The gulf is yawned in between them, a wound carved straight into the Seam.

Lin stood is at the crumbling edge of the fragment, Hana at his side, the both of them staring across the void. On the far shard, Keller braced himself against the rooftop's tilting edge, the city warped and seething beneath him. For a fleeting second, their eyes met through the chaos—an unspoken recognition that if they didn't act now, they would never see each other again.

"Lin!" Keller's voice carried is like a gunshot across the gulf, raw and urgent. "Don't you dare stop!"

The shard beneath in him groaned, cracks spiderwebbing across the rooftop. Every second, his footing grew more precarious.

Hana gritted is her teeth, gripping her blade tighter. "We can't wait. The Seam's pulling him under."

Lin's glove pulsed, brighter is than ever. The energy inside it hummed, vibrating through his arm and chest, threatening to break him apart from the inside. He could feel the pull of Keller's shard—like a tether strained to snapping.

He clenched his fist. If I push it harder, maybe I can bridge the gap. Force the fragments together.

But the risk was obvious. The glove was in already unstable, its energy coursing like a storm. Push it too far, and it could burn him alive—or worse, shatter the fragment beneath them completely.

"Lin," Hana said, her is voice sharp. "I know that look. Whatever you're thinking—"

"It's the only way."

Her jaw tightened. She didn't argue. She only adjusted her stance, ready to defend him against whatever in the Seam threw their way.

On Keller's shard, the storm is intensified. The sky above twisted in spirals of black and gray, and the faceless crowd below began to climb the buildings, their limbs bending in ways no human's should. Dozens of them swarmed upward, reaching for him, clawing the air.

Keller aimed and fired, the muzzle flashes lighting up the rooftop. Each shot tore through a figure, shattering them into fragments of mist, but more kept coming. The Seam wasn't testing him anymore—it was hunting him.

He backed toward the edge, breath ragged. If Lin doesn't get here in the next thirty seconds, this shard's going to collapse with me on it.

His mind screamed at him to move, to fight harder, but a deeper voice whispered: Maybe this is it. Maybe this is where you stay.

Keller shut it out, teeth bared. "Not yet."

He fired again, reloading with practiced speed.

Lin planted his feet at the edge of his fragment. The void shimmered before him like water, endless and hungry.

"Cover me," he told Hana, his voice flat with determination.

She didn't hesitate. "Do it. I'll hold them off."

Lin raised his glove. The energy swelled instantly, responding to his will. The air bent around him, humming louder and louder until Hana had to grit her teeth against the pressure.

He focused on Keller's shard, the glow in the distance. Anchor. Pull. Bridge.

A line of light snapped into existence between the two fragments, jagged and unstable, like a cracked beam of glass. It wavered violently, threatening to break with every heartbeat.

Lin's muscles screamed as he poured more energy into it, forcing the shards closer. His vision blurred, sparks dancing in the corners of his eyes.

"Lin!" Hana shouted over the roar of the Seam. "Don't burn yourself out!"

He didn't answer.

Step by step, the line thickened, forming a trembling pathway of broken shards suspended in the void. Pieces of Seoul—crosswalks, staircases, neon signs—fused together into a surreal bridge.

On the other side, Keller's eyes widened. He didn't need an explanation. He holstered his gun, sprinting toward the edge of his collapsing rooftop.

But the Seam wasn't idle.

The faceless figures climbing Keller's building shrieked, their voices like tearing metal. They leapt for him, clawing at his arms and legs. He kicked one back, slammed the butt of his gun into another's head, but their numbers grew.

On Lin and Hana's side, more illusions formed from the mist—soldiers, mentors, ghosts of their past, all screaming their names, rushing forward to swarm the bridge.

Hana roared, blade flashing in brutal arcs. "Back off!" Her strikes split illusions apart, scattering them into the void, but every cut seemed to summon two more.

Lin's knees buckled as the glove's light flared dangerously. "Just a little more—"

The bridge shuddered, then stabilized.

"Keller! Go!" Lin shouted.

Keller didn't hesitate. He sprinted, leaping from the rooftop onto the jagged shards. The ground beneath him cracked immediately, threatening to drop into the abyss, but he kept running.

The faceless figures followed, pouring across the fragments like a tide. Keller fired into them as he moved, each shot blowing apart another pursuer, but they never slowed.

Ahead, Hana slashed open a path, her blade ringing with each strike. "Faster, Keller!"

"I'm working on it!" he barked, nearly losing his footing as a shard gave way under his boot.

Lin strained, every muscle shaking as he held the bridge together. His vision swam red, his breath coming in short, ragged bursts. The glove's energy surged into overdrive, a roaring storm that threatened to consume his arm entirely.

He screamed through clenched teeth. "Almost—there!"

Keller was only meters away now, his boots hammering the shards. Hana extended a hand toward him, ready to grab.

"Jump!" she shouted.

Keller launched himself forward, arms outstretched. For a single, impossible moment, it looked like he would make it—their hands inches from locking, their reunion certain.

But the Seam screamed.

The gulf widened violently, shards breaking apart beneath them. The bridge shattered, the fragments disintegrating into dust.

Keller's hand brushed Hana's fingertips—so close, so achingly close—before the void tore between them.

Lin's glove erupted in a blinding flare, the shockwave hurling all three of them in different directions.

The last thing Lin saw before the light swallowed him was Keller's face, suspended in the void, eyes burning with refusal even as the gulf swallowed him whole.

To be continued.

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