Into the Unknown
The wasteland before them was unlike anything MC had ever seen.
The ground shifted in and out of existence, patches of land phasing between solid and translucent. The air crackled with unstable energy, and in the distance, massive structures floated, breaking apart and reforming as if they couldn't decide whether they existed or not.
This was the Ruined Expanse—a place where reality had collapsed under the System's attempts to erase it.
And somewhere inside, Elias Varian was waiting.
Nova adjusted the strap of her rifle. "We have three main objectives. One—find Elias before the System does. Two—don't die. Three—get out before this place eats us alive."
Kain snorted. "I feel like the second one should be the priority."
MC took a step forward, feeling the air resist their presence, as if the world itself was rejecting them.
Phantom, their new ally, smirked. "First time walking through broken reality? Just stay close. If you wander too far, you might end up in a time loop—or worse, erased."
MC clenched their fists. They weren't about to let that happen.
Together, the team moved forward, deeper into the fractured abyss.
---
The Creatures of the Expanse
The deeper they went, the stranger the landscape became.
Ruined buildings floated in midair, some frozen in time, others repeating the same moment over and over. Streets twisted into spirals, leading nowhere. And then there were the creatures.
The first attack came without warning.
A shadow lunged from the distortion—humanoid, but not human. Its form flickered, its limbs stretching unnaturally as it let out a distorted scream.
Vera reacted first. Her spear ignited, glowing with System energy. She lunged, striking the creature before it could reach them. The moment her weapon made contact, the entity glitched violently—then shattered into pixels.
Kain swore. "What the hell was that?"
Draven, their rogue engineer, knelt and ran his fingers through the broken data. "A Remnant."
Echo, the assassin, frowned. "I thought they were just myths."
Nova shook her head. "No. They're the leftovers. People, places, things the Eye tried to erase but couldn't completely delete."
MC's stomach tightened. "You're saying that thing used to be a person?"
Nova's expression darkened. "Once. Before the System failed to finish the job."
A chill ran down MC's spine. They'd known the Eye erased things. But to see the fragments of those lost still wandering, broken and mindless…
They gritted their teeth. "Then let's make sure we don't end up like them."
Phantom smirked. "Now you're getting it."
---
A Signal in the Chaos
Hours passed. Or maybe only minutes. Time didn't work properly here.
They navigated the shifting terrain, avoiding glitches and pockets of instability where gravity reversed or time froze. But no sign of Elias.
Until Nova suddenly stopped.
"Wait. Do you hear that?"
Everyone fell silent.
At first, there was nothing. Then—a faint transmission.
A voice. Distorted. Faint. Familiar.
MC's heart pounded. It was him.
> "…If you can hear this… don't follow. It's a trap…"
Static consumed the message.
Kain cursed. "That was Elias, wasn't it?"
MC nodded. "And he doesn't want us to find him."
Nova exhaled. "Well, too bad. We didn't come all this way just to turn back."
Phantom's eye flickered. "Agreed. But if he's warning us, that means something—or someone—is waiting for us ahead."
MC looked toward the horizon, where the Expanse twisted and blurred into the unknown.
Elias was out there. And whatever trap had been set—they were walking straight into it.
With no other choice, they pressed on.
---
The Trap of the Forgotten
The Fractured Path
The Ruined Expanse grew more unstable the deeper they went.
Each step was a gamble. The ground flickered between solid and nonexistent, forcing them to watch their footing. Time looped in strange ways—MC caught glimpses of themselves a few steps ahead, as if the future was bleeding into the present.
And then there were the whispers.
Faint at first, then growing louder.
"…turn back…"
"…you don't belong here…"
"…you will be erased…"
Vera gripped her spear. "The hell is that?"
Nova's jaw tightened. "Echoes."
Phantom sighed. "Lovely. The dead are chatty today."
Kain narrowed his eyes. "Not just the dead." He pointed ahead, where something shifted in the distance.
At first, it looked like a collapsed watchtower—a jagged ruin suspended between past and present. But as they approached, MC's vision distorted.
For a split second, they saw something else.
A fortress. Intact. Guards patrolling the walls. A symbol—familiar but half-forgotten—burned into the gates.
Then the vision snapped back to the ruins.
MC's breath caught. "Did you see that?"
Nova nodded, face pale. "Yeah. And I wish I hadn't."
Phantom frowned. "That was a memory."
Vera tightened her grip. "No. That was a warning."
Before anyone could respond, the ground collapsed.
---
The Fall Into Darkness
MC felt weightlessness for one terrifying moment before they hit something solid—yet wrong.
Instead of the ruined landscape, they were now inside the fortress. The one that had been just a memory.
The walls were whole. The air buzzed with electricity.
It wasn't just a vision.
They had been pulled into the past.
Kain groaned from beside them. "Okay. What the hell just happened?"
Nova was already on her feet, scanning their surroundings. "This place—it's supposed to be gone. Erased."
Phantom swore under his breath. "Then why are we standing in it?"
Before anyone could answer, a voice rang out.
> "Intruders detected."
Cold, mechanical. Inhuman.
From the shadows, figures emerged.
Their armor was sleek, black, and covered in shifting code. Their eyes glowed with golden light—the mark of the Eye.
MC's stomach dropped.
"System Inquisitors."
Vera's eyes darkened. "No. Worse."
She pointed to their armor.
"They're ghost units."
MC's pulse pounded.
Ghost units were different from normal Inquisitors. Normal ones were human. Ghost units?
They were data constructs. AI soldiers created by the Eye, capable of rewriting reality itself to hunt down those who defied the System.
And now, they were trapped with them.
One of the ghost units stepped forward, its voice a hollow echo.
> "By order of the Infinite System, you are to be erased."
And then they attacked.
---
Battle in the Echoed Past
The room exploded into chaos.
Vera struck first, her spear igniting as she met the nearest ghost unit head-on. The moment her weapon clashed with its armor, reality glitched. The entire battlefield flickered, as if existence itself was trying to decide what was real.
MC barely dodged as another unit phased toward them, its blade flickering between shapes.
Kain fired his plasma rifle—but the shot warped mid-air, redirected back at him. He cursed, rolling out of the way.
Phantom grinned. "Oh, this is gonna be fun."
He raised a hand, and his cybernetic eye flashed. Instantly, parts of the floor rewrote themselves, twisting into sharp spikes of code that impaled one of the ghost units. The construct glitched violently before dissolving into static.
Nova ducked under an incoming strike, firing a burst of energy rounds. "We need to break the connection holding this place together!"
MC gritted their teeth. "And how do we do that?"
Nova's eyes darted upward.
"The command core. Every ghost unit operates from a central anchor. If we can destroy it, the entire illusion should collapse!"
MC followed her gaze—to a floating construct above them. A massive core of shifting code, glowing with unstable light.
Beneath it, a single figure stood.
A man in dark robes. His silver eyes burned with unnatural intensity.
MC's breath caught.
It was Elias.
Or at least, a version of him.
Nova's voice was sharp. "That's not him. That's a fragment. A copy."
MC clenched their fists. Whether it was real or not, they had to end this now.
---
Breaking the Illusion
MC sprinted forward, dodging past the remaining ghost units as they closed in. The Elias fragment turned to face them, his expression eerily calm.
> "You were warned."
His voice wasn't hostile. It was sad.
MC didn't hesitate. They leaped, reaching toward the command core. Their fingers grazed its surface—
And the world shattered.
---
Return to Reality
MC gasped as they landed back in the Ruined Expanse.
The fortress was gone. The ghost units had vanished.
Only the ruins remained.
Kain groaned from the ground. "Please tell me that was just a really bad hallucination."
Nova shook her head. "No. That was a trap. A fragment of the past, looping endlessly. Someone—maybe Elias—left it behind to keep people out."
Phantom dusted himself off. "Well, didn't work. We're still here."
MC exhaled. "And now we know one thing for sure."
Vera nodded, finishing their thought.
"Elias is still ahead of us."
Nova tightened her grip on her rifle. "Then let's move. Before the Eye realizes we're still alive."
With that, they pressed on—deeper into the Expanse, toward whatever awaited them next.
---
End of Chapter 7