The darkness surrounding Eren gave way to... nothing.
Not blackness, not shadows, not even the empty void that lay between realms. It was a peculiar absence—the lack of anything that could be perceived by mortal senses. No sound, no light, no texture beneath his feet. Even the air had no temperature, as if the concept of hot and cold had never existed here.
Eren's eyes strained in the emptiness, seeking something—anything—to fix upon. His mind, accustomed to processing sensory information, rebelled against this sensory deprivation. His chest tightened with a primal fear that threatened to overwhelm his carefully cultivated control.
"Breathe, Veilwalker," Kaida's voice somehow reached him, though it seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. "Your mind struggles to comprehend what it has never been designed to perceive. We stand in the space between existence and nonexistence—the threshold where reality can be reshaped."
