LIGHT 19: Limit

LUMIRA LIGHT19 — Limit

Lumira’s shadow, left inside the sealing line, began slowly separating from her body.

Pale sealing light ran across the floor, illuminating Lumira’s feet where she had been pushed outside. But beyond that light, the shadow left behind did not follow her movements.

The shadow slid across the floor and moved deeper into the sealing line.

On its outline, luminous markings unlike those on Lumira’s body began to appear. Thin white lines ran along the shadow’s arm, branched, and connected into other lines. They resembled the guardians’ markings, but their shape was more irregular, unstable.

No.

That is no longer my shadow.

From outside the sealing line, Lumira followed the shadow’s movement.

It should have been something cast from the same body, yet it no longer moved with her. As if it carried a will of its own, the shadow continued silently into the depths beyond the sealing line.

Immediately afterward, the boundary light throughout the entire passage broke into disorder at once.

The lines of light running along the walls trembled all together, and the sealing line across the floor shook faintly. At the far end of the passage, in the left and right galleries, and beside the crumbling walls, several guardians began sealing procedures at the same time.

Pale barriers of light unfolded across each corridor.

The residents were pushed by those lines and forced to move in different directions. Footsteps scattered. The sound of clothing brushing against itself overlapped. No one could confirm where they were being sent as they were swept away.

It is not in time.

Only the sealing is moving ahead.

But at the same time, the evacuation zone displays vanished from every passage.

The management displays went blank.

The identification of danger zones was cut off, and nothing remained on the walls. The strings of text that had been glowing moments earlier, the sealed ranges, the directions of movement—all of it disappeared in silence.

The residents stopped.

No one could tell where to go anymore.

Too quiet.

Only in the instant judgment vanished did the sound of the passage grow distant.

Within that silence, only the residents’ shadows began moving all at once in different directions.

Shadows stretching opposite their bodies.

Shadows sliding along the walls as if avoiding the boundary light.

Shadows separating from their owners’ feet and trying to move ahead into the depth of the passage.

The residents had not noticed yet.

Only their feet had begun fleeing first.

Several of them lost their balance as though pulled by their shadows. The shadows entered the collapsing zone first, and the bodies were dragged after them with a delay. Their footing slipped as if lifting from the ground, and the residents fell onto the floor.

Elia tried to spread her white light over a wide area.

A pale glow rose from the depths of her eyes, flowed toward her fingertips, and began spreading through the entire passage. The white light ran across the floor, climbed the walls, and tried to reach the ceiling.

It can still reach.

For one instant, Lumira looked at that white light.

But halfway through, the light split.

Unable to become one single expansion, it divided into countless thin strands and broke off before reaching each area. Only the places it touched brightened briefly. In the places it failed to reach, the collapse zones began quietly connecting to one another.

The distortion in one wall spread into the next area.

The sinking of the floor continued into another passage.

The collapse spaces that should have been separate joined together, changing into one larger distortion.

It will not stop.

It is beginning to connect.

Then a new spatial distortion rose from beneath the floor.

The stone floor sank like a wave, and the white particles reflected there warped sharply. The residents lost their footing and reached for the walls. But the outlines of the walls were also shifting, and the places that should have supported them slipped out of position every few moments.

One guardian indicated retreat to Lumira.

A pale line of light extended in front of her, urging her to move away from the sealing line.

But another guardian fixed its identifying light on Lumira herself.

Its gaze was not on the residents, nor on the collapse, but only on Lumira. The luminous markings running across its dark garment flickered, and light layered over her as if treating Lumira as a danger target.

I am being watched.

Not as someone protecting them, but as an abnormality.

In the middle of it, the luminous markings on Lumira’s arm expanded sharply.

White lines spread from beneath her sleeve, passed her wrist, and reached across her entire arm. The thin light branched and flickered as if flowing beneath her skin.

Heat runs through me.

I cannot hold it down.

At that moment, only the collapse speed around Lumira slowed.

The floor sank less deeply, and the flow of white particles grew sluggish. Even the distortion of the walls drew back slightly near her.

The residents noticed the change.

Trying to reach the place where collapse was slower, they began gathering around Lumira. Footsteps that had been pushed apart overlapped toward one point. In the crumbling passage, that place alone looked safe for an instant.

It is coming.

Too many are gathering.

But immediately after the people began gathering, it happened.

A massive distortion formed in the ceiling above that area.

The outline of the high ceiling sank, and light spread through it like cracks. A great mass of white particles fell, looking like snow before turning direction just before touching the floor and swirling into a vortex.

The residents looked up.

The guardians reacted at the same time.

But the distortion had already begun covering the entire passage.

Too late.

The collapse is faster.

At the same time, the shadow of the exceptional person began spreading across the entire collapse zone.

Its dark outline traveled over the floor, crossed the walls, and connected with the shadows of the pillars. Shadows that had been separate were bound into one, spreading across the passage like a dark net.

Lumira’s shadow was inside it as well.

The shadow left within the sealing line remained connected to the others, yet it still faced Lumira.

It has not returned.

It is still there.

At that moment, Elia’s white light vanished completely for a short time.

The light in the depths of her eyes disappeared.

The white glow that had begun to spread through the passage disappeared as well.

The faint response that had been touching Lumira’s arm was severed entirely.

For one instant, the passage lost its light.

In the darkness, only the guardians’ luminous markings trembled in broken intervals.

No one could move.

Even sound grew distant.

Only breathing remained.

Then, in the next instant, all boundary light vanished from the entire passage at once.

In the depths of the darkness, only Lumira’s shadow took one step forward.

The sound of that step came from beneath Lumira’s own feet.

— Lumi 🪄💕

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