The breach site was in the northern wilderness, three hours' ride from the capital by specialized carriage.

Finn sat across from Keeva as the vehicle tore through the landscape at impossible speeds.

"How many breaches have there been this month?" Finn asked.

Keeva's amber eyes fixed on him. "Seventeen. This is the eighteenth."

Finn's eyebrows rose. "That many?"

"The frequency is increasing," she said. "Two months ago, we averaged eight per month. Before that, five." She paused. "The scholars predict by year's end, we'll be handling one every day."

Finn sucked in a breath at the implications.

One breach per day, across how many kingdoms? And each one required Transcendent intervention to stabilize. The system was already straining at the edges.

No wonder they're desperate to find and train new Transcendents quickly…

The carriage began to slow as they approached a dense forest. Through the window, Finn could see other vehicles, regular military and supply transports, already positioned in a wide perimeter.

Agents, he realized. Along with the information control team…

As they disembarked, Finn was immediately hit by the chaotic mana waves roiling around the area.

It was extremely dense, thick to near-visible levels, like heat shimmers on a hot day, except this was somewhat cold, and pulsing through the air rhythmically.

It was entirely different from what Finn remembered.

In his future timeline, chaos breaches were dangerous, yes. But they were silent. Invisible to normal perception until they opened. And even after that, you couldn't sense them unless you were an Ossuarist attuned to soul masses.

But here? In this age?

He could feel this breach like a physical presence despite not being an Ossuarist at all. The sheer mana density radiating from the tear was overwhelming.

Is this because mana levels are higher in this era? Or because the breaches themselves are fundamentally different at this stage?

"You'll get used to it." Keeva said, walking toward the center of the perimeter. "Come on. They're about to begin."

The other Transcendents were already there.

Casmir stood at the center of the clearing, staring up at a point in the air about twenty feet up, where space itself seemed to fold inward like crumpled paper.

The tear.

It pulsed with that same chaotic rhythm, leaking mana in visible waves that distorted everything around it. Purple-tinged energy bled from the edges, and through the gap, Finn could see hints of another sky.

Thalia stood to Casmir's left with her hands clasped behind her back, and her usual composed expression. Lyris was beside her, looking tense. Deacon stood slightly apart, observing the tear with those golden eyes of his.

None of them acknowledged Finn's arrival. Their attention was completely focused on the breach.

"It's nearly there," Casmir said. "Another two minutes and it'll destabilize completely."

"Then don't waste time," Thalia replied calmly.

Casmir's hands moved, and immediately the space around the tear began to shift like fabric being smoothed out by invisible fingers. The chaotic pulsing slowed fractionally as Casmir imposed structure on the spatial distortion.

Finn watched, transfixed, as the Space holder worked.

There were no chants, grand gestures or theatrical displays. Casmir's fingers simply danced like a master at work as he manipulated the fundamental geometry of reality itself, forcing the tear to conform to rules it was trying to violate.

The breach fought back.

Mana surged outward in visible waves, and the tear widened, threatening to rip itself further open.

Casmir's expression didn't change. He simply worked faster, moving his hands in complex patterns that Finn couldn't follow.

Thalia stepped forward then, raising one hand.

[Stable Framework]

The air around the breach stilled. Not literally, though, but in a way Finn could sense it. Reality itself became rigid, refusing to bend further. The structure Thalia imposed acted like scaffolding, giving Casmir something solid to work against.

But it was clear who was doing the heavy lifting.

Casmir was handling ninety percent of the work. Thalia's contribution was minimal, just enough support to make his job slightly easier.

How powerful is he already? Finn thought, reassessing the white-haired young man yet again. To stabilize a breach this size, with this much chaotic mana rampaging, mostly by himself...

Twenty minutes passed.

Finn stood behind the others, watching as Casmir systematically sealed the edges of the tear. The mana leakage slowed to a trickle. The pulsing stopped. The distortion began to smooth out.

Finally, Casmir lowered his hands.

"Stabilized," he said. "It'll hold for twelve hours at least. More than enough time to clear the other side."

"Good work," Thalia said.

Casmir didn't respond. He was already walking toward the breach, clearly intending to go through first.

Finn followed with the others as they approached the tear.

Up close, it looked like a vertical three-dimensional slash in the air. About eight feet tall and four feet wide. Through it, Finn could see the alien landscape more clearly now.

Purple sky. Dark reddish-black soil. Strange twisted vegetation that didn't quite look like plants.

Casmir stepped through without hesitation.

The others followed. Finn went last, stepping across the threshold between worlds.

At least the transition was familiar. It was seamless just like a regular Chaos Breach. With a step, Finn was on the other side.

The air was… different. Metallic and slightly acrid. The gravity felt marginally distinct enough that Finn could notice. Not particularly heavier or lighter, but just... off. Like his inner ear couldn't quite calibrate properly.

The purple sky stretched overhead, sunless but somehow still bright, like an even spread of light without any particular source.

"Stay close," Thalia said, glancing back at Finn. "Don't engage anything unless necessary. You're here to observe."

Finn nodded.

They moved as a unit, spreading out slightly but maintaining visual contact. Keeva vanished almost immediately, fading from attention even though Finn knew she was still nearby.

Just a few minutes after, the creatures of the world started to crawl out towards them.

Bobcat-like things, but wrong. With too many extra joints in their legs, eyes that glowed faintly red, and fur that looked more like chitinous plates.

They lunged from the twisted vegetation with surprising speed.

And died just as quickly.

Lyris incinerated three with a gesture, using her concept — Ignition, as Finn had come to know — to spontaneously combust the creatures.

Thalia also struck. But she only moved her fingers subtly, imposing structure on the creatures' momentum and freezing them mid-leap so Casmir could collapse the space around them, turning them into balls of gory mess.

Deacon didn't fight at all. He only casually aided by walking around and pointing out creatures before they could ambush from hiding.

The creatures were way too weak for any real effort. They had no serious magic or exquisite mana manipulation. Most of their attacks were physical — mana enhanced, yes. But still just full of aggression and rudimentary cunning.

They cleared the entire small world in less than two hours.

It was tiny — maybe ten square miles in total. The breach had opened into what seemed like a pocket dimension, a fragment of a larger plane that had somehow broken off.

By all normal standards, once they'd eliminated the local threats, the breach should begin to close on its own. The mana differential would equalize. Reality would seal the gap.

But it didn't…

The breach wasn't closing.

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