Chapter 176: The Cracking Sky

Felyn’s words still hung in the dining room.

’Even if I am blind, even if I lose everything, I still have a man who loves me.’

Elowen turned away and quickly wiped the corner of her eye with the back of her hand. Meira looked toward the window. Laviana raised her wine glass, yet did not drink. Carmilla stood, silently ladled another bowl of hot soup, placed it before Felyn, then bent down to put the spoon directly into her hand.

Erik said nothing. He only let Felyn hold his broken hand, let the dull pain run along his arm, and let the fresh green petal on his chest gradually grow warm, like spring sunlight struggling to slip through a very long winter.

Only after a long while did he speak.

"The lighthouse is managed by the Council, right?"

Laviana froze. Meira turned to look at him.

"Yes." Laviana replied slowly. "The tower, the magical nodes, the entire protective system. They have been in the hands of the Men’s Council for a long time. And Zeka."

"Then they must know the dome only has two years left." Erik looked out the window, where the night sky was strangely peaceful. "This is a matter of life and death for the whole city. For them too. I do not believe they are just sitting still."

"Or they know, and have a reason to remain silent," Meira said softly.

"Then I need to ask them even more." Erik squeezed Felyn’s hand lightly. "When my arm heals, I will go meet the Council. Zeka too."

No one objected. But Elowen’s hand upon his shoulder tightened slightly. Laviana looked at him for a long time, then quietly repeated the words she had once said in the hospital room: "A snake that does not hiss is a snake preparing to bite, Erik."

In the corner of the room, "Runi" took out the small notebook from her pocket. She flipped to the final page, where Runi’s round handwriting read: Do not allow Lady Laviana near the bed. Right beneath it, she slowly wrote another word. Not with a pen, but with the fingertip that was seeping ink.

Love.

Then she stared at that word for a long time, as though it were a lock for which she did not yet have a key.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

"Again?" Laviana frowned and set down her glass.

The glasses on the table lightly touched again. Soup in the bowls rippled in concentric circles. The chandelier swayed again, its crystal strands clicking together, clicking together.

"It is only an aftershock," Carmilla said. Yet her hand had already settled on the knife handle.

Three seconds. Five seconds. Ten seconds.

This time, it did not stop.

"Mother..." Elowen looked up at the ceiling, her voice growing smaller. "Why does it... not stop?"

Meira did not answer. She was already standing, her eyes fixed on the large window.

Then every sound abruptly died.

The glasses, the chandelier, the wind outside the garden, all of it seemed to be muffled by an invisible hand. Erik could hear his own heart pounding in his ears.

Beyond the window, the night sky over Silver Moon lit up.

Normally, the protective dome was almost invisible, only a thin silver sheen like soap film glittering along the horizon. But now, it appeared in full, like a giant glass bell covering the entire city.

"What is happening?" Felyn turned her head in every direction, both hands searching along the edge of the table. "Why did it suddenly go so quiet? Someone say something!"

No one could answer.

A crack raced across the surface of the massive bell.

Crack.

Then two. Then ten. They spread from the top of the dome like a spiderweb across ice, glowing white, too fast for the eye to follow. Wherever the cracks met, patches of silver light abruptly vanished, revealing something thick and black behind them, swirling and pressing against the dome like black water against the glass bottom of a boat.

"Meira." Laviana shot to her feet, her chair crashing backward. "It is cracking from the top down."

"I see it."

Dark Mist was not drifting.

It was pressing down.

It was searching for an opening.

And from deep within that darkness, something was looking inside.

BOOM!!!

"GET DOWN!" Meira shouted.

Every sound returned at once, crashing down like breaking waves. The ground lurched upward. A deep roar rolled out from far beneath the earth, as though something enormous had shifted in its sleep after a thousand years. The entire mansion shook violently.

CRASH!

The dining room windows exploded. Shards of glass flew inside like hail. Paintings fell from the walls with loud clatters, the dish cabinet tipped over, and plates shattered across the floor.

"Away from the windows!" Carmilla shouted, her voice sharp as it had been on the battlefield.

"Elowen, hold onto him!"

"I know!"

Far away, in the heart of the city, the Lighthouse [Heart] beat erratically.

Lit.

Dark.

Lit.

Dark.

Each time it went dark, an entire district of lights around it was swallowed by shadow. Alarms wailed through every street, ooo... ooo... ooo..., overlapping into one long, endless howl. To the east, a tall tower tilted, then collapsed with a crash loud enough to reach them, sending a column of black smoke straight toward the cracking sky.

Crack. Crack.

The chandelier chain overhead groaned.

"The chandelier!" Elowen screamed.

The chandelier tore free from its chain and fell straight down.

WHOOSH!

A dome of pale green wind flared up, covering Erik completely. The chandelier struck it.

BOOM! Crash!

Thousands of crystal fragments scattered through the room, but not one touched him.

Elowen lunged forward, pressing Erik’s head tightly against her chest and using her entire back as a shield. "Do not move! If you move, I will really get angry!"

Carmilla crossed the room in a single step and stood between him and the shattered window, the meat knife raised horizontally. Her dark red eyes were as cold as they had been when she was still a War Goddess. Laviana’s twelve snake eyes swept through every dark corner. "Nothing can get into this house. Not yet!"

Felyn jumped to her feet and struck the edge of the table. "Ah!" She collapsed to her knees, then began feeling along the floor and crawling forward. "Erik? Erik! Where are you?"

"Felyn, don’t! The floor is covered in glass!" Elowen shouted.

Felyn did not stop. Her palms were sliced by the glass, leaving bloody marks on the wooden floor, until she touched the wheelchair, then found his sleeve.

"Erik! Erik, are you alright? Answer me!"

Amid the rain of glass, only "Runi" stood still. She did not hide or run. She did not even brush the crystal fragments from her hair. She raised her face toward the cracking dome overhead, her head slightly tilted, as though listening to a voice no one else could hear.

...

On the other side of the city, it felt as though someone had lifted the old apartment and thrown it back down.

The pot of soup flew off the stove, boiling water splashing across the floor. The chipped mug in the glass cabinet fell out and broke in half. Vylana rushed from the sofa into the kitchen, calling Saraya’s name, then slipped on the water and fell hard onto the tiled floor.

Saraya looked up.

The tall kitchen shelf, filled with pots, pans, and bottles, was slowly tipping over.

Directly above Vylana.

She had no time to think.

Saraya rushed forward, pulled Vylana into the corner, then covered her with her own body. The shelf crashed down. Wood cracked, glass shattered, metal clanged violently together. One corner of the shelf struck Saraya directly at the back of her neck.

Her world went black.

"Saraya? Saraya!" Vylana broke free from the limp embrace and turned her over. Blood ran from Saraya’s golden hairline down her temple, dark red and hot upon Vylana’s fingers. "Don’t... don’t do this... Open your eyes, idiot! Who told you to shield me? Open your eyes!"

Saraya did not answer. Her burned hand lay limp upon the floor. Only beneath her wet clothing, over her chest, a faint golden glow flashed once and vanished, so quickly that Vylana thought it was merely streetlight flickering through the window.

...

At the mansion, Erik tried to raise his head from Elowen’s embrace.

Through the gap between Elowen’s arms, he saw Felyn kneeling among glass shards, both palms bleeding as she still clung to his sleeve. He saw Elowen’s back exposed before the shattered window, where the night wind and debris struck against her. He saw Carmilla standing guard with a meat knife, and Meira holding the dome of wind with one hand while supporting herself against the table with the other, sweat streaming down her temple.

All of them were shielding him.

And he was sitting in a wheelchair.

"Let go."

Elowen froze.

Erik had already pushed her hands away, braced his left foot against the wheelchair support, and kicked hard. The wheelchair slid backward while he pitched onto the floor, his knees striking crystal fragments.

His cracked ribs screamed.

He did not stop.

His left arm reached out and pulled Felyn into his embrace. Then he turned, using his entire back to shield her, Elowen, and the shattered window.

A small blue-white bolt flashed at the tip of his left finger.

"Master!" Meira shouted. "You cannot use magic!"

"I’m not." Erik gritted his teeth, cold sweat pouring down his face, his voice hoarse. "I just... cannot sit still."

The lightning vanished.

But he remained kneeling there, one arm around Felyn, his body taut like a thin shield, until the earth stopped roaring.

The roar beneath the ground grew quieter, quieter, then vanished completely. Beyond the shattered window, the cracks in the dome slowly began to close. Silver light spread outward, sealing every patch of darkness and pushing the thick blackness back.

But the protective dome was no longer as clear as before.

Faint scars remained across the sky, like cracks upon a piece of glass that had once shattered. The lighthouse returned to its old rhythm, but weaker and slower, like the heart of someone who had escaped death. The alarms continued wailing for a long time before finally fading.

The dining room was in ruins. Night wind swept through the broken window frame, cold enough to bite. Only Felyn’s ragged breathing remained.

Elowen was the first to move.

She knelt behind Erik and wrapped her arms around both him and Felyn, pressing her forehead against the back of his neck as her body shook.

"Idiot," she whispered. "You are the biggest idiot in the world."

"Yeah."

Meira stepped forward, her face pale. She did not scold him. She only knelt, took Felyn’s bleeding hands, and let cool green light glow from her palms. The cuts slowly closed one by one. Then she placed her hand over Erik’s chest, closed her eyes to check him, and let out a long breath when she found no additional broken bones.

The phone in her pocket vibrated.

Then vibrated again.

Then would not stop.

Meira looked at the screen.

The hospital.

Three missed calls, then four, then five.

Outside, the black column of smoke in the east was still rising.

"Go, Mother." Elowen said before Meira could open her mouth. "I am here."

Meira looked at her daughter, at Erik kneeling amid the broken glass, then clenched her teeth and stood. "Carmilla, get him into bed. Laviana, let your eyes watch the area around the house. No one leaves."

She bent down and quickly kissed Erik’s forehead. "Master, sit still. This time, I mean it."

Wind swept through the shattered window.

When it settled, she was gone.

On the table amid the broken fragments, Erik’s phone suddenly vibrated, its screen shining brightly among the crystal shards.

An incoming call.

Caller: Vylana.

Carmilla picked up the phone and placed it in his left hand. Erik answered.

"Erik..." Vylana’s voice was shattered, mixed with ragged breathing and distant sirens. "Saraya... she shielded me. The shelf... fell down... There is so much blood. I keep calling her, but she will not wake up. Erik, she will not wake up..."

The entire room heard.

No one spoke.

Erik closed his eyes for one second. When he opened them, his voice was strangely calm.

"Vylana, listen to me. Do not shake her. Press a clean towel onto the bleeding area. Call emergency services and tell them to bring her to Meira’s hospital. Can you do that?"

"...I can." A choked sob. "I can."

"I’ll come."

He ended the call and braced himself against the table, intending to stand. The moment his knee rose, it gave out. Elowen caught him.

"You cannot go," she said.

"Then push me."

Elowen looked at him for a long time. Her pointed ears lowered, then slowly rose again. She pulled the wheelchair closer, brushed the glass from its cushion, helped him sit down, then tightly gripped the handles behind it.

"I’ll push."

Felyn stood, feeling along the edge of the table until she reached them. "I’m coming too."

Carmilla had already taken her coat. Laviana sighed, her twelve snake eyes opening once again to spread across the road ahead, while her other hand called for a car.

In the corner of the room, "Runi" quietly took Runi’s coat from its hook, put it on, and fastened each button one by one.

She said: "I will go with you too,"