Hazeed sprinted forward, his breath ragged, the data pad clutched in his trembling hands. The ground beneath him rippled, shifting between solid matter and something far less stable—less real. The Architect loomed above, its form distorting the very fabric of existence.Goro and Mazda followed close behind, their movements sluggish as if reality itself was resisting them. The battlefield was gone, replaced by a vast, shifting void where remnants of what once existed flickered in and out of focus."Tell me you actually have a plan," Goro barked, barely keeping pace.Hazeed’s mind raced. The data pad. The countdown. The key. He had triggered something, but maybe… maybe it could still be reversed."We need to disrupt the sequence," he shouted over the howling void. "This thing isn’t just coming through—it’s rewriting the rules! If we can sever its connection, we might be able to push it back."Mazda scoffed, eyes darting to the rift above them. "And how the hell do we sever something we

The journey back to the base was agonizingly slow. Every step felt heavier, every shadow along the path seemed to stretch unnaturally. Though the air was still, an oppressive weight pressed down on them, as if the very world resisted their return.Mazda was the first to break the silence. "Alright, someone needs to say it—what the hell was that thing?"Hazeed kept walking, eyes scanning the forest warily. "I don't know.""But it knew about the Architect," Goro muttered. "And it knew we were here."The mention of the Architect sent a chill down Hazeed’s spine. They had fought, they had risked everything, and yet, the enemy they sought to destroy was still out there. Or worse—it had never truly left.As they approached the treeline leading to the outskirts of their base, a sharp noise made them freeze. A crackling hum, like static interfering with a radio signal, drifted through the air.It was faint, but distinct.The Architect was speaking again.A Warning from BeyondGoro aimed his r

Darkness pressed against Hazeed’s senses, thick and suffocating.Somewhere in the void, something watched."You are already marked."That whisper—it didn’t come from Ralvek. It didn’t come from the creature.It came from something beyond.A presence loomed, vast and formless, shifting between sight and shadow.Then—light.A blinding, searing light burst through the void, and suddenly, Hazeed was falling.—Gasp!Hazeed’s body jerked violently as he was pulled back into reality.His lungs burned as he sucked in air. His vision was blurred, but he could feel the rough texture of a blanket beneath him. A metallic scent lingered—blood."Easy, kid," Mazda’s voice cut through the haze.Hazeed blinked hard, forcing his sight to clear.They were inside a dimly lit underground chamber. The walls were reinforced steel, lined with old military crates and flickering monitors.A bunker.Goro was leaning against a table, his arm wrapped in a makeshift bandage. Mazda stood nearby, his pistol still i

A deep, gut-wrenching boom rolled through the city, rattling the ground like an earthquake. Then came the sirens—wailing across the skyline, swallowed by the sudden roar of fire and collapsing steel.Downtown was under attack.From their position deep in the bunker, Hazeed and the others felt the tremors before the emergency comms even flared to life.STATIC—Screams—Gunfire—More static.Then a voice, frantic and barely holding together:“Breach detected! We need immediate backup—”A deep, gurgling shriek cut the transmission short.Silence.Then Mazda muttered, "Yeah, we’re screwed."The city was burning.Black tendrils writhed from the epicenter of the blast, twisting through shattered buildings like living things. The sky overhead churned, the stars swallowed by a seething void. And at the heart of it all, in the middle of the ruined intersection—They stood.Dozens of them. Malformed. Hollow-eyed. Their bodies shimmered with a sickly, translucent glow—figures that should not be.Sp

The pulse in Hazeed’s chest didn’t fade. If anything, it grew stronger, thrumming in time with the Resonance Seal still clutched in his hand. The sigil was reacting—shifting—as if it had absorbed something from the Hunter.Mazda’s voice pulled him back to reality. “Kid, I asked you a question.”Hazeed swallowed hard, eyes locked onto the corpse at his feet. The Hunter’s body was dissolving, black tendrils curling away like smoke, its form unraveling into the void it had once belonged to. But even as it faded, he could still feel its presence—echoing inside him.“I—I don’t know,” he admitted. “It just… happened.”Nayla exchanged a glance with Goro, her expression unreadable. “Hazeed, what exactly did you feel when you used the Seal?”He hesitated. The memories of that other place, the void, the Architect’s looming presence—they clung to him like a second skin. He could still hear the whispers.We see you. We know you. You are one of us.“I felt them.” His voice was hoarse. “Not just th