The two walked side by side down the gleaming metallic corridor, their footsteps muted by a soft, synthetic carpet that stretched endlessly ahead.
Overhead, strips of sterile white light hummed faintly, casting a cold, artificial glow over the reflective steel walls.
The air was cool, almost chilling, and despite the occasional burst of activity from employees darting past, no one so much as glanced at them.
Forreal adjusted the hem of her skirt, her closed eyes narrowing in thought. "So… Forreal," she muttered under her breath. "That's my name now? Forreal?"
"Yes," Surreal replied without missing a beat, his voice lilting with amusement.
She stopped mid-step, turning to face him. "No, seriously. Is that actually my name now?"
"Yep," he said, grinning as he kept walking. "Forreal, it is. For real."
Forreal frowned, hurrying to catch up. "You can't be serious."
"Oh, I'm serious," Surreal said, tilting his head with a serene smile. "I'm Surreal. You? Forreal~ To further clarify, that name is now plastered on your existence, your soul, your physicality, and the overall concept of identity. Even if you deem yourself as your old name every now and then, or for some reason, lost your memories...
"Your true name will still be Forreal from now and until you are erased from existence."
She sighed heavily, rubbing her temples. "I feel like I'm losing my mind already."
"Don't worry," Surreal quipped, patting her on the shoulder. "You'll get used to it. The name suits you, by the way. Rolls off the tongue."
"For real?"
"Forreal."
She groaned as she realized that got caught up playing around with her own name, throwing her hands up in frustration before dropping them to her sides. "Fine. Whatever. Let's just get on with this. Where even are we, anyway? This place looks like something straight out of a sci-fi movie."
Surreal stopped abruptly, his extra arms folding neatly across his back as he turned to face her. "Ah, glad you asked. I thought that you remained as a blind follower." He gestured around them with a dramatic sweep of his hand. "Welcome to the Headquarter of the World Peace Corp. Specifically, Level 20 personnel space—the most classified section of the whole facility, and possibly the entire Earth."
She raised an eyebrow, unable to recall if this kind of place even exists in her own world. "And… what exactly makes this place so special?"
Forreal already had several hypotheses, but she preferred to have her alternate smug and insane self who is the one doing the thinking and explaining.
"This, if it isn't obvious enough," Surreal began, his voice taking on an almost reverent tone, "Is where the WPC keeps its deepest secrets, its most classified activities, and its most… forbidden toys."
"Toys?"
He chuckled. "Metaphorically speaking. This floor is restricted to only the highest echelons of the organization. Even as a manager of one of their major departments, I wasn't supposed to know it existed, much less set foot here. But…" He tapped the side of his head with a gloved finger. "When you've gone through as many resets as I have, you tend to learn a few things."
Forreal glanced around, noting the complete lack of reaction from the bustling personnel. "And the reason no one's batting an eye at us walking around here?"
"Black magic, duh," Surreal replied nonchalantly. "Basic illusion and perception manipulation. To them, we're invisible. Or rather, we don't register as existing at all."
She shuddered slightly, wrapping her arms around herself. "That's… unsettling, even for black magic…"
"Get used to it," he said cheerfully, resuming his stride. "Now, come along. We're heading to a very special facility on this floor. One that houses something called the Psycheweave Engine."
"The Psychological Engine?" Forreal attempted to repeat, following him.
"The Psycheweave Engine," Surreal corrected, his tone dripping with anticipation. "A reality-warping anomaly unlike anything else. The thing that allowed this darned corporation to hold immense power over the entire humanity, the thing they used to manipulate people's afterlife, and many more."
As they approached the facility, the corridor widened, the walls transitioning from polished steel to reinforced glass.
Beyond the translucent wall, a massive chamber came into view. The air here felt heavier, tinged with an almost electric charge that made the hairs on Forreal's arms stand on end.
The chamber itself was gargantuan, its scale dwarfing anything she'd ever seen before. The centerpiece was an enormous structure, vaguely spherical but constantly shifting in form, as if it couldn't decide what shape it wanted to be. Its surface was a chaotic swirl of colors and textures, rippling like liquid one moment and crackling like shattered glass the next.
Dozens of technicians and engineers bustled about, monitoring the pulsating anomaly from control stations lining the chamber walls. Massive conduits snaked from the structure to various points in the facility, humming with an ominous energy.
Forreal stopped in her tracks, staring up at the spectacle. "What… is that?"
"The Psycheweave Engine," Surreal said, his voice unusually calm. He stepped closer to the glass, his closed eyes reflecting the chaotic light from the anomaly. "A Nihil"
"A Nihil?"
He nodded. "An existence—or perhaps a phenomenon—that shouldn't be. Something that defies logic, physics, and the natural order of reality itself."
Forreal turned to him, her expression serious. "And how does the WPC have something like this? Shouldn't it… I don't know, not exist?"
"That's their whole gimmick. They shouldn't exist, but they just frick it and decided to exist anyway~" Surreal said with a smirk. "The WPC stumbled upon the core of this thing during one of their space missions. They were out there, poking around in the void, looking for resources to exploit and do their PR by raising the pride and superiority of mankind—you know, the usual.
"And lo and behold, they found this." He gestured grandly at the anomaly. "No jurisdiction, no oversight. Just blind, dumb luck! They claimed it, dragged it back here, and built this entire facility around it. And now they're playing god."
Forreal crossed her arms, her brow furrowed. "Is this… the only Nihil out there?"
"Oh, no," Surreal replied, chuckling. "There are others. Plenty of them, in fact. Nihil takes many forms, phenomenon, living beings~ Some are as small as a single atom. Others…" He trailed off, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. "Others are a little closer to home."
"What do you mean?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.
He turned to her, his smile widening. "Our tribe's black magic. That's Nihil too."
Her breath caught, but before she could respond, Surreal's main and extra arms shot out, the gloved fingers crackling with a dark, arcane energy.
"What are you doing?!" Forreal hissed, stepping back.
"Absorbing it," he said simply.
The air in the chamber grew heavier, the electric charge intensifying to an almost unbearable degree.
The anomaly pulsed violently, its surface rippling and fracturing as a vortex of dark energy formed around it.
The technicians and engineers scrambled, shouting orders and frantically typing at their consoles, but it was clear they had no idea what was happening.
"What's going on?!" one of them yelled.
"Readings are spiking! It's destabilizing!"
"Shut it down! Shut it all down!"
None of their efforts made a difference. To them, the cause of the chaos was invisible, intangible. Only Surreal and Forreal stood at the epicenter of the maelstrom.
Surreal's smile grew wider, almost maniacal, as he extended all four of his arms toward the anomaly.
The vortex intensified, pulling streams of ineffable energy into his body.
The chamber shook violently, alarms blaring as the anomaly began to shrink, its vibrant colors dimming.
Forreal shielded her face, her mind racing. "You're insane," she muttered. "Completely insane!"
"And yet," Surreal replied, his voice calm amidst the chaos, "Here you are, standing with me."
With a final, deafening roar, the anomaly collapsed in on itself, its energy condensing into a single, pulsing core that hovered above Surreal's outstretched hands. He held it there for a moment, studying it with a serene expression before absorbing it into his chest.
The existence of the Psycheweave Engine's core pulsating and reverberating, before emanating onto every inch of Surreal's being.
The chamber fell silent. The technicians stared at their monitors, their faces pale with confusion and fear.
Surreal turned to Forreal, brushing his hands off as though he'd just finished a casual chore. "Well," he said, his voice light and playful, "That was exhilarating."
Forreal could only stare, her mind struggling to process what she'd just witnessed.
"You sure exude so much more emotion than I expected," Surreal said, snapping two finger guns toward the poor Forreal. "Things will get tiring if you always exaggerate a reaction to every action that I make."