The smell of the Oasis had changed. The sulfur and spice were gone, replaced by the copper tang of butchery.
Kaelen stood by the edge of the water, watching the Nomad warriors dismantle the carcass of the Sand-Worm Queen. They worked with terrifying efficiency, using obsidian blades to strip the massive chitin plates and drain the remaining liters of highly conductive blue blood into clay jars.
"It is a good harvest," Chief Krog rumbled, standing beside Kaelen. The massive mutant was cleaning his engine-block hammer with a rag. "The meat will feed the tribe for three moons. The armor will make us unkillable."
"The armor will make you resistant," Kaelen corrected, drying his hands on a clean rag Vex had handed him. "Against the Iron City's thermal cannons, chitin is just ceramic. It cracks."
He looked at the mercenaries of the Vance Company. They were keeping their distance, rifles raised, eyeing the "savages" warily. The cultural gap between the tech-reliant refugees and the strength-worshipping Nomads was a canyon wide enough to bury an army.
"Lyra," Kaelen called out.
"Sir!" Lyra jogged over, her armor still dusted with ash. She glared at Krog, her finger hovering near the trigger guard.
"Lower the weapon," Kaelen ordered flatly. "If Krog wanted you dead, he would have collapsed the cave entrance while we were fighting the worm."
He turned to the Chief.
"Krog, your warriors have strength, but they lack range. My soldiers have range, but they fold in melee."
Kaelen pointed to the two groups.
"Mix them."
"Mix?" Krog scowled. "The soft-landers are weak. They will slow my hunters down."
"Your hunters charge in straight lines," Kaelen countered. "A single machine gun nest would wipe out your entire bloodline. My 'soft-landers' can suppress that nest from 500 meters away."
He walked between the two leaders, his voice dropping to that dangerous, commanding whisper.
"I am not asking for friendship. I don't care if you hate each other. I am building a machine. You are the hammer; they are the spear. Integrated, you are a meat-grinder. Separated, you are just loot for the Church."
Krog grunted, looking at the disciplined lines of the mercenaries. He spat on the ground.
"Fine. We will teach them not to die when the ammo runs out."
"And Lyra," Kaelen turned to his lieutenant. "Teach them how not to charge a tank with a stick."
[Ding!]
[Faction Update: The Vance Alliance.]
[Integration: 10%.]
[Unit Type Unlocked: Wasteland Skirmishers (Hybrid).]
Kaelen left them to sort out the logistics. He had a bigger problem.
He walked to the sinkhole in the center of the Oasis.
The water here wasn't green like the surface pool. It was black. Pitch black. It didn't reflect the stars. It seemed to absorb the light around it.
Kaelen activated [Abyssal Sight].
The heat signature was nonexistent. It was absolute zero. But the mana density...
[System Warning.]
[Environmental Hazard: Concentrated Abyssal Fluid.]
[Mana Density: 5000%.]
[Effect: Instant organic liquefaction upon contact.]
"Acid?" Vex asked, peering over his shoulder. She tossed a pebble into the black water.
HISS.
The stone didn't splash. It dissolved into smoke before it even sank.
"Worse," Kaelen said. "Liquid Entropy. It's raw mana from the Deep Layers, unrefined by the world's atmosphere. If I jump in there, I won't drown. I'll be erased."
"So we can't go down," Seraphina said, joining them. She looked pale. The ambient mana here was so thick it was giving her a migraine. "The Chief said something 'older' is down there. Maybe we should leave it sleeping."
"The Key is screaming, Seraphina," Kaelen tapped his pocket where the artifact was vibrating violently against his hip.
"The 7th Door is at the bottom of this pit. I didn't cross a desert and eat lightning to turn back because of some bad water."
He turned to the massive carcass of the Sand-Worm Queen.
"Vex, grab the Hydraulic Claw we looted from the Scavenger King. Seraphina, I need the Portable Mana-Well. Krog, bring me the Queen's stomach lining."
"What are you building?" Vex asked, confused.
Kaelen looked at the black abyss.
"A submarine."
***
Two Hours Later.
The creation sitting on the edge of the sinkhole looked like a nightmare birthed from a fever dream.
It was a sphere made from the curved chitin plates of the Queen's skull, welded together with modern alloys. The joints were sealed with the Queen's own stomach lining—the only material resistant to the Abyssal Fluid.
Attached to the front was the Hydraulic Claw, re-purposed as a grappling arm. On the back, the Portable Mana-Well hummed, powering a localized repulsion shield to handle the crushing pressure.
"It's ugly," Vex critiqued, tapping the hull. "And it smells like gut-rot."
"It's distinct," Kaelen corrected. He checked the seals. "It holds pressure. That's all that matters."
"It only seats one," Seraphina noted, looking at the cramped cockpit. "You're going alone."
"The fluid interferes with mana," Kaelen explained. "If I take you, your connection to the System might sever. You'd suffocate. I have the [Sin Eater]. I can metabolize the corruption if the hull breaches."
He didn't mention that if the hull breached, he would likely mutate into an abomination before he died. Details.
Kaelen climbed into the cockpit. It was tight. Panels of scavenged tech blinked around him.
"Seal it," Kaelen ordered over the comms.
Krog stepped forward. He placed the final chitin plate over the hatch and sealed it with a resin made from the Queen's blood.
Darkness.
Kaelen flipped a switch. The internal lights flickered on—a sickly red emergency glow.
"Launching in 3... 2... 1..."
The Nomads pushed the sphere.
SPLASH.
The sphere hit the black water.
Immediately, the [Abyssal Fluid] reacted. It hissed and boiled around the hull. The Mana-Well groaned as it flared the shields to 100%.
[Hull Integrity: 98%.]
[Depth: 10 meters.]
Kaelen pushed the control stick forward. The sphere sank.
It wasn't like diving in water. It was like sinking through molasses. The darkness outside the viewport was absolute. Even the high-beams of the sphere only penetrated five feet.
[Depth: 100 meters.]
The pressure warning light started blinking. The chitin plates creaked.
'This isn't just a hole,' Kaelen realized. 'It's a tear in reality. I'm crossing the dimensional barrier.'
Shadows danced in the fluid outside. Not fish. Things with too many eyes. Things made of smoke and teeth. They bumped against the sphere, testing the shield, then recoiled from the repulsing light.
[Passive Effect: The Abyssal Sovereign.]
[The lesser entities recognize you. They are fleeing.]
"Good," Kaelen muttered. "Make way for the King."
[Depth: 500 meters.]
Suddenly, the sensor display cleared.
The black fluid ended abruptly.
The sphere burst out of the "water" and fell into open air.
"What?" Kaelen gasped.
He fired the thrusters, slowing the descent.
He wasn't underwater anymore. He was in a massive, subterranean cavern. The "water" above him was suspended by a gravity inversion field—a ceiling of black liquid.
And below him...
It was a city.
Not a ruin. A pristine, glowing city of obsidian and silver spires, lit by violet crystals that grew from the cavern floor. It stretched for miles.
And in the center of the city stood a massive gate.
The 7th Door.
It was a ring of black metal, fifty meters high, pulsing with the same rhythm as the Key in Kaelen's pocket.
[Location Discovered: The Lost City of Aethelgard (The First Layer).]
[Status: Sealed.]
Kaelen piloted the sphere down, landing in the plaza before the great gate. The landing gear crunched on white stone tiles.
He checked the atmosphere sensors.
[Atmosphere: Breathable.]
[Mana Density: High (Abyssal alignment).]
"Breach the seal," Kaelen ordered himself.
He popped the hatch.
The air was cold and sterile. Silence hung heavy over the city. There were no bodies. No signs of battle. Just empty, perfect buildings.
Kaelen jumped down, his boots echoing loudly.
He walked toward the 7th Door. The Key in his pocket was now burning hot. He pulled it out. It was glowing so brightly it hurt to look at.
"I found it," Kaelen whispered. "The entrance to the Abyss."
He stepped onto the dais.
CLICK.
The sound of a weapon cocking echoed through the plaza.
Kaelen froze. He didn't turn around. His [Abyssal Sight] hadn't picked up any heat signatures.
"Step away from the gate, Subject Zero," a voice said.
It wasn't a monster's growl. It was a digital, synthesized voice.
Kaelen turned slowly.
Standing twenty meters away was a figure. It was humanoid, but its skin was made of polished white porcelain. No face. Just a smooth surface with a single, vertical glowing eye. It wore robes made of shifting data streams.
[System Analysis.]
[Target: Unknown.]
[Rank: Error.]
[Identity: Guardian Model 007 - "The Librarian".]
"Subject Zero?" Kaelen asked, his hand drifting to his sword. "My name is Kaelen Vance."
"That is the designation of the shell," the Librarian replied. Its voice came from everywhere at once. "But the Variable inside is Zero."
The Librarian raised a hand. The air around Kaelen solidified, locking him in place.
[Warning: Admin Privileges Detected.]
[Movement: Disabled.]
"You are early," the Librarian tilted its head. "The script stated you would arrive at Level 40. You are Level 17. This is a deviation."
Kaelen strained against the invisible bonds. His muscles screamed.
"I don't follow scripts," Kaelen gritted out.
"Evidently."
The Librarian lowered its hand. The pressure increased, forcing Kaelen to his knees.
"The 7th Door leads to the Root Directory," the Librarian explained emotionlessly. "You are not authorized to view the source code. Protocol dictates deletion."
A beam of white light began to charge in the Librarian's single eye.
'Deletion?' Kaelen's mind raced. 'Not death. Deletion. This thing isn't part of the world. It's part of the System.'
He couldn't fight an Admin with a sword. He needed a glitch.
He looked at the Key in his hand. It wasn't just a key. It was a fragment of the Abyss.
"System!" Kaelen roared.
"Identify the Key!"
[Object: Admin Access Token (Corrupted).]
Kaelen smiled.
"Hey, Librarian!" Kaelen shouted, holding the glowing shard up. "You want to delete me? You'll have to delete the key too!"
The Librarian paused. The charging light flickered.
"That Token..." the Librarian's voice glitched.
"That belongs to... User: VANCE_PRIME."
"Vance Prime?" Kaelen froze.
Father?
"Where did you get that?" The Librarian took a step forward, the killing intent vanishing, replaced by algorithmic confusion.
"I stole it from the script," Kaelen lied, gambling everything. "Now let me up. Or I break it."
He squeezed the Key. It cracked slightly.
"Halt!" The Librarian raised both hands. "Do not damage the Token. The integrity of the partition depends on it."
The invisible pressure vanished.
Kaelen stood up, gasping for air. He held the Key like a grenade.
"We need to talk," Kaelen said, staring down the faceless entity. "About who wrote this script."