In the beginning…
They saw nothing.
Only darkness.
A dense darkness, unlike the absence of light… it was like the presence of something that swallowed light itself.
The space behind the door seemed infinite, as if it led not to a room, nor a corridor…
But to a void.
To something older than the world.
Then…
Eyes appeared.
Slowly.
In the depths.
Immense eyes, too large to belong to a human, a beast, or anything they had ever known before.
They had no specific color.
Instead, they looked like two circular voids… formed from a darkness deeper than everything surrounding them.
And the moment they opened…
Everything stopped.
The black threads froze.
The air vanished.
Even the sounds of collapse…
Fell silent.
Cain fell to his knees immediately.
his breath caught.
He felt as if something gargantuan was pressing against his body from every direction.
Lyra placed her hand on her chest, her eyes wide, while blood began to trickle slowly from her nose.
As for Sern…
He couldn't even stand.
He collapsed to the ground, beginning to shiver.
"What… is… this…?"
The words escaped Lyra's mouth with great difficulty.
But no one answered.
Because everyone…
Was looking at Nir.
He was the only one who didn't fall.
The only one who remained standing before the door.
But even he…
Was not okay.
Black veins covered half of his body now.
His eyes were trembling.
His breath was heavy.
As if something inside him…
Was trying to get out.
> "Come closer…"
>
The voice whispered from behind the door.
> "You are part of us."
>
Nir's grip tightened.
"I am… not…"
But the words were stifled.
The void inside him was vibrating violently.
It wanted to approach.
It wanted to open the door further.
It wanted to see what lay in the depths.
> "All of this…"
>
The voice followed.
> "All of this fear of them…"
>
> "All of this rejection…"
>
> "Haven't you grown tired of pretending to be one of them?"
>
Silence.
He remembered.
Everything.
The mockery.
The contempt.
The loneliness.
The days he stood alone while everyone looked at him as if he were a mistake.
> "They will never accept you…"
>
> "But we…"
>
> "We accept you."
>
His body trembled.
And for the first time…
He felt that a part of him wanted to believe.
"Nir!"
Lyra's voice reached him with difficulty.
Weak.
But clear.
He turned to her.
She was terrified.
Exhausted.
But despite that…
She was looking at him.
Not as a monster.
Not as a disaster.
But…
As Nir.
"Don't listen to it…"
She said it while trying to stand.
"You… are not alone."
Silence.
Something inside his chest…
Stopped.
If only for a moment.
But in the next moment—
A hand emerged.
From the darkness behind the door.
A massive hand.
Entirely black.
Covered with glowing lines that looked like cracks.
It slowly pierced through the doorway, beginning to reach toward Nir.
> "Come…"
>
The earth shook violently.
The walls crumbled.
The ceiling began to fall.
"Nir, run!"
Cain screamed.
But Nir…
Did not move.
He was only looking at the hand.
At that thing.
At the power he felt flowing from behind the door like an endless sea.
If he touched it…
He would become stronger.
Stronger than everyone.
Stronger than all who despised him.
Stronger than the world itself.
But…
Nir would die.
That thought…
Appeared suddenly inside his head.
Clear.
Cold.
Real.
If he took that hand…
He would never return to what he was.
Nothing of him would remain.
> "This is your destiny…"
>
Nir closed his eyes.
His breath went out slowly.
Then…
He raised his hand.
But…
Not toward the hand.
But toward the door itself.
And in the next moment—
He placed his palm upon it.
"If your existence…"
He said it in a low, fragmented voice…
"…means that I lose myself…"
The black veins exploded across his arm.
The void inside him began to rage madly.
"…then I will swallow you too."
For a moment—
Everything went silent.
Then…
The eyes behind the door screamed.