The house shook violently.
The ground cracked beneath their feet, and dust fell from the ceiling like rain, while black threads expanded madly across the walls, crawling over the floor and wrapping around everything as if trying to protect the door.
That black door.
Ancient.
Closed for a time known to no one.
> "Open it..."
>
The voice returned.
But this time...
It was heavier.
Deeper.
As if it wasn't coming from behind the door alone...
But from a place very far beneath the world itself.
The little girl fell to her knees, her hands over her head.
She was trembling violently.
"No..."
she whispered, weeping.
"Don't let it out..."
Lyra moved toward her immediately, despite the threads crawling around her.
"Get away from her!"
Cain shouted, trying to tear the threads with fire.
But the fire...
was vanishing.
The closer it got to the door, it would weaken, dim, and then extinguish.
Sern took a step back, his features pale.
"...Our magic doesn't work."
He said it in a low voice.
"...This place is devouring it."
But Nir...
He was feeling something different.
He didn't feel his power being drained.
Quite the opposite.
The closer he got to the door...
The more active the void within him became.
Hungrier.
> "There..."
>
The voice whispered inside him.
> "Another part..."
>
He felt a sharp pain inside his chest.
Not an ordinary pain...
But a sensation as if something was moving inside his very bones.
His body...
was changing.
Slowly.
Black veins appeared again beneath his skin.
More clearly this time.
They extended up to his neck.
But the strange thing...
Was that the pain no longer bothered him as before.
Instead, it became familiar.
As if his body...
was beginning to learn how to endure it.
"Nir!"
Lyra's voice pierced through his thoughts.
"Get away from the door!"
But he couldn't.
His feet moved on their own.
A step.
Then another.
Until he stood directly in front of the door.
The symbol carved upon it was pulsing slowly.
The same symbol found on the crystal.
The same shape he had seen in his dreams since it all began.
He extended his hand.
"No!"
The girl suddenly screamed.
"If you open it..."
She raised her head toward him, her black eyes trembling.
"...Everyone will die."
He stopped.
For only one second.
But the voice behind the door...
Laughed.
A low laugh.
Cold.
> "Liar..."
>
Silence.
> "She only doesn't want to lose you."
>
The girl froze.
Her eyes widened.
> "Because she knows..."
>
The voice followed.
> "That you are the only one capable of freeing us."
>
"Shut up!"
The girl screamed.
For the first time...
Her calm completely vanished.
Black threads exploded around her, rushing toward the door to cover it entirely.
But in the same moment...
Nir moved.
He placed his hand on the door.
And the moment his fingers touched it—
The threads disappeared.
All of them.
In a single instant.
As if their very existence was erased.
Sern's eyes widened.
"He... neutralized the magic."
Cain stared at him, unable to speak.
Even Lyra...
Felt a chill pass through her body.
Because what Nir did wasn't absorption.
It wasn't destruction.
Rather, it was...
Erasure.
The symbol on the door began to crack.
Darkness poured out of the cracks like smoke.
And the voice behind it...
Became clearer.
> "Good..."
>
Nir's heartbeat quickened.
Not out of fear.
But because the void inside him...
Was answering.
The cracks widened.
The whole house began to collapse.
The air grew heavier.
Even breathing...
Became difficult.
Then...
The door opened.
Slowly.
And the thing that was behind it...
Opened its eyes.