The streets twisted again.
Kael felt it every few minutes—the world shuddering like a sleeping beast rolling over. Buildings bent, streets folded inward, signs elongated like stretched rubber before snapping back into new shapes. It wasn't chaos. Not random.
The city was rearranging itself into a maze with intent.
And the Nexus Gate—their only target—kept pulsing in Kael's inner vision like a heartbeat. A cold, steady rhythm pulling him forward.
Mr. Han followed close behind, gripping his umbrella like it was the only thing keeping him sane. His steps were slow, careful, his breath shallow.
"Almost there," Kael said without turning. "Just two blocks."
Two blocks no longer meant what it used to. Streets stretched into corridors. Sidewalks dipped into trenches. Cars jutted from walls like fossilized beasts trapped in amber.
But the path the system marked glowed faintly in Kael's perception—threads of cold light, thin as spider silk, guiding him through shifting intersections.
He was beginning to understand it.
The maze was not just reshaping the city.
It was speaking in a language of structure and movement.
A language his new Affinity was teaching him to read.
They turned a corner.
Kael froze.
A massive shape blocked their path.
At first he thought it was a collapsed building. But then the "debris" moved.
A creature—bigger than a bus—crawled slowly across the intersection, its body an ugly mass of twisted scaffolding, broken masonry, and rebar. Limbs like construction cranes dragged along the ground.
A jagged sign flickered over its head.
[Architect-Beast: Reclamation Class]
Tier: E (Dormant)
Threat Level: Catastrophic if Awakened
Kael didn't breathe.
Even Mr. Han seemed to turn to stone.
The monster's head—if it could be called a head—consisted of a shattered concrete mask, the cracks glowing with soft red light. Its single central eye was closed. If it opened…
"It's sleeping," Kael whispered.
Mr. Han didn't dare respond.
The system projected a faint dotted line—the safe route—across the far edge of the intersection, keeping as wide a berth as possible.
Kael moved.
One step.
Then another.
Quiet. Slow. Careful.
Shards of glass crackled under his shoe.
He froze.
The beast twitched.
A low groan vibrated through the air, rattling the building walls.
Kael felt cold sweat bead on his back.
"Easy…" he whispered.
After a breathless moment, the creature settled again, sinking back into its dormant slumber.
Only when they were two turns away did Mr. Han finally breathe.
"That thing…"
"It wasn't hunting," Kael said. "It was building."
He pointed upward.
Where the Architect-Beast passed, the walls and roads were more ordered—patterned like labyrinth tiles.
"It's shaping the maze."
Mr. Han closed his eyes. "This is a nightmare."
"Nightmares don't reorganize concrete," Kael muttered.
They pressed on.
The path opened into a wide courtyard—once a parking lot, now a circular basin carved into the ground.
And at the center, suspended above the cracked pavement, hung the Nexus Gate.
It wasn't a door.
It wasn't a portal.
It was… a wound.
An oval rift hung vertically in the air, glowing faintly with pale blue light. Black veins crawled around it like skeletal roots gripping the edges of the tear.
Floating text appeared.
[Nexus Gate—Entry Point]
Status: Inactive
Activation Requires: 15 Synchronization
Current Synchronization: 15
Mr. Han sagged with relief. "We made it."
Kael's stomach tightened.
A gate this important wouldn't be unguarded.
He scanned the courtyard.
Cars melted into walls.
Streetlamps twisted into metal spires.
Shadows stretched unnaturally long.
Something was wrong.
Too quiet.
Too still.
Kael took a step toward the gate—
A whisper brushed his ear.
"Monarch…"
He spun.
No one.
But the voice came again—soft, scraping, like metal dragging across stone.
"Monarch. You tread paths not meant for the young."
Mr. Han looked at him nervously. "Who are you talking to?"
Kael swallowed. "You don't hear that?"
"Hear what?"
The whisper slid around his head like a cold finger.
"Your Crown is cracked. Your Dominion is weak. But your scent… your scent belongs to the Labyrinth."
Kael felt something—
A presence
Old
Vast
Watching him from a direction that didn't exist
His vision blurred.
The courtyard darkened except for the Gate.
Text scrawled violently into the air.
Unclassified Entity Contact
Source: Unknown
Tier: Impossible to assess
Recommended Action: DO NOT ENGAGE
Kael clenched his fists.
"Who are you?"
The whisper chuckled—a dry, brittle sound like bones grinding.
"A memory of a Monarch you might become.
A shard of what once ruled.
A shadow that survived its own death."
More text appeared.
Entity Classification:
[Residual Monarch Echo]
Status: Spectral Remnant
Intent: Observing
"Why are you watching me?" Kael asked.
"You carry a Dominion no child should touch.
You echo a throne that once drowned the world.
You are broken, but you are mine to observe."
The voice leaned closer—
Too close—
Echoing inside his skull.
"Reach the Gate, little Monarch.
Choose your first Floor.
And I will see if you drown…
Or climb."
The presence vanished.
The world snapped back.
Mr. Han stumbled. "Kael…? You looked like you were frozen."
Kael wiped cold sweat from his brow.
"Something is watching the Monarchs," he said. "Something old. Something that… remembers."
The Gate pulsed.
Blue tendrils crawled along its edges, spiderwebbing like cracks in ice.
Activation Ready
Kael lifted his hand.
The Gate reacted, pulling toward him like a magnet.
Blue light surged.
The wind howled.
The courtyard twisted into a vortex of pale fractures.
Mr. Han backed up in fear. "I—I cannot go in there. This is too much—"
Kael grabbed his arm.
"You're coming with me."
"I am an old man—what help can I possibly—"
"You're alive," Kael said. "That's enough."
The Gate expanded, swallowing the courtyard in light.
A final message appeared.
Upon Entry
Choose Initial Floor
Difficulty:
F—Beginner's Trial
E—Predator's Run
D—Shattered Sanctum
Warning
Your choice will define your Dominion's growth path
Kael stared at the options.
Mr. Han trembled. "Choose the safest one. Please."
Kael should choose F.
He should.
But he remembered the whisper.
The gaze from the sky.
The Architect-Beast in the street.
The way the city bent around Monarchs.
"Safe won't keep us alive," he said.
His hand hovered over the F Floor.
Then moved down.
To E.
Predator's Run.
A harder floor.
A dangerous one.
But one that offered something else—
Strength fast.
"Kael—" Mr. Han began.
Kael touched the E Floor.
Light swallowed them both.
The last thing he heard before the world shattered again was the whisper.
Soft.
Laughing.
"Good…
Let the hunt begin.