The silence that had followed the creature's roar stretched on, broken only by the echoes of Helena's breath, ragged and uneven. She stood frozen, every muscle locked in place, her gaze never leaving the massive, shadowed form looming before her. It now looked with an unearthly brightening, malignant flame seeming to rend apart the texture of the world surrounding. Suffocating and weighted was his presence: in upon her came that presence on every side. No time to think, no time to breathe. Helena's instincts screamed at her to move, to fight, but every step felt like an eternity. The Nexus was closing in, its edges warping and distorting, its shadows creeping forward like tendrils of darkness. Helena: (strained, determined but fearful) "I won't back down. Not now. Not ever." Her words were a promise unto herself, not to the creature standing before her, a promise that she would not let fear nor the Nexus take victory. She could not leave Alex now without everything they had been thr

The darkness went on and on, an endless void that crushed all light and hope. But in the middle of it, a flicker of something distant yet unmistakable began to grow. A spark of warmth, almost imperceptible, but it was enough. It burst through the void like a blade cutting through flesh, sharp and sudden. Alex's eyes opened with a sudden jolt, the shadows no longer pressing in on him. He blinked in a daze, realizing he wasn't where he had been a place at the very heart of the Nexus. Instead, he found himself standing in a wide-open, empty expanse of an open field of shattered glass. Reality lay broken around him, as if the world were merely leftovers of a shattered dream. Alex: Confused, disoriented: "Where… where are we? Narrator: His voice came back to him, distorted, as if it were sucked into the void. A dark shape stood beside him the hazy outline of Helena's face; even that has been creased with confusion and caution. She looked every bit as lost as he was, but a flicker in her

The world around Alex fractured into a thousand pieces. Reality itself seemed to unravel, the very fabric of the Nexus shaking beneath his feet. His heartbeat thudded in his ears as the devourer’s colossal form loomed over him, its shadowy presence an overwhelming force, a consuming void. The choice had been made there was no turning back. Alex: (gritted, determined) “I’ll stop you.” The devourer's eyes flared, a sickly, molten red that gleamed with malice. It roared again, its gargantuan form writhing as it surged forward. But the woman's hand still glowing with that eerie, otherworldly light rose to meet it. Woman: (calm, firm) "You will not stop it alone, Alex Mercer." The voice of the woman pulsed; her words vibrated through the air, causing Alex's chest to thud. He knew it there was her control, her demand over the substance of the Nexus. But then, he has no time for that. This is when Alex's instincts yelped on action; devourer's claws were coming for him like tidal waves. A

The world around them seemed to warp, bending under the weight of what Alex had just unleashed. The ground shook violently, as if the very fabric of the Nexus was splintering, ready to collapse in on itself. But it wasn't the Nexus that Alex feared. It was the creature no, thing that emerged from the creature's shattered form. It was something older, more primeval, and Alex could feel darkness curling about him, stifling every single thought. The shadows slimed and coiled together, twisting into a figure far more terrible than any nightmare. It was enormous, a grotesque amalgamation of writhing darkness and tendrils of cold, ethereal light. Its eyes glowed a violent shade of crimson, piercing the very essence of Alex's being. And yet, it wasn't the power that made him terrified; it was the presence the crushing weight of something that had no place in this world. Alex: (gritted, voice strained) "What is that thing?" His words barely carried over the sound of the air crackling with e

Darkness fell in the blink of an eye. One moment, the creature loomed over them their wings unfurled like blackened sails on a storm-tossed sea and the next, a blinding light flared, consuming everything in its path. Alex's heart stopped as the world around him fractured, a violent rift of light and shadow colliding with reality itself. For what seemed like an eternity, something was stuck in a painful moment. There was no sound, no movement only the heavy pressure of an unseen force urging down on them. Alex's vision began to blur; his breath caught in his chest. In a daze, his hand stretched out before him to stabilize himself against the cold, cracked earth, and it wasn't enough. Air seemed to have been stolen from his lungs. Alex: (croaked, strain) "Helena…?" His voice was almost inaudible, drowned out by the deafening silence that surrounded them. But there was no answer. The light had swallowed everything, every trace of the world they had known. Alex's mind was racing, panic