CHAPTER 53: The Fifty-Third Fracture

The wind was warm again.

Not scorched. Not sterile. Just… warm.

I stood at the edge of the hill overlooking the city. My city. The sun dipped low, painting the skyline gold. Trees rustled like they remembered how to breathe. And down below, I saw them.

My parents.

Alive.

Laughing.

My mother brushed something off my father’s cheek—maybe a crumb from whatever they were eating. They sat outside the same café I once ignored in favor of work. No memories of statues. No horror. No pain. Just peace.

I didn’t go to them.

I couldn’t.

Not yet.

Behind me, Saaya sat in the grass, arms wrapped around her knees, head tilted to the sky. Her hair caught the light like starlight woven through gold. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to.

Oizys stood beneath a tree, silent. A child had handed her a single white flower. She held it awkwardly, like it might dissolve in her fingers. She stared at it like it was the first real thing she’d ever touched.

We were all breathing again—for different reasons.

After a long moment, Saaya looked over at me.

“You could stay, you know,” she said.

I smiled faintly. “I know.”

“But you’re not going to.”

I shook my head. “This place will always be my beginning. But it’s not my ending. And the other world has magic in it. I’ll figure out how to use my scalar abilities to travel between dimensions.”

She just smiled and patted the space beside her. I sat.

Then, like the world had waited for the moment to be complete, a ripple of silver fractured the air. The glyph spun in divine motion—complex, elegant, otherworldly.

Yuuka stepped through.

“Took me long enough,” she said. “Alric, Lyra, and I were worried.”

“We’re fine now,” I said. “And we made a new friend.”

Yuuka’s expression softened. “I saw. All of it. Well… my divine half did.”

She looked at Oizys. “You’re coming too?”

“I’m not hiding anymore.”

“You’ll be hunted.”

“I know. But I have someone who understands me now.”

Saaya stood beside me, her newly glowing glyph flickering violet and turquoise. She held my hand. I didn’t let go.

Yuuka opened a new path—one that pulsed with the scent of starlight and pressure.

“Word will reach the gods,” she said, “but not anytime soon. I was the only one who believed Earth connected the 10th fractal to the 1st.”

I looked back at my parents—smiling, alive, safe. Then I stepped into the light.

“I’m ready.”

We arrived at the academy. Lyra was the first to meet us, eyes scanning sharply.

“You vanished without a trace,” she said. “No magic from Saaya, and Sukara—you were just gone.”

“As long as you two are okay,” she added, “that’s all that matters.”

She looked at Oizys. “Who’s she?”

“She’s a friend,” I said. “Her name is Oizys. She’s one of the gods who lived in the 10th fractal. But more than that—she’s my understander.”

Oizys gave a small smile.

Lyra nodded. “As long as she doesn’t cause problems and you trust her, I’ve got no issue.”

“Thank you!” Saaya and I said in unison.

Oizys turned to me. “Sukara.”

“What’s wrong?”

“We should talk. All of us.” She pointed to Saaya, Yuuka, Lyra, Alric, and me.

Alric stood in the back, arms crossed, but the concern in his eyes said everything.

“I’m hungry,” Saaya said. “Can we talk over food?”

“Good idea,” Yuuka said. “You’ve been gone a long time.”

In the cafeteria, Oizys sat beside me. Saaya on my other side.

Alric leaned back in his chair and raised an eyebrow. “So… another girl at your side now, Sukara?”

“It’s a long story,” I said, chuckling.

“Must be nice.”

Oizys looked at him. Smiled.

We ate in silence for a while. Then Oizys set down her cup.

“Sukara. The god of death is coming for you next.”

I froze. “The god of death?”

She nodded. “Thanatos.”

She looked around the table. Her voice was low, measured.

“He’s not a reaper of flesh, but a sovereign of silence and memory. He towers like a cathedral carved from void, cloaked in obsidian that devours light. His face—a half-translucent mask etched with drifting constellations.

His left eye burns with quiet violet fire. His cloak is stitched from the death-throes of collapsed stars. It hisses with forgotten names.

Behind him, wings of mirrored glass—fractured, floating, carved with glyphs from the First Language.

He wields Hypnos Spine—a chain-scythe made from the bones of his twin, the god of sleep. The blade doesn’t cut flesh. It severs identity. Those it touches are erased.

Around his waist hang the bones of extinct titans. His presence alone silences time.

Thanatos doesn’t chase death. He waits for it.

And in his eyes shimmers the truth:

Even gods… are meant to be forgotten.”

I looked down at my food. “Why do the gods want to kill me?”

“Because they want control,” Oizys said. “And you terrify them. You erased the red assassin from existence. They fear what they can’t dominate. Gods love power. They love judging from above. You and Saaya are threats—divine anomalies destined to surpass them. Thanatos can’t travel worlds yet, but he and two others are crafting a countermeasure against your power.”

Alric spoke next. “Then this information is everything. We can prepare. And build our own counter to theirs.”

Saaya and I nodded.

Yuuka leaned in. “Oizys. I can see beyond the five gods. My power stretches past them. But I can’t see those last two… even beyond the Scalar Grid, I couldn’t glimpse them. Are my powers fading?”

“Maybe,” Oizys said. “Or maybe the 10th fractal layer blocks all outside interference. It’s divine. It shouldn’t be easily accessed.”

Yuuka frowned. “Even I have limits? That pisses me off.”

“The other two gods…” Oizys hesitated. “I don’t know them. They didn’t reveal themselves, not to us, not to each other. We had a common goal once. But they kept their distance. I’m sorry—I don’t know more.”

“Damn,” I muttered.

Oizys looked at me. She could tell I was trying not to show disappointment.

“It’s all good, Oizys,” I said, forcing a grin. “I’ve fought gods. I’ve died and come back.” I looked at Saaya. “We’ll get through this. Together.”

Oizys smiled. Then she looked at Alric.

He blinked. “What? Everything okay?”

“Nothing,” she said quietly.

Yuuka narrowed her eyes. “Hmmmm?”