Moriana snapped her right hand to her upper arm and locked her elbow, forcing her forearm into the surge like a brace. The power tightened—sharper, narrower, meaner.
She screamed, raw enough to tear her throat.
"Stellarium!"
A black sphere erupted from her and swelled outward, glittering like crushed glass in the dark.
But the red wave was already on top of them.
Before the shield could fully close over the group, the crimson surge bit into the sphere's still-opening edge and punched through a small section of the rim.
It caught Gord's left hand at the very edge—closest to the wave—and took his ring finger and pinky with it. However no blood came out.
Then the Stellarium sealed shut with a final snap of pressure.
Moriana's ears rang as if the world had been struck. She waited—one heartbeat, then another—bracing for a second hit.
Nothing came.
No follow-up pulse. No echoing wave.
Just the shield's low, hungry hum… and the soft, wet patter of blood hitting dirt.
Veda's voice broke first, panicked and thin.
"Gord! Your hand!"
Gord didn't flinch. His face stayed cold, almost unreadable, as if he'd just been splashed with rain. He turned his head, scanning the others through the dim shimmer inside the black sphere.
Moriana. Veda. Yulia. Zarius.
Outside the shield, there should've been noise—people screaming, buildings collapsing, something.
But all Gord could hear was that dripping. And that made his stomach tighten.
Impossible.
Could it be that everyone out there—
He approached Moriana.
Moriana took a look on his hand as he reached. The two fingers weren't there—no ragged stump, no torn flesh. Just ugly dark absence, and wrong.
She swallowed hard and forced her voice steady.
"Hold still. I can fix it."
Gord pulled his hand back before she could touch him. His face didn't change, but his eyes did—focused, urgent, already somewhere else.
"I didn't come for healing," he said.
"I came to check on you… and I couldn't find Hyran."
Moriana froze.
"Huh?"
Gord stepped closer and set his right hand on her shoulder—firm, grounding."Open it for a second. I'll look outside."
Moriana's jaw tightened. She hated the idea. She hated that he was the one saying it. But the silence outside was worse than any sound.
She nodded once. She said with breathy voice
"I'm counting on you."
She raised her forearm toward the barrier and flexed.A slit opened in the black surface—thin, tense, barely wide enough.
Gord lunged instantly, slipping through with clean speed.
The moment his feet cleared the opening, Moriana snapped her arm the other way and sealed it shut again.
The shield hummed deeper, like it had clenched its teeth.
A shout tore in behind her, muffled but sharp with urgency.
"Yulia!" Zarius's voice.
Moriana spun toward the sound behind her.
Yulia was down.
Crumpled on the ground, her face twisted, both arms tight around her side like she was trying to hold herself together.
Moriana moved on instinct, one step—
Yulia lifted her head, forcing air into her lungs like it cost her something.
"I—I'm fine," she stammered, and the lie sounded like it hurt.
Her eyes snapped around the shield's interior.
"Stay... sharp... All of you. There... might be more."
Moriana's jaw clenched. She poured more power into Stellarium. The black surface thickened, the glitter in it turning denser, like the night itself was being pressed into a harder shape.
Sweat ran down her temple, down her neck, cold against her skin.
Her gaze flicked to her own forearm—the one that had drawn the pattern.
Too fast.
Not stronger. Faster.
"Damn it…" she hissed under her breath, teeth grinding.
"What was that? I couldn't— I couldn't keep up."
The worst part wasn't the hit.
It was the pause after.
The silence that didn't belong.
Moriana stepped closer to the barrier anyway, like her body didn't care what her mind was screaming. She pressed her face near the black surface and carved a tiny opening—no bigger than her eye.
Just a glance.
Just enough to know if the world was still there.
Her breath gasped.
Her pupils tightened.