The first thing Ian felt was cold.
Not the numbing kind that makes your skin tingle — the type that vibrates, like electricity, in the depths of your bones.
He opened his eyes.
The city was gone.
In its place was a gnarly inverse — streets bent at impossible angles, towers folding toward a black sun. Air shimmered with levitating shards of text and data streams that beat like veins.
His breath came in ragged bursts. "Elaine?"
Silence. The only sound was the low hum of the world itself echoing.
He pushed off the ground, noting the earth move beneath his hands — not rock, not soil, but a living plane of throbbing glyphs. His reflection gazed up at him from it, flickering in static bursts.
Protocol initializing... User: Ian Odili detected.
Access denied.
He blinked. "Access denied? I live here!" he bellowed into the void.
No answer.
Just the same phrase, sounding over and over like a cruel joke.
Then — a flicker.
A whisper.
"...Ian…"
He wheeled sharply, looking around at the warped skyline.
"Elaine?"
For a split second he saw her — crouched at the end of the road, cloak fluttering, eyes shining faint blue.
But when he ran toward her, the world reset. The street folded like origami, her image dissolving into pixel dust. He crumpled to the ground, clasping the broken earth.
"She's inside it," he said under his breath. "The Core took her."
A voice — different this time — answered from above.
"Incorrect. She became it."
Ian looked up.
Descending from the darkened sky was a figure clad in pale armor, its helmet formed like a raven's skull. The symbol emblazoned on their chest flashed in time with the fractured sky — the sigil of The Watchers.
"Your sister unlocked the Shadow Protocol," the figure said evenly.
"Now the merge is unalterable."
Ian's hand went automatically to his sword. "Then I'll unfreeze it myself."
The Watcher tilted their head.."
"You don't understand, human. The very ground beneath your feet is her. To destroy it—"
They paused, lowering their weapon.
"—is to destroy Elaine."
Ian's grip tightened around the hilt of his sword.
The Watcher's words rang out, sharp as glass: "The world you're standing in is her."
He took a step forward.
"Then I'll take her back — whether that involves ripping this world apart."
The Watcher cocked its head, mechanical wings unfurling in a whisper of metal and electricity.
"Emotion. Primitive."
"But necessary," Ian whispered.
He lunged.
Steel rang on spectral shield — a dazzling blow that rent the air. The Watcher retaliated with equal fluidity and inhuman precision, each of its strikes trailing white fire. Ian rolled, parried, ducked — but every blow he blocked sent slivers of data pouring into his vision like broken lines of code.
Warning: unauthorized interface detected.
The voice was not in his ears; it was in his head.
The earth under his feet danced, lighting up under his shoes.
"What the —"
Neural link starting.
He howled as the energy coursed through him, burning his vitals with liquid light. The world bent, and his sight became double — half of him was still made of flesh, half was made out of transforming lines of codes.
The Watcher drew back, lowering its blade.
"You've made your choice."
Ian dropped to one knee, holding his chest. His heartbeat unified with the city — one rhythm, one system.
Shadow Protocol: Phase Two within.
Up his eyes flickered between brown and glowing green blue.
"Elaine…"
A mellow echo answered from the horizon – her voice, warped but recognizable.
"Ian?"
He staggered forward, light dripping from his fingers like black pixels.
"I'm coming, Laney," he said quietly as if to not awaken her. "I'm not going to abandon you in this place."
Behind him, the Watcher watched in silence. Then, almost reverently:
"So, it begins again."
The black sun pulsed once — and the entire city screamed."