The pod slowed, alarms flashing softly as they reached the final docking point. The doors hissed open—
—and nothing greeted them.
No gunfire.
No traps.
Just a long, empty hallway coated in ash and red glow.
Aris stepped out first, baton extended.
The floor beneath them pulsed—not with rhythm.
With heartbeat.
Kael's voice was a whisper now. "This floor isn't broken. It's alive."
Floor 379 – Entry Sector
Once, this floor had been a tempo calibration zone—used to test new rhythm-based stabilizers. But now, every surface had been rewritten.
The walls hummed with faint, vocal whispers. A steady string of tones played—five notes, again and again.
"That's not noise," Roselia murmured. "It's a signal."
They walked deeper.
And then they saw them.
Figures standing upright—silent, unmoving. At first glance, they looked like Choir constructs. But as Aris approached one, she saw the truth.
Humans.
