Chapter 98 What Dwells in the Condemned World
My heart pounded in my chest.
I recognized those runes.
Not because I had studied them before.
But because... they were inside me.
Images began to surface in my mind, quick and fragmented, like memories that weren't exactly mine.
A stone circle.
Golden light mixed with liquid shadows.
Ancient voices chanting in a language I never learned... but understood.
Sacrifice to contain.
Life to seal.
Blood to balance.
My vision darkened at the edges.
I gripped the table tightly.
"Maya." Kael's voice grew firmer. "What are you seeing?"
I took a deep breath, trying to organize the turmoil inside my head.
"They didn't create the rift," I said slowly. "They tried to close it."
"The Elyrion territory... is a prison."
Kael frowned.
"A prison of what?"
My gaze fell again on the pulsating map.
"Of something that has passed through."
A heavy silence fell between us.
Because we both knew what that meant.
The erasers weren't the origin.
They were a consequence.
"They're leaks," Kael murmured, arriving at the same conclusion. "Fragments of something bigger... escaping."
I nodded.
A shiver ran down my spine.
"If the containment is failing... then what's trapped inside is trying to get out."
The baby moved strongly again.
This time I clearly felt an emotional response coming from him.
Not fear.
Recognition.
Affinity.
My stomach churned.
"Kael..." my voice came out lower. "What if what's trapped... is of the same nature as my power?"
He remained completely still.
"What do you mean?" I swallowed hard.
"Shadows and pure magic shouldn't coexist in balance," I explained. "But in me... they coexist. In the baby... they coexist even better."
My hand pressed against my belly.
"What if someone tried to replicate this in the past?"
The realization hit Kael like a blow.
"And lost control."
"Yes."
The map shone brighter.
Then another insight dawned on me.
So clear it almost felt like a voice whispering directly into my soul.
The rift can't be closed from the outside.
"I not only need to enter the realm of the Elyrions, but I also need to enter the rift. Me, Conrad, and the baby."
"What?" Kael's voice rang out. "Have you gone mad?"
Kael's expression was one of pure horror.
And I understood him.
How could the solution to everything be to enter a place where matter and time don't exist? A place that is home to erasers and other creatures unknown to us.
"The rift needs a living catalyst... someone who carries both types of energy in balance."
The silence became absolute.
"Only my baby and I can do this. And Conrad will balance it all with his pure blood."
That conclusion leaves me in complete distress.
But I had already understood.
The containment ritual required three elements:
Source of light.
Source of shadow.
Blood bond.
Conrad.
Me.
Our baby.
Fear arrived like an icy wave.
It was too high a price to pay.
My breathing became irregular, as if the very air had become heavy inside my lungs. For a moment, all I could think about was the baby—small, defenseless, still forming inside me—being taken to a place where even reality as we know it didn't exist.
My hand automatically went to my belly. Protection.
Instinct.
Love.
"No." Kael said firmly, his voice laden with an authority he rarely displayed with me. "We'll find another way."
I shook my head slowly.
"There is no other way."
He opened his mouth to argue, but I continued before he could.
"I felt it, Kael. It wasn't just a hunch. It was... memory. As if something ancient within me knew exactly what needed to be done."
The map on the table pulsed again, the runes glowing brighter, as if reacting to my words.
"They knew this could happen," I continued. "The Elyrions created a containment that would last for centuries... but not forever. When the rift began to fail, someone would have to step in."
"Someone like you," he murmured.
I nodded.
"The catalyst isn't just power. It's balance. Light and shadow coexisting without destroying each other."
My throat tightened.
"And that... is me."
Silence fell again.
Heavy.
Real.
Irreversible.
Kael ran a hand over his face, clearly trying to control his own emotions.
"Conrad will never accept this."
A knot formed in my chest.
"I know."
Because I knew my mate.
Conrad would destroy the world before allowing anything to put me at risk.
Or our child.
But I also knew the king.
And the king understood sacrifice.
"I won't hide this from him," I said softly. "But I also can't let him stop me."
Kael stared at me intensely.
"You're talking about voluntarily entering a rift between dimensions... pregnant."
"I'm talking about saving our kingdom."
My voice trembled at the end, because I finally let out what I was really feeling.
"I'm talking about preventing our child from being born into a doomed world."
The baby moved again.
Strongly.
Almost like an answer.
My eyes filled with tears.
"I feel him, Kael. I feel his consciousness growing along with his power. As if he... understands."
Kael was silent for a few seconds.
Then, carefully, he placed his hand over mine.
"You're not alone."
Those words broke something inside me.
Because I knew I wasn't.
But I also knew that the path ahead might require impossible choices.
I took a deep breath, trying to regain control.
"We need to find the exact location of the rift," I said, returning to the map. "The Elyrion territory is vast. But these runes... they're coordinates."
Kael leaned over the table again.
"And this here..." he pointed to a spiral symbol in the center of the map. "This isn't geography. It's a dimensional marker."
My heart raced.
"A point of convergence."
"Yes," he confirmed. "Where the barriers between planes are thinnest."
The perfect place for a rupture.
Or for a seal.
"Then we know where to go," I murmured.
But, deep down, the real question wasn't where.
It was when.
Because, in the next instant, a wave of energy coursed through my body.
Violent.
Brutal.
I fell to my knees before I could react.
"Maya!" Kael crouched beside me.
The baby moved forcefully.
Pain exploded in my womb—not physical, but magical, as if two opposing forces were trying to align themselves inside me.
My vision filled with golden light mixed with liquid shadows.
And then I saw.
The rift.
Open.
Unstable.
Growing.
And a colossal presence moving on the other side.
Ancient.
Hungry.
Aware.
A whisper echoed in my mind, deep and impossible.
Catalyst.
My blood ran cold.
Because that...
That knew I existed.
And was waiting.
When the vision disappeared, I was gasping on the floor, tears streaming down my face.
Kael held my shoulders, frightened.
"What did you see?"
It took me a few seconds to answer.
Then I looked up at him.
"The rift is waking up."
My voice came out almost inaudible.
"And... what's inside... knows I'm coming."