The seventh crack opened in Primordial Origin's Wall of Obsessions. The power of negation seeped through, bleaching vast swaths of the Prismglass Civilization's color defense network and shattering Myriad Faces and Forms' mirror doubles in droves.
Harmonic Leaping Note's harmonics burned at their maximum frequency.
"There's a heartbeat inside the Rift," Myriad Faces and Forms' voice came from the few surviving mirrors. "Its frequency matches the pulses of the Tuner's cloak exactly."
Harmonic Leaping Note closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"I'm going in."
"Impossible. There's no definition of 'sound' inside the Rift. The Nullifier's Herald guards the entrance. The moment you approach, you'll be negated."
"He's in there. That's reason enough." Harmonic Leaping Note turned and walked toward the Rift.
Myriad Faces and Forms condensed the last mirror shards into a suit of armor. "The Prismglass Civilization has granted you the 'color of existence'-you can still be remembered for three seconds after being negated."
Harmonic Leaping Note did not look back.
The Nullifier's Herald raised a tentacle. "Negation."
The impact tore through the Void. The armor peeled away in sheets. After the first step, two-thirds remained; after the second, half; after the third, one-third. After the fourth, only a single mirror remained over her chest.
On the fifth step, she passed through the Herald's defensive line.
In the first second, her left arm turned transparent. In the second, her right leg vanished. In the third, she plunged into the Rift.
The Rift's interior was not darkness. The afterimages of countless civilizations floated there-traces left behind after negation, like ashes from burned photographs.
At its deepest point lay a heart. It was formed from thirty million miniature stars, its rhythm matching the pulses of Lin Ye's cloak.
At the heart's center stood a transparent human silhouette.
Lin Ye.