The dream came in fragments, like shards of glass reflecting a thousand impossible skies. Aiden stood in a white corridor where the walls pulsed with light, each beat echoing in his chest. He could hear someone humming, a faint, familiar tune from a life he could barely recall. The voice belonged to a woman, calm and distant, and every note seemed to pull him deeper into the light.
Then the song broke. The light fractured, and the walls bled into black stone.
He woke.
The Dominion corridor stretched endlessly before him, its surface carved with runes that shimmered faintly, breathing in time with his heartbeat. The air here was cold but not lifeless. It hummed with a rhythm older than words, like something vast was dreaming beneath the floor.
Aiden rose slowly. His sword hovered beside him, the edge still faintly glowing from his last battle. The Dominion sigil on his forearm burned softly, reacting to the energy around him. Somewhere far above, the ceiling rippled with dim, amber light.
He took a step forward. The runes beneath his feet flared, illuminating a path that extended into darkness.
> Dominion Layer: Floor 3 - The Core Path
Objective: Locate the Architect's Core.
Status: Tracking active. Caution: Manifestations unstable.
He exhaled. "Unstable's an understatement."
The first few minutes passed in silence, except for the soft hum of the corridor. It wasn't mechanical. It was alive. Every wall felt like muscle, every flicker of light like a heartbeat. Once, he thought he saw something move within the stone, a shadow, shaped like a person, watching him.
He ignored it and kept walking.
As the corridor bent into a great circular chamber, he saw them: statues lining the walls, each depicting a different form of the Dominion. One held a sphere of light; another carried a blade too large for any man to wield. Their faces were worn smooth, but their eyes glowed faintly, following him as he passed.
At the center stood a dais marked by a spiral of energy. The air above it shimmered like a heat mirage. Aiden could feel power gathering there, restrained but waiting.
He stepped closer.
The voice that met him was neither human nor divine. It was ancient, fractured, layered with echoes.
"You return to the path you built."
Aiden's hand went to his weapon. "Show yourself."
The air rippled, and from the shimmer stepped a figure made of translucent light, neither man nor woman, but something in between. The shape flickered, half-stable, its edges dissolving into faint trails of energy.
"You are the breach," it said. "The code rewritten. The Architect seeks reunion, but the path must test the will once more."
Aiden frowned. "You're not real. Just another part of the system."
"Perhaps," the figure whispered. "But even the system remembers its creator."
The floor beneath them brightened, the spiral of light spinning faster until it became a whirlpool of energy. Aiden braced himself as a surge of wind roared through the chamber. Out of the spiral came forms, creatures wrought from stone and glowing veins of amber, their bodies shaped like wolves but their eyes hollow.
The voice faded. "Prove your dominion."
The first wolf lunged. Aiden moved to meet it, his sword cutting through the air in a smooth arc. Sparks scattered as steel met stone. The creature shattered, but its pieces didn't fall, they reformed, twisting into a new shape, leaner, faster. More emerged from the spiral, their growls merging into a single droning tone that vibrated in his chest.
Aiden pressed his palm to the floor. The runes on his arm flared to life, spilling light that spread outward in a circle. The beasts paused, their forms flickering. He clenched his fist.
"Domain Manifest."
The world bent. A layer of silver mist expanded from his body, merging with the chamber's glow. Within that mist, the wolves faltered, their movements slowing as if dragged through water. Aiden's steps grew lighter. His sword cut through them like breath through fog.
When the last one fell, the spiral dimmed, and the chamber stilled. The translucent figure bowed its head.
"The path opens."
The floor shifted, revealing a descending stairway cut into the stone. The light faded behind him, leaving only the faint glow of the runes.
He descended.
Far above, in the real world, the city of Ares trembled under an unnatural storm. The sky was streaked with crimson light, and the central guild tower flickered with failing barriers. Inside, Lira stood before a flickering console, watching lines of data twist into meaningless code.
"He's inside the third layer," one of the Raiders said, voice low. "But the signal's unstable."
Lira's gaze didn't waver. "Keep the channel open. If he surfaces, I want every sensor pointed at that gate."
The Raider hesitated. "Ma'am, if the Architect's presence is reactivating..."
"Then we prepare for war," she said softly.
Behind her, the guild's war map displayed moving markers, dozens of red points spreading across the city's perimeter. The rifts were multiplying again.
Aiden reached the bottom of the stairs. The air here was denser, darker, but alive with quiet energy. The corridor opened into what looked like a massive vault, its walls lined with crystal growths that pulsed in rhythm, like breathing. He stepped forward, the faint crunch of his boots echoing against the stone.
At the far end, something floated, a sphere of pale gold light, contained within a web of black chains that anchored it to the floor. The chains were carved with symbols, each one shifting like living script.
> Core Detected. Source: Architect Subroutine 0-1.
Aiden stared at it. This was no machine. It felt like a heart, an imprisoned star, pulsing weakly against its restraints.
He approached slowly. "You're the Core," he murmured. "The thing he wants back."
The air quivered. A low hum filled the chamber, rising until it became a whisper, layered with countless voices.
"Do not free what you do not understand."
Aiden froze. The voice came from the walls, the crystals, the chains themselves. The sound was not warning, it was grief.
He reached out anyway. His fingers brushed the nearest chain, and light surged through him, visions flashing in an instant. Cities crumbling under storms of light. The Architect standing at the center of it all, eyes filled with something between sorrow and obsession.
Aiden stumbled back, gasping.
The system chimed faintly.
> New Data Acquired: The Core remembers.
The chains around the sphere trembled, one fracturing slightly. A wave of warmth swept through the vault, carrying whispers he couldn't understand. He looked at the glowing heart and knew that if he freed it, something vast would awaken, something even the Architect feared.
He lowered his hand.
"Not yet," he whispered.
The Core pulsed once, almost approvingly, before settling into silence.
He turned back toward the stairs. The corridor beyond was gone. In its place, a vast open door had formed, leading into light.
He took a slow breath. "The next floor."