The opening monologue:
The camera drifts over the fractured Door, its edges jagged and molten-black. Beyond it lies… nothing familiar. The corridors stretch into impossible darkness, metal walls groaning as if alive. Light bends unnaturally. Every sound echoes, warped. Lullaby steps forward, small shadow in the void. The Orb Companion hovers beside him, pulsing softly, almost whispering: "We are seen."
"Everything beyond… moves, breathes, and remembers. It watches. And yet… it does not understand me… yet," Lullaby mutters, voice swallowed by the echoing halls.
---
Echoing Threshold
Lullaby walks the first corridors. The floor hums beneath him. Gravity loops occasionally toss him sideways; shadows stretch unnaturally across walls. Void Mites scuttle in swarms along the ceiling, red eyes glinting. Luminous Watchers float in the air, color-shifting, blinking warnings—or teasing him.
A floor panel collapses. The Orb pulses, stabilizing it just as he leaps. The faint, steady pulse beneath the metal—the heartbeat of something far older—sends a chill down his spine. The Beyond is aware of him. He feels it, and it is hungry for memories.
---
Shattered Atrium
The next zone opens to a sky of black nothingness, floating islands suspended in erratic gravity. Pools of black liquid essence reflect fractured, impossible versions of Lullaby himself. Shadows flicker, not always in sync with reality.
From the reflections, they emerge: Shadow-Glass Predators. They move without sound, slipping between the shards of reality. One Alpha stalks him, predicting, reading emotions, eyes like cracks in night. Lullaby's pulse quickens. The Orb flares, blinding the Alpha briefly. Lullaby leaps from island to island, flipping with gravity loops, dodging tendrils of darkness that reach from the void itself.
"I can't… I won't… let them take me like them," he whispers, teeth clenched. The Orb chimes in rhythm, anchoring him.
---
The Luminous Abyss
Rivers of glowing essence cut across a cavernous expanse. Lullaby uses the Orb to form stepping platforms, but some collapse under him, energy leaking into the black liquid. Bioluminescent Watchers flicker around him—guiding, misleading, teasing.
Shadows of Homelight shimmer in the river. Voices of lost kin echo: mother, elders, friends. Guilt presses heavy. He nearly falls into despair. But the Orb projects stabilizing light, golden threads anchoring him to his path.
Something clicks. His memories pulse outward, subtly shaping the environment. A rock rises where it shouldn't. Gravity tilts in his favor. His resonance… works. For the first time, he feels the Beyond bend just slightly to him.
---
The Black Spine
Endless spines rise, black and fractured, piercing void above and below. Time stretches and snaps. Spine Behemoths lumber along the ridges, enormous shadows distorting reality. Corrupted Gearborn Sentinels patrol mechanically, eyes glinting with Eldritch energy.
Lullaby leaps across floating platforms, dodging falling metal. He focuses, letting his memory resonance interact with the environment—pushing a Sentinel into a Behemoth, destabilizing it, opening a path forward. He watches the shadows ripple across the spines, glimpses of absorbed Galabies flickering. His chest tightens. They're here. Somewhere.
---
Reflection
He finds a shard of floating metal and perches, overlooking the abyss. The Orb glows warmly, illuminating the void.
"I survived… but surviving isn't enough. I will find them. I will uncover everything the Beyond hides."
The camera pans upward. In the distance, a massive shadow looms: the Absorbing Cathedral. The Beyond shifts, listening. Waiting.
"The Beyond doesn't just test strength," Lullaby whispers to himself. "It tests your mind, your memory, your soul. And if I fail… I won't just be lost… I'll be forgotten."