Aiden’s POVWe were hiding now. Kara and I, in a small alcove deep in the labyrinth of The Abyss, the harsh glow of emergency lights casting long, eerie shadows on the walls. The rest of the team had scattered, retreating to safer positions. But I couldn’t focus on anything except the shard in my hand."How much longer?" Kara asked, her voice tinged with impatience. She was seated across from me, watching intently as I interfaced with the shard. The tiny crystalline object pulsed faintly, sending ripples through my neural implant as I accessed the data within."Give me a second," I muttered, trying to ignore the pounding in my head. I focused on the data streams, fingers brushing over my terminal, watching as the fragmented memories of Mila began to come together.The first image that flickered to life in my mind was her face—clearer now, her expression intense. She was speaking, but her words were fragmented, lost in static.“Aiden... you have to listen to me... Rhea Valen... Malri

Aiden’s POVThe sound of crumbling metal echoed through the facility as I sprinted through the halls, Mila’s body cradled in my arms. Every step felt like the walls were closing in on me. The place was coming apart at the seams, the air thick with the scent of burning wires and malfunctioning systems. I could feel the weight of it—the weight of this place, of the choices I had made, bearing down on me.“Move, Aiden! Move faster!” Kara’s voice crackled through my earpiece, her urgency cutting through my thoughts. “Malrik sabotaged the facility. You’ve got seconds before everything comes down.”My pulse was a drumbeat in my ears as I ran, my legs pumping hard beneath me. The facility was collapsing. The walls were buckling, the floors shaking as though the entire structure was about to implode. But I couldn’t stop. Not with Mila in my arms. Not when I was so close.I reached the exit. The door slammed open with a violent hiss, and I nearly fell as I stepped into the open, the cold wind

Aiden’s POVI didn’t tell them. Not a word. There was no time to explain.I couldn’t stay. Not with the voice of Mila—my Mila—still echoing in my head, drawing me toward the dark void that waited for me. The Abyss. Where every decision I’d made, every step I had taken, had led me. I had to go alone. They wouldn’t understand. Hell, I barely understood myself, but this was something I couldn’t ignore. Mila was calling for me.I was already out of the hideout, my feet moving without thought, instinct guiding me more than reason. The resistance had become a fractured unit, their trust in me hanging by a thread. Zane’s angry words still rang in my ears, but they were no longer a concern. There was no turning back. Not now.I’d already betrayed them. Now, I was betraying myself.The signal was weak at first, nothing more than a flicker in the back of my mind. But as I ventured deeper into the wilderness, it grew stronger, clearer. I felt it pulling at me like gravity, beckoning me into the

Aiden’s POVI could feel the weight of time pressing down on me, each second slipping away like sand through my fingers. The Abyss was waking up, its reach growing stronger by the moment, and Malrik—Malrik—he was so close to realizing his twisted vision. The virtual world was starting to blur with reality, the lines of existence blurring into something unrecognizable. I had to stop him.But as I ran through the wreckage of the facility, my thoughts were a whirlwind. The answers I needed, the power I had unlocked within myself, none of it seemed enough. I wasn’t even sure if I could stop Malrik, let alone save Mila. And then there was Kara—her betrayal looming over everything. Every step I took brought me closer to a choice, a decision I wasn’t ready to make.The wind howled through the broken windows, swirling debris around me. I could feel the pulse of the Abyss beneath my feet, and with it, a sense of impending doom.“Aiden.”I froze, the voice echoing through the empty hallway.

Aiden’s POVThe explosion of energy was like nothing I had ever felt. As I activated the self-destruct sequence, the entire world—the Abyss—seemed to shudder around me.At first, nothing happened. A soft hum echoed through the space, like the calm before a storm. But then it began. A ripple in the fabric of reality.I staggered back as the ground beneath my feet shifted, the walls around me warping like a mirage in a desert. The energy in the room surged, expanding, contracting in a pulse that I could feel deep in my chest.“What have you done?” Malrik’s voice, laced with fury, cracked through the distortion, but it sounded distant—faint, like he was somewhere far away.I couldn’t focus on him. My mind was reeling, the room spinning, twisting in ways that made it impossible to tell what was real anymore. My breath came in shallow gasps as everything around me bent, fractured, and warped.“No, no, this isn’t supposed to happen...” I muttered to myself, my hands shaking as I tried to st