(Within the endless void, Leo's POV)
'I must find a way out, or I'm doomed,' Leo thought as he forced his breathing to slow, even while his heart thundered violently against his ribs, because panic here would not merely cloud his judgment but actively accelerate his death.
He tightened the aura shield around his mind, reinforcing it layer by layer, as he pushed his aura dagger outward in a wide, deliberate sweep, searching desperately for even the faintest trace of temporal resistance that could confirm he was still inside a structured tunnel and not drifting freely into something far worse.
However, unfortunately for him, nothing answered.
The space around him felt unnervingly smooth, not empty in the way a corridor lacked furniture, but empty in the way meaning itself had been stripped away, as though the fourth dimension had erased the concept of walls altogether and replaced it with a gentle, merciless slope that drew everything forward without effort or sound.
