Chapter - 18

His shadow stretched across the battlefield, rising into spectral hands that gripped dozens of shades and crushed them with divine force.

Still, the eye in the gate stared.

Kaito stepped forward. “I see you.”

He raised his glaive, pointed it directly at the sigil.

“Open.”

The gate screamed. Chains rattled. Runes ignited.

Then, slowly, it creaked open, revealing a chasm of swirling darkness inside.

A wind blew from within—cold, thick with regret, whispers, and the scent of burned soul.

Kaito and Sanzi stepped through.

Immediately, their surroundings shifted.

They stood on a path of floating stones, with endless abyss below and a sky of shattered constellations above. Mountains floated in the distance, tethered to nothing, and in the far horizon, an upside-down cathedral loomed, glowing with violet fire.

Sanzi swallowed hard. “This is the Whispering Void?”

Kaito nodded. “And that cathedral… that’s where the master waits.”