Location: The Veil of Null where reality ends and the story beyond begins.
The light here doesn't shine: it breathes. Fragments of forgotten worlds drift like shattered glass, glowing faintly with memories of those erased from existence.
Kael: (narrowing his eyes) This place… it's not just empty. It's alive.
Yuna: It's the border between truth and fiction. Everything here was once part of something greater and then forgotten.
Akihiro: (kneeling, touching the ground) It's warm. Like something's watching.
A pulse spreads through the void. The air turns heavy.
Then a voice, deep and resonant, vibrates through the team's bones.
???: You walk upon the edge of oblivion… yet carry names written by defiance.
A figure begins to form out of the light tall, faceless, wrapped in symbols that twist like serpents of ink.
Hana: (whispers) The Guardian…
Guardian: The Origin Script rejects uninvited authors. Speak your purpose, or vanish back into unbeing.
Kael: We're not here to rewrite your world. We're here to find the truth behind it.
Guardian: Truth? (the symbols flash red) Truth is the lie mortals tell themselves to justify curiosity.
Yuna: Then let our curiosity decide its worth. We've crossed countless layers for this. We won't turn back.
The Guardian's silence lasts longer than time itself.
When it speaks again, its voice has changed softer, yet heavier with sorrow.
Guardian: Then you must face judgment. To cross the Veil, one must confront their own story.
The light shatters and each of them is swallowed by their own reflection.
Kael lands in a desolate world, his own past materialized. The ruins of his home stand before him the place where he first lost everything.
Kael: (gritting his teeth) So… this is my trial.
Ghostly Voice: You failed them once. You'll fail them again.
A shadow version of himself emerges cold, perfect, emotionless.
Shadow Kael: You talk about justice, but you crave revenge. You became everything you hated.
Kael: Maybe I did. But unlike you, I'm not afraid to admit it.
Their swords clash one forged from regret, the other from resolve.
Elsewhere, Yuna stands on an ocean of stars. Every wave carries the face of someone she couldn't save.
Yuna: (closing her eyes) So this is the weight of every life I touched…
Spirit: You were never chosen to save anyone. You were chosen to suffer.
Yuna: Maybe. But I'll suffer for them as long as it takes.
Her power bursts, turning the sea of regret into pure light.
Akihiro's Trial is worse.
He finds himself in a void filled with endless versions of himself each dying in a different way, each whispering the same thing.
Voices: "You're not strong enough." "You failed them." "You'll never matter."
He screams until his voice becomes a weapon, cutting through every illusion.
Akihiro: (panting) I don't need to matter. I just need to fight.
One by one, the group overcomes their trials until only Kael and Yuna remain. They emerge together, bruised but stronger, their souls glowing faintly.
Guardian: You carry more than resolve. You carry contradiction sorrow, rage, and hope. Perhaps… enough to open the path.
The Guardian raises its hand. The Veil ripples, revealing a corridor of golden light a direct route into the Origin Domain.
Hana: (tears in her eyes) We did it…
Renji: (smiles faintly) Or maybe we just stepped into something worse.
Kael: Either way, we keep moving.
Meanwhile, Far Above The Crown Throne
Ryo watches through the layers of eternity, his eyes reflecting every scene that's unfolded. The trials, the Guardian, the path all of it projected like reflections in his mind.
Ryo: They passed the Veil… impressive.
He stands, his presence shaking every universe in the Crown Cosmology. His shadow stretches through realities like a second horizon.
Ryo: The Origin Domain won't greet them kindly. That place doesn't bow to gods it creates them.
Xeno's Echo: And yet, even that creation bows to you.
Ryo: (smirks) It will.
He opens his hand, and a fragment of the Origin Script materializes incomplete, burning with the essence of creation itself.
Ryo: Let them find what they think they're seeking. By the time they touch it, it'll already belong to me.
Back to the Team
The group stands before the golden passage. Time bends around them every heartbeat feels eternal.
Yuna: Once we step through, we're leaving everything behind.
Kael: Then let's make sure what we find ahead is worth it.
They walk forward together and the golden corridor closes behind them, sealing their fate.
Far away, Ryo looks down from his throne and whispers,
Ryo: "Let the story unfold… until the last page turns."
The cosmos answers with silence.
The next chapter of their journey begins and the true story of the Origin Domain finally awakens.