Long after the gate had vanished into Kaen's personal void, silence reigned over the ruins. The ground was still scorched with the remnant echo of cosmic power—an ancient kind that refused to obey the laws of reality. The others lingered, uncertain whether they had just witnessed a miracle… or a warning.
Zian stood at the edge of the crater where the gate had been. Her fingers twitched slightly, the shadows at her back stirring uneasily. This wasn't sealing magic. This was removal. Complete and absolute.
She glanced toward Kaen, who stood quietly near the center of the ruins, gazing up at the faded mural.
"You've done that before," she finally said, voice low.
Kaen didn't answer at first. His eyes remained fixed on the image of the girl with the star-crown—her painted smile worn but not lost.
"I've done it… once," he said softly. "Long before any of this existed."
Lirien stepped beside them, arms crossed. Her gaze was serious. "That darkness isn't ordinary mana. It doesn't even feel like void magic. What is it really, Kaen?"
He turned slowly. "The origin of all endings."
That statement sent a chill across the group, even to those who didn't fully understand it.
Selene looked around, uneasy. "Then why do we keep sensing something watching us? That white crow… it knew. It watched you like an old friend."
Kaen's eyes flickered for a moment—just a flash of emotion.
"It did. But not all eyes are hostile."
They spent the next hour sweeping the ruins. Rin found fragments of ancient mana-scripts written in a dialect lost to even scholars. Mira discovered a buried shrine beneath a collapsed column, its surface etched with the same crown-and-darkness motif.
As they prepared to return to the Academy, Zian remained a moment longer at Kaen's side.
"This place... it's not just yours. It was sacred to someone else too, wasn't it?"
Kaen gave a small nod.
"She sealed it for me… so that when I was ready, I'd return."
No one asked who she was.
And Kaen offered no name.
But far beneath the ruins, something pulsed once—soft and slow—like the beat of a slumbering god's heart.
And the crow returned to the branches of the white tree… telling everything thing to white tree and waiting.