LOGINThe sky stayed cracked.Not wide open.Not closed.Just… waiting.People slowly came out of hiding. Cars started moving again. Phones began working. News reporters tried to explain what had happened but no one really understood it.Maria stood in the middle of the broken city and felt the weight of the Keeper’s words.One cycle. One chance.“How long is a cycle?” she asked again.Elias shook his head. “It could mean days. Weeks. Years.”Helios crossed his arms, flames low but steady. “Or one mistake.”Orion looked toward the ocean, which had finally begun moving normally again.“The test has already started,” he said quietly.Morrow looked up at the cracks. They glowed faintly like lines drawn by light.“I can feel it,” she whispered. “It’s watching everything.”Maria felt a chill.“Watching for what?”Before anyone could answer A loud explosion sounded from across the city.Everyone turned.Smoke rose from a tall building in the distance.Helios frowned. “That wasn’t us.”Another ex
The giant eye in the sky did not blink.It simply watched.Clouds swirled around it like smoke around a fire. The cracks in the sky glowed brighter under its stare, like the world itself was scared.Maria felt tiny.Very tiny.“Is… is that the Keeper?” she whispered.The shadow standing near her bowed its head slightly.Yes.Helios’s flames flickered lower than Maria had ever seen them.Orion’s ocean armor rippled nervously.Morrow floated higher, her white glow steady but strained.The huge eye moved slowly, looking at the city.At the shadows.At the people running in fear.Then its deep voice rolled across the planet.Not loud.But impossible to ignore.“This world has been opened.”The air shook with every word.Maria covered her ears, but she could still hear it inside her head.“It has been marked.”Elias swallowed. “Marked for what?”The shadow answered quietly.Evaluation.The Keeper’s eye shifted toward Morrow.“You crossed the boundary.”Morrow lifted her chin. “We didn’t kn
The cracks were everywhere.Not just above the city.Not just above the ocean.Everywhere.Across deserts. Over forests. Above mountains. Even over small villages far away. Thin silver lines scratched across the sky like someone had dragged a knife through it.Maria stared upward in horror.“It’s spreading,” she whispered.Elias checked every screen he had left. None of them were working properly. The signals were breaking.“It’s not just here,” he said. “It’s global.”The shadow figure stood calmly in the middle of the ruined street, as if it had expected this all along.Helios burned brighter, anger filling his flames. Orion’s water armor thickened. Morrow slowly rose again, white light flickering around her like a tired star.“You said you were the first,” Morrow said firmly. “First of what?”The shadow tilted its head.First to cross without breaking.Maria felt her stomach twist. “Without breaking what?”The shadow’s glowing eyes lifted toward the cracked sky.Your world.Above t
The sky looked normal again.Blue.Calm.Almost peaceful.But Maria could still see it.A thin silver crack stretching across the air like a scratch on glass.No one else seemed to notice.People were cheering in the streets below. Crying. Hugging each other. The towers were silent. The strange stars were gone.But the crack remained.Elias stood beside her, staring upward.“I thought it closed,” he said quietly.“It did,” Maria whispered. “Almost.”High above, Morrow slowly floated back down to the broken rooftop. Helios landed heavily nearby, flames low and flickering. Orion stepped from the ocean onto solid ground, water dripping from his shoulders like rain.They looked tired.More human than before.Helios glanced at the sky. “I don’t like unfinished things.”Orion’s deep blue eyes narrowed slightly. “Something passed through.”Morrow said nothing.She was staring at the thin crack too.Maria climbed the broken stairs toward them.“You see it, right?” she asked.Morrow nodded slo
The sky was no longer their sky.It looked like someone had ripped a hole in the world and forgotten to close it.Strange stars burned overhead sharp and cold. They were too bright. Too close. They did not blink like normal stars.Maria felt like she couldn’t breathe.“That’s not possible,” she whispered.Elias stared at his device, but it had stopped working. The screen was frozen, covered in strange symbols.“It’s not just light,” he said. “It’s a doorway.”Above the city, the black opening grew wider. The strange stars moved slowly, like they were watching.Vega’s towers glowed brighter. Energy beams shot upward from each one, holding the tear in the sky open.Helios blasted fire into the darkness again, but it disappeared like a match in the ocean.Orion raised walls of water to protect the coast as the wind became violent.Morrow floated higher than all of them now, glowing pure white, trying to push the rip closed.But the darkness pushed back.Vega’s voice echoed from every tow
The ocean did not crash down.It stayed there.Frozen.Towering like a wall of glass reaching toward the sky.People screamed and ran away from the shore. Boats tipped over. Cars stopped in the middle of the road. Everyone stared at the impossible sight in front of them.The sea was standing up.Maria’s hands shook. “That’s not a wave.”Elias swallowed. “No. It’s being held.”Morrow floated above the city, her white glow softer now. She wasn’t looking at Helios anymore.She was staring at the ocean.“He’s awake,” she whispered.Far out in the water, something moved.Slow.Huge.A shadow bigger than any ship.The water around it rolled and twisted like it was breathing.Helios slowly stood from the broken buildings behind them. His golden fire flickered weaker than before.He looked toward the sea and, for the first time, didn’t smile.“So,” Helios muttered. “The quiet one finally stands.”Maria turned to Elias. “Orion.”Elias nodded. “Balance. That’s what his file said he wanted.”The







