The next one didn’t come through the same way.
Aria felt that immediately.
No gradual pressure.
No focused push.
Just a shift.
Subtle.
Wrong.
Her head snapped slightly to the side.
“…Wait.”
Lucian caught it.
“What?”
She didn’t look at the boundary.
“…It’s not there.”
Rune frowned.
“What’s not”
Then he felt it too.
A flicker behind them.
Not ahead.
Not at the pressure line.
Inside.
Lucian turned instantly.
“Aria.”
Her voice dropped.
“…It didn’t push through.”
A beat.
“It skipped the boundary.”
Silence.
Because that wasn’t supposed to be possible.
The system pulsed sharply reacting, trying to trace it but there was no clean entry point.
No breach.
No filter.
Nothing.
It was just there.
A figure stood several meters behind them.
Already formed.
Already stabl
