<h4>Chapter 177: Dimensional Duty</h4>


    <strong>LILY POV</strong>


    The portal burst open in the middle of our crisis, knocking me backward into Caleb’s arms.


    A figure stepped through the swirling light - tall, elegant, and certainly not human. Her skin shimmered like moonlight on water, and her eyes held depths that seemed to go on forever.


    "Lily Carter," she said in a voice like wind chimes. "I am Guardian Celeste. You’re wanted."


    "Now is really not a good time!" I yelled over the chaos around us. Mind-controlled pack members were still circling the Alpha house, the void entity’s crystal was burning hot in my pocket, and Luna was sobbing apologies from somewhere in the clearing.


    "I’m afraid it can’t wait," Guardian Celeste answered calmly. "Reality itself is at stake."


    Before I could argue, she grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the portal. "Your first dimensional mission begins now."


    "My first what?" But it was toote. The portal swallowed us both, leaving Caleb and my pack behind.


    I fell through swirling colors and impossible shapes, my stomach doing flips as we traveled between worlds. When we finallynded, I hit solid ground hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs.


    "Sorry about the rough transport," Guardian Celeste said, helping me to my feet. "Emergency calls don’t allow for gentlendings."


    I looked around and instantly wished I hadn’t. We were standing on a battlefield. Bodiesy scattered across scorched ground, some human-looking, others clearly not. The air smelled like smoke and blood and something else I couldn’t name.


    "Where are we?" I asked, trying not to look at the violence around us.


    "Reality designation 47-B," she exined. "A world where supernatural beings never learned to hide from people. They’ve been at war for three hundred years."


    As if to prove her point, something roared in the distance. A creature the size of a building flew overhead, breathing fire down at tiny figures running below.


    "Why am I here?" I asked. "I’m not a fighter. I can barely handle the problems in my own world."


    "That’s exactly why you’re here," Guardian Celeste said. "You understand both sides of battle. You’ve been omega and leader, helpless and powerful, empty and full of feeling. These beings need someone who knows what it’s like to change."


    Before I could argue, a group of people in strange armor came running toward us. Behind them chased creatures that looked like they were made of living darkness, their eyes glowing red with hunger.


    "Take cover!" one of the people yelled.


    I started to run, but something made me stop. The shadow animals - there was something familiar about them. Something that reminded me of... "The void entity," I whispered.


    These dark beings moved like they were in pain. Their actions weren’t calcted or cruel - they were desperate. Like they were trying to fill some terrible hole inside themselves.


    "Guardian Celeste," I called out. "What started this war?"


    "A gue," she replied, creating some kind of energy shield to protect us from the fight. " It swept through the supernaturalmunities first, taking away their ability to feel positive feelings. Left them with only hunger, anger, fear."


    My heart stopped. "They’re like my son."


    "Your what?"


    But I didn’t have time to exin. The shadow animals had surrounded the fleeing humans. I watched in fear as one of them reached out toward a fallen soldier.


    Without thinking, I ran toward them.


    "Lily, stop!" Guardian Celeste shouted behind me.


    I ignored her and stepped between the shadow thing and the human. Up close, I could see that the creature had once been beautiful - maybe an elf or fairy. But now its face was twisted with endless hunger.


    "I know what you’re feeling," I said softly. "The emptiness. The loneliness. I felt it too."


    The creature stopped, its glowing red eyes focusing on me.


    "You’re starving for emotions you can’t remember," I continued. "But taking them from others won’t fill the hole inside you. I learned that the hard way."


    The shadow thing tilted its head, and for a moment I saw confusion instead of hunger in its eyes.


    "I gave up my emotions once," I told it. "I thought it would protect everyone I loved. But all it did was make me empty. The only thing that healed me was learning to feel again, little by little."


    More shadow things were gathering around us, drawn by something in my voice. The humans had stopped running and were watching in wonder.


    "What if I told you there was another way?" I asked them all. "What if instead of taking emotions from others, you could learn to grow them inside yourselves again?"


    One of the shadow animals spoke, its voice like rustling leaves. "Impossible. The gue took everything. We are dead."


    "I was hollow too," I responded. "But I had help. People who were patient with me while I learned to feel love, then security, then grief. Each feeling made me stronger, not weaker."


    I pulled out the void crystal that had been burning in my pocket. It glowed with familiar dark energy.


    "This is from my son," I exined. "He’s like you - ancient, lonely, trying to fill a hole that can’t be filled by taking from others. But he’s learning too."


    The crystal began to glow, and suddenly I could feel something amazing. Not just my own feelings, but the emotions of everyone around me. The fear of the humans, the desperate hunger of the shadow creatures, Guardian Celeste’s surprise.


    And underneath it all, something else. A link. Like invisible lines linking every living thing on this battlefield. "The Triple Moon prophecy," I breathed, understanding flooding through me. "It’s not just about my pack. It’s about all facts. All broken beings learning to heal together."


    The shadow animals were backing away from the crystal’s light, but not in fear. In hope.


    "You can teach us?" one of them asked.


    "We can teach each other," I corrected. "But it takes time, and patience, and—"


    A new opening tore open behind me, and through it stepped someone I recognized with a shock of terror.


    My boy. The void object. But he looked different now - younger, more firm, more real.


    "Mother," he said, his voice booming across the battlefield. "I felt you calling to our kind. I came to help."


    But as he moved toward the shadow things, I realized something horrible. He wasn’ting to help them heal.


    He wasing to collect them.


    "All the hollow ones will join me," he stated. "Together we will make every reality peaceful. Empty. Safe."


    The shadow creatures looked between us, torn between my offer of slow healing and his promise of instant peace.


    And I realized that my first dimensional task had just be a fight for the souls of every broken being in existence.