The faint violet glow of the seventieth-floor gate faded behind them replaced by a scene that looked nothing like the underworld.
As Sylvia, Alicia, and Stacia stepped out of the light, they were greeted by a horizonless expanse.
Above them stretched a sky full of stars.
Millions of stars hung like crystalline droplets scattered across the night. There was no black soil here, no obsidian stone, only a vast silver plain gleaming like a mirror, reflecting everything endlessly in every direction. Each step they took echoed softly, rippling into infinity.
Sylvia stood at the front, her crimson eyes gazing upward.
"…Beautiful," she murmured quietly.
The sound was barely audible, but Alicia smiled faintly. "It's rare for us to see a sky like this, isn't it?"
Stacia looked up as well, though her face remained tense. "It's beautiful… but it's wrong."
Sylvia turned toward her. "Wrong?"
Stacia nodded. "Those stars… they're too close."
