Cold. Deathly silence. Fragments of consciousness drifted through the endless void.
Lin Ye felt as though he had sunk into the coldest abyss in the universe. His sense of his body had blurred, leaving only his soul adrift in boundless darkness and excruciating pain. The Origin Starmark on his forehead no longer gave off warmth, but a searing sting like glass on the verge of shattering. The gray shadow left by the corrosion of erasure clung to him like a disease lodged in his bones, gnawing at the very source of his soul.
Yet amid this absolute agony and nothingness, a faint but distinct light stubbornly endured.
It was the final piece of information that had flooded his consciousness when he touched the Silver-Light Crystal-the warning about the Dream Corridor, and that fleeting glimpse of a hazy path leading to the Eternal Corridor.
"...Two-way... Dream Corridor... glimpse... weaknesses... extremely dangerous..."
The warning echoed through his fractured consciousness. Danger meant opportunity. A glimpse of the weaknesses of the Watcher and the vortex of the end might be his only chance of survival in this desperate situation. But in his current state, deliberately entering that unstable corridor, forcibly torn open by the Deep Dream Seed's corrupting power, would be no different from suicide. His soul might be corrupted in an instant, banished, or devoured by the vortex of the end.
Yet if he stayed out, his companions in the real world were facing encirclement by the Otsutsuki Fleet. Trapped in the Stillness Abyss, a killing ground from which escape was all but impossible, their fate needed no explanation.
I can't... give up...
Countless images flashed through the depths of his consciousness. The Uchiha gravestones, his clansmen's expectant gazes, Naruto's unclouded smile, the tenderness beneath Sasuke's aloof pride, Sakura's steadfast protection, Karin's quiet