The next section of the bridge shimmered ahead—too clean, too symmetrical. The trio slowed, instincts coiling tight. This part of the structure wasn't just calm—it was silent.
No humming plates.
No weight calculations.
No prompts.
Just the void pressing in from both sides.
"Something's off," Sora muttered.
Matthew nodded. "The bridge hasn't said anything. No rules. No objective."
"It's a trap," Rin said.
And then, the system spoke—but not with words.
The sky blinked.
Everything froze.
Then—
GLITCH.
A rift tore open in the bridge behind them—black static pouring out like a flood. Code screamed, and from the rift came the Unseen.
It didn't walk.
It didn't float.
It jerked forward in spasms, like frames skipping on broken footage.
A human shape—but too tall. Too thin. Wrapped in wire.
Its face was smooth metal, rippling like liquid glass.
And it watched them with no eyes.
PROTOCOL VIOLATION DETECTED
UNREGISTERED ENTITY: [REDACTED]
INTERVENTION IMMINENT
The bridge system tried to reassert itself—but failed.
"This thing's not part of the game," Sora hissed, stepping back.
"It's part of something else," Matthew growled.
Rin grabbed a broken chunk of stone. "Can we even fight it?"
The Unseen tilted its head.
And spoke—not aloud, but inside all three minds at once.
"You're walking the wrong bridge. Your thread is tangled. I'm here to cut it."
Sora threw the first strike—her blade whistling through the air.
It passed through the Unseen.
And she staggered back, coughing blood.
"It's parasitic," she gasped. "Attacking thought. Not flesh."
The bridge panicked.
Stone exploded upward, trying to seal off the rift. Code spiraled like a storm around them.
EMERGENCY PHASE INITIATED
NEW OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE UNTIL RESET
The sky cracked open.
Timer appeared:
RESET IN: 03:00
Matthew grabbed Sora. Rin took the lead.
They ran.
Behind them, the Unseen crawled—not forward, but through the bridge code itself, unraveling it like thread.
The stone ahead turned red-hot, plates collapsing. The reset pulsed in their skulls.
Sora shouted: "It's trying to erase our path!"
Matthew hurled a stone into the void. It hovered, trapped midair by a net of glitching strands.
"It's building its own rules," he said. "Replacing the King's."
Rin: "Then why hasn't it killed us?"
Sora: "Because it's curious."
And then—
00:02
00:01
SYSTEM RESET
Light slammed into the world.
The Unseen screeched—and was ripped backward into its rift.
Silence.
Smoke.
The bridge reformed.
But it no longer trusted its own laws.
When the trio stood again, something had changed.
Not just the bridge.
But them.
The system wasn't absolute anymore.
Other forces had arrived.
And they wanted something worse than failure.