Elara stared at him. Her heart shattered into a million pieces. The boy standing in front of her was slowly dying from the inside out, choosing to erase his own existence just to give her a chance to live. Elara grabbed the hand he had resting on her cheek. She held it tightly against her face. She closed her eyes. "I will not let you forget," Elara promised fiercely. Her voice was absolute steel. She opened her pale eyes and looked directly into his soul. "If the machine takes your memories, I will hold them for you," Elara swore. "I will be your memory, Frank Williams. I will tell you the story of the boy from the streets who shared his food. I will tell you about the boy who jumped under a marble hammer to save a princess. I will remind you every single day until the magic is gone and you are safe."Frank let out a shaky, wet breath. A tiny, fragile smile touched his pale lips. "Thank you," Frank whispered. For a brief, beautiful moment, the dark, terrifying horror of the Unde

A single tear rolled down Frank’s dirty cheek. He wiped it away angrily. "Everyone, listen to me!" Frank yelled, turning to face the terrified refugees. "This entire room is alive! It is the brain of the machine! It is telepathic. It can see your fears. It can see your guilt. Do not believe anything you see or hear in this place! It is all a lie!""How do we fight it?" Kael asked, his deep voice trembling as he looked at the pulsing, wrinkled floor. "We don't," Frank commanded. "We just run. Follow my light. Do not stop."Frank turned around and began to glide forward. His glowing blue and gold legs crackled loudly, casting long shadows across the bizarre, fleshy cavern. Elara helped Kael get the refugees moving. They stayed tightly packed together, stepping carefully on the soft, brain-like tissue of the ground. They walked deeper into the Nerve Center. The environment was a sprawling, massive labyrinth. It did not look like a normal cave. It looked like the inside of a giant, c

Elara watched him from the back of the group. She stood frozen in horror. She watched the boy she loved literally punch his own memories into oblivion just to keep the voices out of her head. He was destroying his own soul to protect their sanity. "Keep moving!" Elara cried, pushing Kael and Mrs. Gable forward. "Do not let his sacrifice be for nothing! Walk!"The refugees scrambled to their feet. The terrible voices in their heads were gone, silenced by the exploding nodes. They ran down the dark, squishy tunnel, slipping in the pink fluid, following the destructive path of the glowing blue and gold boy. Frank reached a massive intersection in the labyrinth. The narrow tunnel opened up into a large, circular junction room. In the very center of the junction, blocking the only path forward, was the largest synaptic node they had seen yet. It was the size of a carriage. It hung from the fleshy ceiling like a giant, glowing pink heart. It pulsed rapidly, filling the entire room with

Kael stood at the front, acting as the human shield for the children. The broad-shouldered man roared in anger. He raised his heavy, broken metal pipe with both hands and swung it as hard as he could at the incoming black figure. "Get away from them!" Kael yelled. The heavy iron pipe swung through the air, aiming for the creature's neck. The Silencer did not dodge. It simply raised its long, black void blade. The iron pipe struck the black blade. There was no clanging sound. There was no spark. The black blade sliced perfectly, silently, and effortlessly through the thick solid iron. The top half of Kael’s metal pipe fell to the squishy red floor with a dull thud. Kael was left holding nothing but a tiny, useless piece of metal. Kael’s eyes widened in horror. The Silencer stepped forward, raising its second black blade to cut Kael completely in half. "Kael! Duck!" Elara shrieked. Kael threw his massive body backward, falling onto his back just as the dark blade sliced throug

The first assassin was erased from existence. There was no time to celebrate. The other two Silencers were already moving. They realized that Frank was an existential threat. They abandoned the refugees completely. The two remaining assassins turned and charged directly at the golden figure. They moved with blinding, impossible speed. They became blurry, black streaks shooting across the fleshy room. But to Frank, they were moving in slow motion. When your body is made of light, time stretches out. Frank watched the two black streaks approaching him. He saw every single movement of their dark blades. He processed the information a million times faster than a human brain ever could. “Forty seconds left,” the internal clock ticked in his glowing mind. Frank leaned forward. He shot across the room to meet them. Frank collided with the second Silencer in the dead center of the junction