The Nexus core wasn't built for human minds. It shimmered with impossible geometry holograms within echoes, gravity inverted in pulses, pathways that folded into themselves and spit you out somewhere else entirely.
And still, Elara moved through it like she'd been born here.
Her body had long stopped feeling real. Pain flickered in pulses, like a heartbeat that didn't belong to her. The black lattice underfoot felt soft as silk and solid as steel, a paradox that hummed with every step. All around her, the Architect systems shifted in silence, reacting to her presence not rejecting, but watching.
Waiting.
Aeron flanked her left, pulse-rifle slung low, but his eyes never left her. She saw it in his silence that unspoken war between awe and worry. He hadn't said a word since they'd entered the core chamber. Elara wasn't sure if that scared her more… or comforted her.
