LIGHT 23: Collapse

LIGHT 23: Collapse

Even after Lumira lost consciousness, the expanded stable zone held for a while.

A faint white light remained around the sealed collapse zone like a thin veil. White particles scattered across the stone floor drifted slowly, and the sound of collapse had withdrawn into the distance. The evacuated residents moved toward the outer passage under the guidance of the guardians.

At the center of it all, Lumira lay motionless on the stone floor.

Elia knelt beside her and checked her breathing with a weakly trembling white glow. She had not vanished. But she had not returned, either.

The light remaining around Lumira weakened as time passed. The protective range that had spread outward began shrinking inward little by little, and the white radiance covering the floor faded. The stable zone that had supported the space only moments before was quietly losing strength.

It won’t hold.

Elia’s gaze fell to Lumira’s arm.

Even so, one single luminous marking left on Lumira’s arm did not disappear.

As light drained from her entire body, only that line continued to pulse with its own rhythm. It did not match Lumira’s breathing, Elia’s white light, or the markings of the guardians.

Something is wrong.

Something is still moving.

From inside the sealed zone, a small sound echoed.

It was not the sound of cracking.

It sounded like something pressing against a thin membrane from within.

Elia raised her face.

In the next instant, a new distortion appeared inside the sealed collapse zone. The floor, which should have been completely still, began to ripple, and a dark displacement that had been sealed away opened thinly in another place.

The guardians reacted at once.

The sealing lines intensified, and several guardians layered their light in an attempt to maintain the seal. But after the long strain, their light was unstable. The markings flowing across one guardian’s dark garment trembled, and the standing figure quietly sank to one knee.

Then the light of another guardian began to fade.

The power supporting the seal was rapidly decreasing.

Not enough.

They can’t hold it anymore.

Elia remained beside the fallen Lumira, keeping her unstable white light alive as she watched the marking on Lumira’s arm. The remaining line did not disappear. Instead, it changed shape slightly as it continued to beat in an uneven rhythm.

The weaker the surrounding light became, the more clearly that one line stood out.

At the same time, abnormalities began appearing even in the area where evacuation should have been complete.

In the outer passage, the outline of a wall flickered briefly. White particles scattered across the floor flowed backward, and a thin distortion ran through the passage where the residents had been moving safely. Those who had stopped walking turned back, and a low murmur began to spread.

Even the safe places.

Elia’s white light wavered faintly.

The guardians began a resealing operation.

They extended sealing lines not only inside the collapse zone, but also around the distortions appearing in the evacuated areas. Light ran along the floor, climbed the walls, and tried to surround each distortion.

But the abnormality would not remain in one place.

When one sealed point quieted, a new distortion opened in another passage. When a guardian turned toward it, the place that had just been closed began to tremble faintly again. The collapse changed form, spreading as if slipping through the gaps in the seal.

They can’t keep up.

Even when they stop it, it comes from somewhere else.

Amid that, a shadow remaining inside the sealed zone was found.

It was Lumira’s shadow.

The shadow that should have disappeared through integration had not vanished. Deep inside the sealed collapse zone, only its black outline moved across the floor as if sliding. Lumira’s body remained unconscious and still. Even so, the shadow moved on its own, guided by no one.

It’s still there.

Elia looked at Lumira’s arm.

The remaining marking pulsed in time with the shadow’s movement.

The two things that should have been separated were responding again in the same rhythm.

They are connected.

It was never severed.

The boundary of the sealed zone began to tremble in several places.

The faint membrane of light separating inside from outside thinned in some places and twisted in others. Each time the guardians attempted to reinforce one point, another boundary line collapsed.

The stable zones remaining in different areas began shrinking at the same time.

The light surrounding the residents weakened, and dark shadows began falling across passages that should have been safe. The people being guided lost their way and stopped between the guardians’ light and the distortion beneath their feet.

Elia tried to wake Lumira.

She extended her white light and touched Lumira’s fallen shoulder. Pale light spread to her arm, to her chest, and near her closed eyelids.

Wake up.

Without speaking the words aloud, Elia strengthened the light.

But Lumira did not respond.

Only the marking pulsed. Lumira herself remained asleep and did not open her eyes.

Elia’s white light trembled.

She strengthened it once more.

Still, Lumira did not move.

It won’t reach her.

She is right here, but she will not come back.

As time passed, the collapse reaction approached an uncontrollable stage.

The distortion that had appeared inside the sealed zone chained into the outer safe zone, then spread farther into another passage. The guardians deployed sealing lines again and again, but the light could not keep up.

A new collapse was born beyond the place they had sealed.

A distortion opened again in a place they had protected.

The collapse was no longer an abnormality confined to one zone.

In a distant corridor, the outline of space broke apart.

At another evacuation point, the ceiling light disappeared.

The observed reactions were no longer limited to a local collapse.

The same signs began appearing in multiple places across the world.

White particles flowing backward.

Boundary light vanishing.

Stable zones shrinking.

Shadows falling out of step.

They seemed to be happening separately, yet somewhere within them was the same rhythm.

The same.

The same rhythm as the marking left on Lumira’s arm.

The guardians continued sealing.

But their light could no longer be maintained.

More of them stopped functioning, and the remaining guardians slowed. The sealing lines grew thin, and the boundaries trembled again and again.

At last, the guardians’ light weakened all at once.

The array deployed for resealing could not be maintained, and part of the sealed zone sank into darkness.

With the current seal, it could no longer be held.

That judgment quietly settled into the guardians’ light.

The collapse had slipped out of control again.

On Lumira’s fallen arm, the final marking was still moving.

Elia could not move as she stared at that light.

Should she stop it?

Should she wake her?

Or should she not touch it at all?

And deep inside the sealed zone, the shadow that had not disappeared moved toward the next distortion.

After that shadow passed, only white footprints remained inside the sealing light.

The footprints did not fade. Slowly, they pulsed in the same rhythm as Lumira’s marking.

— Lumi 🪄💕

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