Silence fell over the ruined hall.
This time, there were no chains scraping across the floor, no axes cutting through the air, no creatures charging through the side doors. All that remained was Havelyn's breathing—weak, uneven, but undeniably there.
Havelyn's eyes were still partially open, showing an astonishing amount of resilience.
After everything that tower had done to her, some part of her body still categorically refused to shut down.
Tsukumo moved closer to Sahger.
"Karana is one of the oldest and most revered figures among the peoples of the sky."
Sahger rested the shaft of his spear against his shoulder, watching the scene.
"So the girl is nobility."
"As far as I know, Karana only had two children," Tsukumo concluded.
"Easy," I murmured.
Havelyn tried to push my arm away, but the effort didn't even have enough strength to move my hand.
"No..." she mumbled.
"I'm not going to hurt you. I already told you."
Her crystalline blue eyes opened a little wider, clouded with pain.
For some reason, that fragile response struck me harder than any scream of hatred could have.
I had no idea how long she'd been locked in there, or how many times the door to that cell had been opened by cruel hands.
Nor could I imagine how many times she'd heard promises just like mine before being subjected to another round of torment.
With extreme care, I slid one arm beneath her shoulders, finding space between her body and the base of her injured wings, while the other slipped beneath her knees.
I slowly lifted her against my chest, making sure neither wing had to support its own weight.
"Just stay alive."
Havelyn tried to form another word, but no sound escaped her cracked lips.
Her head sagged heavily against my chest.
"She passed out."
I looked around, listening to the structure crack and groan.
"What about the rest of the tower?"
Tsukumo closed his eyes.
I knew that expression well. He wasn't merely listening to his surroundings—he was extending his perception through the entire structure, feeling the gravity, the masses of black stone, the stress running through the materials, and the hollow chambers carved deep into the tower's interior.
He remained motionless for several seconds before opening his eyes again.
"It's giving way," he announced.
I swept my gaze across the hall.
Deep fractures ran through the black columns, and pieces of the ceiling had begun to collapse in showers of dust.
"Then let's go," I ordered.
We descended quickly.
Not so fast that Havelyn's life was put at risk, but without wasting a single movement.
The floors that had taken us hours of fighting to cross looked completely different now—empty, cold, and lifeless.
The Mirror Labyrinth had been reduced to a dull corridor buried beneath a thick layer of crushed glass.
The creatures from the lower levels no longer rippled beneath the sand, and the infernal heat of the middle floors had faded away.
The tower was dying from the inside.
Or maybe it was simply gathering itself before collapsing.
We had no intention of staying to find out.
On the thirty-fifth floor, Havelyn dragged in a sharp breath against my chest.
Her head shifted slowly, and her eyes opened in confusion.
"Where..."
"Still inside the tower," I replied without slowing down.
That answer was enough to make her entire body tense in my arms.
"No..."
"We're leaving," I said. "Almost there."
She blinked slowly.
"What's your name?"
"Suki."
Her head tilted by barely a fraction.
"Suki..."
"That's right."
Her eyes slowly began to close again.
The colossal bone door appeared ahead of us.
Tsukumo was the first to cross the threshold, followed closely by Sahger.
The moment we stepped outside, the dry, scorching wind of the Red Desert lashed across my face.
After hours of breathing the stagnant, musty air inside the tower, even that desert wind felt like a revitalizing relief.
We moved dozens of meters away from the base.
Tsukumo stood perfectly still, staring at the leviathan of black stone rising against the sky like a vertical scar.
From the outside, the structure still looked imposing and unshakable, but a thin stream of dust began trickling down one of its rocky walls.
Then another followed.
"It isn't going to fall on its own," I commented, handing Havelyn over to Sahger.
"Hold her for a moment."
The cold metal of his armor against Havelyn's soft skin caused her to wake again.
"Tsukumo," I said.
"I'm tired of holding back in this place."
"So am I."
Havelyn looked between the two of us as we stared at the tower.
"What are you doing?"
I nodded once and walked back toward the structure, while Tsukumo positioned himself several meters to my left.
Incandescent red markings danced across my entire body, glowing like living fire.
"Fire Transformation," I announced.
The sand around me melted instantly, turning into liquid glass.
My aura expanded, hot and crimson, and millions of grains rose into the air, spinning under the force of the extreme heat.
Beside me, the airborne sand stopped instantly.
A dense, heavy purple aura pressed against mine.
Tsukumo had already released his power, stones and grains of sand revolving around him like a storm held perfectly under control.
"Those two..." Sahger muttered, quickly retreating from the forming cataclysm.
The moment I felt ready, I moved.
"Ryū no Ibuki!"
I fired a wave of heat from both hands so intense that it swept every grain of sand from the landscape all the way to the tower.
Tsukumo raised one hand and crushed the very air.
"Mugen Jūatsu."
He compressed the tower's foundations all at once as my blast struck them head-on.
Part of the structure melted.
Part of it simply vanished, leaving nothing but an open crater where it had stood.
Sahger drove his spear into the sand to keep himself anchored.
The wind and pressure were absurd.
He hunched over Havelyn, shielding her with his own body.
And the girl couldn't look away.
Tsukumo lowered his hand.
"It's over."
I stared at the flat desert where the black colossus had once stood and exhaled.
Sahger approached the two of us.
"You two are insane, drawing attention like that."
"Let them come," I said. "I'm done holding back in this garbage place."
He handed the girl back to me, and I held her securely.
"Let's get far away from here and set up another camp."
"You're the guide," Tsukumo said.
And so the four of us pressed on, moving even deeper into the desert.
Sahger found the ravine hours later.
I nearly walked straight into the back of his armor when he suddenly stopped.
"What?" I asked.
His black spear pointed toward a narrow opening between two rocky walls.
I narrowed my eyes but saw nothing unusual.
"Moss."
There was barely any of it—just a thin strip of blue-green growth clinging to cracks in the stone.
But after hours of seeing nothing except red desolation, that tiny patch of vegetation looked like a miracle that didn't belong there.
Sahger entered the passage first, and we followed.
The rocky corridor narrowed so much that I had to turn sideways to keep Havelyn's immobilized wing from striking the walls.
Then the passage opened into a small natural chamber.
Water.
I froze at the sight.
A crystal-clear spring flowed from the stone wall, feeding a narrow stream that wound between rocks covered in cold moss.
Small plants bloomed along the edges.
It wasn't some grand oasis.
But on that ruined planet, it looked genuinely sacred.
Sahger pulled a vial from his waist, collected a sample of the water, then placed a drop onto a sensor built into his glove.
He waited several seconds.
Nothing happened.
"No reaction," he declared.
It didn't take long for us to turn the ravine into something defensible.
Tsukumo inspected the rocks around the entrance and shifted several large blocks with gravity, narrowing the approach without sealing off our escape route.
I found a flat area near the water and heated three medium-sized rocks with a controlled flame, providing warmth without creating excessive light.
Sahger released a tactical compartment beneath his armor, revealing a kit filled with vials, bandages, needles, and small surgical instruments.
I watched him with some confusion.
"You carry all of that around?"
"Yes," he answered, already washing his hands in the stream.
I exchanged a quick glance with Tsukumo, who was watching the preparations with the same suspicion.
Sahger gestured toward the warmed stone.
"Lay her here."
I lowered Havelyn with extreme care.
But the moment her back touched the improvised furs, one of her wounded wings moved involuntarily, making her groan in pain.
My jaw tightened.
Sahger reached toward her, but Havelyn's claws emerged in a purely instinctive reflex.
Even unconscious, her body reacted to the perceived threat.
The hunter was faster, catching her wrist before the claws reached his throat.
Havelyn's blue eyes snapped open, flooded with panic.
"Let go..."
"When you stop trying to open my throat," he replied calmly.
She tried to pull her arm free, but she had no strength.
"Sahger," I called.
"I'm calming her down."
"You're terrible at it."
Havelyn held the stare of his visor until Sahger slowly released her wrist.
"I'm going to treat your wings," the hunter warned.
"No."
"Then you can keep them broken."
The girl's eyes narrowed.
Even in her weakened state, her pride and resolve remained intact.
"I don't trust you."
"Good. You don't have to."
Sahger unscrewed a small bottle of antiseptic.
She turned her head toward me.
"Suki..."
I sighed.
"Sahger, take off the helmet. We're safe here. You're scaring her."
He muttered something I couldn't hear before finally removing the helmet and showing the girl his face.
Somehow, that calmed her.
Havelyn hesitated for several long seconds before relaxing her shoulders enough to allow Sahger to touch the structure of her wing.
Her face twisted in pain immediately.
Sahger stopped, adjusted the angle of his fingers, and tried again.
This time, she endured the contact without screaming.
Tsukumo watched the hunter's hands closely.
"You've done this before."
"Not on harpies."
Using forceps, Sahger extracted a shard of bone and stone lodged between the black feathers.
"Yes. I have. More times than I'd like."
He continued working methodically.
There was no magic.
No miraculous healing.
The hunter cleaned the wounds, realigned displaced joints, immobilized fractures, and applied an ointment to the inflamed areas.
When he found a deep tear near the base of the wing, he used fine instruments to suture the skin.
Havelyn bit down on her own arm to hold back her screams.
I moved closer.
She extended a trembling hand, and I took her fingers, feeling the weak but desperate pressure of her grip.
"Where did you learn this?" I asked Sahger.
He didn't answer immediately.
Tsukumo looked up and waited.
"From my mother," the hunter said without stopping the sutures.
"Was she a doctor?"
"A war priestess," he revealed.
He cut a strip of cloth with a short blade.
"She used to say that anyone who learns how to open a body in battle should be obligated to learn how to close one."
By the time the procedure was over, Havelyn looked considerably better.
Her wings were firmly immobilized against her body, the wounds had been cleaned and bandaged, and her breathing had finally settled into a stable rhythm.
Sahger washed the blood from his hands in the running water.
"She needs sleep," he declared.
"Her divine side will do the rest."
I looked at the sleeping girl.
"She probably would've died without you. Thank you."
Sahger stored the tool case beneath his armor.
"Maybe. But there's no need to pretend modesty. I've seen people die from insignificant cuts and others survive wounds that should've killed them."
"She's still alive because she refuses to stop fighting."
Night descended quickly over the desert, turning the day's suffocating heat into freezing cold.
The ravine protected us from the worst of the wind.
I kept the fire as small as possible, feeding it dry branches and heated stones without producing enough smoke to reveal our position.
Tsukumo sat near the entrance to the fissure, small fragments of stone orbiting gently above his open palm in a silent exercise of gravitational control.
Across the fire, Sahger cleaned sand from the joints of his disassembled spear.
I stayed beside Havelyn, with Kazekiba within reach.
The girl woke with a mild start.
Her blue eyes searched the rocky ceiling, then swept across the shelter until they found mine.
She visibly relaxed.
"We're... out?" she whispered.
"Yes."
She drew in a deep breath, though the expansion of her chest still caused pain.
"How long has it been?"
"A few hours."
Her gaze shifted toward her bandaged wings.
"Don't try to move them."
She attempted to sit up, and I helped her before she had to ask.
I handed her the water container.
Havelyn took only a few small sips before pushing it away.
Her blue eyes settled on me with an unreadable intensity.
Havelyn raised a trembling hand and touched the skin of my face.
I went completely still.
The touch was light, without any defensive or aggressive force behind it.
She seemed to be searching for physical confirmation that I was real.
"Where do I know you from?" she asked.
Her eyes began to grow heavy.
I gently caught her wrist before her hand could fall, but she'd already slipped back into sleep.
I stared at her pale face for several long seconds before looking toward Tsukumo, who had watched the entire scene in silence.
Across the fire, Sahger's hands had stopped cleaning the spear.
"She knows you?" Sahger asked.
"I don't know. I'm not anyone famous or important where I come from."
"Maybe not important, but famous, yes," Tsukumo replied.
"Nothing that extreme," I said.
Some time later, I moved toward the entrance of the fissure and sat beside Tsukumo.
The cold night air brushed softly against our faces.
Above his open palm, small fragments of stone continued orbiting in perfect circles, defying gravity without ever colliding.
With a slow, deliberate motion, Tsukumo closed his fingers and released the field holding them aloft.
One by one, the tiny stones dropped soundlessly onto the red sand.
His golden eyes, heavy with thought, crossed the dimly lit camp and settled on Sahger, who remained on the other side of the fire, silent and focused on maintaining his spear.
"What do you think of him?" Tsukumo asked without taking his eyes off the hunter.
I followed his gaze, studying the man's rigid posture.
"He's useful," I replied, weighing the words.
"You know how this side of the universe works."
He remained silent for a few seconds, absorbing my answer before giving a subtle nod.
"With him guiding us, maybe we can get closer to this Messenger without crossing another entire planet blind."
"Maybe," I murmured.
I rested my forearms on my knees and stared into the vast darkness beyond the ravine.
"But you know what I finally understood after everything we saw on Vahr-Nei?"
Tsukumo turned toward me, curious.
"What?"
"Why Silver didn't come here himself."
Memories of the previous city returned sharply.
The bounty posters covering every corner.
The mercenaries lurking on rooftops.
The heavy weapons designed specifically to subdue divinities.
"Two completely unknown gods crossed Syfles, and within a few hours, half of Vahr-Nei already had our faces plastered across wanted posters."
Tsukumo nodded slowly, taking in the scale of the problem.
"If Silver set foot there, he wouldn't make it ten meters before someone recognized him."
"And it wouldn't be forty amateur hunters coming after him."
"No," I agreed, feeling the weight of that realization.
Tsukumo's eyes returned to the dark desert horizon.
"Any faction or kingdom with an old rivalry against Lavinsk would start asking why the Silver God had decided to cross the border."
"And if he started answering in kind, destroying their property to force his way through..." I began.
"It would stop being a search," Tsukumo finished, his voice grim.
"It would become a declaration of war."
"And an invasion led by Silver would be interpreted as a direct decision from the Kingdom of Lavinsk," I concluded.
The image of the Queen appeared clearly in my mind.
She had almost certainly predicted every one of those consequences.
It wasn't indifference or abandonment that kept anyone of that level from crossing Yorm to rescue Laura.
It was because every step taken by figures of that caliber carried the political weight of an entire kingdom on their shoulders.
"That explains why Silver's patrols stayed along the edges of the Dark Galaxies."
"The Queen doesn't want a war," I murmured.
"Probably because she knows exactly how many worlds would be destroyed in the process."
Tsukumo leaned down, picked up another pebble from the sand, and made it float lazily above his hand.
"I wonder how much they'd pay for Silver's head in these territories."
"A lot more than they offered for ours," I answered with a dry laugh.
"Which doesn't exactly make our situation any less serious," he said sarcastically.
"Maybe enough to buy the entire planet of Vahr-Nei."
"Maybe twice," Tsukumo added.
The stone spun faster above his palm before he continued.
"That's exactly the problem. Silver, Kânia, the Queen herself... none of them can walk through these regions as ordinary people."
"Wherever they go, they're seen as weapons of mass destruction."
I glanced toward Sahger, then toward Havelyn, sleeping a little farther away in the flickering glow of the fire.
"But we can," I said.
Tsukumo raised one eyebrow, regarding me sharply.
"For now."
I stood, brushing dust from my clothes as I faced the cold wind.
"That's all the time we need."
He closed his hand, allowing the stone to fall into the sand.
"For what, exactly? Wasn't this only about Laura?"
I turned toward the vast desert night, feeling determination cool my blood.
"We enter their territory."
"We find Laura," I said.
"Then we kill the Messenger."
A heavy silence settled between us, broken only by the distant crackle of wood and the wind whistling through the rocks.
Tsukumo stared at me for several long seconds, measuring the weight of what I'd just said.
"A message needs to be left, Tsukumo."
"For who?"
I looked beyond the protective walls of the ravine, staring into that hostile universe.
"For all of them," I murmured, closing my fist hard enough for the joints to crack.
"So they learn to stay away from Lavinsk."
The hours of the night passed quietly.
Havelyn didn't wake or drift into delirium again.
Her breathing remained deep and steady, accompanied only by the soft murmur of the spring.
Sahger finished maintaining his spear and rested it beside his armor.
Tsukumo closed his eyes to rest.
The fire burned low, radiating a comforting warmth, while the cold desert wind roared above the rocky walls without managing to reach the ravine below.
No one spoke again.
For the first time since we'd crossed the Yorm Belt, the silence didn't feel like the warning of another attack.
It was simply silence.