Adrasteia was still quiet.
There were no sirens. No troops on the perimeter.
But there was one room—deep, small, and unused since the first day the region was founded—that changed that day.
It used to be called:
The Backup Inversion Room.
Built as a redundancy in case the main room was damaged.
Never used. Never opened.
And that morning,
it opened by itself.
Three residents who happened to pass by reported the same thing:
"The first step… it felt like walking in a regular room."
"The second step… the smell of the air changed."
"The third step… I no longer see Adrasteia."
Rina came. Shia followed.
The room was undamaged. No cracks.
However, the directions inside did not follow the geography of the area.
Every corner seemed to open to another place—not a dimension, but a part of the world that had been sealed off by the Faction.
Rina's first step opened the door on the right, and beyond it, she saw the transparent towers that were no longer intact.
