The morning sun barely touched the edge of the ruins where Kaen stood. Silence wrapped the broken landscape like a blanket of forgotten time. Behind him, the team set up their perimeter. They didn't know where they were—only that it wasn't on any map. And Kaen didn't tell them.
Zian stood nearby, her golden eyes wary. She could feel it—this place didn't belong to the world. It resonated with Kaen's presence too perfectly, like a home forged from shadow.
Kaen walked deeper into the structure, fingers brushing the moss-covered walls. Every corner whispered of memories long buried. The murals, once vibrant, were faded, depicting shapes no one alive could recognize—except him. He traced the figure of a girl with a crown of stars, her hand stretched out to a silhouette surrounded by darkness.
"She left this here for me," he murmured.
The others stayed back, sensing the air shift. The atmosphere thickened. Reality trembled.
Beyond the archway, the gate pulsed—an unstable, A+ rank rift twisting open with hunger. Black tendrils of corrupted energy leaked out, tearing through the stone like wind through silk.
Kaen stepped toward it. The shadows responded—not to fear, but to authority.
"What are you doing?" Mira asked, stepping forward.
Kaen didn't look back. "Claiming what was always mine."
He raised his hand. Darkness bled from his palm—not mana, not magic, but something older. It writhed like smoke, then thickened like tar. It coiled around the gate as if tasting it.
And then—it consumed it.
The rift screamed. The gate itself tried to resist, pulling against the void Kaen had opened. But it was too late. The area fractured, twisted—and vanished.
The others stared in silence.
Zian's eyes widened. "You didn't seal it… you moved it."
Kaen turned, shadows twisting around his feet. "It's no longer in this world. I placed it where only I exist. Outside of time. Outside of space."
"Into your darkness," Lirien said softly. Her expression unreadable.
Kaen nodded. "Exactly."
High above them, the white crow circled once, then vanished into the clouds.
And below, where the gate had once been, there was only silence. A wound healed by darkness.