Date: 2742-08-22
Time: 03:41 AM
Location: Sector 7 Ruins – Industrial Exclusion Zone
Structure: Factory of Whispers
The gates loomed ahead of him — skeletal, twisted, and somehow deeper than before.
The Factory had changed.
Last time, Ren could almost pretend it was just a ruined industrial husk. Now, it breathed. Pipes hissed with vapor. Walls flexed. Doors creaked open like they wanted him inside.
He didn't hesitate.
Two objectives. One: stabilize the factory's internal rift to prevent further portal eruptions. Two: locate and secure the second Dimensional Core device before The Fallen finds it.
You ready, Ren?
He adjusted his gloves. Cracked his knuckles.
"No."
He stepped through the threshold anyway.
Good answer.
Inside, the air changed instantly.
Heavy. Metallic. Wrong.
The entrance sealed behind him.
[Scanning…]
[Environmental Status: Unstable. Pathways shifting. Obstacles increased 63% since last entry.]
The Factory has... adapted.
"Yeah, I noticed," Ren muttered.
The minimap flickered and glitched. Paths that were once linear now curled into spirals. Stairs had reversed direction. Machinery that had once been inert now clicked and twitched like bones in a giant corpse.
Recalibrating suggested route… Plotting low-resonance path. Avoid corridor delta; it's collapsing through itself every 9 seconds.
Ren moved.
Crouching under collapsed beams, leaping over broken gaps, ducking past jagged steel arms that lunged like reflexes — it wasn't exploration anymore. It was evasion.
The Factory wasn't just a place. It was a defense system.
New anomaly. Hallway ahead is warped by fragmented time layers. Proceed with slow steps. Any sudden movement could place your body in multiple timelines simultaneously.
"That sounds like death," Ren muttered.
Or worse.
He stepped forward carefully, watching the floor ripple like water. One foot, wait. Next foot, breathe. His eye glowed faintly, outlining the stable tiles in a dull blue.
Past the hallway, a narrow shaft opened into what looked like a central chamber.
The Rift was there.
Swirling above a dais of cracked steel, the dimensional tear pulsed like a dying heart. Flashes of other worlds blinked across its surface — deserts, oceans, cities Ren had never seen.
And beneath it — embedded in a mechanical altar of wires and bone — was the Dimensional Core.
Not shattered. Whole.
And throbbing with power.
There it is. You get one shot at this. Follow my instructions exactly.
Ren exhaled. "Alright. Talk to me."
Step 1: Stabilize the core field. Use your resonance — focus it around your hand, like you're trying to hold your breath inside your own palm. When it's charged, release it toward the core's magnetic anchors.
Ren held out his hand.
Nothing.
"Okay. Come on. Focus… charge… breathe... resonance or whatever."
You're squeezing your hand like you're prepping to slap someone, not cast a fucking dimensional spell. Try again. Less… sweaty panic.
"I am panicking! It's a glowing black ball of space cancer pulsing with death energy!"
Less whining. More glowing.
"Fuuuuuck," Ren groaned, shaking out his fingers and trying again.
This time, energy surged into his palm like caffeine on steroids. He thrust it forward.
A blast of silver-white light rippled out. The magnetic anchors froze in place.
Ren grinned. "Ha! Did it!"
Oh shit. He learns. Cute.
"Fuck off."
Step 2: Initiate Phase Drift. Match your heartbeat to the core's rhythm.
"Match my what to my what now?"
It's not hard. Just sync your heart with an unstable piece of interdimensional radiation. Like a Fitbit for cosmic horrors.
"God, I hate you."
He closed his eyes. Focused.
Thump. Thump-thump. Thump.
Everything went still.
Good. Don't lose the beat. This isn't fucking jazz fusion.
Step 3: Unbind the tether. Touch the inverted spiral. Say the phrase in your mind: "Light severs what darkness binds."
Ren squinted. "Is it this weird melting donut-looking thing?"
That's the one. Don't mess it up or it might stab reality.
He touched it. Whispered the words.
The Core screamed. Its color shifted — violet, white, black.
Then the Rift above it started shrinking like a sphincter in reverse.
Final step: Purge it. Overload the core with a direct pulse from your Optics. Everything you've got. Push. HARD.
Ren aimed.
Nothing happened.
"…Where's the pulse?"
Are you holding back?
"I don't know, you overgrown eye parasite! Maybe I'm nervous!"
You just synced heartbeats with a death orb and slapped energy into an altar, and now you get stage fright?
Ren growled. "Fuck you."
No. Fuck you. Fire the goddamn laser.
He screamed in frustration — and fired.
A solid beam of blinding light burst from his left eye, striking the Core head-on.
The Factory roared. The Rift twisted. Collapsed in on itself like a lung imploding in zero-G.
[CORE DESTROYED]
[SIGNATURE NEUTRALIZED]
[WARNING: SELF-DESTRUCT PROTOCOL ENGAGED]
Ren's eyes widened. "WAIT WHAT?!"
Why are you yelling?! I told you, the Factory's anchored to the core! You kill the core, the building kills itself!
"You didn't say that part!"
I IMPLIED IT WITH A TONE!
Alarms screamed — wet, organic sounds, like the factory itself was dying. Walls twisted. Ceilings folded into teeth. The ground behind him cracked and spat out globs of glowing Nope.
Ren sprinted.
Doors moved. Floors disappeared. A staircase flipped upside down mid-jump.
LEFT. Now RIGHT. No, the other right—JESUS, not through the pipe! That's acid now!
"I'M GUESSING, OKAY?!"
GUESS BETTER!
He dropped into a vent, rolled like a damn acrobat (completely unintentionally), and slammed into a hatch that shouldn't have existed.
It opened.
He fell out of the Factory and faceplanted into a muddy hill.
When he looked back — the Factory wasn't on fire.
It wasn't exploding.
It just… folded.
Like a napkin made of rust, steel, and regret.
And then it was gone.
Not destroyed.
Just… erased from existence.
Ren lay on his back, breathing hard.
Covered in dirt. Eye still buzzing.
"Fuuuuuck me."
Honestly? You nailed that. Sloppy. Loud. Possibly concussed. But nailed it.
He gave a thumbs-up. "Best death-sequence ever. 0/10. Would not recommend."
We've got more coming, Ren. This was just one rupture.
Ren sighed.
"...Can I get a coffee first?"
Make it a double. The next one's bleeding through already.