Ryder took a careful step forward, crossing a invisible threashold he couldn't see. One moment, his boots rested on the spongy, corrupted ground littered with the sizzling remains of the Not-Wolves. The next, silence.
Total silence. The low, heavy hum of the last tunnel vanished instantly. The air felt so still and clean it was almost like they are in a hospital. Strange. He stood on a floor smooth and dark like polished black glass. It reflected the light from Rigg's sick green glow-rod perfectly. Too perfect.
No dripping water, no shifting dirt, no feeling of wrongness in the background. Just a deep, creepy quiet that made his nerves jump.
This level of strange cleanness, buried deep under the corrupted ground, felt completely wrong. It bothered him more than the fleshy monsters had.
He ran a gloved hand along the nearest wall. It curved upward in a perfect, smooth line, cool and smooth under his touch.
Too smooth. No dirt, no cracks, no warnings scratched by people who died here before. Nothing felt right here.
It felt like it had been made perfectly just moments ago. He tapped the wall with the jagged edge of his Blade. Ting. A clear, sharp note rang out. Solid. At least it wasn't fake.
Behind him, Rigg hadn't crossed the line.
The kid stood in the opening to the pulsing, corrupted tunnel they'd just left, looking unsure. Ryder could see him struggling, deciding if the clean trap was worth walking into.
The sick green light spilled from the old tunnel onto the clean black floor where Ryder stood. Rigg's knuckles were white on his spear handle, his breathing short. He looked very tense.
"This ain't how fractures grow," Rigg repeated, his voice barely a whisper, cracking with fear. Ryder knew that sound "Fractures… they rot things. Twist 'em. They don't… build. Not like this. This is made. On purpose."
Ryder glanced back, seeing the real terror in the kid's eyes. Yes, this was fear of something breaking the basic rules of his world.
"You said people never came this deep," Ryder said quietly, trying to get him to talk more.
Rigg shook his head hard, messy hair falling into his eyes. "Never! Old Man Hemlock mapped everything before the fracture. His maps… they show solid rock here. Miles of it. This path wasn't here yesterday! It's like…" The kid stopped, clearly struggling to explain something impossible.
Solid rock yesterday, impossible tunnel today. That didn't make sense.
"He's not wrong, hotshot," Betsy said. "The way this place is built… it's too exact, too clean. It follows strict shapes, feels clean. Like something copied the idea of a hallway but didn't get the purpose of a hallway."
Ryder grunted softly. Copying building. That sounded bad. Weirdness done on purpose was usually worse. He turned back to look at the perfect room.
Standing there, right in the middle of the polished floor, was a pillar.
It wasn't big or fancy. Just a simple column of dull grey metal, maybe four feet high, mostly round but with flat sides, looking kind of like a hexagon. Odd.
It didn't seem connected to anything or have any clear purpose. It just… stood there. Like a misplaced piece of strange building. What was it doing here?
A very faint hum came from it, lower and steadier than the last tunnel's pulse, more felt than heard. Ryder noticed it right away.
And there was a smell… faint, but clear. Hot metal and something sharp, like static electricity. Power. Held back, but there. He knew that smell.
Ryder walked around it carefully, keeping his distance, blade ready.
Standard rule: be very careful with unknown objects. No need to get careless now.
He looked at the surface again. Smooth, plain metal. No controls, lines where it joined, clear power source, or connections. It just was. Something strange within something strange. Nothing showed what it was for.
Suddenly, the blue System text flickered in his vision.
[UNKNOWN DEVICE FOUND] [ENERGY SIGNATURE: UNKNOWN. STRANGE WAVE PATTERN.] [CHECKING… NO MATCH.] [CHECKING ENERGY OUTPUT… LOW LEVEL, NOT ANCHOR, NOT PRIMORDIAL TYPE.] [SOURCE UNKNOWN. PURPOSE UNKNOWN.] [ADVICE: KEEP SAFE DISTANCE. DO NOT TOUCH.]
The text then turned to static before blinking off completely. What the hell?
[ERROR] [SYSTEM SAFETY BROKEN] [CHECK FAILED . OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE FOUND]
The text shook violently in front of his eyes, strange symbols mixing with the words, colors glitching.
Ryder felt a jolt of alarm. The System, his only source of good info, was failing. Broken. By that pillar? It had to be.
"Ryder!" Betsy said, her voice sharp with alarm. "That thing's actively messing up the System feed! It's pushing back! Get away from it! NOW!"
He reacted instantly, moving without thinking, already backing up.
And hit an invisible wall.
Not physical, but a sudden, crushing pressure slammed into him. The air thickened right away, becoming dense, heavy, like trying to breathe syrup. He fought for breath.
His ears screamed with the pressure change. Moving felt slow, needing huge effort. He felt trapped, pinned by the air itself. Couldn't move, couldn't breathe right.
His vision exploded.
First, blinding white light, too much for his senses. Pain.
Then, it collapsed inward into a swirling mess of overwhelming color and feeling. Sight, sound, and touch mixed together into chaos.
A flood of his own memories ripped loose, slammed back into his mind at impossible speed: basic training, missions, the firefights, Miller's scream, the ciant monster, the corrupted tunnels. All jumbled, overlapping, flashing by his mind.
It felt like his life was being searched through, checked, sorted by the pillar with cold, uncaring speed. A deep violation. Something was digging through his head.
His vision turned grey. He felt dizzy.
He gasped, stumbling backward, hands flying to his head like he was trying to hold back the invasion. Make it stop.
He felt Betsy flare inside him, a surge of protective energy forming a shield around his mind, protecting him from the raw power. It didn't stop the scan, but it lessened the overload, kept his mind from breaking. Thank god for Betsy.
The flood stopped as suddenly as it started. The pressure vanished. The air was breathable again. Silence returned. Just like that, it was over.
His knees buckled. He hit the polished floor hard, partly caught by Rigg, who yelped and scrambled to help him up.
Ryder coughed, gasping, phantom smells sticking in his senses. His head throbbed, a leftover echo of the overload. He felt scraped out, raw. Like something had wiped his mind clean.
"Sweet Mother Mary..." Betsy breathed, her presence feeling a bit shaken. "That wasn't an attack, Ryder. That was… a scan. A deep scan. Reading you, memories, experiences, where you came from."
His gear felt warm from Betsy's protective surge. He looked carefully at the pillar. Silent again, hum and smell gone. Just a dead lump of metal. Was it satisfied? It hadn't attacked physically, but the mental invasion felt just as bad. Worse, maybe.
"Mister? You okay?" Rigg asked again, voice shaky, helping Ryder stagger upright. "You just… froze up. Eyes went white." The kid looked terrified. Ryder didn't blame him.
Ryder shook his head, trying to clear the last flashing images.
"Yeah," he managed, voice hoarse. "Just… felt like my whole damn life flashed before my eyes."
He spat on the floor, a useless act against the perfect cleanness. Felt good anyway. "Didn't know I had that much life in me."