They did not leave the ruins immediately.
Not because they were trapped—but because the place itself had not finished settling.
The ground still hummed faintly beneath their feet, a low vibration that resonated through bone rather than sound. Symbols once burned into the stone had faded, but their absence felt deliberate, like scars left where something vital had been carved out.
Null stood near the center of the collapse, eyes unfocused.
The world kept lagging.
Every movement around him arrived a fraction of a second late, as if reality was buffering before accepting his presence. He reached out and brushed his fingers against a broken beam. The contact felt real—but thin.
Hyung noticed immediately.
"You're desynced again," he said.
Null nodded.
"It's like the Door took a piece of the rules with it."
D U leaned against a slab of fallen concrete, arms crossed.
"Or you did," she replied. "You defined yourself against a system that runs on absolutes. Systems don't like undefined results."
Hyung turned to her.
"So what now?"
She shrugged.
"Now the aftereffects start showing up."
As if summoned by her words, the air shifted.
Not violently—subtly.
A ripple passed through the space like a skipped frame. For a moment, the ruins doubled, overlapping with a slightly misaligned version of themselves before snapping back into place.
Null staggered, catching himself.
Hyung grabbed his arm.
"That wasn't normal."
"No," D U said quietly. "That was a residual echo."
She crouched, pressing her palm to the ground.
"The Door didn't just close. It displaced something. Think of reality like a stretched wire—you let it go suddenly, and it doesn't settle clean."
Null frowned.
"So these… ripples are going to keep happening?"
"Yes," she answered. "And not just here."
A distant sound reached them then—not an explosion, not a tremor.
A scream.
Far away, but sharp enough to cut through the air.
Hyung's head snapped up.
"That came from the city."
Null felt it too.
Not fear—recognition.
Something in him reacted to the sound, tugging faintly at the Third Fragment. He clenched his jaw, forcing the sensation down.
"That wasn't random," he said.
D U stood.
"No. That was a failure."
Hyung stared at her.
"Failure of what?"
She met his gaze.
"Containment."
Another ripple rolled through the ruins, stronger this time. The ground cracked open several meters away, revealing not darkness—but light. A pale, colorless glow that didn't behave like energy.
It behaved like absence.
Null took a step back.
"That feels wrong."
D U nodded.
"Residual zones," she said. "Places where the rules are thinner. They'll start appearing wherever the Door's influence once reached."
Hyung exhaled slowly.
"So this is the cost."
Null looked toward the distant city skyline, barely visible through the dust and haze.
"No," he said. "This is the consequence."
The scream came again—closer this time.
And this time, it didn't sound human.
Null straightened.
"We can't stay here."
Hyung tightened his grip on his weapon.
"Then we move."
D U smirked faintly, though her eyes remained sharp.
"Welcome to Broken Continuity," she said. "Where everything you didn't fix comes back louder."
They turned toward the city as the ruins behind them finally fell silent.
And somewhere beyond the horizon, something that should not exist…had begun to