Aurora's Hidden Workshop
The light within the gate twisted again.
Not flared. Not surged.
Twisted.
Like a breath held too long, like silence that forgot to end.
Joshua took a step back. Aurora's fingers tensed beside the console. The ring's harmonic pulse wavered—still stable, but no longer calm. Something… foreign was pressing through.
Then—
It stepped out.
No sound.
Just presence.
Darkness.
A form of pure void, shaped like a man but not built like one. His body was matte, shapeless yet sharp, like every inch of him rejected definition. No clothes. No details. Just shadow given weight. The kind of darkness that wasn't the absence of light—
It was the reason light feared to exist.
Joshua froze. Aurora's hands slowly lifted.
But the being didn't move. It just stood inside the frame. Watching.
Then—
It took one step.
The lights dimmed.
The workshop's air temperature dropped.
