezing gravitational torque that threatened to snap Elena’s pale neck where she sat bound to the bone throne.The parchment hovered inches from her chest, every letter pulsing with the golden, agonizing frequency of her son's final sacrifice. The cosmic static radiating from the decree was so intense that it turned the air in Cassian’s lungs to frost, causing his cracked ribs to groan under the sheer pressure. Pinned to the eighth throne of cold iron, Cassian felt the binding chains bite deep into his wrists, drawing dark, steaming blood that froze before it could drip into the void. Yet, his single open eye blazed with a manic, unyielding devotion that defied the absolute zero of the void."DON'T YOU TOUCH THAT SCROLL, ELENA!" Cassian bellowed, his mental roar tearing raw through the psychic quiet as blood sprayed from his cracked lips. "I DON'T CARE WHAT IT SAYS! DO NOT SIGN IT!"Elena writhing v