The Dominion Layer shifted as if it were breathing. The black-glass sky shimmered, the ruins rearranging in silence. Aiden stood at the edge of the cracked stairway leading upward, toward Floor 2. The stars above pulsed faintly, forming symbols he didn't understand but somehow recognized, deep in his bones.
He started climbing.
Every step hummed underfoot, alive with power. The air thickened the higher he went, vibrating with whispers that faded when he tried to focus on them. The silence between those whispers was worse like the world itself was holding its breath.
When the stairway ended, he stepped onto a vast platform that seemed to float in nothingness. In its center stood a monolith of pale stone, etched with a sigil identical to the one on his arm.
The system flickered to life.
>Dominion Layer: Floor 2 - The Memory Chamber
Objective: Seek the one who built the gate.
Caution: Perception will be tested. Truth may harm stability.
Aiden grimaced. "Great. Another warning about losing my mind."
He approached the monolith. As he touched it, the world dissolved.
Suddenly, he was standing in a different place, bright, sterile, filled with the low hum of machinery. Wires hung from the ceiling, and holographic screens flickered in the air.
Men and women in white coats moved around a containment capsule, one that held a boy floating in dark fluid.
The boy's face was his own.
Aiden stumbled back, but his body didn't respond. He couldn't move, couldn't speak. He could only watch.
A voice spoke from behind him, calm and deliberate. "You see it now, don't you?"
He turned or maybe the vision did and saw a tall man with silver eyes standing at the edge of the capsule. His presence radiated authority, but not human warmth.
The man smiled faintly. "You called me the Architect. That is close enough."
Aiden tried to speak. "Why did you...what is this?"
The Architect didn't answer directly. "This world you came from, Ares, is the last refuge built upon the ruins of failed Dominion Layers. Humanity didn't rise from strength. It rose from error." He gestured toward the capsule. "You were meant to be the bridge, between what was human and what could command the Dominion."
The images flickered. The boy in the tank convulsed, light erupting from his eyes. The room filled with chaos, alarms, shouting, the hum of unstable energy.
The Architect's tone never changed. "But you rejected the code. You rewrote the Dominion's laws in your own image. That is why they fear you."
The world shattered again.
Aiden fell to his knees on cold stone. The platform returned, the monolith now cracked and fading. The system chimed.
>Memory synchronization complete.
New Directive: Find the Architect's Core.
Warning: Emotional interference detected.
He clutched his head, his thoughts spiraling. The Architect… created me? Then who's controlling the rifts now?
A presence stirred nearby. From the shadows, a figure emerged, feminine, draped in smoke that rippled like water. Her voice was a whisper that brushed against his thoughts. "You saw him. That means the call has begun."
"Who are you?" Aiden asked, forcing himself to stand.
"I am a fragment of what remains," she said.
"The Architect built this Layer, but he was not alone. When you changed the code, you created me, a shadow of resistance."
"What do you mean, changed the code?"
She tilted her head. "You made a choice long ago, to defy the Architect. You sealed the true Dominion away, locking the Layers from merging. That is why the Architect is calling you now. He cannot open the gates without his missing half."
Aiden froze. "You're saying he needs me to finish what he started."
"Yes. And when he succeeds, there will be no walls left between worlds."
The ground rumbled beneath them. The monolith exploded into shards of light. From above, a voice thundered through the air, calm, powerful, and unmistakably the Architect's.
"You can't hide in the fragments forever, my creation. Return, and I will make you whole."
The entire Layer began to collapse.
Fractures of light spread across the platform like veins. The woman's eyes widened. "He's found you. You need to leave now!"
"How?" Aiden demanded.
She stepped forward, placing her hand on his chest. "Use what you gained from the trial. Manifest your Domain and tear open a path."
He focused. The markings on his skin blazed white-hot. Power surged through him, expanding outward in a ring of silver and black light. Space itself bent, and for a moment, he glimpsed something beyond, a tear opening into another floor.
The woman's form flickered. "Remember this, Aiden Cross. The Architect isn't a god. He's just the first one who refused to die."
The world imploded.
Aiden fell through the breach.
He landed hard on a metallic surface. The air was colder here, thinner, filled with a hum that made his bones ache. Dim blue lights lined a corridor that stretched into infinity. The architecture was sleek and alien, the symbols glowing faintly on the walls.
The system pinged again.
>Dominion Layer: Floor 3 - The Core Path
Objective: Locate the Architect's Core.
Status: Tracking initiated. Unknown entities inbound.
He pulled himself to his feet. "Looks like I'm not done yet."
In the distance, something stirred, a swarm of shapes moving in perfect silence. Their bodies were metallic, their eyes glowing gold. For the first time, he realized they weren't beasts or fragments.
They were machines.
And all of them bore the same mark: the circle split by a single line, the Dominion sigil.
Aiden raised his sword, light coiling along its edge. "Guess I'm getting closer."
The machines shifted, aligning as one. Then they moved, fast, the corridor filling with blinding light as Aiden charged to meet them.