The sky did not crack immediately.
It bent.
Reality folded inward around Kaito as he drew every absorbed fragment deeper into himself—not to release, not to devour further—but to compress.
Inside him, the six Lords resisted.
Rage clashed against stillness.
Fear twisted against discipline.
Illusion fractured against truth.
Azrath's chains vibrated violently.
"You cannot unify contradiction!" the Seventh Lord thundered.
But Kaito had stopped trying to dominate the powers long ago.
He was listening to them.
Understanding them.
The shadow within him was no longer a beast.
It was a system.
A balance.
Silver Eyes collapsed to one knee far below, blood trailing from her nose as she maintained the mental anchor between worlds.
"Kaito… if you overload—"
"I won't," he whispered.
Above them, the eclipse began spiraling inward instead of expanding.
For the first time—
The prison was destabilizing from within.
And something ancient screamed in confusion.