The sovereign's body crashed against the valley floor like a collapsing constellation. Star‑bone splintered, sending ripples of fractured starlight through the ground. The shockwave knocked Lauri backward; Mei caught him mid‑fall, her arms tightening around him with a desperation that made his newly awakened meridian throb.
"Don't move," she whispered—not as an order, but as a plea.
But the shadowed hand reaching through the tear didn't slow.
It stretched toward Lauri's chest, toward the still‑glowing trace of his boundary technique—toward the very thread that defined his being.
Yanmei appeared between them, sword raised, eyes blazing with a mixture of fury and fear.
"Over my dead body," she hissed.
The entity didn't even look at her.
The shadowed hand continued forward, ignoring steel, ignoring qi, ignoring the very rules that governed the realm.
Yanmei swung.
Steel met shadow.
For an instant, the valley held its breath.
Then the sword cracked.
Not from force—
but from truth.
The metal simply couldn't exist in the same concept of reality as the intruder's essence.
Yanmei stumbled backward, staring at the fractured blade in disbelief.
"I've fought nightmares," she muttered. "But this… this is something that was old before nightmares learned to crawl."
Mei pushed Lauri behind her again and raised both hands.
Two jade circles appeared, spinning slowly, gathering momentum.
The air hummed.
Her eyes glowed brighter than the tear itself.
"Touch him," she whispered, "and I swear on the Walker's Path—I will unmake you."
The entity paused.
Not out of fear.
Out of recognition.
"…Daughter of the Jiang Gate," it breathed.
Mei flinched.
The world reacted instantly—
Yanmei's head snapped toward her.
Lauri felt the jade light flicker.
The Rift Sovereign, still bleeding cosmic ichor, twisted sharply despite its wounds.
"You—" the sovereign rasped.
"You hide that lineage… even from him?"
The shadowed entity pushed harder.
The tear widened.
The valley darkened.
Lauri felt his heartbeat shift again—
a cold pulse
a northern echo
a rhythm born not of fear, but of determination.
Sisu.
Always sisu.
Even now.
"Enough," Lauri said softly.
Mei froze.
Yanmei blinked.
Even the sovereign lifted its head.
Lauri stepped forward.
A thin trail of frost followed him, marking each footstep with a delicate, luminous pattern—like runes only winter could understand.
His chest glowed faintly.
The first meridian had fully awakened.
Not through guidance.
Not through manuals.
Not through an elder's teachings.
But through choice.
He didn't raise his fist.
He didn't shout.
He didn't try to be a hero.
He simply looked at the entity and said:
"You killed my mother."
The entity stopped.
For the first time, its form flickered.
Not from weakness.
From surprise.
Lauri raised his hand, palm glowing like northern dawn.
"I don't know what you are. I don't know what you want. But I know this: I am not running."
A pulse of white qi radiated from him.
Mei gasped.
Yanmei staggered.
Even the sovereign's wound quieted for a moment.
The entity hissed—not with anger.
With hunger.
"Your thread… ripens."
It lunged.
Mei reacted instantly.
Yanmei moved.
The sovereign roared.
But none were fast enough.
The shadowed hand reached Lauri's chest—
—just as his meridian flared.
A blinding white ring of frost erupted outward, a perfect circle snapping into existence like a halo forged from the northern horizon.
The entity shrieked, its form buckling under the sudden inversion of qi.
The tear destabilized.
Clouds imploded.
Mountains trembled.
Mei grabbed Lauri's arm.
"Lauri—we have to go! NOW!"
The sovereign raised its remaining strength and slammed a star‑bone fist into the ground. A protective dome of fractured constellations formed around them.
"Jade Frost Pavilion!" it roared.
"Take him there! Their barriers can hold him—if only for a time!"
Yanmei grabbed Mei's other arm.
"Incoming teleportation rift!" Yanmei shouted. "Hold him steady!"
Lauri blinked as frost spread across his eyelashes.
His vision blurred.
Not from injury—
but from too much information.
Threads.
Thousands of threads.
Every living thing.
Every qi ripple.
Every karmic tie.
He could see them.
Mei cupped his face with trembling hands.
"Stay with me," she whispered.
And for a brief moment, the noise of the world faded.
There was only her.
Her warmth.
Her jade light.
"Trust the jump," she said softly.
"I've got you."
The teleport rift snapped open—
a spiraling vortex of silver and jade.
Yanmei shoved them all inside just as the entity tore fully into the realm.
A last scream followed them:
"LAURI KALLIO—YOUR THREAD IS MINE!"
The teleportation closed.
Silence.
Darkness.