Stepping into the fault line felt like walking into three versions of the same world.
The top layer moved half a beat too early,the middle layer stayed normal,and the bottom layer lagged as if someone dragged the world backward.
Tree shadows wavered between the three layers before snapping into alignment again.The air didn't flow. It was stuck inside a single second.
Patch flattened immediately.Its ears pinned so tight they almost disappeared as it stared toward the lake's center.
Emilia checked her device, voice tightening."…The rule-hub is dropping frames."
Before I could answer, a strange line appeared on the ground ahead.
Perfectly straight.Like it was drawn by an instrument…but the stroke simply stopped halfway, the end sliced clean rather than fading out.
I crouched to inspect it.Tiny burn marks dotted the surface.
Emilia went silent for two seconds."Someone tried to record the field here… but didn't finish."
She didn't say who.Her tone made it worse.
Ten meters deeper in, a dented triangular module lay by a tree root.Outer shell cracked. Power forcibly severed.Like someone slammed it into the ground.
"What is this…?" I asked.
Emilia hesitated. "Not something normal people use. Don't touch it."
Alden didn't even look.He kept walking, like he already knew what we'd find.
The deeper we went, the thicker the air became.A wide patch on a tree trunk looked "erased,"as if that part of the world had been scraped off.
Beside it—three warped footprints, angles impossible for stable ground.Dragged, unstable, resisting collapse.
Patch sniffed once.Its tail exploded like a brush.Not fear.Warning.
Alden examined the marks."Not a creature.These are after-images of something scanned in deep-layer space… right before it was cut out."
None of us spoke.
Someone had encountered "something" here.They didn't win.They barely escaped.
When I looked down, my shadow split into two layers, out of sync.Half-second delay.Edges flickering with faint symbols.
Emilia's brows tightened."Jeff… your shadow format is incorrect."
Alden's tone stayed level."You're one breath away from the third stage."
My chest jerked sharply.Not pain—like a line from the lake latched onto me.
The whole lake bulged upward for a second.No wind…but every tree shadow leaned toward the center.
A tower-shaped foundation flashed through my vision,symbols lighting for a split moment.
Patch growled—low, shaking—a sound I had never heard from him.
A bright line tore open ahead.The world's surface peeled sideways.
The forest path turned translucent, reflective, lake-like.A realm being overwritten.
Emilia gripped her device."…Deep-layer formatting is starting. The lake is opening an entry point."
Alden steadied the space with one hand.The lake surged—and something huge began to rise.
Not human.Not quadruped.Not spherical.A shifting, transparent form—calculating its own shape.
It paused.
Waiting.
My chest was yanked forward, like it was reading me.
Alden, calm:"They're checking who can interface with the main signal.You're closer than we are."
I pressed down on the source-point.Air thickened into a semi-solid mass.Symbols burned in my vision for a full second.
Emilia: "…That's a third-stage precursor."Alden: "Not open yet. But close."
The lake shattered upward.A vertical beam carved through the sky.
My source-point lurched.Almost tore.
Emilia grabbed me.Alden kept the space from collapsing.
Then—for 0.1 seconds—a complete symbol flashed above the lake.
I felt it.
If I stepped forward,it would catch me.
The black lake—waiting.