Aiden hit the ground hard.
The impact knocked the air from his lungs. His vision blurred, then snapped into place as the ringing in his ears slowly faded.
He wasn't in the void anymore.
He wasn't even outside.
He was lying on a smooth metallic floor inside a long, narrow corridor—dimly lit by flickering strips of pale blue light. The walls were dented, scratched, burned. The air tasted dusty, stale, and cold.
Lyra groaned next to him, clutching her head. "Where… what is this place?"
Aiden pushed himself up, wincing from the deep gash in his shoulder—the wound left by the Architect's tendril still burning like molten iron.
The corridor felt endless. Silent. Empty.
But something in the atmosphere felt wrong.
Too still.
Too quiet.
Too aware.
Lyra glanced around, her voice tight. "This doesn't look like any part of the settlement."
Aiden agreed. Everything here looked… abandoned. But not old—more like it had been suddenly deserted. Machines stood inactive. Consoles flickered with corrupted data. Deep claw marks scarred the walls.
The Darkwave Blade vibrated faintly in his hand.
A warning.
"We move," Aiden said, his voice low. "Slow and quiet."
They stepped forward cautiously, every footstep echoing unnaturally loud through the empty corridor.
The lights above flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then dimmed completely.
Darkness flooded the passage.
Lyra whispered, "Aiden?"
"Stay close."
The blade emitted a faint dark glow, casting a rippling violet light around them.
Then the air changed.
A faint mechanical click echoed from somewhere deep inside the corridor. Followed by another. And another. Like something was awakening piece by piece.
Lyra swallowed. "Something's coming…"
Aiden heard it too—slow, methodical scraping. Metal dragging against metal. A hollow breathing sound that wasn't breath at all.
Then a distorted voice crackled through hidden speakers.
"—system… reboot… fragment detected—"
Aiden froze. The voice sounded broken, corrupted. Half human. Half machine.
Then the lights flickered again—just enough to reveal a shape at the far end of the corridor.
A silhouette.
Tall.
Motionless.
Facing them.
Lyra whispered, "Is that… a person?"
The figure took a single step.
The lights flickered again.
And this time, they saw it.
A humanoid machine—its body made from fractured plates of metal fused with synthetic tissue. Its head was smooth and featureless, except for a single vertical slit glowing with unstable white light.
Its limbs bent in unnatural angles, like its joints were assembled incorrectly. Chains hung from its arms, dragging sparks across the floor.
Aiden's heart slammed in his chest.
"Run."
The machine responded instantly—launching itself forward with blinding speed.
A shriek of twisted metal pierced the corridor as it charged, each movement jerky and violent like it was glitching through reality.
Lyra fired rapidly.
The bullets struck, but the machine didn't even flinch. It slid sideways along the wall like liquid metal, its body contorting mid-dash.
Aiden swung the blade.
The machine twisted under it—unnatural, impossible—and struck with a chain-tipped arm.
Aiden blocked barely in time, the impact sending a shock up his arm.
"What the hell is this thing?!" Lyra shouted.
The machine's voice sputtered, glitching, overlapping multiple tones.
"—Subject Zero… detected—error—containment breached—"
Subject Zero.
The same name the Architect whispered before vanishing.
Aiden's skin crawled. "This is one of his hunters."
The machine's slit-eye brightened to a blinding white.
Then it screamed.
Not a normal scream—
A warped, mechanical shriek that rattled the entire structure.
Panels flew off the walls. Consoles exploded. The corridor trembled violently.
Lyra covered her ears. "Aiden—it's destabilizing the whole place!"
He acted instantly.
He charged again—faster, harder—forcing the blade to respond. Violet light surged violently from it, crackling like unstable electricity.
The machine lashed out with chains, but Aiden cut through them, sparks flying.
He spun under the next strike and slashed the machine's leg. Metal fragments scattered.
The machine staggered—its movements spasming, glitching.
Aiden pressed the advantage.
One more strike—
Then another—
Until the machine collapsed to one knee, trembling violently.
Lyra aimed her rifle. "Aiden—finish it!"
But the machine lifted its head at the last second.
The slit-eye widened—revealing a swirling vortex of shifting data inside.
And then it spoke—clearly this time.
"He is coming for you."
Aiden froze.
"Who?"
The machine twitched, its body splitting with cracks of white energy.
The voice distorted.
"Subject Zero. The true original."
Aiden's blood ran cold.
Before he could ask anything else, the machine convulsed violently and detonated into a shockwave of white static.
The blast ripped through the corridor.
Aiden grabbed Lyra and dove behind a half-broken console as metal shards tore through the air.
The shockwave faded.
Silence followed.
Lyra breathed hard. "Aiden… what was that thing talking about? Subject Zero? The original?"
Aiden stared at the scorch mark where the machine had died. The Architect's words echoed in his mind:
"You are now a threat."
"Subject Zero will find you before I do."
Aiden's grip tightened on the blade.
"Whatever Subject Zero is…" he said slowly,
"…it's hunting me."
The corridor lights flickered again.
This time, not because of a glitch.
This time, because something else had entered the structure.
Footsteps echoed in the distance—calm, measured, predatory.
Lyra whispered, "Aiden… someone else is here."
A cold chill crawled up his spine.
He didn't know how he knew.
He didn't know why he felt it.
But every instinct in him screamed the same thing—
Subject Zero had arrived.
And it was getting closer.
[To be continued...]