Chapter 10: A Glimpse Beyond

Aria stood with Ren at her side. Her veins thrummed with the new surge of mana—stronger now, steadier. The vast torrent of agony she’d drawn from the last night’s mass torture had filled her with a power she’d never known before.

Yet the hunger for more than just power gnawed at her. She wanted to see beyond the confines of the lower realm, beyond the swirling darkness where she was trapped and bound by her curse. She wanted to see the source. The Entity.

Ren watched silently, his usual calm presence grounding her as she prepared herself.

“I’m going to look… just for a moment,” she said, voice low but steady. “To see what lies beyond.”

Ren nodded. “I’m here.”

Aria closed her eyes, centering herself. The raw mana surged within, coiling and tightening like a living thing demanding release.

“Divide.”

The word was a sharp blade cutting through the veil of shadow.

The air around them trembled as a small window opened—an ephemeral slit between worlds.

Through that fragile crack, Aria peered into the realm above.

It was like staring through a fogged glass at a place that was at once familiar and utterly alien.

Vast stretches of darkness were pierced by veins of pale, sickly light—streams of mana unlike anything in the lower realm.

And there, at the center of it all, hovered the Entity.

It did not move like a being of flesh and bone. Instead, it shifted like liquid shadow and fractured light, a swirling mass of ever-changing forms.

Its shape was both terrifying and beautiful—impossible to hold onto for long.

Aria felt its gaze, or the closest thing to one—an unblinking awareness that pressed against her mind, cold and indifferent.

It spoke, but not in words. The feeling was clear: power beyond mortal reckoning, ancient and unknowable.

Ren’s breath was steady beside her, but Aria could feel his tension.

Then, just as suddenly as it appeared, the window snapped shut.

A violent backlash tore through her chest and back, sharp and relentless.

She doubled over, clutching her side as the cursed pain lanced through her.

Ren steadied her, concern flickering in his eyes. “Are you okay?”

Aria forced herself upright, breathing hard. The new mana was overwhelming—too much power too fast—and her body rebelled.

But beneath the pain was a grim satisfaction.

She had seen it.

She had glimpsed the Entity’s true form.

She stared into the dark, her resolve hardening.

No matter what, she would find a way to destroy it.