❖ Chapter 18: At the Edge of Life
The light under Jio's feet grew thinner.
Not dimmer—thinner, like stretched fabric about to tear.
"Jio," Havella said, her voice close to a whisper, "we're getting close, right?"
He nodded once.
Ahead, the dark began to shift. Not into more blackness, but into color—fiery, brilliant hues that bled across space like paint thrown over glass.
They were approaching the end of this realm.
The end of Life.
Or rather... this particular slice of it.
And at its edge—two cosmos, great swirling bodies of existence, were colliding. No sound. No explosions. Just the unfathomable pressure of creation grinding against itself.
Like planets crashing inside a dream.
"...Is that safe?" Havella asked.
"No."
"Cool. Love that."
> It was a gate. A violent, cataclysmic one—
but still, a gate.
They just had to reach it before it vanished.
Before something else reached them first.
---
Far away—though not in distance—Veltheris Umbra sat on her throne, arms raised, the air rippling around her fingers like glass ready to crack.
The shadows around her had changed.
Now, they pulsed with a golden, unstable aura.
"Bright magic," one of her aides whispered.
"No," she said calmly. "This is beyond the first tier."
The space around her bent. Time tugged. And from her mouth, the word formed—not whispered, not shouted, just spoken like a fact.
"Genesis."
A pulse shook the pillars.
Veltheris didn't use her natural magic. No. This was Forced Magic Type II—the kind that didn't channel reality, but rewrote its origin.
> She had manipulated the start.
---
In the realm of Life, Jio stumbled.
Just a step.
Havella's eyes widened. "You okay?!"
He didn't answer. But his glow—his Bright Call—dimmed around the edges.
"...Something's pulling," he murmured.
Havella turned her head. "Pulling what?"
"Visibility."
A faint shimmer sparked along Jio's shoulder. Then his chest. Then hers.
The shadows—the ones they left behind—were no longer blind.
"She's trying to find us..." Havella whispered.
"No," Jio corrected, looking ahead. "She already did."
They both looked forward.
The two cosmos clashed—grinding, expanding—and at the seam of that collision, a hole was forming. The entrance to the next realm.
But so was something else.
Behind them, light broke through the dark—but not from Jio. Not from his Bright Call.
This was foreign. Artificial. Wrong.
A soft hum surrounded them. Then a voice—Veltheris's voice—not loud, but surrounding their bodies like silk soaked in poison:
"You cannot pass unmarked."
Jio's fingers twitched. His feet no longer moved freely.
"She's closing it..." he said. "She's closing the in-lay."
"You mean this world?!"
"The exit."
The light behind them grew larger, now pulling at their forms—not enough to drag, but enough to weigh.
"Genesis," Jio said aloud, tasting the word like something bitter.
"You know the spell?"
"I can feel it. It's rewriting our start."
---
Back in the North…
Veltheris kept her hand raised. Her voice was cold but focused.
"Seal their entrance. Make them known. Revert their shroud."
Golden symbols floated in the air around her, flickering like living runes. Magic that didn't ask for permission.
"They wanted to go unseen..." she murmured. "But no one walks Life untouched."
---
Jio clenched his hand.
"Havella. I need you to do exactly as I say."
"Why are you glowing again?"
He didn't answer.
He simply reached into the air, and with a flick of his fingers, shaped the Bright Call into a sharp thread—thin as a line of breath—and sliced the light pulling them.
"A forced start can't rewrite the progress we already did to get here...." he said.
"...That sounded so cool I almost forgot I'm terrified."
"Hold tight."
"To what?!"
"Everything."
The space ahead cracked.
The entrance to the next realm shuddered, the colliding cosmos parting for just a moment—
And then Jio stepped through it.
---
Behind them, the in-lay began to close.
Not instantly. Not like a door.
But like a heartbeat slowing down.
Veltheris stood, her face still veiled in shadows.
"...You cut Genesis," she whispered.
The throne room fell silent.
And then…
She smiled. Just barely.
> Not with rage.
But curiosity.
"Then you're more than a light, boy."
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End of Chapter 18
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