Heartbeat

The Wall of Obsessions of the Primordial Source split open with a seventh crack. The power of negation seeped in, bleaching vast swaths of the Chromaglass Civilization's color defense network and shattering Myriad Faces' mirror duplicates in droves.

Harmonic Leaptone's harmonics burned to their limit frequency.

"There's a heartbeat inside the breach." Myriad Faces' voice came from the last remaining mirror. "Its frequency is exactly the same as the pulse of the Tuner's cloak."

Harmonic Leaptone closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"I'm going in."

"Impossible. There is no definition of 'sound' inside the breach. The Nullifier's Envoy guards the entrance. The moment you approach, you'll be negated."

"Because he's in there." Harmonic Leaptone turned and walked toward the breach.

Myriad Faces condensed the last fragments of its mirrors into a suit of armor. "The Chromaglass Civilization gave us the Color of Existence—after being negated, it can still be remembered for three seconds."

Harmonic Leaptone did not look back.

The Nullifier's Envoy raised a tentacle. "Negate."

The impact tore through the Void. The armor peeled away in sheets. Two-thirds remained after the first step, half after the second, a third after the third. By the fourth, only a single mirror fragment over her chest remained.

On the fifth step, she passed through the Envoy's defense line.

In the first second, her left arm turned transparent. In the second, her right leg vanished. In the third, she lunged into the breach.

The inside of the breach was not dark. Afterimages of countless civilizations floated there—traces left behind after negation, like ash from burned photographs.

At the deepest point was a heart. It was formed from thirty million miniature stars, pulsing at the same frequency as Lin Ye's cloak.

At the heart's center stood a transparent humanoid outline.

Lin Ye.