ظ
The warmth of the station vanished instantly.
Violet turned sharply toward the window.
"That light…" she whispered.
Shadow stepped closer, his gaze fixed on the ruined continent below.
"It wasn't random."
By now, the others had noticed the sudden tension.
Marley approached first.
"What happened?"
Violet pointed downward.
"There was a pulse."
Zack frowned and moved toward the central console.
"Wait."
His fingers moved rapidly across the holographic interface. Streams of data appeared around him.
Then—
his expression changed.
"…No way."
"What?" Lexia asked.
Zack slowly looked up.
"That energy signal…"
Silence.
Then he finished:
"It came from beneath the planet."
The room froze.
Alfred stepped forward immediately.
"That depth should be impossible."
"It gets worse," Zack said quietly.
A second holographic image appeared.
A map of Earth.
At first, it looked normal—
until red points began appearing across the globe.
One.
Then five.
Then dozens.
Marley's voice hardened.
"What are those?"
Zack swallowed.
"Signals."
The lights flickered.
Suddenly, every dimensional guard inside the station received the same alert simultaneously.
WARNING — UNKNOWN DIMENSIONAL ACTIVITY DETECTED
Sid stared at the screen.
"No…"
Another pulse erupted across the map.
This time stronger.
The entire station trembled.
Then—
the planet below moved.
Not metaphorically.
Actually moved.
A deep vibration spread across Earth itself.
Continents shook.
Oceans shifted.
Even from orbit, they could see storms forming unnaturally fast.
Lenore stepped backward slightly.
"What is happening…?"
Alfred's expression darkened for the first time.
"The planet is reacting."
Shadow narrowed his eyes.
"No. Something inside it is waking up."
Suddenly—
every red signal across the map connected.
Lines formed between them.
A massive geometric pattern appeared around the entire globe.
Violet's eyes widened.
"That's not random…"
Marley understood immediately.
"A seal."
Then Zack whispered the words nobody wanted to hear:
"Or a prison."
Silence crashed over the room.
Before anyone could speak—
the station alarms exploded.
CRITICAL BREACH DETECTED
The entire structure shook violently.
One of the dimensional soldiers shouted through comms:
"Unknown entities inside the station!"
Lexia instantly drew her blade.
"How did something get in here?!"
Then—
the lights died.
Darkness swallowed the hall.
For one second—
nothing moved.
Then came the screams.
Metal tore somewhere in the lower levels.
Gunfire erupted.
A soldier's voice screamed through the communication channels before abruptly cutting off.
Shadow vanished instantly into the darkness.
"Contact below," he said coldly.
Marley activated her barrier around the group.
"Everyone ready!"
Emergency red lights flickered on.
And they finally saw it.
Standing at the far end of the corridor.
A figure.
Humanoid.
Tall.
Its body looked almost unfinished, as if darkness itself had tried to imitate human form.
No face.
Only a glowing vertical line where its eyes should have been.
The temperature in the room dropped immediately.
Even Maximilian narrowed his eyes.
"…That's not Draculian."
The creature tilted its head slowly.
Then spoke.
Not aloud.
Inside their minds.
"The gate is opening."
Every window across the station suddenly shattered at once.
Alarms screamed louder.
Outside—
space itself distorted.
Huge cracks began spreading around Earth.
Not dimensional rifts.
Something worse.
Reality itself was breaking.
Zack stepped backward in horror.
"No… no, no, no…"
Sid grabbed him sharply.
"What?!"
Zack looked at everyone.
Pale.
Terrified.
"If the prison beneath Earth opens…"
He couldn't finish.
Alfred did it for him.
"…every dimension connected to this world collapses."
The creature moved.
Fast.
Faster than anything they had fought before.
It crossed the corridor instantly—
and appeared directly in front of Violet.
But before it could touch her—
Maximilian intercepted it.
The impact shattered the floor beneath them.
For the first time—
Maximilian was pushed backward.
The room went silent.
Lexia stared in disbelief.
"That thing just moved him…"
The creature slowly turned its head toward Maximilian.
Then—
it smiled.
A real smile.
Wrong.
Inhuman.
And behind it—
the darkness split open.
Not one.
Not ten.
But hundreds of identical figures began emerging from the void behind the corridor.
Standing silently.
Watching.
Waiting.
Then the first one whispered:
"Phase Two begins."
And all across Earth—
the red signals awakened simultaneously