Location: Null Chamber, Sector V-13
And somewhere beyond the broken platform…
Darkness swallowed the chamber completely.
…something answered back from the void.
THHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOM
The sound shook the entire facility.
Metal screamed somewhere deep below them. Cracks spread slowly across the walls while fragments of debris rolled off the edge of the broken platform and disappeared into the abyss beneath.
Oblivion remained motionless.
The words still echoed inside his head.
"You carry the fracture."
The massive eye beyond the platform continued staring directly at him through the darkness below. White circular patterns rotated slowly inside its iris like shifting layers of impossible machinery.
Watching.
Studying.
Lazard quietly stepped beside him.
For once, he did not immediately speak.
His eyes remained on the abyss.
Then finally
"This is worse than Motherplace."
That alone made Oblivion look at him.
Lazard never compared anything to Motherplace
Another tremor shook the chamber.
THOOOOOOOOOOM
Something massive moved below.
The darkness itself seemed heavier now. Breathing became harder. Even the air felt compressed around them.
Then the eye blinked.
CRACK
The chamber vanished instantly.
Oblivion suddenly stood somewhere else.
An endless black shoreline stretched beneath his feet. Pale water moved silently across the ground while countless figures stood motionless in the distance.
Watching him.
Above them towered enormous white rings rotating around an infinite structure extending upward
The place felt ancient
One silhouette slowly stepped forward from the distant crowd.
Then
Oblivion staggered backward onto the platform again.
Lazard immediately grabbed his arm.
"What happened?"
Oblivion looked down slowly.
Thin black cracks had appeared beneath the skin of his hand.
Like fractured glass.
The sight made his chest tighten instantly.
"I saw somewhere else."
The eye below narrowed slightly
THHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOM
Something moved closer beneath the chamber.
The abyss below the platform began releasing black mist upward into the room. At first it drifted harmlessly through the air
then shapes formed inside it.
It's a humanoid
Their bodies were wrapped in smooth black armor fused directly into flesh. Thin white cracks glowed beneath the surface of their bodies
No eyes
No faces
Yet Oblivion immediately felt them staring at him.
One of the entities twitched violently.
Then one of them said
"…help…"
Lazard's expression hardened immediately.
Another entity spoke.
"Please…"
Oblivion's eyes narrowed.
"They're alive."
The nearest creature suddenly lunged forward.
FAST.
Lazard fired immediately.
Blue energy rounds tore through the creature's chest, exploding black fragments across the chamber, but the thing kept moving anyway
More entities rushed upward from the abyss
Dozens
The chamber erupted into chaos instantly.
Oblivion stepped forward instinctively.
The fractures beneath his skin spread higher across his wrist.
Pain shot through his arm.
Then something inside him responded.
CRAAAAACK
Space distorted violently around his hand.
One charging entity froze mid-motion before its body compressed inward unnaturally and collapsed into nothing.
Silence hit the chamber for half a second.
Even the remaining creatures hesitated.
Oblivion stared at his own hand.
He had not controlled that.
Blood slowly dripped from the fractures spreading beneath his skin now.
Lazard noticed immediately.
"That power is tearing you apart."
Another entity charged from the darkness.
Oblivion reacted again
but this time the chamber itself distorted with him.
Gravity twisted sideways.
The walls bent inward.
The platform cracked violently beneath their feet.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM
A massive shockwave exploded across Sector V-13.
Half the chamber collapsed instantly.
Several entities were erased completely while the rest slammed backward into the darkness below.
Oblivion dropped to one knee immediately afterward.
Blood ran from his nose.
His vision blurred.
The fracture was growing stronger.
But so was the damage to his body.
Far below them
the eye continued watching silently.
Then every remaining entity suddenly stopped moving.
At once.
Their heads slowly turned downward toward the abyss beneath the platform.
Fear spread through them instantly.
The creatures began retreating backward.
Desperate.
One even trembled violently before disappearing into the darkness below.
Lazard stepped backward slowly.
"…No."
THHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The platform shook so violently this time that entire sections collapsed into the abyss.
Something enormous was rising.
Slowly
A gigantic shape emerged beneath the darkness below the platform.
At first Oblivion thought it was another creature.
Then he realized
it was a massive hand
Its structure constantly shifted between flesh, shadow, and geometric patterns that physically hurt to observe directly.
The pressure flooding the chamber became unbearable.
Fragments of metal started floating upward around Oblivion.
The eye disappeared instantly.
As if even it refused to remain near whatever was emerging below.
Then the thing finally spoke.
Its voice bent the chamber around every word.
"The fracture accelerates."
Oblivion felt his heartbeat stop.
Not because of fear.
Because something deep inside him recognized the voice
The gigantic hand slowly tightened against the edge of the platform.
Then the entity beneath the chamber whispered:
"You were not meant to awaken yet."
To be continue.