Location: Sector V-13, Subterranean Transit Layer
And it knew exactly where Oblivion was.
The realization settled into the corridor
THHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOM
Another pulse shook the underground layer.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
The walls groaned inward slightly as if immense pressure was somewhere far beneath the facility.
Oblivion's breathing slowed.
Every pulse matched the fractures beneath his skin.
Lazard noticed immediately.
"That thing below us…" His voice remained low. "…it's reacting to you."
Oblivion looked down at his hands.
The black fractures had spread farther across his fingers now.
Before he could respond
the emergency lights died again.
Darkness swallowed the corridor.
Then came the sound.
Metal scraping against metal somewhere ahead.
Lazard immediately raised his weapon.
Blue energy flickered across the mechanical arm attached to his shoulder.
"Stay behind me."
Then dozens of tiny white lights suddenly appeared in the darkness ahead.
The creatures slowly emerged from the corridor shadows.
Humanoid shapes.
Distorted limbs.
Fragments of facility armor fused into their bodies like melted steel.
Their movements looked unfinished.
One tilted its head unnaturally toward Oblivion.
Its jaw cracked open.
"…fra…cture…"
Then they attacked.
The corridor erupted instantly.
Lazard fired several energy rounds into the first entity.
BOOM
Its torso exploded apart
but the body kept moving.
Another creature lunged directly toward Oblivion.
Instinct took over.
The fractures beneath his skin pulsed violently.
And suddenly
the creature stopped midair.
Like invisible pressure had wrapped around its body.
The air itself distorted around it.
Oblivion stared at the creature silently.
For one brief moment
he could feel its existence straining against something unseen.
Like unstable structure under immense weight.
Then
CRRRRRRRK
The entity collapsed inward instantly.
Its entire body folded unnaturally before smashing into the floor hard enough to crack the metal beneath it.
The surrounding creatures hesitated.
Even Lazard froze briefly.
"…You compressed it."
Oblivion looked confused.
"I didn't touch it."
"You didn't need to."
Another pulse shook the underground layer.
Harder this time
THHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOM
The floor beneath them cracked open slightly.
A thin black line spread across the corridor
Cold air rushed upward from below.
The nearby creatures suddenly panicked.
Several immediately retreated backward into the darkness.
One began violently tearing pieces off its own body.
Another slammed itself repeatedly against the wall trying to escape.
Lazard's expression changed instantly.
"They're afraid."
Oblivion slowly stepped closer to the fracture in the floor.
The darkness below did not look natural.
It looked deep in the wrong way.
As if the corridor was opening into somewhere that did not belong beneath the facility at all.
Then
a gigantic white eye opened far below.
Watching him again.
The corridor trembled violently.
This time Oblivion heard something else.
And with every pulse
the fractures on his body spread farther.
The eye narrowed slightly.
Then the darkness below moved.
Something enormous began rising toward the surface.
And for the first time
Lazard looked genuinely afraid
To be continue.