The Gate's reaction to Selena's claiming of the crown was not immediate, and that delay was perhaps the most terrifying aspect of its response. For long moments after she transformed the throne into portable sovereignty, nothing happened. The space where the Empire of Shadows had collapsed remained in flux, possibility exploring new configurations, while the Gate's vast consciousness processed what it had witnessed.
Then reality screamed.
It was not metaphorical screaming but actual, audible agony the sound of fundamental structures being violated, of laws that governed existence being bent past their breaking points. The space around them began to darken, but this was not the gentle darkness of Dante's shadows or even the absolute void where the Abyss had dwelt. This was darkness with purpose, with malice, with the concentrated fury of a cosmic entity that had just watched its carefully laid plans unravel into configurations it had never anticipated.
