Either way, my reaction was absolute—without ambiguity.

Soon after, I tilted my head toward Selene.

She was completely unresponsive.

No reaction. No movement.

What the hell—

What the f*ck was she doing this whole time?!

If I were to go die, then my very first instinct was quite simple:

Punch her solar plexus relentlessly. That’s it.

No matter what. She needs to pay as well.

"Selene!"

The scream of my voice tore through the observatory room, roaring up toward its ceiling—as if begging even the wind itself to listen, to carry my frustration, and to bear witness to this suffocating hopelessness.

The one that apparently would never end.

* * *

Then, the impact came.

My mind froze. I—I couldn’t process what I was seeing.

The wall behind us groaned—a violent, structural protest—but it didn’t break with the predictable physics of falling mortar. It tore itself apart as if someone had excised a sentence from a page. Edits were made in real-time. Shards of stone hung mid-flight, suspended like frozen punctuation marks in a sentence that had been cut short.

She was floating, her body rotating in slow motion, while the debris of the wall remained suspended around me like a frozen explosion.

I was suspended in the air, silver hair spilling toward the floor, rotating in a slow, sickening arc that defied every law of the room. Around me, the stone wall wasn’t just breaking; it was editing itself. Shards of the observatory hung like frozen punctuation marks in a sentence that had been cut short.

I caught only a blur—an acrobatic flash of silver hair—and then I was no longer on the floor.

Kairi didn’t dodge the impact, let alone did she even block it with her hands.

And... it simply stopped.

As if something invisible intervened. Of dimension.

Like a wall of glass I couldn’t see, it shielded her from being erased entirely. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Stones shattered and hung suspended in the air, but she remained untouched, rotating through the chaos as if gravity had forgotten her. It was as if something—or someone—had stepped between her and the world itself.

I felt myself lifted, tossed into the air by a force that should have crushed my bones. But the pain never arrived. Instead, there was only a strange, hollow stillness. I was suspended in a slow, sickening arc, my hair spilling toward the floor as I rotated through a void where gravity had simply ceased to function.

I saw Kairi below me. She looked small from this angle, but her presence was obvious—burning, jagged, and terrifyingly sharp. She had just unmade a legend, stripped Valeria of her very soul, and yet here she was, about to be erased by a bolt of "Narration" that ignored the victory she had just earned.

One moment, I was only a few steps behind, watching from the shadows of the observatory doorway. I should have been able to reach out. I should have been a part of the scene. But the air grew heavy, charged with a suffocating pressure that made the very shadows tremble.

As if the two of them had been swallowed by the narrative itself, and I was left outside it—watching from the margins, unable to follow the plot.

Kairi didn’t move. She stood her ground, her feet planted firmly against the cold floor of the observatory. The air felt heavy, charged with a sudden, suffocating pressure that made the very shadows in the corners of the room tremble.

Everything happened in a heartbeat, yet it felt like an eternity.

The wall behind me groaned—a violent, structural protest—as the impact finally came. I saw the muscles in Kairi’s shoulders tense, her silhouette sharp and defiant against the dim light streaming through the arched windows.

She was a fixed point in a world that was suddenly coming apart at the seams.

Then, the roar of stone meeting something immovable shattered the silence.

"Selene!"

The scream of her voice tore through the observatory room, roaring up toward its ceiling—as if begging even the wind itself to listen, to carry her frustration, and to bear witness to this suffocating hopelessness. The one that apparently would never end.

I felt myself lifted, tossed into the air by a force that should have crushed my bones.

I heard her, but it didn’t feel like a call for help.

It felt like an accusation—vindictive, blaming, and raw.

The frustration in her voice pierced the barrier, vibrating against my skin. She wanted to punch me. She wanted to drag me back into the dirt and the blood so she didn’t have to face this illogical end by herself.

And I hardly reacted. Instead, there was only that strange, hollow stillness.

I slowly but sure tilted my head just to make sure what I was seeing. Or hearing.

Or that I didn’t perceive anything that was considered insane to begin with.

I wasn’t unresponsive because I was afraid.

I was unresponsive because I was no longer part of the equation.

As I hung there, tucked behind that invisible wall, I realized what Kairi had felt the moment she "de-authored" Valeria. The narrative was fighting back. It had pushed me into the margins, turning me into a still image—an illustration in a book—while Kairi was left to face what she reckoned as "Goddess of Mystery" alone.

Through the haze of dust and silver hair, I looked down. Kairi was still there, a frantic shadow on the ground, reaching into a space she could no longer enter. The invisible wall had risen between us, and for the first time, I realized that standing her ground meant she was staying in a world I was currently leaving behind.

The frustration in her voice pierced the invisible barrier, vibrating against my skin. She wanted to punch me. She wanted to drag me back into the dirt and the blood so she didn’t have to face this illogical end by herself.

Then, the "spectacle" began once more. Yet another lightning attack from Valeria, Agatha Christie—or whoever she had become—hit the space where Kairi stood.

But it didn’t hit her.

It hit the wall, again.

"Kairi..." I tried to whisper, but my voice was still trapped in that airless, weightless void.

I needed to fall. I needed the gravity to return. Because if I stayed "untouchable" up here, she was going to burn down the entire world just to get a reaction out of me.