Kai felt Zak's hand on his shoulder, heavy and firm, almost a reminder that there, at the edge between the real world and the unknown, no one crossed alone.
They slipped through the warehouse, dodging puddles and debris until they reached the freshly opened rift in the ground of the Old Zone, where the air vibrated in metallic tones and the smell of ozone stung their eyes.
Union soldiers kept their distance, blocking civilians and regular scavengers with weapons at the ready, but for those who had enough courage (or madness), there was always a way to go unnoticed.
Zak shot a quick look at Kai, a mix of challenge and fear.
"Last chance to turn back. After this, there's no more familiar ground."
Kai didn't answer, just nodded, feeling his core heat up under his skin, his palms sweating cold.
The two moved forward together, Zak in front, Kai right behind, crossing the wreckage until they reached the heart of the new Nexus.
The portal wasn't like the others, it didn't have that regular blue light, nor the familiar sounds of energy rearranging. It was a void that pulled, a twisted metal arch pulsing in frequencies that made their bones ache.
The ground around it shook in waves, and the air seemed to distort the light, fragmenting every color into thousands of tiny ghosts.
"Let's go before someone sees," Zak muttered, and they jumped together, a pulse of electricity running up their spines.
On the other side, everything was chaos.
Kai fell to his knees, feeling the ground vibrate beneath his palms, a floor that seemed made of glass, flesh, and metal all at once.
The air was heavy, opaque, almost liquid. Every breath brought a bitter taste of rust, and the light no longer obeyed normal rules, shadows changed shape and size, walls appeared and disappeared, straight lines bent as if the whole space was about to collapse.
Zak got up first, spinning his body defensively.
"Look at this, Kai. Everything's wrong. Even time seems… frozen."
He kicked a stone, which floated for a second before falling again.
Kai's core reacted, pulsing frenetically, alternating heat and cold, pain and a power so intense he wanted to scream.
Zero spoke in his mind, the voice more mechanical than ever:
"Anomalous environment. Unstable spatial geometry. Uncatalogued hostile energy. Maximum caution recommended."
Kai tried to focus, but the floor moved under his feet. There, he was just another body lost among a thousand realities.
"Zak, be careful, this place… isn't just another Nexus," he managed to say, his voice coming out strange, echoing as if three people spoke at the same time.
Walking was a challenge. With each step, Kai felt like he was being stretched in all directions, as if parts of him wanted to stay behind.
Images appeared at the edges of his vision, fragments of shattered worlds, creatures with too many eyes, mouths where they shouldn't be. Time itself seemed to slip: at one moment a smell of childhood, then the sound of metal creaking, and suddenly only silence.
Zak drew a knife, alert, but even the weapon seemed less useful in that impossible scenery.
"You hearing that?"
Kai didn't know if it was about the voices, the thrum of the ground, or his own heart beating like it wanted to escape his chest.
Then the first creature appeared.
It was short, with many thin limbs, translucent skin and black eyes, no mouth or nose, just a vortex of light at the center of its face. It moved without touching the ground, each step leaving behind stains that slowly disappeared.
Kai froze. His core responded immediately, pulsing at an unbearable frequency, as if fighting to sync with that thing.
Zak stepped back, blade out.
"What the fuck is that, Kai?"
Zero analyzed in seconds:
"Hostility uncertain. Non-human lifeform. Recommend avoidance or rapid neutralization."
Kai felt an irrational urge to approach, but repressed it.
"Stay behind me."
The being moved, too fast, and Zak threw the knife, which passed through the creature as if through mist. In response, it exploded in a cloud of light, covering both with icy fragments.
The contact was a shock: Kai fell, feeling the creature's essence invade every cell. For an instant, it was as if he was looking at himself from the outside, he saw memories of a dead world, of hundreds of other beings living and dying, of battles fought before humanity was born.
Zero intervened, forcing the memories out, but Kai realized something of himself had been trapped in that vortex, a piece of who he was being carried away with the creature.
When he got up, staggering, Zak grabbed his arm.
"You alive?"
Kai nodded, but felt his brain vibrating, pieces of himself slowly vanishing.
"I absorbed… something. But I lost… I can't say what."
Zero confirmed, impassive:
"Identity fragmentation detected. High risk of dissolution. Immediate containment recommended."
They moved on, deeper into the Nexus, crossing labyrinths where the ceiling suddenly lowered and the floor turned to sludge.
That's when three grotesque creatures blocked their path, their bodies contorting impossibly, thin limbs and translucent tentacles peppered with tiny eyes.
Zak, pure instinct, lunged first, slicing one of the beasts cleanly on the side. For a second it seemed to work — black blood splattered in thick drops on the ground — but soon the wound split into two new tentacles, which lunged even more fiercely.
Zak tried to retreat but was hit squarely on the shoulder. The impact was brutal, cutting flesh and muscle with almost surgical precision.
The cut was so deep that Zak barely managed to scream, his teeth clenched, feeling his arm go numb instantly as black, viscous fluid ran and mixed with the dust on the floor.
Even wounded, he tried to strike again, but the tentacles wrapped around his forearm, pulling Zak closer to the creature.
The desperation in his eyes was almost an apology.
"Kai!" he shouted, as the entire Nexus seemed to close in, the ground spinning and the walls pulsing.
It was an impossible fight, every blow only made the creatures grow larger, taking new forms, and Zak could barely stand, the dark blood dripping between his fingers.
On impulse, Kai surged forward, ignoring his fear, and grabbed the translucent tentacle wrapped around Zak's forearm. He felt the creature's sticky cold nearly burning his fingers, but didn't hesitate: he pulled hard, separating the monster from his friend.
The tentacle writhed, letting out a strange shriek, and Kai hurled it against the nearest wall. Without wasting time, he grabbed Zak by the collar of his jacket, dragging him back, trying to create space between them and the creatures advancing again, their bodies deforming with every move.
"Hang in there, Zak! Breathe!"
Zak groaned, clutching the wound, teeth clenched. His arm already hung limp, black blood spreading in absurd patterns across the pulsating floor.
With each breath, his eyes grew more glassy, shifting between rage and pure fear, as if the pain wasn't just physical, but something trying to pierce his soul.
"I think… that's it. My arm… doesn't respond."
The voice came out hoarse, his chest heaving. The sound of the creatures still echoed through the twisted corridors, and the environment around seemed to close in tighter, distorting colors, light, even time itself.
Kai saw the shadows of the creatures drawing near again, felt his core vibrate so intensely it seemed about to tear through his chest.
Desperation took over, a knot tightening in Kai's stomach, while Zero whispered in his mind:
"Elevated risk of death. Host's resources insufficient. Alternative: partial release of control to Unit Zero. Confirm permission."
The core burned, mixing pain and power, and Kai looked at Zak, at the blood and at the Nexus breathing around them, everything pulsing like a living nightmare.
"If I let you take over, what happens to me?"
Zero replied without hesitation:
"Risk of personality erosion. Possible preservation of allies. Temporary performance gains. Collateral damage uncertain."
Zak coughed black blood, his eyes already unfocused.
"Kai… do something… or run and save yourself… or leave me here… if you do nothing we both die here."
There was no more choice.
Kai closed his eyes, feeling his body begin to dissolve at the edges of what was human.
"Zero… you can take over. Just… don't erase me for good."
Everything turned to darkness.
For a moment, Kai felt himself floating in the void, his consciousness lost in the labyrinth of the Nexus, mixed with the echo of all the other voices, all the creatures, all the worlds that belonged to no one.
And so, in the exact instant that Zero took part of the control, a new cycle of horror began.
The entire Nexus pulsed, as if recognizing the birth of something new.
Zak breathed with difficulty beside him, the wound beginning to close at an impossible rate, shadows curling around the injured arm.
Kai felt the power explode, but also the certainty that a new abyss was opening inside himself.
And this time, maybe not even he would come back whole.