The first sign they weren't alone was the nauseous smell of cordite and burnt flesh.
Around the next corner, the remnants of a battle lay strewn across the hall.
Eric and Victoria ventured through the macabre sight carefully.
Silent grunts came from the few unfortunate souls who had debilitating wounds but weren't quite dead.
Eric coldly looted them, ignoring the cries of the dying men to kill or save them.
In the end he found an automatic rifle with a spare magazine and a handgun for Victoria, though he hoped she wouldn't have to use it.
They continued their journey, newly armed and with a slight sense of security.
"How did you know I was captured?" Victoria asked, breaking the silence. "They told me I was dead to the world."
Eric thought for sometime before speaking. "It's really complicated."
As he spoke they reached what Eric believed to be the furthest edge of the facility.
He could feel Victoria's stare fixed on his back which he momentarily ignored.
This corner of the facility was completely empty, save for a sterilisation unit resembling an airlock. Said unit was connected to an elevator the system's arrows pointed into.
The only issue was a security terminal blocking the sterilisation unit.
Eric stepped forward and placed the bloody eye against the terminal.
One of three red lights on the display turned green.
Noticing a card slot he removed Jackson's key card and pushed it in.
A second green light shone.
On the terminal's display, an input box for a password appeared.
After some seconds of deep thought Eric punched in what he had seen Jackson use in his previous life. Eric had also used the same password in one of his many failed escape attempts.
DEORSUMEXELSIOR
Beep
The three lights became a bright neon green, followed by the door's parting.
Eric stepped into the airlock, Victoria behind him, then they entered the elevator.
There were two buttons. One pointing downwards and another labelled 'Return'.
'How deep is this place?' Eric thought, pushing the downward button. The elevator jerked into motion.
Victoria asked again while they moved. "Where exactly are we going?" Her voice was curious, but wary. "I've never been to this corner of the base."
"Would you believe me if I said I didn't know either?" He said with a wry smile.
Eric could see his sister was dumbfounded by his answer.
"No worries, the first sign of danger and we run." He added.
This obviously did little to quell Victoria's doubts. She simply clutched her gun harder and steadied her breath.
The journey down was surprisingly lengthy. After confirming the elevator was without cameras Eric decided to bring Victoria up to speed. He recounted most of what was going on within the base, but skirted around how he'd gotten in.
Her frown deepened the more he spoke, and not long after Eric regretted having spoken.
"Did you also become sick?" She cut him mid sentence.
Eric's face hardened.
"So it is genetic..." She mumbled then turned deathly silent.
Eric watched the pieces fall into place within Victoria's mind.
After some time she finally spoke again.
"Ario..." Victoria said the name wistfully as the grim realisation dawned on her.
In all the years he'd been isolated Eric had forgotten how intuitive Victoria was.
Once she realised Ario had done the exact same thing to brother and sister, she entered a raging fit.
"ARGHHHHHH!" She let out a vengeful scream. The veins in her neck bulged, making her face and neck flushed hot red.
Victoria pummeled at the elevator walls with such force her knuckles turned a bloody mess within seconds. Eric had to physically restrain her before it got any worse.
She cried, cursing at the man who doomed them.
"Don't worry Victoria." Eric cooed, while she still heaved. "We'll get everything he took from us back, and more." He said ominously.
After sometime, Victoria regained her composure and removed herself from Eric's grasp. In her eyes was a new fire that demanded the same vengeance Eric thirsted for.
Eric refrained from speaking more about his infiltration, and especially not about the immortal core. He doubted this was the best place for Victoria to have a complete breakdown.
He instead kept quiet and let the silence permeate, cooling her.
Finally, the elevator ground to a halt.
Its doors opened to reveal an extremely large and cavernous space.
It was filled with various strange equipment, none of which Eric recognised. The place resembled an excavation site rather than the bottom of a laboratory.
At the center, and taking up most of the space was a large oval object coated in a thick layer of obsidian material that looked to steal light.
The only reason Eric knew it was a coating was due to parts of the obsidian that had broken off.
Beneath the material was a dull silver metal of unnatural radiance.
Some parts of the silver metal also had holes within but nothing could be seen, except shadows.
The object was so vast, he believed it could easily be the size of a cruise ship.
There were no massive doorways, no vehicle-sized tunnels. The only entrance he could see to the cavern was the elevator they'd just stepped out of.
That made it clear they couldn't have brought the object here. Eric suspected the entire facility had been built around it instead.
[HEAVEN'S LOOM REACHED]
'That's Heaven's Loom?' Eric screamed internally.
He glanced at Victoria and found an equally bewildered look on her face.
CREAAAAAAAA
A jarring noise came from the object, as if Eric's presence woke it from its eternal slumber.
Pieces of the black material were broken off and an opening into the object presented itself.
It was like the maw of a beast inviting its prey. Eric felt an ominous aura emanating from it.
Eric hesitated, remembering the system's foreign nature. But the gaping maw offered no other clues.
'System, are there any dangers within?'
[NEGATIVE]
The prompt reply slightly reassured Eric.
But he cautioned himself on his growing reliance on the system's aid.
'Well it is the one also issuing the mission.'
Eric turned back to Victoria and asked dubiously.
"Want to go exploring?"
Victoria visibly wanted to protest at her brother's suggestion.
Eric clearly had a plan in motion, no matter how little of it he'd disclosed to her. But he knew Victoria understood him enough to know he would not willingly put both their lives in jeopardy.
Ultimately, she just shrugged and reluctantly followed Eric into the Object's gaping darkness.
Light became non-existent after the siblings crossed the threshold. He grabbed at Victoria's hand when visibility became null even for him.
Eric could only rely on his other senses and the still glowing arrows on the floor to guide him through the mysterious object.
Despite effectively being blind, Eric could tell by the way the air moved the walls were greatly spaced out and the halls were high ceilinged.
Sound was also swallowed creating a profound, unnerving silence.
As they walked deeper into the dark he could feel Victoria's grip on his palm tighten in nervousness as though she sensed something.
Immediately after his assumption, scathing lights unanimously flashed on, temporarily stunning Eric and Victoria's unaccustomed eyes.
The room gradually became visible to them.
It was an all white space unlike Panacea's.
This place felt vast and alive, screaming magnificence.
The light had no source. There were no doors, no crevices.
It was an unending, beautiful whitespace with a single golden pedestal at its center.
The pedestal reached Eric's hip. Within it was a pool of viscous black liquid that glimmered with captured starlight, as though someone had sealed a piece of the night sky in it.
Eric let go of Victoria's hand, gave her a reassuring nod and approached the pedestal.
He stared down at the self-moving liquid, and led by instinct, dipped his right palm with all his fingers outstretched into it. Half his arm, up to his elbow disappeared.
The moment he did this, system prompts began flashing across his vision.
[SCREENING NODE REACHED]
[BEGINNING SYSTEM TERMINAL INTERFACE]
[ESTABLISHING CONNECTION WITH HEAVEN'S LOOM...]
[IDENTITY VERIFICATION REQUIRED]
[WARNING: Host is about to have Qi drawn from within the immortal core. This process can not be stopped. It is recommended Host relaxes muscles.]
Eric was now familiar with the system's warnings and off putting prompts. He knew they mostly brought along pain with them.
But before he could whip his hand out of the pedestal, he realised the gliding liquid had turned rock solid entrapping his arm.
Eric's face turned deathly pale.
'Damn! You said no dangers!' he screamed in his mind. Eric cursed himself for thinking he understood the system's definitions of danger.
"Eric?" Victoria's voice was sharp with concern. He tried to answer, but his body was no longer under his control.
A violent churning began in his core. He felt the Qi within it ignite, transforming into a river of molten light that scraped and scoured its way through what he believed to be his meridians with agonizing slowness.
His eyes bulged, muscles standing out in his neck from the strain. The brilliant, painful energy flowed up through his shoulder and down his trapped arm.
He wished to scream but found strength had left him. He didn't even understand how he still stood.
To Eric, it felt like hours. In reality, only a few seconds had passed.
Then, abruptly, the pain vanished.
Looking down the liquid had turned fluid again. Eric pulled his hand free, his body shuddering with relief.
[IDENTITY VERIFIED]
[HEAVEN'S LOOM FULL CONTROLS GRANTED TO HOST]
[TERMINAL AND SYSTEM MERGED]
As he read the messages, he noticed a ring of the liquid's resemblance had formed on his index finger. A slim signet ring that barely weighed on his finger.
Cold on his skin, it thrummed with an unknown power.
[KEY RECEIVED]
[SECURE HEAVEN'S LOOM ONCE OUT]
After the final message, Eric and Victoria suddenly vanished.