The desert area of Zerzura didn't look like a place that should exist for this long without breaking apart. The sand wasn't uniform. Some areas shimmered faintly like glass while others sank too easily underfoot, and the horizon never stayed consistent for too long,
It had been eighteen days of walking, crossing and teleporting through a realm that refused to behave like a normal one. Yet by the ninety-ninth day since the Second Epoch Cycle began, they had already covered everything there was to cover.
Before that came Obnoveshad, where the ground burned with constant volcanic pressure, and before that Suluve, a desolate stretch so empty it felt like even echoes had abandoned it. In every single one of those places, the result had been the same. There were no people or survivors. Nothing was left except Krepsunas and the remnants of what used to be something else. Even the ruins were turned to dust.
Narisva dragged her foot through the sand lazily as they walked. The only real interruptions during their journey had been the Krepsunas and even those stopped being interesting after the first few waves. No matter how many showed up, the outcome didn't change. She would step forward, snap her fingers or twist space itself around them and entire clusters of them would collapse, torn apart by spatial distortion.
After a while, even she stopped treating them like threats. They became background noise and that said a lot considering how dangerous they were supposed to be. The Justice Pentarch walked beside her the entire time.
His mind wasn't isolated because even separated, the Pentarchs still shared a connection that allowed information to pass between them in fragments. It wasn't overwhelming, at least not anymore, because he had learned to process it efficiently, letting the important parts surface while the rest settled in the background until needed. That was how he knew what the others were doing without being there.
The Protection Pentarch had already positioned himself in Technographia but even that wasn't straightforward. Violex City remained outside of Reniatsus Letia The Eighteenth's control. For now, they stayed in the main city, observing, preparing and waiting for the right moment to move and claim the real Orchestral Violex.
At the same time, the Time Pentarch was closing in on the location where Edarea Avinaris held Celadille captive. Through the shared connection, he could feel the growth that came with it. Veylonar had already received the Demesne from Elyonari, pushing him to a point where he could form his own Overwrite. That meant the confrontation wasn't going to be one-sided and while that didn't guarantee success, it tilted the balance enough to matter.
Elsewhere in Ledatic Siliportem, the Love Pentarch was undergoing something entirely different. He was training under Greshina Emberforge while Elyonari refined her own understanding of her World Overwrite. Phaenora was also trying to understand herself so that she can face the fairytale trial on the spaceship soon.
Back in Cassandra, the Water Pentarch had settled fully into his role as Towermaster, managing the Obsidian Runic Spire and everything within it. That was no small task considering the number of inhabitants from the Gardens of Asphodelia alone. He wasn't doing it alone though, because Asenane was there and Valeria had begun stepping into her own development. She started to understand what she was capable of.
Eldrigan, Qalis, and Peroncerea were pushing Xander and Farrynelle harder than anyone else could, acting as catalysts for their advancement and forcing them toward Codices and the Fifth Enlightenment through sheer pressure and experience. The gap between them was still massive, Seventh Enlightenment against Fourth, but that was exactly why it worked.
Shimmer, Runner, Biolumine, and the Andelaris twins were off doing something that didn't fully register through the Sapphire Bond not because it was hidden completely but because it was intentionally left vague. Biolumine had made that clear. She told him not to dig into it too deeply and the Justice Pentarch respected that boundary for now. Not everything needed to be controlled and not every variable needed to be forced into alignment immediately, especially when it came from someone like Biolumine.
That left him here, in Convergence, walking through Zerzura with Narisva, following a lead that should have meant something but so far hadn't delivered anything concrete. On the ninety-ninth day, they had already covered the entire realm through her spatial manipulation, checking every possible point where that Celestial trace could have originated in Spheraphase.
Still, they found nothing.
Narisva clicked her tongue, kicking a small swirl of sand forward as she stopped walking for a moment.
"This is getting stupid."
Her eyes narrowed slightly, scanning the horizon again like she expected something to suddenly appear just because she was annoyed enough.
"I know what I felt. It wasn't weak or fading. So where the hell is it?"
The Justice Pentarch didn't answer. He looked out across the same empty stretch they had already crossed more than once.
"It's here, but not the way we expected. Convergence isn't a normal realm. If that Celestial trace exists here, it might not be fully in this layer."
Narisva stared at him for a second.
"So it's hiding."
A faint smirk tugged at the corner of her lips as she tilted her head.
"Good. Alright, enough wandering. It's time you meet someone."
The air beside her shifted and from that distortion, a figure stepped out as naturally as if he had been standing there the entire time. His presence didn't overwhelm the surroundings. He was made out of space and had white eyes. Nari jerked her thumb toward him casually, completely unfazed by the shift.
"He's got a bunch of names. I just call him Elest."
Elest inclined his head at Veneri.
"It is a pleasure to finally meet you."
The Justice Pentarch nodded.
"You're a Celestial."
Elest's lips curved faintly. Before the moment stretched any further, Narisva cleared her throat.
"Can you sense it? The thing I felt."
Elest's gaze drifted across the desert.
"I can, but it is obscured. Spatial energy is concealing it."
"So we rip it open."
Elest didn't react to that phrasing, but he did clarify.
"You would need to overwhelm the concealment. A significant amount of spatial energy—"
That was all she needed to hear.
Narisva raised her hand to the sky and within seconds, a black sphere began to form. The black hole stabilized above her as it began to devour everything in its immediate range. She threw it in front of them at a far distance.
Sand was ripped from the ground in violent streams. The dunes were being swallowed. The black hole grew large enough to distort the air itself, dragging in everything that wasn't anchored deeply enough to resist it.
Suddenly, the pull met resistance. Narisva's grin widened slightly as she pushed harder but the black hole collapsed inward just as fast as it had formed. Where there had once been an endless desert, there was now exposed terrain and rock formations. At the center of it all stood something that didn't belong to the rest of the realm at all.
It was an enormous cube. At its core and suspended within it was something that made the entire space feel heavier just by existing. A black hole was sealed inside it.
Elest's expression shifted slightly for the first time.
"I did not expect this."
"What is it, Elest?"
Elest didn't look away from it as he answered.
"It is a core of a Celestial. More precisely, the spirit of one."
Veneri was shocked by that answer.
"A spirit is the heart of a soul. If that's the spirit, then the soul itself would be far larger."
Elest looked at him in surprise.
"You didn't know?"
Narisva frowned slightly, glancing between them as she crossed her arms again.
"Know what?"
"In the origin of Spheraphase, where do you believe the Celestial went?"
"..."
"The Aeterium is Vasreveilder Nov Aeteria. The Verdarite is the World Tree. The Omniscient is his companion but the Celestial… what became of it?"
Narisva was intrigued by the question.
"I never thought about it."
"Then answer this. When a Celestial dies, what happens to it?"
Narisva answered immediately.
"It becomes a heavenly body and is reborn—"
The moment the words left her mouth, everything clicked. Her eyes widened. Veneri got it just as fast as her. Elest smiled faintly this time, just enough to confirm it.
"You understand now. The Celestial died and became a world. What was reborn out of that was Spheraphase."