Victor stood at the edge of the Fractured Descent, where the Black Zone finally shed all pretense of being land. Ahead of him, space itself seemed to have been broken and reassembled incorrectly.
There was no ground nor sky... only a vast, yawning nothingness, punctuated by floating stone platforms of varying size and distance.
Some were cracked and ancient.
Some were pristine.
Some shimmered faintly, as though they weren't fully real.
Beneath them was nothingness...
No mist. No darkness. No depth.
Just absence, as if the concept of "below" had been erased.
Victor exhaled slowly.
"So this is it," he muttered. "The Fractured Descent."
The map he carried had only one note scrawled over this region in faded ink:
> If you can still turn back, do it.
He stepped onto the first platform and it held.
The second platform trembled slightly when he landed but stabilized.
However, the third…
Phased halfway through his foot.
