<h4>Chapter 169: Chapter 169: Visitors from Beyond</h4>


    The sky tore open like paper.


    ra grabbed Jake and Lily, pulling them close as purple lightning crackled through the massive hole above their heads. They’d been running for hours since escaping the bunker, but now there was nowhere left to go.


    "What is that?" Darian shouted over the howling wind.


    Through the tear in the sky, they could see another world. A ce where the ground was made of crystal and three moons hung in a green sky. And something wasing through.


    "Not something," Emma corrected, her silver eyes wide with terror. "Someone."


    A figure stepped out of the hole in the sky and floated down toward them. It looked almost human, but its skin was pale blue and its hair moved like it was underwater. When it spoke, its voice sounded like music and breaking ss at the same time.


    "So these are the children who woke the Devourer," the creature said, studying them with eyes that sparkled like stars.


    "Who are you?" ra demanded, stepping in front of her kids.


    "I am Lyra of the Crystal Realm. And you have made a terrible mistake."


    More figures began emerging from the sky tear. Some had wings made of light. Others looked like they were carved from stone. One appeared to be made entirely of flowing water.


    "We felt the ancient hunger stirring," said a creature that looked like a walking tree. "Across seventeen dimensions, we felt it wake."


    "You don’t understand," Kael said desperately. "We didn’t wake it on purpose. We were trying to save our children."


    The water-creatureughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. "Save them? Child, you have doomed not just your world, but all worlds."


    Emma stepped forward, even though her legs were shaking. "Are you here to help us or hurt us?"


    Lyra tilted her head, studying the five-year-old girl. "That depends. Show me your power, young seer."


    "I don’t want to. My visions hurt now."


    "Show me anyway."


    Emma looked at her parents. ra nodded sadly. They needed these strange beings as allies, not enemies.


    Emma closed her eyes. Her silver light began to glow, but this time it was different. Instead of just seeing the future, she was seeing other ces. Other worlds.


    "I can see your home," Emma whispered. "It’s beautiful. But there’s something wrong with it."


    Lyra’s face went pale. "What do you see?"


    "Darkness spreading. Your crystal trees are dying. Your people are disappearing."


    "When?" the tree-creature demanded urgently.


    Emma’s eyes snapped open, full of tears. "It already started. Three days ago."


    The dimensional visitors looked at each other with growing fear.


    "The Devourer moves faster than we thought," the stone-creature rumbled. "If it’s already reached the Crystal Realm..."


    "What is this Devourer thing?" Ronan asked.


    The water-creature flowed closer. "The first evil. The thing that existed before light, before life, before hope. We thought it was destroyed eons ago."


    "But it wasn’t destroyed," Lyra said grimly. "It was only sleeping. And your children’s power was like a dinner bell."


    Baby Marcus, still possessed by the ancient evil, giggled from Darian’s arms. When he spoke, it was still in that horrible old voice: "Hello, little friends from far away. I remember you."


    All the dimensional beings stepped back in horror.


    "It knows us," the tree-creature whispered.


    "Of course I know you," Marcus said with his too-wide smile. "I ate your grandparents."


    Jake suddenly went rigid. The animals around them - birds, squirrels, even insects - all started making the same sound at once. A low, terrified humming.


    "What are they saying?" Lily asked her twin brother.


    Jake’s eyes werepletely white now. "They’re not talking to me anymore. Something else is using them."


    The animal chorus got louder. And now they could understand the words:


    "Moreing. More hungry ones. Different hungry ones."


    "What does that mean?" ra asked frantically.


    Emma grabbed her mother’s hand. "It means the Devourer wasn’t the only thing sleeping. Our power woke up other things too."


    As if summoned by her words, more tears appeared in the sky. But these ones were different colors - red, ck, sickly yellow. And the thingsing through them were nothing like the first visitors.


    "Blood Feeders," Lyra gasped. "And Dream Stealers. And..." She pointed at a particrly nasty-looking hole. "Oh no. Void Walkers."


    "What do all those things want?" Kael demanded.


    "The same thing the Devourer wants," the stone-creature said sadly. "To feed on your children’s power until there’s nothing left."


    Creatures began pouring out of the holes in the sky. Some looked like giant bats with human faces. Others were just floating darkness with too many eyes. The worst ones looked almost normal, except they cast no shadows and their smiles never reached their eyes.


    "We came to warn you," Lyra said urgently. "But we’re toote. They’re all here now."


    "How many dimensions are we talking about?" Tobias asked. He’d been quiet this whole time, but now his face was white with fear.


    "All of them," the water-creature replied. "Every realm of existence that feeds on power and pain. Your children are like a beacon calling to everything evil in the universe."


    Emma started crying. "It’s my fault. If I hadn’t used my power so much..."


    "No, sweetheart," ra said, hugging her daughter. "You were trying to help."


    "But now everyone’s in danger because of us."


    Lily walked over to the possessed baby Marcus. "Can we make the bad thing leave him alone?"


    "I wouldn’t try that," Lyra warned. "The Devourer is using him as an anchor. If you force it out..."


    "What happens?"


    "Your brother dies."


    The sky tears were getting bigger. More creatures poured through every second. And they were all heading straight for the children.


    "We have to split up," Darian said desperately. "If we’re all together, we’re too easy to find."


    "No," Emma said firmly. Her silver eyes were glowing again. "I can see what happens if we split up. It’s worse."


    "What do you see?"


    "They hunt us down one by one. And without each other..." Emma’s voice broke. "Without each other, we’re not strong enough to fight back."


    The first wave of monsters reached them. A Blood Feeder swooped down toward Jake, its fangs gleaming.


    But before it could touch him, Lily stepped forward. Her healing power red, but backward. Instead of healing the creature, she made its hunger so strong that it forgot about Jake and started eating itself.


    "Did you know you could do that?" Ronan asked in amazement.


    "No," Lily said, looking surprised. "But the power feels different now. Bigger."


    Emma nodded. "All our powers are growing. The more danger we’re in, the stronger we get."


    "That might be the only thing that saves us," Lyra said. "But there’s something you need to know."


    "What?"


    "Power like yours... ites with a price. The stronger you be, the more you change. Eventually, you might not be human anymore."


    ra’s heart broke. "What will they be?"


    "Something new. Something that’s never existed before."


    More monsters circled overhead. The dimensional visitors were preparing their own powers to fight. And baby Marcus wasughing that awfulugh again.


    But then Emma gasped.


    "What is it?" Kael asked.


    "I just saw something terrible in the future."


    "What now?"


    Emma looked at her family with eyes full of ancient sadness.


    "The monsters aren’t the real problem. Neither is the Devourer."


    "Then what is?"


    "Us. We’re going to be so powerful that we identally destroy everything we’re trying to save."


    A Dream Stealer dove toward them, its ws extended.


    And as Emma raised her hand to defend her family, silver fire poured from her fingers - fire that didn’t just burn the monster, but erased it from existencepletely.


    "It’s already starting," she whispered in horror. "I can’t control it anymore."


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