The three Sentinels stood in the middle of the ruined street, their black armor opening slowly as bright energy gathered within their chests. Ethan watched the countdown ticking down in his vision.[ ELEVEN MINUTES ]If those cores finished releasing their energy, Blackridge would not survive. His twin climbed out from the broken wall nearby, blood running from the corner of his mouth, but he remained standing on his own."You okay?" Ethan asked.His twin nodded. "I can still fight.""Then stay close to me."The first Sentinel raised its arm, and a black beam shot toward them at once. Ethan moved quickly, grabbing his twin and pulling him aside just as the beam struck the building behind them, erasing the entire upper floor in an instant.Claire shouted from across the street. "Their cores are charging faster!"Ethan looked toward the three Sentinels. "Third Subject, can you sense those cores?"The Third Subject closed his eyes in concentration. "Yes.""What are they?""Not energy." H

Ethan stared at the coordinates displayed on the screen. They were unlike any location he had seen before, with no world name attached, no distance listed, and no level assigned. Only a single message remained.[ LOCATION: VOID DEEP ZONE ][ STATUS: ACTIVE ][ MESSAGE SOURCE: FIRST ARRIVAL ]Ethan looked around at the others. "We are going back into the Void."Victor shook his head immediately. "We just escaped that place.""We did," Ethan said, "but whatever is waiting there knows something about the First Arrival."Claire studied the coordinates carefully. "Can the transport chamber reach them?"Ethan turned to the Third Subject. "Can it?"The Third Subject closed his eyes, and after several long seconds he opened them again. "Yes." His voice remained quiet. "But the location is beyond the area where we found the two hundred and seventy three subjects."Ethan frowned. "How far?""I cannot measure distance inside the Void."Victor sighed. "That is not exactly comforting."Ethan ignor

Ethan could not breathe. Black energy covered his arms entirely and had begun spreading across his chest. The pain did not feel like any ordinary injury. It felt as though every part of his body was being pulled in a different direction all at once.Claire knelt beside him. "Ethan, look at me."He tried, but her face appeared blurred and distant. The New System continued flashing before his eyes.[ PLAYER ZERO EVOLUTION IN PROGRESS ][ VOID CONNECTION: 106% ][ UNKNOWN STAGE ][ UNKNOWN LIMIT ]His twin grabbed his shoulder firmly. "Stop fighting it."Ethan looked at him weakly. "What?""You are resisting the change.""I do not want this."His twin shook his head. "Then do not accept it either."Ethan closed his eyes and remembered the First Arrival's final words. Survive your own evolution. He focused on his breathing, and for a moment the pain only grew stronger. Then something shifted inside him. The Void within him grew quiet, and the black energy stopped spreading.Ethan opened h

Ethan stepped toward the opening beneath Blackridge, and the darkness below felt deeper than any ordinary tunnel, with no light to guide him, no sound of wind drifting up from the depths, and no hint of where the passage might end. He reached into it with his Void Sense, expecting the familiar rush of awareness, but for the first time since gaining the ability he found that he could not see everything, because something was hiding the entire lower level from him as though a hand had been pressed over his eyes.His twin, standing beside him, spoke quietly. "I can feel it too, and I do not like it at all."Ethan nodded, and Claire studied the black opening with a worried frown. "Are we really going down there, even when we know nothing about what waits for us?""We have to find my mother," Ethan said, "and this is the only place left where we might still have a chance of finding her."Victor tightened his grip on his weapon and stepped up to Ethan's side. "Then we go together, the same

Ethan stared at the first Player Zero and asked whether he had really said his mother, and the man nodded and told him that Mary knew far more about the System than Daniel had ever admitted. Daniel stepped forward at once and warned Ethan not to listen, because the man only wanted to destroy everything. The first Player Zero laughed and answered that all he had ever wanted was freedom, and when Daniel reminded him that he had destroyed the laboratory, he replied that it had only happened because they were going to destroy him first.Ethan looked from one of them to the other and told them that both were hiding something, while the chamber shook again and cracks spread across the walls even though the ancient seal remained stable. He turned to the first Player Zero and demanded everything, and the man told him that Mary had been one of the original architects of the System.Ethan felt his chest tighten and insisted that his mother had never been a scientist, but the man answered that t