Communicate.
Gate.
Something old. So old.
The air in the Nexus shimmered, threads of reality twisting unnaturally. Where once a three-meter crystal stood, now lay something else—something changed. Encased within a complex array of magic circuitry, sigils, and runes, it pulsed faintly, its presence no longer just light and mana, but something deeper, something other.
The room was unnervingly still, save for the Core at the center—a two-meter-tall rectangular slab of mithril, its surface etched with intricate sigils and runes. It was the heart of the fortress, the true anchor that controlled and sustained everything. Unlike the Nexus, it wasn't connected to the astral plane—at least, it shouldn't have been. And yet, it flickered erratically, its once-steady hum now an uncertain, fragmented whisper.
The interference had stopped screaming and settled into something worse—silence. The kind that pressed down, as if the world itself was holding its breath. The kind that made you question whether you'd actually gone deaf or if the universe had simply paused.
I had done many reckless things in my life. Some out of curiosity. Some out of necessity. Some because I was simply too stubborn to let the universe tell me no. Standing here, staring into the abyss stirring beyond the altered Nexus, I realized something.
This was a mistake.
I rubbed the bridge of my nose. "Alright. Let's not panic just yet."
A ripple ran through the air, distorting space in jagged, uneven pulses. The Nexus wasn't just reacting to my presence. It was reacting to something else. Something trying to push through.
Something very, very old.
I didn't feel anger. I didn't feel hostility. I didn't feel… anything. It wasn't that this entity was emotionless. It was that its expressions—if they could even be called that—were so far removed from mortal comprehension that they simply failed to register in my mind.
It was beyond my understanding.
Beyond.
I needed to stop saying that word.
I swallowed and straightened my back. "Alright. Let's try not to explode today."
I reached out, carefully weaving a stabilizing spell, something to hold the Nexus together before whatever was on the other side decided to—
The space before me convulsed.
Not a ripple. Not a distortion.
A full-body, gut-wrenching convulsion of reality itself.
The floor beneath me trembled. The sigils flared erratically, casting frantic shadows against the stone walls. My vision blurred, my ears rang, and my mind felt like it had been dragged sideways through dimensions. My hands clenched into fists as I forced myself to focus.
A voice, not in sound but in thought, pressed into my mind.
It was you.
My breath hitched. The weight of the presence bore down on me like the pressure of the deepest ocean.
"Well…" I exhaled shakily, rubbing a hand down my face. "That's never a good start."