The climb beyond the eight-hundredth step felt like a descent into another world, though their feet still rose higher into the sky. The light had changed. The atmosphere had changed. The stairs themselves were no longer stone, but something crystalline—shimmering with hues that twisted with every step, every breath, every thought. When Damien stepped onto the nine-hundredth step, the change was immediate.
It was as if the entire stairway had been waiting for this moment.
The elements did not return one by one.
They all came at once.
