The doorway didn't just stand there; it dominated the void, a monolith of black stone whose runes pulsed with a slow, rhythmic light, like a sleeping heart.
The silence was so profound it felt like a physical pressure against my eardrums.
The only sound was the low, unnerving hum of the portal at my back, a constant reminder of the point of no return.
My fingers tightened around the worn hilt of my dagger until the leather creaked.
There was no other path. I stepped across the threshold.
The world didn't just change; it vanished. I was plunged into an absolute, suffocating darkness.
It was a blackness so complete it felt solid, a substance that swallowed light, sound, and sensation.
For a terrifying moment, I was adrift in nothingness, a ghost without an anchor.
Then, a pinprick. A single, faint light flickered in the impossible distance, a star in a dead sky.
I moved toward it, my footsteps the only sound in the emptiness, each one echoing as if I walked through a cathedral of nothing.
The light grew, not into a sun, but into a cold, sourceless illumination that revealed a nightmare landscape.
The ground was a shattered plain of jagged black rock, veined with silvery lines that pulsed with a faint, sickly light, like diseased capillaries.
The air was thick and heavy, laden with a static energy that made the hair on my arms stand on end and set my teeth on edge.
This place was wrong. It was a void that actively hated life.
Ding!
The sound was impossibly crisp, a shard of glass in the oppressive silence.
[Welcome to the Null.]
[Ding!]
[Stage Two Initiated. Survive.]
"Survive," I repeated, the word tasting like ash.
A hollow, bitter laugh threatened to bubble up.
Everything has always been about surviving.
From the fire to the double shifts to this. The goalposts just kept moving.
The cold light flickered, casting long, grasping shadows that seemed to move on their own.
And then the shadows solidified. The creatures were back, but they were… more.
Larger, their obsidian exoskeletons gleaming with a cruel sharpness.
Their eyes burned with a brighter, hungrier green light.
They were no longer mindless drones; they were hunters.
They didn't screech or roar. They just came. Silent and efficient.
The first one lunged, a blur of darkness. I dropped into a crouch, feeling the wind of its claws pass over my head.
I came up, my dagger slicing upward. The blade scraped against its carapace with a sickening sound, biting deep but not deep enough.
The creature barely flinched, its jagged maw snapping shut inches from my face.
I could smell its breath, a dry, metallic stench.
I shoved it back and unleashed a bolt of lightning.
The energy crackled, a brilliant blue-white lance in the gloom.
It struck the creature dead center. There was a flash, and a perfectly smooth hole appeared in its chest.
It staggered, the light in its eyes guttering out, and then its entire body dissolved into swirling motes of black dust.
But there were more. Always more.
They swarmed from the darkness, a relentless tide.
My world shrank to the next dodge, the next parry, the next strike.
My dagger became an extension of my arm, flashing and stabbing.
Lightning erupted from my free hand in controlled bursts, each one erasing a creature from existence.
The Null was illuminated in strobing flashes of violent light, each one freezing a tableau of snapping jaws and slashing claws.
For every one I killed, two more emerged from the jagged rocks.
My breath became ragged gasps, burning in my lungs.
The strain was a physical weight on my shoulders.
They were learning, adapting. They began to flank me, moving with a chilling coordination, herding me toward a cluster of sharp rocks.
A searing pain exploded in my side. I'd been too slow.
Claws raked across my ribs, tearing through my hoodie.
I groaned, stumbling backward, warm blood instantly soaking the fabric. The coppery tang filled my nostrils.
"Not today," I growled through gritted teeth, forcing my trembling legs to hold my weight.
The pain was a bright, sharp fire, but it was familiar.
It was a reminder that I was still alive.
Another came from the left. I spun, the movement agony, and slashed wildly with my dagger.
I followed with a blast of lightning that was more rage than control.
The creature vanished. But it didn't matter. They kept coming.
Time lost all meaning. It was an endless, silent war of attrition against a foe that felt infinite.
My muscles screamed. My vision began to tunnel, focusing only on the next immediate threat.
Just as my body threatened to give out, the sound came again.
Ding!
[Stage Two Complete. Proceed to the Next Gate.]
The creatures stopped mid-lunge. As one, they dissolved, their forms unraveling into the oppressive darkness from which they came.
The sudden silence was a shock. I stood panting, my chest heaving, one hand pressed against the bleeding gash on my side.
The silence was deafening, more terrifying than the battle itself.
Ahead, a new doorway shimmered into existence, this one framed in a faint, silvery light.
It looked like a tear in the fabric of the Null.
I stared at it, my vision blurring at the edges from pain and exhaustion.
Every fiber of my being screamed for rest, for a single moment to collapse.
But I couldn't. This place didn't offer respite. It only offered the next challenge.
I didn't know what would happen if I stopped moving. And I couldn't afford to find out.