The corridors of Nexus Umbra pulsed with life, but not with ordinary life. It was something deeper. Something unnatural. It was as if the metal itself, the codes flowing through the walls, and the floor molding beneath her feet whispered forbidden secrets.
Seraphina walked in silence, each step calculated. Each turn memorized. "This base…it really does feel alive. Watching. Testing."
She had spent the last seven hours mentally mapping out the possible sectors the structure of the central tower, the side entrances, the camera blind spots, the gravity fields, the EVP variations in the corridors, and the anomalies in the codes on the walls. It was impossible to take it all in, but she absorbed as much as she could.
Despite her vast experience as a Herald of the End, she was beginning to feel…an unease she had never felt before. Nexus Umbra was not just advanced. It was abnormal.
Otherworldly. In one of the underground sectors, Seraphina passed in front of a wall where data flowed like glowing rivers. She lightly touched the structure, and it responded to her touch with a tremor, as if recognizing it... or cataloging it.
"This doesn't seem like ordinary technology. This is... like a consciousness." she thought.
The only time she had seen anything even remotely similar was inside the laboratories of the Ruin Remnants, where Oblivion Sage, the man behind all their technology, had created semi-lucid environments with responsive matter and living encryption.
And so, only one name came to mind. "Elysian... could he decipher the true nature of this base?"
Knowing she couldn't take any risks, Seraphina descended into a hidden compartment between the lower layers of the base a blind spot she had detected a few hours earlier when she noticed a slight delay in the energy pulse from the sensors.
There, with surgical precision, she activated one of the devices provided by Elysian: a Quantum Perceptual Reduction Emitter, a tiny capsule that, when activated, created a bubble of cognitive distortion, rendering any form of visual, auditory, energetic, or even mental espionage ineffective.
Inside the bubble, she took out her communicator and activated it. "Oblivion Sage. This is Pandemonium. Secure transmission."
Almost immediately, the screen flashed with Elysian's calm silhouette, the background of his lab projecting quantum gears and fractals of data. "Received, Pandemonium. Begin." His voice was as precise as a scalpel.
Seraphina recounted everything with precision. The details of the Nexus, the sectors, the architecture, the live data, the strange sensations in each element. Elysian listened silently, her blue eyes constantly moving, crossing information, calculating.
When she finished, there was a brief silence on the other end. "Interesting…" Elysian murmured, her voice lower. "So that's it…"
"Have you ever seen anything like it?" Seraphina asked seriously.
Elysian lightly rested her interlaced fingers on her chin. "Yes... and no. The digital architecture and quantum coding you described are not impossible for me. The Ruin Remnant base has comparable structures, especially the sectors you have never visited. I could create one of those anytime I want. But there is something here... peculiar. A signature I do not recognize. Which means only one thing: someone in the world possesses an intellect comparable to mine."
Seraphina narrowed her eyes. "You have never mentioned anyone like that."
Elysian kept her gaze steady. "Because I have never encountered anyone who comes close. In all the years of developing, researching, and... rebuilding who I was, no one has challenged me in the realm of intellect. Until now."
He sat back slowly. "But it does not surprise me. The world always hides behind veils. And now, we have discovered a new veil. An enemy that, at the very least, should not be underestimated or overestimated."
Seraphina remained silent. Elysian continued. "Still, Pandemonium, you need not fear. They may have technological parity... but we have purpose. I will do whatever it takes to crack the access code to this dimension. I am already developing three theoretical models of infiltration."
Seraphina then questions Elysian about this. "How long until I get something concrete?"
Elysian then calmly answers. "That will depend on the information you continue to gather. The more details you give me, the faster I can build a decryption key to the Nexus Umbra dimension. In the meantime... keep watch. Especially on Specter."
Seraphina nodded. "Do you think he knows who I really am?"
Elysian hesitated for a moment. Then, in a precise voice, "Not yet. But he suspects. And if Specter doesn't know, someone above him will. So... be extra careful. And if you cross paths with any of the Four Primevals you mentioned... be ten times more careful."
Silence returned, and for a moment, the glow of the illusory shield flickered at the edges.
Before hanging up, Elysian said in a lower, almost human tone, "You did well to inform me of this. And… you were efficient as always, Pandemonium."
Seraphina smiled faintly. Small. Almost imperceptible. "Just doing my duty." The call ended.
Alone once more, Seraphina put away her communicator, deactivated the illusory bubble, and melted back into the living shadows of Nexus Umbra. She knew now that the enemy was something beyond anything they had ever faced. But she also knew something else. She was not alone.
Time seemed to flow differently in Nexus Umbra. Seraphina walked through corridors that twisted at impossible angles, curving in directions that architectural logic could not explain. The sensors on the walls emitted soft lights as she approached but never in alarm. It was as if the base had accepted her.
"This doesn't make sense." Her mind raced.
"I'm not really one. They don't know who I am. Do they?"
She took a deep breath and stepped through a door that swung open without resistance. Beyond it, a hexagonal room revealed itself, circular terminals suspended in midair, data floating in slow spirals.
At the entrance, a nameplate was projected onto a wall as black as living obsidian:
> Choi Eun-kyung
Rank: SHADOW
Rank: Recruited Operative
Indexed Genome
Level 1 Access Granted.
Seraphina's eyes fixed on those words. Her false name. One she'd been using for years. And then the phrase "Indexed Genome."
"They…mapped my genetic code." A shiver ran down her spine. "It was during the teleportation. The transport here... the Umbra Nexus is not just an artificial domain, it functions as a gigantic parasitic organism. It absorbs, analyzes and classifies everything that enters."
She approached a floating terminal. The screen automatically read her presence and unlocked superficial data - incomplete files about the base's sectors, movement logs and training statistics. Nothing deeply confidential, but... it was already too much information for a "recruit".
"They didn't just accept me. They incorporated me. Like a piece that fits perfectly." She closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. "Even though I've only been here a few hours, I understand very well that this place is more than a base. It is a mind. A system that operates in sync with the brains of its agents. This... is the future. Or perhaps, the end." Leaving the room, she returned to one of the main corridors.
The walls pulsed with glowing hexagonal patterns pulses of light that echoed like the heartbeat of a living entity. She walked like a shadow, discreet but attentive.
Up ahead, she spotted three soldiers who were apparently also "Shades" members of the Order of Erebus. "Hey... you're the poison girl, aren't you?" It was one of the tall recruits, with dark hair tied in a bun and scarlet eyes. One of the ones who had fought fiercely during the last test.
Seraphina looked up slightly and calmly answered, "It depends on who's asking."
The boy let out a muffled laugh. "Field name: Ardent. Before you ask, no, it's not my real name. I just thought it would be fair to introduce myself since everyone here seems to be hiding something."
"You're not the only one," replied a girl who approached, her skin dark, her eyes amber, and her tribal tattoos alive beneath her skin. "Field name: Kvara."
Seraphina responded with only a discreet nod. "Better not to create any ties. But... getting to know them is necessary."
"And you?" Ardent asked. "Choi, huh? The base gave us your name at the entrance. Rank Shadow, same as us. They love to give out fancy titles."
"Apparently," Seraphina replied. "Shadow. Sounds like... disposable shadow."
Kvara smiled sarcastically. "Or blade in the shadows. It depends on how we play this game."
Seraphina watched them for a few more seconds, mapping their behaviors. Ardent seemed impulsive, but with good intentions. Kvara, cool, analytical perhaps the closest thing to someone with real potential.
They talked for a few more minutes about the training that was to come, about the rumors of the "Primal Four", the legendary agents of the Order. No one knew who they were, but all the survivors felt the same tension, they were being watched. Still being tested.
Before saying goodbye, Ardent commented: "I bet the base will still reveal a lot. I just hope we don't become just more... data for her." Seraphina walked away without answering, but the phrase echoed in her mind.
Hours later, out of sight, Seraphina entered another sector. It was like a laboratory... or rather, a sanctuary of living engineering. Organic machines, genetic codes being processed in real time, partially conscious artificial intelligences floating in tanks of light.
And in the center, a circular structure, where multiple digital voices whispered to each other, in languages that had not yet been decoded by any ordinary human being.
Seraphina remained still for long minutes. Just... observing. "This technology... This is decades, perhaps centuries, ahead of what the world knows. It's something I've only ever known from Elysian. Only he would be capable of creating such a... transcendental system. And now, someone has done the same."
She felt small there. But at the same time, more determined. "They think I'm in. That I'm theirs. That gives me an advantage. And it gives me time." She turned and walked back through the endless corridors, with a new certainty that burned like embers in her mind. "I can't fail. Not here. Not now."