The Rift was open.
Not completely.
Not yet.
But enough.
Enough for everyone inside the Heart Chamber to see what lay beyond.
Silence consumed the room.
A terrible silence.
The kind that came when the human mind encountered something it was never meant to understand.
Emily slowly rose to her feet.
Her legs trembled.
Not from weakness.
From shock.
The center of the Heart had split apart, revealing a vast tear in reality itself.
The Rift hovered beyond the fractured crystal.
A wound in existence.
A doorway into something older than time.
Something older than life.
Everyone stared.
Nobody spoke.
Because words felt meaningless.
The space beyond the Rift wasn't dark.
That was the first thing Emily noticed.
She had expected darkness.
Expected shadows.
Expected the endless void from her vision.
Instead—
She saw stars.
Millions of them.
Billions.
Entire galaxies drifted across the other side.
Beautiful.
Magnificent.
Almost peaceful.
