The voice returned, colder this time, echoing off the steel walls.
"You have twenty minutes. Reach the exit before the clock runs out. Or burn."
As the final word dropped, the floor trembled.
"Is that… a volcano?" someone whispered from behind me.
No one answered.
Because we were all too stunned.
The machine pulsed, alive and angry. It didn't just look hot. It was hot. The heat scorched our skin, the kind that made your eyes water, the kind that could melt flesh if you stood too close. The ground beneath it shimmered, like reality itself was glitching. And maybe it was. Because it didn't seem fully real…some of it flickered, holographic almost. But the threat? The heat? The way the air warped?
That part was dead real.
Then clang!…twelve circular platforms shot up from the floor with a synchronized metallic thud. Each one stood at knee height, spaced out unevenly around the molten core. Their surfaces were matte black, with faintly glowing ring in the center.
