The descent wasn’t downward anymore—it was inward.

Each layer peeled back like memory stripped from flesh, the architecture shifting with every step. Hale and Evelyn moved through corridors of light and shadow that pulsed as if alive. The world was rewriting itself around them, code folding into bone, glass, and pulse.

Static bled through the air like dust motes suspended in gravity that no longer cared for direction.

Evelyn’s voice came through the link, fractured but urgent. “The ...