The air inside the containment lab had become unbearably thick, charged with the volatile energy of a force that should have never been awakened. The creature stood at the center of the chaos, its twisted form flickering between dimensions as the shard embedded in its chest pulsed erratically.
Ethan's fingers flew over the control panel, overriding the system's failsafe. The warning alarms screamed through the facility, flashing red lights casting jagged shadows against the walls.
Victoria stood rigid beside him. Her hands clenched into fists as she watched the energy field surrounding the creature destabilize further. "You don't even know if this will work," she snapped.
Ethan barely spared her a glance. "Do you have a better plan?"
Her jaw tightened. She didn't.
Anna groaned as she pushed herself off the floor, her body aching from where the creature's energy blast had thrown her. The gun in her grip felt heavier now, but she didn't lower it. "Ethan, whatever you're doing, you need to do it now."
The creature let out another guttural growl, its form stretching and contorting unnaturally. Its eyes—glowing orbs of unreadable intent—locked onto Ethan.
"You cannot stop what has begun."
The voice wasn't a sound but a presence in their minds, cold and absolute.
Ethan ignored it. He yanked the emergency override lever. The room trembled.
The containment field surged, its energy coiling around the creature like chains of pure light. The shard in its chest flickered violently, sending shockwaves rippling outward. Cracks spread across the floor, as if the very foundation of the lab was coming undone.
Victoria braced herself against the nearest console. "Ethan!" she shouted over the roar of energy. "If the system overloads completely, we're all dead!"
Ethan's voice was tight. "I know!"
He didn't stop.
The Breaking Point
The ground beneath them lurched violently as the containment system pushed past its limits. Sparks rained from overhead as machinery began to fail, the energy output climbing to levels the facility had never been designed to handle.
Dr. Caine, forgotten in the chaos, staggered backward, his face twisted in horror. "You're triggering a full cascade failure!" he yelled. "You're going to—"
The containment field instantly collapsed, the energy rushing outward like a tidal wave.
Ethan barely had time to react before the force hit him, sending him crashing into the far wall. His vision blurred, and his breath knocked from his lungs. He could hear Victoria shouting something, but the deafening roar of the imploding shard drowned out her words.
Anna, despite her injuries, had already moved. She grabbed the fallen gun and took aim once more.
This time, she didn't hesitate.
She fired.
The bullet struck dead center, embedding itself in the fragment of the shard still pulsing within the creature's chest. The impact sent a ripple through its form, and for a split second, the energy surrounding it wavered.
And then the world broke.
Outside the Facility
The streets above Luminex trembled as a shockwave rolled outward, sending a pulse of unnatural darkness streaking across the skyline. Streetlights flickered and died. A deep, resonant hum filled the air, reverberating through every building, every car, everybody.
For those who had no knowledge of what lay beneath their feet, it was nothing more than an inexplicable, passing phenomenon—an outage, a tremor, an unusual shift in the air.
But the signal had been received for those who knew—those who had been waiting for this moment.
Something stirred somewhere far from the city, in the cold reaches of forgotten places.
Something that had been waiting.
Watching.
The Aftermath
The silence was suffocating.
Ethan's head pounded as he forced himself upright, his body screaming in protest. Smoke curled from the shattered containment chamber, the walls around them scorched and cracked from the sheer force of the energy release.
The creature was gone.
Or somewhat—it had moved.
The shard that had once anchored it was nothing more than dust, its remains scattered across the ruined floor. Whatever the entity had been, it was no longer bound to this place.
Victoria stood in the wreckage, her usually immaculate appearance disheveled, her breathing heavy. Her hands trembled at her sides, but her face remained impassive. "What did we just do?" she asked, her voice quiet.
Ethan wiped a streak of blood from his forehead, his pulse still hammering. "We didn't stop it," he said. "We set it free."
Anna let out a breath, her grip still tight on the weapon in her hands. "Then we have bigger problems than Luminex."
Victoria exhaled slowly, forcing herself to regain control. She turned to Dr. Caine, who had collapsed against the ruined console, his eyes still wide with shock. "Get me everything we have on this thing," she ordered. "I don't care how classified it is. I want to know exactly what we've unleashed."
Dr. Caine swallowed, nodding hastily.
Victoria then looked back at Ethan, her expression unreadable. "You wanted the truth," she said. "Well, now you're part of it."
Ethan didn't answer. He just looked at the ruins around them—the shattered chamber, the smoking consoles, the empty space where the creature had once stood.
He didn't need to say anything.
He knew this wasn't the end.
It was just the beginning.