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Chapter 40 - The Descent Breaks Law(End Of Arc)

At the very base of the unwritten stair, the final veil between Ezekiel and true Below collapses. But the collapse is not silent. It calls attention. And someone—someone watching from the interior fracture of Below—moves to intercept. His name is Casamir Varn.

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[POV: Ezekiel – Just Beyond the Stair's Edge]

The stair ended without warning.

No warning glyph. No platform. Just—nothing.

But it was not empty. The air shimmered, flexed, resisting them as they moved forward like a skin that didn't want to be pierced.

Ilhera stopped beside him. Her breath hitched.

> "This is the final boundary. After this… the script can't follow us."

Ezekiel raised a hand. His palm met the shimmer.

A single pulse radiated outward like the ripple of a name never spoken.

Then—

It cracked.

The barrier broke like sound through glass. A thunderless rupture. Reality split, peeled, and folded open.

And behind it—

Was Below.

Not shadows. Not fire. Not a pit.

Architecture.

A spiraling city buried sideways into a canyon that should not exist. Roads coiled like veins. Lights flickered in rhythms that matched breath, not flame. And at its center, high above a black tower twisted through with red crystal—

Stood a lone figure watching them from a balcony.

[POV: Casamir Varn – Tower Overwatch, Below-Interior]

Casamir's eyes narrowed. His fingers rested on the hilt of a short crescent-sword.

He'd been watching for days.

Waiting.

Waiting for a bloodline signal that had gone quiet for years.

But now… now the glyph in his neck was burning. The one Saelin had embedded there when he was eleven.

> "When he comes, don't speak first. Let him name you."

> "As if that makes any sense," he muttered.

Below him, the veil split.

A boy stepped through.

Too thin. Pale. Eyes like fractured night. He didn't glow. He didn't command.

But Casamir felt his sentence unravel just by looking at him.

> "That's him."

Ilhera stepped through next.

> "And that's trouble," he added with a sigh.

He reached for the chain-pulley next to his station and pulled.

Far down in the spiral of Below, a series of linked bells began to ring.

Not alarms.

Summons.

Casamir turned.

> "Bring the Watchers. The ones who don't kneel."

> "The Vessel's here. And he's not alone."

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[POV: Ezekiel]

He had taken three steps into Below.

Already, he felt it.

Not freedom.

Friction.

This place resisted him. Not by pushing back. But by expecting him to declare himself.

Ilhera exhaled next to him.

> "We're in."

> "No," Ezekiel said softly.

> "We've been noticed."

And high above, a bell rang.

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