When the light went out, Ian was no longer on a solid surface.
He found himself in a hall of mirrors and stillness—one city that was also a dream. On one side of the sky, there were storm clouds, while the other side was filled with scrolling code; the buildings were just hollow shells, wavering between destruction and perfection.
His hand went to his sword, but the blade was flickering, phasing in and out like corrupted data.
System Error: native system aberration detected.
The voice was everywhere. In the wind. In his head.
Stumbling forward, his boots clanged against the non-existent floor. They Walked Apart His reflection on the mirror walked with him — but it lagged, half a second too slow.
He looked down, and stopped as if frozen.
Where veins had been, he had now hollowed channels of black-blue light coursing beneath his skin. The Core wasn't finished with him. It was rewriting him—piece by piece.
"Elaine" he whispered "Can you hear me?"
Connection unstable ...
He clenched his fists. "I'm not giving up."
It was then that the first hunter appeared.
It came out of the corrupted code—tall, faceless, wrapped in streaks of static. Its body shifts between armor and darkness while its two hands carry serrated light.
"Unauthorized entity detected," it droned.
"Termination in progress."
Ian grinned, exhaustion and defiance in his eyes.
"Try it."
He acted before thinking blade cutting through pixels and flesh and bone. The hunter's form fragmented, disintegrating into a thousand radiant shards. But when they touched the ground, the light never went out. It swept into his legs, crawling into the circuits under his skin, like roots seeking water, like a fire searing dry wood.
Pain struck immediately electric, raw, unremitting.
"Assimilation accelerating."
Ian gasped, dropping to his knees as his reflection caught up—now smiling when he wasn't.
The version of him in the mirror reached out the glass floor, whispering:
"You can't pan out. You're one of us now."
He looked up, rage cutting through the pain.
"Maybe," he said through clenched teeth.
"But I'm going to use it to find her."
The mirror shattered.
Ian emerged from the rubble, his eyes glowing a vibrant cobalt color. His heartbeat blended with the Core's hum — and for the first time, the digital world made a small concession to his will.