**Chapter 5: The Gate of Sanctuary**
As All's freeze subsided, Aetherion did not retaliate. He lowered his hands, his starry form radiating not authority, but a newfound resolve. He looked at Rin. "You sing what I fight for," he said, his voice quiet but clear. "Let us find a path together."
That single admission began to mend the fractures. Rin's music, a *Harmonic Rebellion*, filled the air—not a song of sadness, but of shared struggle. It soothed Raoul's wrath, quieted Lane's envy, and tempered Void's gluttony. Kaelith, seeing this new path, channeled her desire for control into loyalty, her scepter's tendrils weaving a protective harmony around the group.
The crack in her scepter glowed, fueled by Rin's song. The light shot out, striking the gate-like rift in the center of the Nexus. The silhouette solidified, revealing a massive, ornate gate, humming with an ancient, dormant power. It was the entrance to **Null's Sanctuary**, the one place in the multiverse Gringo could not touch.
As Aetherion stepped forward, his immense power unlocking the gate's final seals, Rin watched, his blue eyes narrowing. He felt a new, sharp emotion stir within him—a pang of envy for the other half of his soul, whose strength so effortlessly dwarfed his own.
The gate swung open.