The air around the sphere crackled with static, every breath tasting of metal and ash. Aven could feel it vibrating through the floor, pulsing in time with his own heartbeat. Every thrum of the neon veins sent ripples through the rusted train cars around them, making them creak and groan like restless corpses.
Rhea squeezed the crystal shard in her hand, the glow growing brighter with each step they took. The shadows hissed and pulled away from the light, but never retreated fully. They watched, shifting and merging, whispering in voices that promised salvation, revenge, even love.
"They're feeding on the possibilities," Rhea murmured. "Every future you might have taken. Every regret. Every fear."
Aven gritted his teeth. "Then let them choke on it."
They reached the base of the sphere. Up close, it was worse than Aven expected: the metal surface pulsed like diseased skin, veins of neon light flickering erratically under its surface. He could see faint impressions moving beneath it—ghostly faces pressing against the metal, glitching in and out of focus.
Rhea thrust the crystal shard into a crack in the sphere's base. Sparks exploded, and the entire chamber shook. The shadows screamed, writhing along the walls.
The sphere pulsed faster, a rising whine filling the air.
"It's fighting back," Rhea hissed, twisting the shard deeper. "Help me!"
Aven grabbed the shard with her, shoving it further into the crack. Heat seared his palms, but he didn't let go. The sphere's surface buckled, the metal splitting open in jagged lines, spewing neon light.
Suddenly the ground beneath them shifted, a fissure opening under Aven's feet. He fell, grabbing for Rhea's arm, but the floor gave way completely, and they tumbled into the dark.
They landed hard on a lower platform, metal screeching under their weight. Aven gasped for breath, blinking through the neon haze.
The sphere had grown tendrils, black cables snaking down from its ruptured skin, reaching for them. The tendrils hissed with static, sparking as they touched the ground, dissolving rusted rails and concrete alike.
Rhea struggled to her feet, dragging Aven upright. "We have to overload it from the inside," she shouted over the rising wail of the sphere. "It's the only way!"
Aven looked around, spotting a narrow maintenance hatch in the sphere's side, hanging open amid the pulsing veins.
Without thinking, he grabbed Rhea's hand and pulled her toward it. The tendrils lashed at them, leaving searing cuts across his arms and back, but he ignored the pain, focusing on the glow of the hatch ahead.
They dove through the opening, rolling into a tight corridor that pulsed with neon light. The walls were slick, alive, humming with voices that weren't quite human.
Rhea scrambled to her knees, clutching the crystal shard. "We need to reach the core," she panted. "If we plant this there… the feedback should tear the whole thing apart."
Aven nodded, helping her up. They staggered through the corridor, following the spiraling path deeper into the sphere's heart. The whispers grew louder, resolving into twisted echoes of their own voices, taunting them with failures and half-remembered nightmares.
Finally, they reached a massive chamber at the center. A black column rose from the floor to the ceiling, wrapped in glowing conduits, pulsing faster and faster as they approached.
Rhea lifted the shard. "Hold them off," she gasped.
Aven turned just as the tendrils poured into the chamber, glitching shadows riding them like a tide of smoke. He swung a broken metal rod at them, smashing the first tendril aside. The air filled with shrieks and crackles of static.
Rhea staggered to the core, plunging the shard into a seam in the black column. Neon light exploded outward, and the chamber shuddered violently.
The shadows screamed, writhing in agony as the sphere convulsed around them. Fractures spread across the black metal, spilling neon fluid that hissed and burned where it touched the floor.
Rhea fell to her knees, eyes wide with pain, hands still locked on the shard.
Aven ran to her, grabbing her shoulders. "We have to go!" he shouted.
But Rhea shook her head, voice ragged. "I… can't… pull it out," she gasped. "If I let go… it won't finish."
Aven glanced at the shadows pouring into the chamber, the glitching echoes clawing toward them.
He swallowed hard. "Then I'm staying," he whispered.
Rhea looked at him, tears mixing with the blood on her face. "No… you have to… finish it… out there…"
The chamber shook harder, pieces of the ceiling falling around them. The shadows hissed and twisted, dissolving into static as the neon light burned them away.
Aven held her tighter, refusing to let go. "We finish it together," he said.
The sphere's core shrieked, the neon light growing blinding. Aven closed his eyes, clinging to Rhea as the world dissolved into white.