---
The chain shimmered faintly, almost aware, as if listening.
"So when?" Kai demanded. "When will it make sense?"
A pause. Then,
"When you reach beyond Nine Star Rank," she said. "Not before. Reach that height and return here and stand before this chain again. Then I will reveal the truth of its energy. And the path to break it, if you still desire to do so."
Kai stared at the chain, his mind burning with questions. Not aura. Not heat or magnetic force. Something older. Wilder. Hungrier. And it fed on her?
Whatever was behind this fog, whatever being this voice belonged to… she was powerful enough to ripple oceans, command leviathans, and open void-windows with millennia of stored strength… and yet she was imprisoned by this.
His knuckles cracked with tension. "I'll come back," he said. "You better not lie to me."
The voice smiled, not with sound, but sensation. "I couldn't lie to you, even if I wanted to. You are already part of the chain's future."
