The moment the S-Bahn left the station, the wind stopped.
Not silence—but the entire soundscape being pushed down,as if someone lowered the world's volume with a single slider.
The entrance to the forest belt was ahead.Light bent like it was passing through water,as if two suns were shining from different angles.Shadows stretched thick and heavy.
I stepped onto the forest floor—
And the shadow beside a tree slid out.
It peeled off the ground and stood upright,forming a human shape with no face,moving as if someone was replaying a corrupted file.
Every small tremor of its body synced perfectlywith the pulse of the source point in my chest.
My breath broke.
That feeling—being alignedagainst my will.
Patch's tail exploded upward.She wasn't watching the creature's body.She was staring at…its own shadow.
That shadow lagged even worse.
Alden stepped forward.Light flattened around him.
"Not a monster," he said, voice pressed into my ear."This is your shadow—copied into the wrong coordinate.The structure under Neusiedler See is scanning you.These… are leakage artifacts."
Emilia stared at it, tension winding through every muscle.
"…It doesn't have its own timeline."
The mirror-creature took one step toward me.The synchronization tightened,a rhythm trying to pull my entire being into its pattern.
The pressure around my chest sharpened suddenly.
Alden lifted his hand.
He simply grabbed the air.
Snap.
The shadow tore apart like a missing PNG layer—no sound, no debris, just vanished.
The source point loosened instantly.
Alden said:
"The real monsters haven't shown up."
We moved deeper.
An unnatural clearing stretched ahead.No wind.No air movement.Sound stayed in the same second, unable to decay.
Emilia swept her hand through the space.
"The rules here were recalibrated… recently."
My shadow lengthened.Delay hit 0.3 seconds.
Alden watched the ground.
"Your second layer came too close. That's why it got pulled."
My throat tightened.Not at the warning—but the countdown I could feel behind it.
Further in, bright slits began appearing in the scenery.Like someone sliced the world and pasted it back incorrectly.
I inhaled and pressed the source point.
The air hiccuped.Delay rose from 0.18 to 0.22.Electric tingling crawled down my spine.
Emilia murmured:
"…Your delay readings aren't second-stage anymore."
As we stepped out of the treeline—
Neusiedler See exhaled outward.
No wind,yet the entire lake surface rippled,as if the water inhaled and released in a single massive breath.
A flash struck my mind:
A tower silhouette.Signal waves.A symbol not yet formed.
Patch whimpered.Her ears pressed flat—a full submission response to something she could feel but not see.
Alden stared toward the lake center.
"…The structure under the lake woke up early."
At the edge of the clearing,the air folded—like a transparent sheet creased under weight.
The picture jittered for half a second.
Emilia whispered:
"This is where deep-layer misalignment begins."
The line in my chest was no longer tugging.
It was pulling.
Alden stepped behind us.
"From here, you lead.They're scanning you—not us."
Patch leapt onto my shoulder,eyes locked on the lake's center.
We stepped into the faultline—
And the world skipped to the next frame.