[VOLUME 14: THE SHATTERED HEAVENS][ARC 3: THE ABYSSAL COURT]
To travel to the Heavenly Expanse, one had to ascend.
To enter the Abyss, one had to let go, and fall.
Aldren stood before the veil of reality, his claws extending just enough to catch the fabric of space. With a brutal, tearing motion, he ripped a jagged fissure into the air itself.
There was no blinding flash. No angelic choirs.
Instead, a breath of absolute, freezing midnight spilled out from the wound in the world. It smelled of crushed black orchids, ozone, and ancient, unyielding stone. It was the scent of a predator's den.
Elara shivered, though not from the cold.
Her new divine blood ran hot, humming with the Twilight Resonance she had just awakened. The shadows spilling from the portal didn't feel dangerous to her anymore; they felt like a second skin, reaching out to brush against the starlight humming in her veins.
"It is not too late to go to the Expanse first," Li murmured, stepping close to her side.
