The moment something inside me answered the voice beyond the Door, the entire battlefield changed.
Not visually.
Fundamentally.
Reality itself felt unstable now, as though the world could no longer decide which existence it belonged to. The fractured sky pulsed like a living wound above us, and the ancient eye staring through the partially opened Door remained fixed entirely on me.
Watching.
Recognizing.
Waiting.
The black fractures spreading across my body burned violently beneath my skin, crawling farther across my chest and neck like living veins made of darkness. Every heartbeat sent waves of pain through me now, but buried beneath that pain was something worse.
Relief.
A terrifying part of me felt closer to complete than ever before.
"No…"
The word escaped my mouth weakly.
Because I understood immediately how dangerous that feeling truly was.
The entity standing near the fracture reacted instantly.
"You must suppress the response now."
Its voice had lost all calmness.
Urgency filled every word.
But suppressing it felt impossible.
The thing inside me had already awakened.
Not fully.
But enough.
The voice beyond the Door spoke again.
You hear it now.
Pain exploded through my skull instantly afterward.
I grabbed my head hard enough to draw blood from my own skin as memories flooded into me with overwhelming force.
Not the previous chosen one this time.
Older memories.
Far older.
A massive city beneath black stars.
Thousands of figures kneeling before the Door.
And standing at the center—
The First One.
The silhouette behind the Door.
Human once.
Maybe.
But whatever remained of him now no longer resembled humanity.
His body was covered in endless fractures, darkness pouring through the cracks beneath his skin while entire sections of reality bent around him unnaturally.
And his eyes—
My breathing stopped.
They looked exactly like mine.
The vision shattered violently.
I screamed.
The synchronization surged harder.
The pressure erupting from my body exploded outward across the battlefield, shattering the remaining ground completely while the fractured sky above widened another fraction.
Faye nearly lost her footing.
The entity moved instantly, placing itself directly in front of me.
"Do not accept the inheritance!"
I forced myself to focus through the pain.
"Inheritance…"
The entity's expression darkened.
"The First One is trying to continue himself through you."
Cold spread through my entire body.
Not possession.
Continuation.
The realization hit harder than anything else.
The inherited memories.
The synchronization.
The Door recognizing me.
It was never random.
The path had always been designed to create another version of him.
The voice beyond the Door softened.
Not another version.
Completion.
My body trembled violently.
Because part of me understood exactly what it meant.
The First One had crossed beyond reality completely long ago.
But something about that crossing had left him incomplete.
Broken.
And now…
He was searching for a way to return whole again.
Through me.
The ancient eye beyond the Door blinked slowly.
The pressure afterward nearly crushed the battlefield flat.
Even the entity dropped briefly to one knee.
Fear spread through the air so heavily now that it became difficult to separate emotion from physical force.
Faye grabbed my arm tightly again.
"Kael, listen to me."
I turned toward her slowly.
Her voice remained steady despite the chaos surrounding us.
"You are still yourself."
The synchronization inside me weakened slightly the moment she said that.
Not because of power.
Because of certainty.
The voice beyond the Door reacted immediately.
Temporary.
The eye narrowed slightly.
The entity beside me stood again.
"It's trying to isolate you emotionally."
I frowned despite the pain tearing through my head.
"What?"
"The previous chosen one lost himself because he stopped believing anyone could understand what he was becoming."
Its eyes sharpened.
"The Door feeds on isolation."
The words struck deep.
Too deep.
Because the inherited memories confirmed it.
The previous chosen one had not simply transformed.
He had slowly disconnected from everyone around him until the Door became the only thing that still felt familiar.
And once that happened…
The First One reached him completely.
Rin groaned weakly nearby, barely conscious now.
"So the solution is what… friendship?"
Under different circumstances the comment would have sounded ridiculous.
But no one laughed.
Because somehow…
He was partially right.
The entity looked at me carefully.
"You must remain connected to this world strongly enough to reject becoming part of the other one."
The voice beyond the Door whispered softly.
You already belong to us.
Pain exploded through my chest instantly.
This time the inherited memories came with emotion so intense it nearly drowned me completely.
Loneliness.
Centuries of it.
The First One trapped beyond the Door, unable to fully return, unable to fully disappear.
Watching generations pass.
Searching endlessly for someone capable of surviving synchronization completely.
Searching for me.
The emotional weight behind that realization nearly shattered my resistance.
Not because it justified him.
Because I suddenly understood his suffering.
And that empathy was dangerous.
The entity saw the change in my expression immediately.
"No."
Its voice sharpened.
"Do not pity him."
I forced myself to breathe.
"…Why?"
For the first time since appearing…
The entity hesitated.
Then finally—
"Because he stopped seeing humans as people long ago."
Silence spread across the battlefield.
The eye beyond the Door remained fixed on me.
Waiting.
The entity continued quietly.
"The moment he chose continuation over humanity… he became something else."
The words settled heavily inside my chest.
Because deep down…
I could already feel that same transformation beginning inside me.
Every synchronization made emotions quieter.
Sharper.
More distant.
As if humanity itself was slowly becoming too small for whatever I was evolving into.
The realization terrified me.
Faye's grip tightened around my arm.
"You're still here."
Simple words.
But they cut through the chaos again.
The fractures beneath my skin stabilized slightly.
The eye beyond the Door narrowed further.
And then—
For the first time—
The First One spoke directly to me.
Not through whispers.
Not through emotion.
Through words.
"They will fear you eventually too."
Silence crashed across the battlefield.
Because deep down…
Part of me already believed him.