He didn't look back at the Arbiter or the seething Void in the Heart. He focused everything – the cosmic power, the human will, the desperate hope – into a single, resolute command to the Dimension Control Ring.
"TAKE US HOME."
Light, not of dissolution, but of transition, enveloped them. The last thing Ash saw was the Arbiter, their starlight form blazing as they turned to face the enraged Void surging within the Heart, ready to hold the line as the Nexus began to seal the dimensional wound behind the escaping Conduit.
Then, the Nexus vanished, replaced by the blinding, beautiful, terrifying unknown of the open doorway.
***
The transition wasn't smooth. It was a violent rupture. One moment, they were bathed in the harmonized light of the Nexus. The Arbiter's starlight form blazed against the Void's fury. The next, reality tore.
It felt less like stepping through a door. It felt more like being vomited from the throat of the cosmos.
