The silence that followed the deletion was louder than the explosion. For a heartbeat, the world ceased to be made of matter. There was no tower, no wind, no city only a vast, blinding whiteness that tasted like ozone and felt like a long-forgotten prayer.
Nala was floating. The weight of the obsidian fragment in her chest had vanished, replaced by a hollow ache that felt suspiciously like freedom.
"Is it over?"
The voice was thin, like paper tearing. Nala turned her head or the thought of her head and saw Leo. He wasn't a monster anymore. He wasn't a ghost of amber code. He looked like the boy from the ferry, his face smeared with grease and his eyes tired, but human. Truly, painfully human.
"I think we broke the world, Leo," Nala whispered.
"No," a voice boomed, though it was barely
