'THINK'
'THINK'
'THINK!'
Vira's eyes darted wildly around the collapsing structure.
Broken support beams, exposed wiring, and unstable flooring.
A damaged upper level hanging dangerously overhead.
'Anything please! Think damnit!'
The Nullborn lunged again, this time faster and more wildly than before.
Vira threw himself beneath a collapsed section of concrete just as the creature slammed through the wall behind him.
The entire structure groaned violently from the impact.
Dust spread through the air, blinding him instantly, The Nullborn let out a bone chilling howl somewhere within the dust cloud.
Vira forced himself to move despite his legs trembling uncontrollably beneath him. Every breath burned his lungs, every movement he could feel his tendons and joints wanting to collapse.
Another impact thundered behind him, and the walls warped outward again.
It was getting closer to him.
'I… I can't keep dodging forever! What do I do, what do I do… !'
Vira made way towards the center of the ruined room and froze for half a second as realization struck him.
His eyes widened with glee.
'The ceiling!'
Cracked and decaying support pillars, barely holding the floor above together.
'One good collapse-!'
The creature burst through the dust cloud.
Vira frantically ran and grabbed the exposed electrical cable hanging from the wall beside him and ripped it free violently. Sparks exploded across the room instantly.
The Nullborn charged, and the building quaked beneath its power.
Vira sprinted directly toward the nearest support pillar.
'Please, please, please let me make it!'
The closer Vira got to the pillar, the more he could feel The Nullborn behind him, ripping away at his existence from its mere presence.
At the last possible second, he ducked aside and slammed the sparking cable against the fractured metal support beam.
The explosion of sparks illuminated the room white, and for a single instant… The Nullborn hesitated.
Not fear, but confusion.
Then the support beam gave out, and the ceiling gave out with it.
Thousands of pounds of concrete and warped steel crashed into the depths below with a defeaning roar.
The entire floor shook hard beneath Vira as dust and debris enveloped everything around him.
The force of impact launched him across the room, pain exploding through his ribs as he slammed against the ground hard enough to lose his breath completely.
Nothing but Vira's coughing and wheezing was heard, he laid there weakly gasping for air and unable to move.
Then—
A sound… not movement, but the same wet noise from earlier.
It was alive.
Terror surged through Vira instantly.
Slowly, debris shifted within the collapsed rubble in front of him.
One elongated arm forced itself outward first, twitching violently beneath broken concrete. Then another.
The Nullborn clawed and dragged itself from the abyss of dust, half of its body had been crushed beneath the rubble, exposing shattered bone and pulsing black tissue beneath its torn and jagged flesh.
It was still here, still hunting him.
Its uneven motions still remained, shattered limbs snapping back in place trying to fix what's already broken.
Pieces of concrete still jutted through its body, yet the thing continued pulling itself forward like the pain didn't matter… and maybe it didn't, how could Vira know if this abomination felt pain?
Vira stared in disbelief, he didn't have the energy to be distraught, all hope and light were consumed from his body.
"No…"
The word left his lips weakly… he had nothing left to give, nothing more to try, he gave it his all and yet the monstrosity in front of him was still straining to get at him.
The creature's distorted mouth slowly peeled open again, that bleeding screech erupted once more.
This time, Vira felt it differently.
Not just in his ears.
Inside him.
The sound slammed through his chest like knives scratching against a plate.
His knees buckled instantly as the tremors in his abdomen became violent beyond all reasoning.
The Void.
Something inside him was reacting, no it was thrashing.
The Nullborn hurled itself towards Vira again, dragging its broken body across the ruined floor with horrifying speed despite the damage.
Vira couldn't move, his body had reached its limit long long ago. His lungs were on fire, his vision blurred… all he could do was sit there and pray for anything to happen to where he'd make it out of this alive.
His thoughts crumbled under pure terror.
'I'm going to die…'
It wasn't a realization, but a certainty and Vira had accepted that.
His fingers twitched weakly underneath the broken structure beneath him as the creature closed the distance.
The closer it got, the more his body felt on fire.
And soon enough, the vibration in his chest ignited.
Vira's entire body locked up brutally, the sensation spreading through him no longer felt internal, it felt enormous.
Like something beyond comprehension had suddenly opened its eye and finally paid attention.
The air changed instantly, Vira had no control over his body, but he watched as his hand slowly rose up.
The Nullborn stopped mid motion, not by choice, but because a Presence that didn't belong had arrived.
Dust froze in the air, the shadows beneath the debris stretched like they bent to Vira's will— or rather what was controlling him.
Vira realized he wasn't breathing, something was looking through him and was controlling him.
The Nullborn screeched again—
But the sound never reached him fully, halfway through the cry the noise warped inward unnaturally, collapsing into silence like space itself swallowed it.
Cracks spread all around Vira.
Not just through the floor, but thin black fractures appeared in the air, as if what he was doing was breaking the very law of reality.
The entity in front of him suddenly began convulsing violently, its elongated limbs bent backwards while its body jerked uncontrollably toward Vira like it was dragged by an invisible force.
Its screeching became distorted as the cracks through the air widened, eventually evolving into a ball of nothingness.
Vira's vision darkened further, the pressure inside his abdomen returned, and then everything collapsed forward, the pure darkness consumed The Nullborn, and disappeared back into Vira's gut, followed by the same black veins coursing through it.
Silence consumed the room completely.
The Nullborn was gone… not exploded, torn apart, or anything of similar degree. It was simply gone.
Only a black shadow remained across the broken floor where the creature had once existed.
Vira remained frozen there, staring blankly at the empty space in front of him. Eyes wide and head trying to grasp at any possible explanation.
A pool of blood flushed out of his nose onto the concrete below him.
His heartbeat sounded distant, and weak… the shadows around him returned back to normal, and the pressure in his abdomen vanished.
Whatever had looked through him was gone, and his body swayed weakly.
"…What…"
his voice barely existed anymore, and then all the exhaustion hit him at once.
Pain exploded throughout every part of his body, as if reality finally remembered he was human.
Vira collapsed forward against the rubble, his vision fading quickly as darkness took over his sight.
The last thing he heard before losing consciousness was another sound.
More footsteps.