The notifications had been there for a while...
Blinking, stacking and flashing insistently at the far left edge of West's vision.
However, West hadn't noticed.
Not with Aria still straddling him moments ago.
Not with her warmth, her breath, the electric tension still lingering in the air.
The system, however, did not wait for consent.
> [ WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! ]
[ VACATE PREMISES IMMEDIATELY ]
[ LARGE-SCALE SPATIAL WARPING DETECTED ]
[ 3… ]
[ 2… ]
[ 1… ]
"I want you to fuck me!"
West's eyes snapped wide but not because of Aria's statement... But because, he noticed the notifications at the last moment.
"What—"
The world collapsed as a crushing pressure descended from above as though an invisible hand had seized the entire neighborhood and pressed it downward.
The air trembled, metal groaned, concrete wailed, glass vibrated violently before imploding.
Gravity twisted as the floor lurched.
Aria screamed. "Kiarrhhh!"
The windows outside warped like liquid as the streetlights bent at impossible angles before snapping out of existence. The sky folded inward, replaced by something darker and then....
There was a brief silence...
And the world reformed.
West staggered as his apartment slammed back into place but it no longer seemed like his apartment.
They seemed to have been transported to a somewhat underground space.
Deep underground...
The room still existed, but everything was wrong.
The walls were cracked and veined with glowing fractures that throbbed faintly like alien arteries. The ceiling was partially collapsed with chunks of concrete floating midair before slowly settling as if gravity itself were unsure.
Outside, through what had once been a window, West saw a nightmare.
Buildings still stood but they were ancient now.
Crumbling towers leaned at impossible angles as their surfaces were eaten away by corrosion that shimmered with unnatural hues. Greenish-black rust, crystalline growths and veins of dull violet light crawled along broken facades.
The ground was uneven and fractured into rough slabs separated by deep fissures that exhaled faint mist. Strange symbols were etched into the streets, half-buried, half-broken and glowing faintly as if awakening after centuries of slumber.
The air was really thick... every breath carried a metallic tang mixed with something foreign. ozone, rot, and faint sweetness that made the skin prickle.
It looked like the aftermath of an apocalypse.
Or the remains of a civilization that had never belonged to Earth.
"…West?" Aria whispered, voice trembling.
She clutched his arm tightly, knuckles white, eyes darting wildly as she took in their surroundings.
West swallowed.
He didn't need the system to tell him what this was.
"This is a ruin," he said quietly.
Her head snapped toward him.
"No—no, that's not possible," she said rapidly. "Ruins don't just—appear in residential areas."
"They do," West replied grimly. "Rarely. But when they do… it's always bad."
Aria's breathing became erratic.
"But… but no civilians are supposed to be inside," she said, panic seeping into her voice. "Awakened teams clear them first. Gangs—"
"We didn't get evacuated," West stated. "This was an unforseen circumstance... no one expected it."
Her face drained of color.
Ruin lore flooded his mind as he recalled everything he'd read... everything he'd heard whispered online.
Ruins were death zones.
Reality fractures where laws bent, monsters manifested, and ancient mechanisms reactivated without warning. Even awakened fighters didn't enter alone.
That was why gangs existed. Not only did they have awakened abilities, they also had numbers.
And unfortunately, neither West nor Aria was an awakened. The situation seemed incredibly perilous.
The building trembled violently causing chunks of ceiling to collapse nearby, smashing into the floor with deafening crashes. The walls began to shear apart with long cracks splitting them from floor to ceiling.
"West!" Aria screamed.
"We're leaving," he said instantly. "Now."
He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the stairwell.
The stairs were already failing.
Entire sections had collapsed, leaving gaping voids where concrete and steel should have been. The stairwell tilted at a sickening angle, groaning as its supports snapped one by one.
Aria screamed again as debris rained down.
West immediately lifted her into his arms.
"What—West—!"
"Hold on," he ordered.
He jumped and his legs slammed onto the next intact landing. His knees buckled due to the impact but he didn't fall. His strengthened muscles held.
He leaped again and again from platform to platform, avoiding the crumbling parts.
Fortunately, his current substats kept him moving.
Behind them, the building continued to die.
Steel beams bent like paper. Entire walls peeled away and vanished into the darkness below.
They reached the lowest remaining leved and were forced to stop.
There were no stairs left... only open air.
The ground below was quite distant... no less than fifteen feet.
Aria knees shook violently as she stared down.
"West… I can't…"
He set her down gently and met her gaze.
"Listen to me," he voiced with a firm tone. "You trust me, right?"
She nodded weakly.
"I'll jump first," he said. "Then you jump. I'll catch you."
"What if—"
"I won't miss."
Another violent tremor shook the structure reminding them that they didn't have time.
West grabbed the railing and vaulted over it, dropping from the air.
The impact was much more miniscule than he expected. He stayed upright without so much as buckling in the slightest.
"Now!" he looked upwards and yelled
Aria stood frozen for a heartbeat.
Then the floor beneath her cracked.
She screamed and jumped.
Her momentum drove him backwards by a step as West caught her mid-fall before stabilizing.
She clung to him, sobbing.
Behind them, the building finally gave up.
It collapsed inward with a thunderous roar, disappearing into rubble and dust.
Much to their surprise, they weren't alone.
People were emerging from ruined buildings... neighbors, civilians, terrified and injured. Cries and screams of different names rang out as well.
West spotted familiar faces.
"Auntie Maribel!" he called out.
She emerged from behind a cracked wall with her clothes torn but alive. Two other older women from the block stumbled toward them, eyes wide with shock.
"West!" Maribel exclaimed. "Thank goodness!"
Others gathered instinctively around him... neighbors he recognized as well.
"We can't stay here," West said loudly. "Ruins don't stabilize immediately. We need to find an exit."
"Where?" someone asked desperately.
West looked around.
The ruin stretched endlessly and all they could see around them was broken streets and buildings... with shadows that moved where they shouldn't.
"I don't know yet," he admitted. "But standing still will get us killed."
Fear rippled through the group.
Just as they were about to move...
"HELP!"
A scream tore through the air from deeper within the ruin.
West's head turned toward the sound along with everyone else.
---