"What the hell just happened!?"
The words tore out of Noel's throat the moment sensation returned.
He lay half-buried in pale sand, the grains still sliding away from his coat as his body remembered gravity all at once. For a second, instinct screamed, battle, pressure, denial, the Gatekeeper's collapsing core—but there was no impact, no follow-up strike.
Just sky.
Gray-blue and distant, stretched wide above him.
The last thing he remembered was the system window hovering before his eyes.
Mission Complete.
They had done it. Together. The Gatekeeper had fallen under lightning, magma, shadow, and will.
And yet—
This wasn't progress.
Noel pushed himself up on one elbow, chest tightening as he scanned his surroundings. Sand. Strange sand, too fine, almost glassy in places, faintly iridescent when the light hit it at the wrong angle. The shoreline curved away on both sides, framing a sea that was disturbingly calm.
No debris.
No broken mast.
No floating bodies.
No ship.
