​I climbed out of the basement hatch with an almost panicked, jerky motion, slammed the heavy steel cover down with a loud clang, and locked the latch tight. My ragged breath hitched, selfishly scooping up the workshop air that smelled of warm lubricant and metal scrap—a scent that usually calmed me, but now felt alien. Physically, I was uninjured. There were no scratches, no bruises. However, my mentality felt as if it had just been thrown into a spacedrift vortex without navigation.I stood trembling in the middle of the silent darkness of The Garage, staring at the hatch beneath my feet as if a demon were going to bust out of it at any moment. The logic of my priorities screamed to tell Cora everything, or at least warn Vex. But my tongue was tied. How do you explain a place that rejects the laws of physics? A place where time stretches, sound echoes wrong, footprints can disappear on their own, and a spiral symbol is drawn by an invisible finger from the inside of a wall? They wou

​I stood frozen at the lip of the crack. Pale white light continued to creep across the black metal surface, carving sharp-angled lines. My hand tightly gripped the hilt of the Arcblade at my belt, my palms slick with cold sweat. My heart pounded, pumping adrenaline.The symbols strung themselves together, flickering, connecting to form a row of complex patterns. I waited with bated breath, preparing for a physical threat that might leap from the darkness of the corridor before me.However, the problem that emerged was completely different. The moment the string of symbols began to slow its formation, I realized a very bitter truth. The language was entirely strange. It was absolutely not the Imperium's Auxscript, nor was it a tactical military cipher leftover from the Galactic Republic. Let alone the ancient language from the Veilbound archives that Ryen had once studied. This language was truly an entity I did not recognize.With a slightly trembling left hand, I reached for the dat

My eyes were still glued to the single geometric symbol drawn on the layer of dust on this metal table. This ancient observation room, at first glance, felt like a frozen time capsule, an untouched, dead tomb. However, the longer I stood here and swept my gaze around, that illusion of absolute emptiness began to crack.There was a strangeness silently creeping into my perception. The dull gray layer of dust on this floor should have been left to thicken for tens of thousands of years, accumulating without the slightest disturbance. But, in a dark corner near the dead terminal, there were several circular-patterned areas that were entirely too clean, as if recently swept by the sole of a shoe. A heavy metal chair with a worn hydraulic support appeared slightly shifted from its original axis, leaving short scratches on the metal floor that were not aligned with its original placement direction.And as I shone my portable light on the right wall, my eyes narrowed sharply. I saw that one

Silence. There was only a hiss of static that was incredibly empty and dead. I raised the mapping datapad in my palm. Its monochrome screen blinked frantically before all the mapping data lines turned into chaotic rows of error codes. The local GPS signal was entirely lost. The thermal temperature sensor was dead. The radiation scanner indicator froze. I had gone completely digitally blind in a single second. I took one cautious step backward, stepping precisely out of the invisible boundary of that cursed corridor. Instantly, Cora's voice exploded into my ear."...L! Fall back! Don't you dare step in there!" Cora's breath sounded ragged, an incredibly rare burst of panic from The Garage's prideful, cold-blooded auditor. "For the last few seconds, you were completely erased from the world's radar, L. My computations didn't even detect your heartbeat. You were as if vanished from the existence of space and time.""This is a blind spot intentionally created by someone, Cora," I muttered

I exerted full power into both my legs, darting wildly past the giant pillars like a bullet.My footsteps thundered, dominating the corridor, yet the gray-cloaked figure moved with truly terrifying efficiency. I almost managed to catch them.Almost. The tip of my plasma blade nearly caught the edge of their insulation cloak fabric as they made a sharp, pivoting turn at a corner.However, the gray-cloaked figure utilized the entire architecture of the Substrate facility perfectly.As I darted around that corner, a thick steel hatch panel in the wall suddenly slammed shut with a hiss of dead-speed hydraulics, nearly crushing the tip of my nose.I pounded the steel plate hard with my free fist. The figure disappeared behind it. They disappeared not because of spatial illusion magic. Nor because of the mystical power of the Veil. Rather, purely because of absolute military-class tactical discipline and field experience.I realized with an ice-cold chill biting the bottom of my stomach: Th