Isaac burst out through the seam—

  —and the world snapped back into cold air and silence.

  Dust. Empty land. No walls. No ceiling. Just a dead stretch of ground under a huge sky.

  He was still carrying Amanda. Her arms were looped around his neck, her weight warm against him.

  Isaac turned his head and looked back.

  The seam hung there for a second—thin, wrong, trembling like a cut in the world.

  It started to close.

  Isaac’s chest finally loosened.

  Isaac: “We did it…”

  Amanda let out a shaky breath against his jaw.

  Amanda: “…Yeah.”

  For a moment she didn’t move. Then she rested her forehead against his cheek, like she needed to feel something real.

  Amanda: “In the end… I’m glad it was you, Isaac.”

  He didn’t answer right away. His eyes stayed on the seam until it sealed completely—like it had never existed.

  He swallowed.

  Isaac: “Don’t get sentimental now.”

  His voice came out quieter than he meant.

  Amanda huffed a small laugh, tired.

  He shifted his grip under her legs and kicked off the ground.

  Air rushed past. He tried to gain height—fast, instinctive, desperate to put distance between them and that place.

  For a few seconds, it worked.

  Then his body dipped.

  Not a choice. Not a maneuver.

  A failure.

  Isaac’s stomach dropped with it.

  Amanda lifted her head immediately.

  Amanda: “What—? Isaac?”

  Isaac clenched his jaw, forcing himself to keep control.

  Isaac: “I’m losing it.”

  He tried to push more power into his muscles.

  Nothing.

  He sank again.

  Amanda’s arms tightened around his neck.

  Amanda: “You said you could—”

  Isaac: “Not anymore.”

  He angled them down hard, looking for ground that wouldn’t break his ankle, looking for anything that wasn’t stone.

  They hit the dirt in a rough skid. Isaac dropped to one knee, absorbing the impact, holding her tight so she wouldn’t slam.

  He stayed there for a second, breathing through it.

  Isaac: “…That was close.”

  His hands shook when he finally let himself feel it.

  Amanda’s gaze went straight to his palm.

  A faint glow leaked between his fingers—weak, flickering.

  Then it crumbled.

  The fragment didn’t explode this time.

  It just… gave up.

  Light peeling away like ash.

  Isaac opened his hand.

  Nothing left but dust and a dead heat.

  Isaac: “The fragment’s gone.”

  Amanda stared at it, then looked up, eyes hard.

  Amanda: “Doesn’t matter.”

  She lifted her chin.

  Amanda: “Look.”

  Isaac followed her gaze.

  Far ahead—dark shapes breaking the empty land.

  Trees.

  A line of forest, uneven, real, alive.

  Isaac exhaled like he’d been holding his breath for days.

  He set Amanda down carefully.

  Amanda wobbled, still weak, but she stayed on her feet.

  Isaac: “Can you run?”

  Amanda: “I can walk.”

  Isaac gave her a look.

  Amanda: “…Fine. I can run.”

  He grabbed her wrist—not dragging her, just anchoring her—then they moved.

  Fast.

  Feet pounding dirt.

  No flying. No shortcuts.

  Just the two of them, heading straight for the trees before the last of that glow in his bones disappeared.

  The last tongues of fire were being smothered out in the courtyard.

  Guards dragged wet cloth across scorched stone. Buckets hit the ground with dull thuds. Steam rose in thin, bitter breaths.

  Yae stood a little apart from it all, staring past the walls like the smoke didn’t exist.

  Her hands were still burned.

  She lifted one to her mouth, slow, and licked the raw skin. The heat under her tongue wasn’t pleasant, but it worked—faint, stubborn healing crawling over the damage. Not enough to hide what happened. Enough to remind her she was still here.

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  Her eyes stayed lowered.

  A servant approached carefully, then dropped to his knees with his head bowed.

  “My Queen…”

  Yae didn’t answer right away.

  “Speak.”

  The servant swallowed. “Scouts spotted movement ahead… in the desert.”

  Yae’s gaze tightened, just a little—like she’d been waiting for that exact sentence.

  “They’re heading forward,” the servant added, careful. “Fast.”

  Yae’s mouth curved, but there was no joy in it.

  “…They’re going for the lab.” Her voice came out quiet. Controlled.

  The servant nodded hard. “Yes, my Queen.”

  Yae closed her hand into a fist, then opened it again. The skin was still pink where it had healed. Still ugly.

  “Alright,” she said. “We go.”

  She turned, and the guards reacted instantly—forming around her, not speaking unless spoken to.

  Outside the gates, wooden wagons waited. Rough-built. Practical. The kind you use when you don’t want attention.

  The beasts harnessed to them weren’t horses.

  They were heavier, low and strong, built to pull weight over sand without sinking—eyes dull, breath thick. One guard climbed up and cracked a whip in the air. The creature flinched and surged forward.

  The wagon jolted.

  Yae stepped up without needing help, cloak shifting with her movement. A guard offered the reins; she didn’t take them.

  She sat, still looking toward the horizon.

  “Don’t lose them,” she said.

  “Yes, my Queen.”

  The beasts were whipped again.

  Wood creaked. Wheels bit into sand.

  And Yae’s convoy rolled out—quiet, fast, and aimed straight for the place Isaac thought only he was racing toward.

  Isaac and Amanda stumbled into the portal chamber, both breathing hard. The air down here was damp and cold, and the metal walls still smelled like old smoke.

  Isaac wiped sweat from his brow and looked at the iron frame of the device.

  “Okay… now what?”

  Amanda stepped in front of it like she’d been waiting her whole life for this moment.

  “Leave it to me. I read the notes. I think I can tune it.”

  Isaac sat on the floor with his back to the wall, chest rising and falling, watching her hands move—fast, practiced. She adjusted plates, rotated the socket, traced small lines in the air like she was following invisible instructions.

  “Alright…” Amanda muttered. “That should be—”

  A distant rumble cut her off.

  Wood. Wheels. Weight above them.

  Both froze.

  Isaac’s eyes snapped up. “No way. How—?”

  Amanda didn’t look away from the portal. “They have resources. We don’t.”

  Isaac pushed himself up, forcing his legs to work. “Then we move faster.”

  “Calm down,” Amanda said, voice tight. “If I rush it, it eats us.”

  She pulled the amulet out, slid it into the slot.

  The portal shuddered.

  A circle of light crawled open in the air—thin at first, then wider, like reality ripping its own seam. The sound implying pressure, like water about to boil.

  Amanda’s face lit up for half a second. “Yes. I got it. Go—”

  Footsteps thundered closer. Shouts echoed through the tunnels.

  Isaac turned and sprinted to the heavy iron door. He slammed it shut with both hands, then threw the bolt. The whole door shook as bodies hit it from the other side.

  Amanda looked back. “Isaac—portal. Now!”

  Isaac didn’t move. His jaw clenched. “No. We can’t let this place stay intact. If they activate it again, it’s over.”

  Amanda hesitated—one breath, one heartbeat—then nodded. “Fine. I understand.”

  Isaac braced himself against the door as it buckled inward. Metal groaned. The bolt rattled like it was about to snap.

  Amanda backed into the room and raised her hands. Fire sparked to life—real fire, not pretty. It caught papers first, then cloth, then whatever chemicals were scattered across the floor. Thick black smoke rolled upward, angry and fast.

  Isaac gritted his teeth, shoulders shaking as the door tried to give. His heart hammered so hard it felt like it was punching his ribs from the inside.

  [Berserk Mode — Weak]

  A faint glow started under his skin—bone-light, unstable, flickering like it could die at any second. But it gave him just enough.

  With one arm still holding the door, he reached back, grabbed a heavy steel table, and dragged it across the floor inch by inch. The legs screamed against the stone. He jammed it into the door at an angle, pinning it tighter.

  The door stopped moving.

  For half a second.

  Then everything shook again.

  Silence fell outside.

  Not normal silence. The kind that means someone important arrived.

  A crackle of electricity ran under the doorframe.

  Isaac’s eyes widened. “No…”

  A voice came through the iron like it was in the room with them.

  “Open it, Isaac.”

  Yae.

  The metal brightened—blue-white.

  Amanda swallowed. “She’s here.”

  Yae’s power snapped into shape outside: an electric dagger, clean and sharp. The tip pierced the door, then started cutting sideways—hissing like a blade through meat.

  It wasn’t chopping.

  It was sawing.

  Isaac backed up one step, eyes on the line of light carving toward the bolt. “Damn it.”

  Fire climbed the walls. Smoke got thicker. The portal flickered once, like it didn’t like being near the heat.

  Isaac turned to Amanda. “We need to bring this whole place down. Any idea?”

  Amanda looked up at the ceiling—at the old supports, the cracked stone, the weight holding the desert above them.

  “We make a collapse spell,” she said quickly. “Not big. Just smart.”

  She pressed her palm to the floor and drew a quick ring in ash and bloodless soot—three short marks inside it, like a lock.

  “Rift-Snap,” she whispered.

  Then she added a second layer—heat, compressed into a single point.

  “Kindle Knot.”

  The two spells met.

  For a moment, nothing happened.

  Then the ground punched upward.

  A tight, violent blast—more pressure than flame—shot through the supports like a hammer. Stone cracked. Metal screamed. The ceiling split in jagged lines, dust raining down in heavy curtains.

  Isaac coughed, eyes burning. “Now!”

  Amanda grabbed his sleeve. They ran.

  Behind them, Yae’s cut reached the bolt. The door began to open—

  Too late.

  The ceiling caved.

  Guards shouted. Someone screamed her name.

  Yae stepped into view, eyes bright and wild as the chamber started to die around her. She lunged forward—

  Guards grabbed her shoulders, pulling her back hard.

  “No!” Yae fought them, nails scraping armor. “No—LET GO!”

  “My Queen, we have to move!” one guard shouted. “It’s coming down!”

  Yae’s face twisted, not rage—something worse. She stared at the portal as if she could force it to stay open with her will.

  Isaac and Amanda hit the edge of the light.

  The portal shook like it was going to fold.

  Isaac didn’t look back.

  He pulled Amanda in, and they dove through—

  Just as the laboratory collapsed behind them.

  Stone swallowed metal.

  Fire drowned under sand.

  And the world buried Lyra’s secrets in silence.

  Osireon — Palace Corridor

  Isaac and Amanda hit the stone hard—same corridor, same ruined smell from that night. The exact place where Moon fell.

  They lay there for a second, chest heaving, air scraping their throats like sand.

  Isaac pushed himself up first. His hands were shaking. His clothes were still those dirty rags from the other world, half-burnt at the edges. Amanda looked just as wrecked—dust in her hair, her outfit stained like she’d crawled out of smoke.

  Isaac looked around, like he didn’t trust the walls.

  “We… made it.”

  Amanda let out a weak laugh that turned into a long breath.

  “Yeah… we made it.” She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “I really thought that was it.”

  Isaac laughed too—small, tired.

  “Me too.” He swallowed. “For a second I saw that ceiling coming down and I just—”

  He stopped. Didn’t finish. Just stared at her.

  They stood, facing each other, both quiet for a beat, like their bodies were still waiting for the next hit.

  Amanda tilted her head, a little smile forcing its way through the exhaustion.

  “Not bad, huh…? Us.”

  Isaac’s mouth curved.

  “Yeah.”

  He nodded once. “We make a good team.”

  Amanda’s eyes softened at that. For half a second it looked like she wanted to say something else—something heavier—but she didn’t.

  Instead, she stepped back, looked up—

  —and the mark on Isaac’s back flickered.

  Yu’s presence snapped in like someone waking from a nap.

  She appeared with a stretch and a long, annoyed yawn, blinking like she’d just remembered she existed.

  Then she sniffed the air.

  Her face twisted instantly.

  “Isaac… what is that smell?”

  Isaac froze like he’d been slapped.

  Yu waved a hand in front of her nose dramatically.

  “It smells like you haven’t bathed in a thousand years. Did you fall in a grave?”

  Isaac stared at her—wide-eyed, almost stupid with relief.

  “Yu…” His voice cracked slightly. “You can hear me.”

  Yu blinked, confused.

  “Huh? Of course I can hear you. What do you mean?”

  Isaac didn’t answer. He just looked at her like he needed to confirm she was real.

  Amanda climbed up onto the corridor ledge with a quick, light movement, dust falling from her sleeves. She looked down at them and lifted two fingers in a lazy salute.

  “See you, Isaac,” she said. “We’ll meet again.”

  Isaac nodded without thinking.

  “Yeah. We will.”

  Amanda turned and hopped down out of sight—soft landing, no panic. Like she already knew her path.

  Yu leaned closer to Isaac, eyes narrowing.

  “Okay.” She pointed in the direction Amanda went. “Who was that woman?”

  Then she poked his shirt with a finger, like it offended her personally.

  “And why are you wearing these ugly clothes?”

  Isaac exhaled—half laugh, half pain.

  “It’s a long story, Yu.”

  Yu crossed her arms.

  “It always is.”

  Isaac smiled anyway. A tired smile, but real.

  “I’ll tell you later.” He started walking. “Right now I just want a bath.”

  Yu followed, still scanning him like a detective.

  Isaac slowed. His stomach tightened.

  “Tell me one thing… how long was I gone?”

  Yu rolled her eyes.

  “Gone where?” She shrugged. “You dragged me with you. You’ve been gone, what… twenty minutes?”

  Isaac stopped completely.

  “…What?”

  Yu lifted both hands, defensive.

  “Okay, okay, yes—I fell asleep. I was tired. I needed a little break. Don’t look at me like that.”

  Isaac’s face went blank.

  All that time. All that blood. That whole world.

  And here…

  He swallowed hard and stared at nothing for a moment.

  Then he let out a slow breath.

  “…What the hell,” Isaac muttered.

  Yu tilted her head.

  “Isaac?”

  He didn’t answer right away. He just kept walking, like if he stopped, the math in his head would crush him.