When the sky cracked, the world did not end.
It trembled.
Thin, luminous fractures spread across the atmosphere like veins of pale lightning frozen in place. The twin Boundary Stars spun unevenly, their once-perfect orbit now visibly strained.
People fell to their knees.
Others ran.
Silver Eyes dimmed.
"I am holding," she whispered into the planetary lattice. "But I am no longer stable."
In the desert facility where the micro-rift had formed, alarms screamed as reality thinned again. Something pressed outward—curious, patient.
Above Earth, one of the Boundary Stars flickered dangerously low.
For the first time since the Hunger was divided—
The planet felt unanchored.
And far beyond the Boundary, Kaito felt it.
Too late.