Darkness swallowed everything.
Aiden felt weightless, suspended in a void so silent that even his thoughts sounded distant. A low vibration pulsed around him, as if the air itself was trembling.
Then—
A gasp tore from his chest.
He sat up violently, cold sweat dripping down his face.
The hall was gone.
Instead, he found himself on a fractured platform of metal slabs floating in a vast expanse of shifting shadows. The slabs drifted apart and back together like broken pieces of a machine trying to rebuild itself.
Lyra appeared beside him, coughing, gripping her shock rifle. "Aiden—where are we?!"
Before he could answer, a distorted hum echoed across the void. The floating slabs rearranged themselves, forming a towering circular arena.
Something moved within the shadows.
A presence too large to see…
Too old to name…
But its weight pressed upon them with crushing force.
"Aiden," Lyra whispered. "We need to leave. Now."
The shadows stirred.
A massive figure stepped forward—slow, deliberate, unnatural. It was humanoid in shape, but its body looked like interlocking plates of liquid metal constantly shifting, adapting, evolving. Its eyes were not eyes at all—just twin cores of swirling black energy.
A voice reverberated through the void.
"The Architect has awakened."
Aiden felt every muscle tighten. His instincts screamed to run, but his legs refused to obey.
The towering being lowered its head, studying him.
"Your emergence was not scheduled."
Aiden clenched his jaw. "What are you?"
The Architect's body rippled like disturbed water.
"I am the origin. The prototype. The one who engineered the first evolution."
Lyra raised her weapon. "Stay back!"
The Architect didn't even glance at her.
"You were designed to respond to the monolith's resonance," it continued, facing Aiden. "Yet your reaction exceeded all predicted outcomes."
Aiden stepped back, but the floating platform shifted aggressively, forcing him forward.
Lyra grabbed his arm. "Don't listen to it. This thing is manipulating us."
Aiden's grip tightened on the Darkwave Blade, which vibrated violently—almost uncontrollably—reacting to the Architect's presence.
The Architect's dark cores flickered.
"Ah. The anomalous weapon. The reason he chose you."
Aiden blinked. "He? Who?"
Before the answer came, the platform shuddered violently, and dozens of fissures split the void beneath them. Something wriggled out—slender, whip-like tendrils of shadow, moving like predatory vines.
Lyra fired at them. The blasts ripped through the tendrils, but for each one destroyed, two more emerged.
"They're adapting!" she shouted.
The Architect lifted a hand, and the tendrils froze instantly—suspended mid-air like insects trapped in amber.
Then they collapsed lifelessly.
"I do not permit interruptions," the Architect intoned.
Aiden staggered back. "Why bring us here?"
"You were not brought," the Architect said. "You were awakened."
Aiden's heart hammered. "Explain."
The being's form shifted, becoming sharper, more defined.
"When the settlement fell… when the Fallen Kings seized control… a contingency was initiated. A final design. A living key."
Its gaze drilled into him.
"You."
Aiden felt the void spin. "I'm not a key. I'm just a survivor."
"No," the Architect said, the void vibrating with its words. "You are the last prototype."
Before Aiden could process it, the platforms around them snapped apart into rotating rings—fast, chaotic, lethal. One wrong step would send them plunging into the abyss.
Lyra nearly slipped, but Aiden grabbed her hand.
The Architect extended its arm.
"Your evolution begins now."
A blast of energy erupted from its core.
Aiden and Lyra dove aside, the shockwave ripping through the metal as if it were wet paper. Pieces of the platform scattered in all directions.
Aiden ignited the Darkwave Blade.
Its pulse intensified—so strong it felt like it was fighting to break free of his grip.
Lyra fired at the Architect, but the blasts dissolved inches from its body, absorbed into its shifting metallic form.
"It's absorbing energy!" she yelled.
Aiden charged.
He leapt across a spinning platform, swinging the blade in a downward arc. The Architect blocked effortlessly, its arm morphing into a shield of black liquid metal.
The impact sent a shockwave rippling across the void.
Aiden was thrown backward, crashing onto another platform. The blade skidded away, humming angrily.
"Aiden!" Lyra scrambled toward him.
But a jagged spike erupted from the floor, cutting her off and nearly impaling her. She rolled, barely dodging it.
The Architect advanced, arms elongating into serrated, bladed tendrils.
"You are incomplete," it said. "You lack the final integration."
Aiden forced himself up. "Stay away from her!"
The Architect paused.
"You still cling to obsolete attachments."
It lashed forward.
A tendril swept toward Lyra—too fast for her to dodge.
Aiden sprinted.
He dove.
He grabbed her.
And the tendril speared through his shoulder.
Pain exploded through his body, white-hot and blinding.
"AIDEN!" Lyra screamed.
He collapsed to his knees, blood dripping down his arm. The Architect observed silently.
"Your reactions are irrational," it said. "Uncoded. Erratic."
Aiden glared up through the pain.
"That's what makes me human."
The Architect tilted its head.
"And that is why you are unstable."
It pulled its tendril free. Aiden staggered but remained standing.
The Darkwave Blade, lying several platforms away, suddenly trembled… then launched itself back toward him like a living creature.
Aiden caught it, sparks of dark energy surging into his arm.
The Architect paused.
"Impossible. The weapon should not—"
Aiden didn't let it finish.
He unleashed a massive arc of dark energy, tearing across the void and striking the Architect dead center. The blast actually pushed the creature back, its metallic form distorting under the impact.
Lyra gasped. "Aiden… what did you just do?!"
He didn't know.
He didn't care.
The Architect's body began knitting itself back together, but slowly—far slower than before.
It raised its head.
"You have activated the forbidden layer."
Aiden's pulse pounded. "Tell me what that means."
The Architect slowly extended one finger toward him.
"It means… you're no longer just a prototype."
Its voice vibrated with something almost resembling fear.
"You are now a threat."
Before Aiden could react—
The void cracked.
Platforms shattered.
The Architect vanished into the fracture like smoke.
Aiden and Lyra plummeted downward, weightless, helpless, the dark abyss swallowing them whole.
As they fell, a final whisper echoed around Aiden:
"Subject Zero will find you before I do."
Then everything dissolved into blinding white.
And the truth came closer.