The staircase of stars didn't obey physics.
Every step Valerian took shimmered beneath his boots, fractals of shattered galaxies unfolding beneath. Behind him, Selene, Kael, Lira, and Seraphina followed silently, their eyes wide not with awe—but preparation. Whatever lay at the end of this path was no longer a theory. It was coming.
Kael's boots clanked against the glowing surface. "I feel like if I fall, I don't die—I just stop existing."
"You're not wrong," Selene said, her voice distant. "This path isn't part of our world. It's between. We're walking inside the fracture."
Valerian didn't look back. His gaze remained locked on the horizon—a floating structure that hovered like a crown of blades suspended in eternity. Giant rings rotated around a sphere of burning violet, like a black hole with a heartbeat.
The Crucible. The final firewall the Architects had left. Not a fortress.
A crucifixion.
