Sarya's world stopped.
Not metaphorically.
Not emotionally.
Everything actually stopped.
The observing masses' weapons hung frozen in mid-discharge.
The silver figures remained suspended halfway through their charge.
The Hollow's scream lingered across the prison layers without fading.
Even the expanding crack in reality seemed locked in place.
Only three things continued moving.
Sarya.
The figure standing beyond the tear.
And the hybrid scar burning through her bridge connection.
The stranger stared at her.
The unfinished sentence still echoed through existence.
"Daughter, I've finally found—"
Then the scar flared brighter.
The crack snapped shut.
Reality restarted.
The prison exploded into motion.
The observing masses fired.
Thousands of resonance weapons unleashed annihilation beams toward the closing breach.
The silver figures threw up barriers.
The Hollow surged backward into deeper containment layers.
And Sarya was thrown violently across the lattice.
