Creation Of All Things-Chapter 204: Aurora Missing

Krayon Sol – Two Days Later

Rain whispered through the streets of the lower districts, soft and steady. The lanterns that once flickered with warmth now trembled in the mist, their glow swallowed in a curtain of grey. The air was heavy. Something had changed. Something unseen.

Aurora had vanished.

No one saw her leave. No one saw where she went. Not even Adam.

But this—this was her plan.

In the silent depths of the arcane sewers beneath the abandoned Eastern Gate, Aurora stood at the mouth of the Rift.

It was small. Unstable. Flickering in and out of view. But it was real. And worse—it was breathing.

It pulsed like a heartbeat, the Spiral's signature etched in its edge like a mocking grin. Echoes whispered through the currents of magic, broken memories repeating in foreign tongues. This was a blind spot. A test site. Something between a door and a mouth.

Perfect.

Aurora stepped forward. One last look behind her. No shadow followed. No sound.

"Begin the game," she whispered.

She crossed the threshold.

The Rift swallowed her.

Voidspace – Between Realms

The moment she entered, her senses bent.

Light inverted. Time stuttered. Colors bled through her skin and back into the air.

But she was calm. Steady. Wrapped in layers of shielding spells and soul-disguises that made even the void hesitate to touch her. Her presence was a flicker in an ocean of black flame. Untraceable. Undetected.

For now.

She drifted.

Until she felt it.

A pulse.

The Architect's signature.

Massive. Cold. Like ancient metal and forgotten prayers.

She changed direction.

Then—

A voice.

Low. Cold. Familiar.

"Another worm trying to crawl into the nest?" It wasn't Spiral. This voice was clearer. Sharper. More defined.

The Architect.

Aurora floated still. Silent. Letting the currents drag her closer.

"I see it now… a fragment… no…"

Another voice. Spiraling. Hissing through echoes.

"An anomaly… something not written."

The Spiral.

She was close.

Close enough to listen.

The Architect stood before the forming gate. Beside him, the Spiral drifted like a wound given voice, his presence twisting the surrounding void into coiled glyphs and burning loops.

"You said Zayriel would chase rage," the Architect growled. "But instead he preaches peace."

"He will chase rage," the Spiral whispered. "But not yet. First… we break the pieces around him."

The Architect tilted his head. "And the anomaly?"

"Adam. Yes." The Spiral spat the name like it tasted wrong. "An unbound. An element we never calculated. But even anomalies bleed."

"Then make him bleed."

The Spiral coiled tighter. "Not yet. Not now. We take the blade from Zayriel's hand. One by one. Until he must strike alone."

Aurora's eyes narrowed.

So that was the plan.

Break the bonds.

Break the people.

Force Joshua to stand alone.

Classic Spiral.

"Let me choose the next piece," Spiral said. "Let me take the girl. The hunter. Alice."

The Architect paused. Then nodded.

"Do it."

Aurora's heart stilled.

It was time to move.

She vanished from the void seconds later, leaving no trace. No echo. No ripple.

Back in the Krayon Sol, a shimmer sparked in the corner of a Quarter—a flicker of reality parting just wide enough for her to emerge. She landed lightly on the rooftop, her cloak trailing behind her like shadows made of silence.

Her eyes blazed.

Now she knew.

They were coming for Alice.

They were going to isolate Joshua.

And she would be the piece that stopped the Spiral's board.

She pressed her hand to her ear. A comm crystal flared in blue light.

"Adam," she said. "I'm back."

A pause.

Then his voice. "Took your time."

"They want Alice. They're going after her next. And they're not just watching anymore. They're acting."

"Did they see you?"

"No. Not yet. But I want them to."

"You're baiting them?"

"Exactly."

Another pause.

Then a chuckle.

"Welcome back, Aurora."

She smiled faintly, her eyes glowing faint in the darkness.

"Let the Spiral know. The ghost on the board just made her first move."

And the stars above Krayon Sol burned just a little brighter.

Days passed

The city hummed quietly beneath the veil of night. Krayon Sol slept, unaware that its quietest protector was preparing to disappear.

Aurora stood at the edge of the overlook, high above the sleeping rooftops. Her breath was steady, eyes locked onto the stars. She had always liked the stars. They were constants. Unlike people. Unlike fate.

She turned her collar up against the cold breeze and stepped back from the ledge. Her mind replayed everything she'd seen in her vision: the Architect of Ruin and the Spiral, standing side by side in the void. Both ancient. Both dangerous. And now, working together—if only temporarily.

They didn't know her. That was her advantage.

She moved through the silent streets like a ghost, slipping through alleys and over rooftops until she reached the forgotten end of the city—where the ruins still held echoes of older times. Where the boundaries between worlds were thinner.

Aurora crouched in the center of a broken shrine. The runes were long faded, but the energy was still there—just dormant. She pressed her hand to the cracked floor, channeling just enough magic to create a pulse.

Not a signal.

A beacon.

It wouldn't be long now.

Sure enough, the air around her shifted. A slow rippling hum, like a drumbeat behind reality. The Spiral's energy was different than the Architect's—more erratic, like a thousand voices whispering all at once. It coiled through the air and took shape in front of her, warping the night around it.

It didn't speak.

It didn't need to.

Aurora let herself go still.

Then the pull came.

Her body jerked forward slightly, as if gravity had changed direction. Her vision blurred. Cold washed over her limbs like water rushing in reverse.

She didn't resist.

The Spiral thought it had found prey.

It thought wrong.

She woke somewhere else. Not a place. A concept.

The Spiral's domain wasn't a realm. It was memory. Regret. Twisting space into thought, thought into prisons.

And yet, Aurora stood.

She looked around. Everything shifted like reflections on oil. Voices whispered. Some were hers. Some were Zayriel's. Some weren't anyone's at all.

"Ahh… who are you?"

The Spiral's voice came from nowhere and everywhere.

Aurora smiled. Just slightly.

"I'm the last person you should've brought here."

The Spiral coiled around her, curious.

"You're not marked. You're not drawn. You're not even supposed to be seen."

"And yet, here I am."

"Why?"

"To see you. To see this. And to tear it down from the inside."

A silence stretched through the shifting dark.

Then laughter. Slow, amused, layered with madness.

"You think you can win in my world?"

"I don't need to win," she said calmly. "I just need to get close."

Ostarius

Alfred leaned back against a wooden beam, his boots on the table. Aria was across from him, throwing peanuts at Jordan every time he tried to sneak another drink. Draken sat with his arms crossed, sipping slowly, while Veyrion argued with Kael'Thar—who, for once, appeared in his human form, white hair tied back, his usual voidwalker presence dimmed to something tolerable.

Alexandria sat near the fire, scribbling notes into a leather-bound journal with one hand, a glass of something sharp in the other.

"So let me get this straight," Jordan said, dodging a peanut. "You once suplexed a mountain spirit during a lunar eclipse and didn't write a song about it?"

"It wasn't that impressive," Aria shrugged.

"You cracked a crater in the valley," Veyrion muttered.

"With her shoulder," Draken added.

"You people need hobbies," Kael'Thar sighed.

Laughter followed. Light. Easy. For once, the tension of Krayon Sol had lifted. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

Until the door slammed open.

Everyone turned at once, hands already moving subtly to weapons, spells, instincts.

Kaiden stood in the doorway, soaked from the rain, breath sharp in his chest. His cloak clung to him, mud trailing in from his boots.

His eyes locked onto Joshua's empty chair.

"Where is he?"

Alfred stood up slowly. "Kaiden? What—"

"My mother," Kaiden said. "She's gone."

The room fell dead quiet.

Aria sat forward, peanut forgotten.

"What do you mean 'gone'?"

Kaiden took a step in. His fists were shaking. "She left two nights ago. Said she was just checking something near the ruins. I waited. I tracked. I checked everything. She's not in the city anymore. She's not anywhere."

Draken stood. "Did you feel a breach? A distortion?"

Kaiden nodded. "In the Eastern Gate. But it's gone now. Like it sealed behind her. I went to Dad first. He's already looking, but he told me to come here."

"She wouldn't vanish without a reason," Alexandria said.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Kaiden said, voice tightening.

Kael'Thar stood now too, the casual veil peeling from his posture. The hall felt colder suddenly.

"The Spiral?" he asked quietly.

"Or the Architect," Veyrion muttered.

"She knew something," Kaiden said. "She saw something. She didn't tell me."

Alfred looked around at the others. The fire behind them popped and hissed, unnoticed.

A/N

I know this chapter is somehow but I was tired today, hence, the rushed.