They encountered no more Vipers as they went on, but the silence felt heavy, expectant. Twice, Arachne signaled them to halt, her head tilted, listening to sounds Kyle couldn’t quite discern – faint scuttling, distant clicks. Each time, the sounds faded, and they pressed on.After what felt like hours, but was probably closer to one, Natalie stopped at a junction where three identical tunnels branched off. She frowned, looking down each one, then back at Kyle."I’m... not sure," she admitted, her voice low. "The layout down here, it’s not on any of Katherine’s schematics. This section must be ancient and undocumented. I can feel... faint energy traces down all three, but nothing distinct."Kyle stepped forward, placing a hand on the wall, closing his eyes, extending his own senses. The Mana Cell hummed faintly, amplifying his perception. He felt the faint thrum of the Spire above them, the distant rumble of city traffic filtered through layers of earth and stone. And... something else

The dust settled slowly in the main hall. Kyle pushed himself up from the cold stone floor, every muscle protesting. His head throbbed, a dull counterpoint to the burning ache in his chest where the Mark of Dominance pulsed with a faint, angry red light. The forced escape from the Entity chamber had taken a toll, not just on him, but on the very fabric of his domain. He could feel it – a subtle weakness, a tremor in the ambient energy of the castle.Natalie coughed beside him, pushing hair back from her pale face. "Kyle? Are you... are you okay?" Her voice was shaky, her eyes wide with lingering terror from their brush with the void.Arachne was already on her feet, though she swayed slightly, one hand pressed to her side where Kyle knew she’d taken a hit before they breached the Lock chamber. "My Lord," she said, her voice tight with strain, "that... that was the Entity. I never thought... The legends are true.""Legends?" Kyle rasped, his throat dry. He forced himself to stand, ig

Kyle's trembling hand touched the cold, runed steel.A jolt, colder than ice, more potent than any electrical shock, shot up Kyle's arm, slamming into his chest. The Mark of Dominance flared, an agonized, searing supernova of red-black energy. His vision whited out. He heard a distant roaring, like a storm trapped inside his own skull, and the distinct, horrifying sensation of his domain tearing.’No... stop... it’s too much...’ a part of his mind screamed.But another, colder, more resolute part, fueled by guilt and a desperate, stubborn refusal to fail Katherine, pushed back. He gritted his teeth, blood trickling from his bitten lip, and pulled. Not with his physical strength, but with the very essence of his will, his dominion, his fractured power.He poured everything he had left into the Mark, into the connection with the Entity's lock.The runes on the door blazed with an impossible, hungry light, shifting from sickly purple to a deep, void-like black. The air in the tunnel crac

Kyle looked up at Natalie. Her face was wet from crying, but she also looked very determined. He understood in that moment. She had done something important to help him. "You..." he started to say, but his voice was just a rough sound. He felt incredibly tired, more tired than he had ever been. "Don’t try to talk right now, Kyle," Natalie said, her voice a little shaky but firm. "Just rest. You were... in a really bad way." Viv was there too, and she looked pretty beat up herself. She grumbled, "Yeah, Boss. You gave all of us a real scare this time. You almost checked out for good." She shifted uncomfortably where she knelt. "My arm is seriously killing me, by the way." Arachne watched him, and her usual calm face showed clear signs of exhaustion. "My Lord, your core was almost completely depleted. Natalie was able to... assist in its stabilization." Kyle processed that information slowly. Natalie had helped him. He looked back at her again. She seemed different, stronger in a wa

Natalie coughed. She pushed hair from her face. "Kyle? Are you okay?" Her voice was shaky. She looked scared. Arachne stood up. She swayed a little. One hand pressed her side. "My Lord," she said. Her voice was tight. "That was the Entity. I never thought. The stories are real." "Stories?" Kyle asked. His throat was dry. He stood up. He felt dizzy. "What stories?" "It is a thing that holds stuff," Arachne said. Her eyes looked far away. "The first Creators made it. To hold things they could not destroy. Things from a long time ago." Kyle did not ask "before what." He needed to know something else. He looked around the main hall. It was empty. Only the three of them were there. "Viv," he said. His voice was sharp. "Katherine. Where are they?" Natalie looked confused. "Weren’t they with us?" Arachne looked at Kyle. She focused. "My Lord, they stayed outside the room. In the Spire’s lower levels. When you opened the door to the Lock, they were still fighting Unit 7." Kyle