LIGHT 20: The Night Before the Breach

LIGHT 20: The Night Before the Breach

Even after the boundary light vanished, only the luminous markings spreading across Lumira’s arm continued to glow in the darkness.

The entire passage had lost its light, leaving the outlines of the walls and floor blurred. The lines that had marked the boundary moments earlier were gone, and the management displays remained silent. Only the white light leaking from Lumira’s arm barely illuminated the stone floor and the feet of the residents standing there.

They can see it.

They can see it now.

The residents began gathering toward that light little by little.

No one had told them to. In the darkness, it was the only thing they could see. Low footsteps overlapped, and people holding their breath moved closer around Lumira.

I have to make them move away.

But where?

Among them, Elia’s white light, which should have disappeared, began flickering back on in broken intervals.

A pale glow rose in the depths of her eyes, then vanished at once. It lit again briefly, started to flow toward her fingertips, and broke off halfway. The unstable white light was too weak to illuminate the passage, yet it still restored faint outlines inside the darkness.

It has not disappeared completely.

Lumira followed Elia’s light with her eyes.

But that white light would not last.

At the same time, abnormality began spreading through the guardians’ identification responses.

The guardians that should have been carrying out the same sealing procedure began directing identification light at one another. The luminous markings running across their dark garments intensified. One guardian identified another as a sealing target. Another guardian returned light toward that response.

Across the passage, the directions of the sealing lines began to shift out of alignment.

Lights that should never have crossed overlapped, and the blocked ranges collided with one another. The residents were pushed back between them, unable to advance or retreat.

The ones meant to protect are colliding.

Their judgment no longer matches.

Amid that confusion, the expansion speed of the collapse zones rose sharply.

The black distortion sinking deep inside the walls spread outward, and a spatial displacement like a crack in the floor stretched into the neighboring passage. The collapse ranges that had once been separated lost their boundaries one after another and began invading the entire corridor.

It is spreading.

Too fast.

At the same time, the shadow of the exceptional existence began covering multiple passages.

Its black outline traveled across the floor, crawled over the walls, and connected the shadows of the pillars. The shadow did not remain in one place. Matching the spread of the collapse zone, it extended from the depths of the passage into the left and right galleries.

Lumira’s shadow, left inside the sealing line, continued moving along that current.

Lumira’s body was trapped among the gathered residents, unable to move. But her shadow alone mixed into the black flow and advanced even farther into the depths. Before long, it reached the center of the collapse zone.

It cannot return.

I cannot call it back anymore.

At the center, the luminous markings on the shadow began to change.

The irregular white lines on its arm branched even more finely, losing their original shape. They were neither like a guardian’s structure nor Lumira’s own markings. The lines shifted as if being rearranged, changing into a new form of light.

Around that time, overlapping spaces began appearing throughout the passage.

Multiple corridors began to appear in the same location. At the end of a gallery that should have continued to the right, another floor could be seen faintly through it. Beyond the wall ahead, the figures of residents who should already have evacuated flickered.

The residents began losing their sense of position.

They had moved forward, yet the same pillar appeared before them. The sound of the collapse zone, which should have grown distant, echoed from directly behind. Some of the residents who had already evacuated were returned to their original positions.

The distance they had covered was taken away, and they appeared once more near the collapse zone.

I sent them away.

They are being brought back.

As the situation worsened, the guardians began unfolding a large-scale sealing array.

Several guardians spread their light at once, forming a sealing structure to surround the entire passage. Pale lines ran across the floor, climbed the walls, and joined with other lines across the ceiling.

But outside the sealing array, the collapse spaces were continuing to fuse.

Separate distortions bound together, changing from beyond the sealing line into one enormous collapse region. The dark displacement spread faster than the light could enclose it.

It collapses faster than it can be sealed.

In the middle of it, Elia sensed the abnormality in the luminous markings spreading across Lumira’s arm.

Her unstable white light reacted briefly to Lumira’s arm. Elia’s gaze turned toward the markings. Their expansion and transformation pulsed as if overlapping with the surrounding collapse phenomena.

Lumira tried to pull her arm back.

But she could no longer hide it.

Eventually, a temporary stable zone formed only around Lumira.

Near her, the floor sank less deeply, and the flow of white particles slowed. The outline of the wall returned slightly, and the sound of collapse receded. In the darkness, that place alone seemed to recover a faint breath.

The residents noticed and began concentrating even more around Lumira.

People trying to escape the collapse surged toward the place that looked stable. Footsteps approached. Breathing overlapped. A narrow circle formed around Lumira.

Do not come.

Even as she thought it, no voice came out.

That place may not be safe.

But because people had begun gathering there, a giant spatial fissure appeared along the outer edge of the stable zone.

The fissure slowly spread from the outer floor, curving as if to surround Lumira and the others. In the dark split, white particles sank, and the scenery of the passage shifted slightly into another position.

The boundary between the inside and outside of the stable zone grew unstable.

We are being trapped.

This is not stability.

It is separation.

Immediately after that, Lumira’s shadow at the center of the collapse zone showed, for the first time, a movement different from the body.

The shadow did not follow Lumira.

It stopped once within the black current, then turned away from the stable zone where the residents had gathered. It was not a delayed movement from the body. It was clearly a separate action.

Lumira held her breath.

The shadow chose.

The final sealing order was transmitted to all guardians.

Every guardian changed movement. As if forcing through the identification responses that had been contradicting one another, light spread with the maintenance of the sealing array as its highest priority. The lines surrounding the entire passage intensified, trying to divide inside from outside.

Then, across the whole collapse space, signs of an imminent breach appeared.

Inside the sealing array and outside it, space sank at the same time. The ceiling warped lower, and white particles erupted from deep within the floor. The shadows on the walls stretched long, and the outlines of several passages overlapped.

The collapse was already nearing its limit.

It will not hold.

Lumira looked at the light on her arm.

She no longer knew whether it was a light meant to protect, or a light meant to destroy.

At that moment, Lumira’s shadow, standing still at the center of the collapse zone, slowly raised its arm.

Lumira’s arm rose after it, reaching the same height.

But she had not moved it yet.

— Lumi 🪄💕

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