~Omniscient The smoke in the facility had thinned to a gray haze by the time Kendrix broke through another corridor. His boots scraped against steel, the rhythm matching his heartbeat. The fire from Denzel’s earlier blasts still burned in the far wing, pulsing faint orange through the vents. Kendrix didn’t stop to look. He’d made a sport of it now — find something that looked expensive, break it. Find something that hissed, punch it. It was less strategy, more therapy. Calen’s empire deserved ruin, and Kendrix was happy to oblige. He was having a lot of fun because he knew that Calen would be very pissed off when he found out the damage they’ve caused. The hall bent sharply to the left, ending in a half-open door with a flickering panel. Beyond it was silence — no guards, no hum of machinery. Just stillness. Kendrix squinted at the door, then stepped through. For a heartbeat, everything froze. The ground vanished under him. The smell of metal burned away, replaced by something dr

~Kendrix The monster’s hiss dragged across the desert like metal on bone. I got to my feet slowly, spitting sand out of my mouth. I’d barely scratched the thing. My fists ached from hitting it—its hide was harder than stone. The centipede coiled, segments clattering against one another, each one glinting with dull gold light. It was watching me. Waiting. I could feel its hunger in the air—something old and deliberate. The ground under me pulsed once, like it was breathing. Then the monster moved. I dashed sideways, sand spraying beneath my boots. The tail whipped past me, close enough that I felt the air peel against my cheek. It hit the ground where I’d been standing a second ago and split the sand open like water. I didn’t wait. I lunged, letting raw mana fill my limbs, the air around me trembling from the pressure. My fist connected with one of its eyes. The impact threw a shudder through its skull. The creature shrieked, its cry bending the air. I didn’t stop. I slammed my f

~Omniscient The corridor stretched endlessly. Each wall the same, each brick a perfect twin of the one before it — old, porous, faintly glowing at the edges as though the light came from within the stone. Laurent had been walking for what felt like hours, but the rhythm of his footsteps never changed. No fatigue, no shift in temperature, not even the faint drag of dust under his boots. The silence here was thick, like breath held too long. He slowed, running his palm along the wall. The texture was warm — unnaturally so. Almost as if the corridor itself was alive and aware of being touched. No scent, no air current. The place doesn’t even breathe. He stopped walking and looked down the stretch of hallway that vanished into the horizon. There was no curve, no turn, no end. Just infinity made tangible. He drew a slow breath then decided to try something different. Maybe his system had an idea of where he was. Scan this place. Find out what this is. The reply came with a faint h

~Laurent The night air still carried the taste of smoke when we finally reached Denzel’s place. My coat was half-burned at the edge, Kendrix’s shirt was missing a sleeve, and Denzel smelled like lightning and ash. You’d think we’d crawl home in silence, but instead it felt like gravity had flipped; we couldn’t stop talking. Kendrix was the loudest, of course. Typical titans. “Did you see that thing? I swear, it was the size of a damn bus, and I still made it beg for mercy!” Denzel gave a tired snort. “Pretty sure it couldn’t beg, it didn’t even have lips.” Kendrix waved him off. “Details. Point is, I won. You two saw the explosion? That was me. My punches. I’m basically unstoppable now.” I just let them go at it, half listening, half lost in the faint hum still running under my skin — the echo of the programmable dimension, a ghost code looping in the back of my head. The porch light at Denzel’s house flickered once as we climbed the steps. The moment the door opened, the warm

~Omniscient The arena thundered with applause, a thousand voices colliding against steel and wind. Sparks still floated in the air from the last match—gold dust hanging like afterburn. Denzel sat near the edge of the VIP balcony where S rank who decided to come watch lower ranks spar stayed. His chin was in his palm, eyes half-lidded. He wasn’t watching the fights. Not really. The crowd’s excitement barely reached him; his thoughts were elsewhere—on the facility they’d burned. The energy of the tournament felt wrong now, like a distraction staged for fools. He felt the faint buzz of his comm-crystal at his belt—a safety measure Laurent had insisted on. Stay in contact in case something feels off. Denzel had scoffed at the paranoia then, but now the crystal’s low vibration felt like a heartbeat. Below, the next fighters bowed. The announcer’s voice echoed through the domed roof, the words drowned in noise. Denzel exhaled through his nose. “Too loud,” he muttered. That was the tr