ARC - One hour before Leo entered the simulationARC laboratories were more alive than usual today.The laboratory ceiling was high, the lighting white and distributed evenly to every corner, the kind that left no shadows. Metal shelving ran along the walls, holding labeled boxes, sealed sample containers, and folded documents. The floor was polished white ceramic, giving off a faint echo with every step.Scientists moved through the space.But today was different. Normally, people in these corridors walked slowly, stopped to read their tablets, gazed at data on the walls while sipping their coffee. Today, nobody was stopping. White-coated figures carrying documents or tablets were moving through the laboratory faster than usual, as though they were chasing something but had been forced to walk because running wasn't appropriate.At the center of the room sat a glass enclosure.It wasn't large, perhaps two square meters, but more space had been left around it than around anything else

The countdown was still running.Everyone around Layla was watching the large screen. Eyes waiting to see what the radars would show, fingers trembling over hands. Some of the researchers were standing, some were seated, but every single gaze was locked in the same direction.Everyone was asking themselves the same question. How many more anomalies were out there in the world beyond what they had already found.Perhaps the world was very different from what any of them had imagined.Nobody was looking at Layla.Layla stood in front of the central glass enclosure, watching the iron fragment inside it. Distracted, but not empty. Quite the opposite, her eyes were very active, very curious, just pointed somewhere else.When the 34 kHz had been projected, that fragment had moved.It was a small thing, a matter of a few millimeters, more like a vibration than anything else. And it had made a sound, close to a creak, like metal against metal. Some of the researchers in the laboratory had hea

Leo closed his eyes.The delivery guy was still in the corridor. The footsteps were steady, slightly heavy, the rhythm of someone carrying something. Just by listening, Leo could map out exactly where in the corridor the guy was. He had started from the far end, was now approaching the middle, and would be at the door in a few seconds.Leo noticed this and stopped.Just by listening.He could hear Nadia's heartbeat through the wall on the other side. He could track the delivery guy's exact position in the corridor. He could potentially distinguish sounds coming from other floors of the building.But strangely, there were no other sounds in the building at all. Apart from the hum of a few machines like refrigerators, that is.Leo furrowed his brow.Normally the campus was noisy at this hour. Students moved through corridors, the elevator ran, music seeped in from somewhere distant, someone's laughter could be heard. But now there was only Nadia's heartbeat, the delivery guy's footsteps

Leo turned around."Whatever, forget it.""No."Leo stopped. Nadia's voice was quiet but clear, and Leo knew well enough by now what that particular tone meant."I'm not forgetting it." Nadia stepped forward. "What just happened... I don't know exactly how to describe it but I know what it felt like."She paused, searching for the right words. "It was like a kind of seduction spell. Like my will was taken from me. I thought I wanted it myself but the wanting wasn't coming from me."Her voice dropped slightly. "Maybe it's another sorcerer. A field spell, or something that affects the soul.""This isn't a magical world, Nadia. Maybe you haven't realized that yet."She clearly had realized it already.After a brief pause she continued."Your world might not be magical but trust me." Nadia raised an eyebrow, not defensively, just correcting. "Mine was. And I recognize this feeling. I know what it feels like to be affected by a spell because I've experienced it before."Leo said nothing. H