Hajin stared at them, the crackling of the dying fire the only sound left in the camp.
"You really believe that?" he asked, his voice completely flat. "Are you sure there is no other explanation?"
He looked between the two veterans, hoping one of them would offer up a different theory. A system glitch or a rare Gate phenomenon, anything that didn't put the blame directly on his shoulders.
The Captain let out a long, heavy sigh.
"I wish there was," he said, running a hand through his graying hair. "But Helen and I have been diving into Gates for over a decade. We have cleared hundreds of them, ranging from simple one-shard zones to near-catastrophic six-shard anomalies."
Helen crossed her arms, her expression remaining dead serious in the fire light.
"Not once have we ever seen a Gate just vanish," she added, her gaze locking onto his. "The boss dies, the loot drops, and the structure stays. That is the absolute rule of the world."
