There was no sound.
Not silence.
Not the absence of noise.
Just… nothing.
No echo. No air. No sense of distance.
Victor couldn't tell if he was standing or floating.
Couldn't feel the ground.
Couldn't feel anything.
"Don't move," Dante's voice said.
Close.
Right beside him.
Victor exhaled slowly. "That would be easier if I knew what moving even meant right now."
"You still exist," Dante replied. "That's enough."
The girl's voice came next, small but there. "I can't see anything… is that normal?"
"No," Dante said.
A beat.
"But it's expected."
"That is not reassuring," she muttered.
Camille's signal flickered in, faint. "I'm… still connected. Barely. I can't map anything. There's no structure to read."
"Because there isn't one," Dante said.
Victor frowned. "You said it reset everything."
"It did."
"Then why are we still here?"
A pause.
Then
"Because I didn't let it finish."
Something shifted.
Not in space.
In perception.
A faint outline formed.
Not light.
