Zane let out a long breath.
"Yeah… I'm done," he muttered.
Before anyone could say anything, he stood up, waved lazily, and walked toward his bed.
"Asher, don't ask something stupid next round," he added over his shoulder. "I'm not saving you."
He dropped onto the mattress like someone who'd finally run out of fuel.
The moment his eyes closed—
BOOM.
The air shuddered.
Zane's shadow twitched violently, then exploded outward in motion. Thin blue lines ignited across it, sharp and geometric, crossing and reconnecting like some impossible circuit. Those same lines surged upward, stretching from the shadow to Zane's body, as if stitching something unseen into him.
Then—
A bright infinity symbol flared to life.
It burned itself into the surface of the shadow like a brand.
The room went cold.
"What the hell—?" Asher shot to his feet.
Mira moved first, instinctively stepping in front of Luna and Celeste. "Something's wrong."
They rushed toward Zane—but stopped short.
No one touched him.
His shadow was no longer behaving like a shadow.
It spread.
Not violently. Not randomly.
It crept along the floor, climbed the walls, branched across the ceiling like dark roots seeking purchase—yet every tendril curved away from the group, avoiding them with eerie precision.
"Zane!" Celeste called out. "Zane, wake up!"
No response.
"Hey—hey, this isn't funny!" Asher shouted, voice tight now.
Luna swallowed, hands trembling. "H-his shadow… it's alive."
They tried calling his name again. Louder. Desperate.
Nothing.
Zane lay perfectly still.
Somewhere else—
Zane was floating.
No ground. No body. No weight.
Just an endless expanse of space, stars scattered like distant embers, silent and vast. He drifted slowly, arms loose at his sides, mind hazy but calm—too calm.
"…So this is a dream," he murmured.
The stars split.
Space itself tore open like fabric.
From the裂 came a white entity, its form indistinct yet overwhelming—humanoid, radiant, painful to look at directly. It stepped forward as if the void itself parted for it, each movement bending the surrounding starlight.
Zane felt it before he understood it.
Before he could react, the entity was there—arms wrapping around him, warm and impossibly gentle.
"My child," it said.
The voice wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
It echoed everywhere.
Zane's eyes widened.
The stars pulsed.
And the dream deepened.