Pablo's beat-up F-150 was parked near the back of the lot, and she’d spotted him and Sasha on her descent. They stood near the dumpsters, their weapons—Razor and Bedrock—drawn and gleaming in the harsh glow of the security lights. Both looked like they'd already been through a fight. Pablo had a still-healing gash on his thigh, his jeans torn and bloodstained. Sasha's clothes and skin were dusty from the crumbled remains of her .
"About time," Pablo called as Zoe strode over. His tone was sharp with tension.
"I flew as fast as your rules allowed," Zoe said, Gale still clutched in her hand from the flight.
“Delta said you were in Redding. What the hell were you doing there?” Sasha asked.
"What’s the sitch?” Zoe asked, deliberately ignoring the question.
"Eden went in already," Pablo said without preamble. "Alone. We’ve got two civilians—Rowan and Sam from her clinic—already inside. Sasha and I ran into a raiding party of dungeon creatures downtown. Two of them are still unaccounted for, but Delta thinks they’re on their way back here."
"Shit." Zoe's stomach dropped. It was more or less what Delta had already told her. She’d been hoping that things might have marginally improved while she was in transit. "Where's Warren?"
"Last I heard, he had a shift in the city," Pablo said, his jaw clenched in a hard line.
“Your sibling still hasn’t answered my calls or HUD messages,” Delta reported over the speaker on Pablo’s phone, which he had tucked into the pocket on his shirt.
"Of course he hasn’t." Zoe felt a spike of anger cut through her worry. "What the hell is he doing that's more important than—"
"One thing at a time," Sasha interrupted. "We can deal with Warren later."
Zoe nodded, forcing herself to compartmentalize. "Show me this dungeon entrance."
They led her around the dumpsters. The sight of the strange tear in space made her skin crawl. The void hung in the air, an oblong spheroid of absolute darkness that flickered at the edges with oily iridescence. It was maybe six feet tall, half that across, and hovering a few inches off the ground. The air around it tingled sickeningly to her affinity attuned senses.
"So, that's a dungeon entrance," Zoe said and tried to sound unimpressed, or at least like she wasn’t sickeningly terrified.
"According to Delta," Pablo confirmed. His phone was in his hand. "Delta, now that Zoe's here, run us through the basics again."
Despite lacking the anatomy, Delta cleared his throat before speaking. "As I’ve previously explained, this is a wild dungeon, preliminary classification Tier 3. As of yet, I have no data about the internal conditions; however, Tier 3 dungeons typically have environmental conditions suitable for human biology. Despite my objections, Paladin Eden entered approximately eighteen minutes ago in pursuit of two civilians. If they haven’t been killed by the dungeon’s inhabitants, the unintegrated humans will likely be experiencing the symptoms of Aetheric Saturation within the next hour. This is all—highly informed—supposition on my part. I have had no contact with Eden since she entered, which was to be expected—the dungeon's aetheric membrane blocks exterior communications."
"Great," Zoe muttered.
"As another reminder," Delta continued, "wild dungeons typically prevent exit until the primary threat—the boss entity—is defeated. At which point, the dungeon’s exit should appear. Under other circumstances, I would recommend leaving the dungeon active for training purposes. However, given its proximity to an oblivious civilian population and our inability to isolate the entrance, I strongly advise you to locate and extract the dungeon's Aetheric Core prior to exiting in order to permanently neutralize the dungeon."
"The core," Sasha said. "You covered those in that endless PowerPoint presentation from hell, right?"
"It was only one hour, thank you," Delta corrected primly. "And I utilized an information dissemination format that my research said you’d all be familiar with from what this primitive backwater considers an education system.”
“You used clipart,” Sasha chided the alien AI.
“My research showed—"
“Let’s just make sure we’re all on the same page,” Pablo said in a maddeningly reasonable tone.
“Ugh! Fine! Every dungeon has a core—a condensed node of aetheric energy that maintains the pocket dimension's stability. It’s not terribly unlike the Air Core you obtained in order for me to defeat Velgrin. In fact, that Core likely began its existence as a dungeon’s Core. Defeating the dungeon’s boss typically reveals the Core's location, but it might require some searching. Extract it, and the dungeon will collapse upon your exit. Additionally, if you bring the Core back to me, I can use its aetheric energy to accelerate my self-repair processes. It would be...extremely valuable to say the least."
“When have you ever said the least?” Sasha rolled her eyes.
“Before the slide presentation, I considered a video using puppets. Would that be more appropriate?” Zoe heard something in Delta's synthesized voice—not quite desperation, but close.
The ancient probe’s AI was still barely functional, held together by what he'd called 'the equivalent of duct tape, baling wire, and well wishes.' From her conversations with him, Zoe knew this Dungeon Core might allow him to contact Paladin Command. Even if that weren’t true, closing this entrance in the middle of an unprepared human city was enough reason to capture the dungeon’s Core all on its own.
"We’re all on the same page, Delta. Thank you. We'll do our best to find and capture the core," Pablo said firmly. "But the civilians are our priority."
"Understood. One final warning, Paladins—wild dungeons are unpredictable. The environment, the creatures, and the laws of physics may differ significantly from anything you've encountered. Please exercise extreme caution."
“Gee whiz, you almost sound worried about us, Dee-Vee,” Zoe said.
“Yes, well, if you all perish inside, then I’ll have to recruit and begin training an entirely new batch of screeching primates. You know on second thought—”
Sasha silently brought her hands together in a strangling gesture toward Pablo’s phone.
"We’ve got it," Zoe jumped in. "I think we’re ready to make entry."
"Wait." Pablo held up a hand. "Delta, any contact with Warren?"
A pause. "Negative. Paladin Warren remains unresponsive."
Pablo's expression darkened, but he nodded and looked at Zoe and Sasha. "We can't wait any longer; it’s just the three of us. Have weapons ready, but keep your armor in reserve until we absolutely need it."
That had been their agreed-upon plan when Pablo had put them through a wild dungeon table exercise—that only looked like another game night. They had to conserve their armors’ aetheric reserves as long as possible. They didn't know how long they'd be inside the dungeon, and their armor had limited charge capacity. Even with some new tricks Delta had taught them in the preceding months, their armor remained maddeningly slow to recharge without direct assistance from the alien probe himself. Better to save it for when they really needed it.
"Game on." Sasha held out her clenched fist.
Zoe bumped her knuckles to Sasha’s after Pablo. "Let's go get ‘em."
They approached the void together with their weapons at the ready. Zoe reached the entrance first. Up close, the void was even more disturbing. It didn't just look like darkness—it looked like the absence of light, of space, of reality. It was the epitome of the word “void.” Staring into it made her eyes water and her head ache.
"On three," Pablo said, moving up beside her. Sasha took a position on her other side.
"One."
Zoe took a breath, centering herself and narrowing her focus.
"Two."
She felt the familiar rush of adrenaline, the combat-ready focus that the last four months of training had honed.
"Three."
***
Rowan tried to focus through the haze of pain and shock. Sharp and throbbing in his left side, where something—claws?—had torn through his shirt and opened his ribs. Dull and aching in his shoulders from the way he dangled, bound at the wrists to a thick wooden pole. His ankles were lashed to the same pole, and he hung beneath it like a slaughtered deer, swaying with each step his captors took.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
This couldn't be real. None of this could be real. He'd been leaving the clinic for the night and headed for his date. It had been a routine end-of-shift at the clinic, cleaning up, and a little light flirtation with Eden. Just as he had been fishing out his key fob, he’d heard something from over by the dumpsters; a clattering that made him worried a raccoon or possum had gotten in again.
When he turned to have a closer look, monsters had emerged from behind the dumpsters. Two massive shapes with tusks and matted fur that walked upright but definitely weren't human. They clutched crude-looking spears and grunted at him in a guttural language he didn’t understand. Then, from all around the periphery of the isolated parking lot, different monsters had melted out of the shadows. Fur-covered but otherwise reptilian-seeming humanoids. Mostly, all he saw were their very pronounced maws filled with very sharp teeth. Rowan had worked with animals long enough to recognize purpose-built predators when he saw them.
He’d turned to run, but the furry lizard-monsters had rushed him. Three of them, moving with terrifying speed and coordination. Before he’d made it two steps, one of the creatures had slashed open his side with its claws. He'd gone down hard on the asphalt as they gathered around him.
The boar-men plodded in close, snorting commands at the furry lizards. With rough hands, the boars had dragged Rowan to his feet, even as the half a dozen of the lizards had gone sprinting off around the clinic toward the street. The boars had dragged him behind the dumpsters where Rowan had caught a brief glimpse of a flickering black void hanging in the air. Before he could resist, they’d dragged him into that inky nothingness.
The darkness had —that was the only word for it—around him, and when it expanded an infinite instant later, suddenly he was somewhere else, somewhere with purple water and a lavender sky and an alien jungle. They'd shoved him down to the black sand beach and bound him. That’s when he’d seen Sam, already bound on the beach, surrounded by more of the monsters.
On horrified reflex, Rowan briefly broke out of his shock and began to thrash and scream. One of the boars smashed a meaty fist into his side, driving all of the air from his lungs and the fight out of his body. They’d trussed him to the pole after that, and the band of monsters had carried Rowan and Sam off into the jungle.
If he craned his head, Rowan could see him now, strapped to another pole carried by two more of those boar-things. Sam was unconscious, or worse. Blood matted his hair, and his scrubs were torn and stained.
“Sam? You okay?” Rowan called out in a raspy whisper-shout.
Sam didn’t respond. Instead, one of the boar-men carrying Rowan made a displeased grunt and gave the pole a sharp, displeased shake. The motion caused Rowan to sway beneath the pole and sent fresh agony through his stressed joints and muscles.
The march continued unabated. Rowan lost track of time; minutes or hours, it was impossible for him to tell. The jungle pressed in on all sides, alien and hostile. Things chittered in the undergrowth. Vines writhed like serpents. The air was so humid it was hard to breathe, and the smell of rot and strange flowers made his head swim.
Then there was the screen. It had appeared maybe ten minutes into the march—a semi-translucent blue rectangle floating in his vision, like someone had superimposed a computer interface directly onto his retinas. No matter where Rowan looked, it followed, always centered in his field of view.
NEXUS INTEGRATION AVAILABLE
INITIATE INTEGRATION? [YES] / [NO]
Frightened, hurting, and confused, Rowan had blinked hard, and the screen vanished. He'd thought—hoped—it was a hallucination. Blood loss and shock could do strange things to the brain. Maybe he was actually dying in the parking lot, and this was all some fever dream his oxygen-starved neurons were conjuring. Several uncountable minutes later, the screen came back. Then agai,n after he’d blinked it away. Always the same message, always the same two options.
Rowan thought after dismissing the most recent screen.
The pole shifted, and fresh pain lanced through his shoulders. One of the lizards nearby hissed something to its companions in a language that sounded like rocks grinding together. All Rowan could surmise was that they were unhurriedly taking them somewhere intentionally. Probably somewhere bad. Probably somewhere, he and Sam were going to die.
The screen appeared again.
NEXUS INTEGRATION AVAILABLE
INITIATE INTEGRATION? [YES] / [NO]
"Go away," Rowan muttered through cracked lips. "Not real. You're not real."
But it didn't go away. It just hung there, waiting.
What the hell was Nexus Integration? It sounded like something from a sci-fi show. Star Trek technobabble. Except this wasn't fiction, and these definitely weren't people in rubber masks carrying him through this alien jungle.
, Rowan thought, and immediately felt stupid for it. Eden worked the front desk at a vet clinic. She was sweet and kind and had a great smile, but she wasn't some action hero who could fight off alien monsters. Hell, Rowan had been taking martial arts classes for most of his life, and he'd been taken down in seconds.
he thought with recrimination. He’d been prepared to throw down in self-defense with bullies and bigots, not literal inhuman monsters.
They were going to die here. Him and Sam. Maybe Eden, too, if she'd come outside while the monsters were still there. Maybe the whole clinic was gone, maybe all of Napa, swallowed by whatever impossible thing had happened to the parking lot.
The screen flickered, then reformed.
NEXUS INTEGRATION AVAILABLE
WARNING: PROLONGED EXPOSURE TO AETHERIC ENVIRONMENT WITHOUT INTEGRATION MAY RESULT IN SEVERE PHYSIOLOGICAL DAMAGE
INITIATE INTEGRATION? [YES] / [NO]
That was new. The warning text pulsed bold and urgent.
So, either he was hallucinating warnings about from a fake computer screen, or there was some kind of radiation or poison in this place that was going to kill him anyway.
The monster carrying the front of his pole grunted something. The march picked up pace. Through gaps in the jungle canopy, Rowan caught glimpses of structures ahead—crude huts and cages made of wood and bone, half-dissolved into the landscape like they'd been there for decades.
His stomach dropped. They were taking him to a camp. A prison. Wherever they kept their captives before—before whatever came next.
The screen still hung there.
NEXUS INTEGRATION AVAILABLE
WARNING: PROLONGED EXPOSURE TO AETHERIC ENVIRONMENT WITHOUT INTEGRATION MAY RESULT IN SEVERE PHYSIOLOGICAL DAMAGE
INITIATE INTEGRATION? [YES] / [NO]
Rowan's side throbbed. His joints screamed. Sam was still unconscious, maybe dying. And this impossible screen kept asking him the same question over and over.
He didn't know what
was. Didn't know if it would help or hurt or do nothing at all. But he was tied to a pole, being carried to some prison camp by monsters that shouldn't exist, in a place that shouldn't exist. Rowan was out of options.
Lacking a mouse or keyboard or any other obvious forms of interface, Rowan focused on the screen, on the
option, and thought as clearly as he could through the pain and fear:
The screen flashed bright blue, so bright it seared his vision. Then the text changed:
INITIATING NEXUS INTEGRATION
ESTABLISHING AETHERIC CONNECTION
WARNING: THIS PROCESS MAY CAUSE DISCOMFORT
was an understatement. Agony exploded through every nerve in Rowan's body. It felt like someone had injected molten metal directly into his bloodstream, like his bones were being broken and regrown from the inside out. He tried to scream, but his throat locked up, muscles seizing. His vision whited out, then darkened, then filled with cascading streams of data he couldn't comprehend.
The world tilted. Or maybe he was falling. Hard to tell when every synapse was firing at once, when his body felt like it was being unmade and remade simultaneously. Through the haze of agony, Rowan heard the monsters vocalizing in alarm. Felt the pole shift as his captors reacted to—to what? To him?
He couldn't tell. He couldn't think. Rowan could only endure as the Nexus—whatever it was—carved itself into his cells.
Then, as suddenly as it started, the pain vanished. Rowan gasped, dragging in a desperate lungful of humid jungle air. His vision cleared. The blue screen was still there, but the text was different now.
NEXUS INTEGRATION COMPLETE
WELCOME TO THE NEXUS
ANALYZING USER PROFILE...
NEXUS POWER POINTS AVAILABLE: 11
ACCESS STATUS SCREEN? [YES] / [NO]
Rowan stared at the words, his mind struggling to process. Power points? Status screen? This was insane. This was—
One of the creatures carrying him snarled something, and the other grunted a response. They'd slowed, were looking at him with what might have been suspicion or curiosity or hunger. Hard to read expressions on their inhuman faces.
But Rowan could feel something now. Something new. Like a low hum of energy just beneath his skin. The pain in his side was still there, but dulled. His joints still ached, but the sharp agony had faded to a manageable throb. In his vision, that screen waited patiently for his response.
***
The three paladins stepped forward together, and the void swallowed them. For a single eyeblink, Zoe felt nothing—no ground beneath her feet, no air in her lungs, no sensation at all. Then reality snapped back into focus, and she stumbled forward, her feet splashing in warm, undulating water. Zoe caught her balance and looked up.
"Holy shit," Sasha breathed beside her.
They were standing in surf that lapped at their calves, viscous in a way that water shouldn't be. A beach stretched before them, covered in fine black sand that looked like crushed obsidian. The water itself was purple—not a trick of the light, but genuinely violet, with streaks of deeper indigo swirling through it like oil.
The air was thick with humidity and the smell of growing things and rot. Beyond the beach rose a thick jungle, but it wasn't like any jungle Zoe had ever seen. The massive trees’ trunks were mottled gray-green, and their leaves—if they could be called leaves—were broad and fleshy, some of them pulsed faintly with luminescence. Vines hung between the trees like tangled cables. Above them, the sky was pale lavender, fading to pink near the horizon. And in that alien sky hung two suns—one a deep orange-red, the other a sickly yellow-green. They cast overlapping shadows across the beach, giving everything a disorienting, doubled outline.
"We're not in California anymore," Pablo said quietly.
Zoe's was going nuts. The atmosphere here was wrong—denser than Earth's, with strange currents and pressures that felt unnatural. She could feel it pressing against her skin, invasive and alien.
"What’s that?" Sasha pointed down the beach.
Zoe followed her outstretched finger and saw them—three bodies lying on the black sand, about thirty feet away. Their reptilian forms twisted in death. They splashed out of the surf together and broke into a jog toward the bodies.
"Well, Eden handled them, it seems," Pablo said. He was already kneeling beside the bodies, Razor held ready in case this was a trap. “They look just like the ones we fought in the garage. Raptor-Hounds.”
Up close, Zoe could see that the Raptor-Hound corpses looked like they'd been killed only minutes ago. Which was good, unsaid in their refresher, but recalled from the presentation was the possibility of time dilation within a dungeon. The monsters’ mottled brown and gray fur was matted and waterlogged, and their bodies looked bloated, like they'd drowned. The telltale puncture wounds from Eden's trident were visible through the wet fur. As she focused on one monster’s corpse, a notification appeared in Zoe's vision, translucent text overlaying her view:
RAPTOR-HOUND CORPSE
[ALREADY LOOTED"I'm getting a loot prompt," Pablo said, crouching beside one of the other bodies. "But it says ‘.’"
"Same," Sasha confirmed. “Eden must have taken whatever they had. Which means she had her head on straight after the fight."
Zoe dismissed her notification with a thought and turned to scan the beach. The jungle loomed ahead, dense and threatening. Somewhere in there was Eden, the two civilians they were trying to save, and the Nexus only knew what else. Zoe felt her heart rate accelerate and the faintest hint of a smile tug at the corners of her lips. She felt almost exactly the same as she had the first time she’d gone skydiving or snowboarding down a black diamond slope, only better. This was the best she’d felt in months, ever since Mark—
"Where the hell is Eden?" Zoe demanded.
“I’m guessing somewhere in there.” Sasha made an all-encompassing gesture toward the jungle.