The ice surrounding Lloyd cracked slightly, not enough to break... but enough to show resistance.
The purple creature tilted its head, studying him as an alien from its world.
A low pressure spread through the passage. The overhead lights flickered more intensely.
Then...
The marks on Lloyd's arm glowed again, brighter than before. A pulse of heat surged from within the ice, pushing against the frozen envelope.
Crack... crack...
A fine fissure ran across his shoulder.
The creature recoiled for the first time. "...Interesting," a distorted whisper echoed—not from its mouth, but from the air itself.
Lloyd's breathing became visible within the ice, heavy but steady. "Do you think..." he muttered, trying hard to raise his voice, "that's enough to stop me?" Then the heat surged again. This time... the ice shattered.
A deafening crash!
Fragments scattered across the passage floor. Lloyd dropped to one knee, steam rising from his body as the cold and heat clashed around him. He exhaled sharply, shaking off the frost.
The entity didn't move. But the atmosphere had changed. It was now wary.
Somewhere deep in the tunnels... a distant alarm finally sounded, as if the system itself had recognized what had just awakened.
A red light flashed once. Then twice. Then the entire passageway went dark in emergency mode.
Lloyd rose slowly, wiping the frost from his sleeve. "So you're not the only one hiding power here..."
The entity raised its hand. The air temperature dropped again—faster this time.
Ice began to form in the air, taking the shape of floating spikes.
But Lloyd didn't back down.
Instead, glowing marks spread slightly across his arm, like veins of light beneath his skin. He took a step forward.
"I found the map," he said quietly, his eyes narrowing. "And it led me right to you."
The entity's spikes shot out. Lloyd moved.
For the first time, his body reacted faster than his mind, sliding between the icy projectiles, each step leaving faint, hot footprints on the metal floor.
He closed the distance.
One hit. A wave of scorching energy slammed into the entity's chest—
Flash!
The passageway exploded with a mixture of steam and frost.
When the fog lifted…
They had both been thrown backward.
The icy entity's surface cracked.
Lloyd was breathing heavily, but he was still standing.
Silence fell again.
Then… deep within the facility, something massive moved. Not the entity. Something else, something responding to the conflict.
For a moment, both Lloyd and the white figure stopped… they felt it at the same time.
"…So that wasn't the point," Lloyd whispered.
The entity slowly turned its head toward the darkness behind it.
For the first time, he seemed disturbed... distant... huge doors began to open one after the other.
The silence that had filled the corridor didn't last even a few seconds. A soft "crack" sound came from deep within the structure.
Then another sound… louder. It was as if something massive had moved underground. Lloyd quickly raised his head, the marks still glowing in his eyes. "This… isn't just one enemy…"
The white entity suddenly took a step back. For the first time, something resembling… concern appeared on his face. The walls around them began to tremble slightly, and dust fell from the ceiling like a slow rain.
Then… all the red lights in the corridor flashed simultaneously.
ALERT: CORE SECTOR UNLOCKED
Lloyd froze for a moment. "Core…?"
Before he could finish his sentence, the ground beneath them opened up, and a strange heat emanated from the depths… as if the ice itself deep within the structure was beginning to melt. The white entity suddenly raised its hand, creating a massive wall of ice between itself and the depths. But… the wall cracked instantly.
Crack…!
A low sound, but it wasn't an explosion… it was the sound of "breathing." The breath of something enormous.
Lloyd clenched his fist, the marks on his arm glowing brighter:
"If this is the Core… then everything here was just protection…"
The entity looked directly at him.
Then… without warning, it moved with incredible speed.
But this time, it wasn't attacking Lloyd.
It was surging deeper, as if trying to prevent something else from awakening.
Lloyd paused for a moment, then smiled weakly, tiredly: "So even you're scared?" And he darted after it.
At the same moment… elsewhere inside the facility, Riorno and Mizuno suddenly stopped, the ground shaking beneath their feet.
Mizuno looked up: "This feeling… is the same as before the explosion!"
Riorno clenched his fist, the flames around him rising unsteadily. "Something bigger is moving…"
Suddenly, a screen in the wall ignited again, but this time it wasn't "Next Phase Activated."
It read: CORE ENTITY — AWAKENING
Mizuno opened his eyes. "…What I said a moment ago was a joke."
Rioron looked at the darkness before him. "No…this is the real beginning."
Back to Lloyd. He was running after the white entity through corridors that began to change. The walls moved slowly…as if the structure itself were "alive."
Then, suddenly, the entity stopped.
At the end of the corridor…a giant door stood half-open.
And inside…a blue-black light pulsed like a heart,
and with each pulse…the gravity itself changed.
Lloyd muttered, "…This is the Core." But before he could take another step… a very deep voice came from within,
not a human voice,
nor a monster's,
but something like the system itself speaking: "SUBJECTS DETECTED." "INITIATING SELECTION PROCESS."
Lloyd slowly raised his head,
the marks on his arm reaching their peak brightness.
"Selection…?"
The white entity stood before the door… then turned toward Lloyd,
as if to say without words: If you go in… there's no going back.
Lloyd took a step forward: "Who said I wanted to go back?"
And at that same moment… everything inside the facility fell silent,
as if the world itself… was waiting for the first person to enter.