A group of people wake up in video game world and are forced to work together to survive and find out how to escape.

Chapter 47 The Nexus.

“Artemis! Wake up!”

A voice—urgent, worried.

I choke, coughing up water as I jolt upright, my entire body aching. My lungs burn, my limbs feel heavy, and everything is too bright.

I blink, vision blurry, trying to make sense of where I am.

The others are around me—Kaida kneeling close, Veyron hovering nearby, looking tense. Hrothgar and Lorien both have their weapons drawn, scanning the surroundings.

“What… happened?” I rasp, my throat raw.

Kaida exhales sharply. “That’s what we’d like to know. One second, we were drowning, about to get torn apart, and the next—” She gestures around.

I finally look.

The river is gone. Dry land in its place.

And the creatures—

They’re not here.

The void… we fell in. But instead of killing us, it spat us out.

I press a hand to my chest, still trying to catch my breath. My entire body feels weak—but not just from the swim. It’s something deeper, draining, like part of me got pulled away when we went through.

“I opened that portal,” Shade says, his voice sluggish, strained.

“But it’s taken a lot.”

Shade sounds weaker than I’ve ever heard him.

I grip my arms, forcing down a shiver.

“It’ll take time to recover. For us both,” Shade murmurs. His voice is thin, strained, like he’s barely holding on.

I frown. Both?

Last time he did something like this—shadow-stepping me out of danger, shifting reality in small ways—it had taken a toll on him, sure. But not me.

“Why this time? Why did it affect me too?”

There’s a pause. Then, his voice drifts back, quieter than before.

“I had to use part of your strength to keep it open for the others.”

A chill runs through me.

He’s never done that before.

Never needed to.

I try to sit up, but my limbs feel heavy, like something inside me was pulled too far. Shade isn’t just weak—I am too.

I swallow hard.

“What the hell happened to us?” I mutter.

The others are still looking at me, waiting for answers. But I don’t have any. Not yet.

“Does anyone know what just happened?” Veyron asks, his voice sharp, cutting through the silence.

Everyone’s still shaken, drenched, and exhausted—but we’re alive. That should be enough. But…

I shake my head, still catching my breath. “It was Shade,” I manage. “He—he got us away.”

Kaida narrows her eyes. “Away to where, exactly?”

I look around for the first time, really taking in our surroundings.

The sky is—wrong, like twilight caught between night and day. The air is thick, humming with something I can’t explain, something that makes my skin prickle. The ground beneath us is solid but smooth, almost like polished stone, stretching out in unnatural patterns. Strange, faintly glowing markings pulse along the surface, dimming and brightening in slow, rhythmic waves.

This isn’t just some random cave or another part of the wilderness.

This place is different.

“But where are we now?” Lorien asks, his voice steady but wary.

I don’t have an answer.

And that’s what scares me most.

“Shade? Where are we?”

For a moment, there’s nothing. Just silence. Just that strange, humming energy in the air, wrapping around me like unseen threads.

Then, finally, Shade’s voice stirs in my mind, weak but still there.

“Somewhere we weren’t meant to be.”

That doesn’t help. My fingers twitch, restless. More details, Shade.

“We fell through the void. I aimed for safety, but… this place—” He pauses, like he’s uncertain. “We’re here. And it’s close. Too close.”

I tense.

Kaida crosses her arms, eyeing me. “Well? Did your little shadow friend drop us in the middle of nowhere, or should we be very concerned?”

I glance around again. The smooth, polished ground. The glowing symbols. The unnatural stillness.

Shade’s words echo in my mind.

“Too close.”

I swallow hard.

“We’re in the Nexus,” I say quietly.

The others exchange looks.

Veyron sighs. “Of course we are.”

I pull out the map, my hands still unsteady.

The arrow is still there, still pointing somewhere. But it looks… different.

The glow around it is dimmer, flickering slightly, like it’s struggling to stay intact. And the surface of the map itself—normally smooth and unchanging—is shifting. Warping. The edges blur, symbols I don’t recognize appearing and vanishing in a slow, unsettling rhythm.

Like the map itself doesn’t know where we are.

Or like this place is changing around us.

Kaida leans over my shoulder, frowning. “That’s not normal, right?”

“No,” I mutter. “It’s not.”

Hrothgar glances around, grip tightening on his axe. “So, what? The map’s broken now?”

Shade stirs weakly in my mind. “Not broken. Just… adjusting. This place—it doesn’t follow the same rules as the rest of the world.”

“Listen, great that we got away and got a shortcut,” Veyron says, shaking water from his hair, “but how exactly do we leave? Not like we found the front door.”

Everyone exchanges a few looks in silence for a moment.

“They said it was at the center of the world,” Kaida mutters. “So I’d guess underground, but…” She gestures upward.

That sky.

It doesn’t make sense. It’s not the endless cavern we’d expect from being underground, but it’s not the real sky either. It shifts like oil on water, deep blues and purples swirling unnaturally, stars that aren’t real blinking in and out.

It feels less like we’re inside the world and more like we’re inside something else entirely.

Hrothgar exhales, gripping his axe. “Alright. Let’s say we are in the Nexus. Then where do we go from here?”

I glance back down at the flickering map. The arrow still points forward. Uncertain. Unstable. But still leading.

“We follow this,” I say, holding it up. “It’s the only thing we’ve got.”

Lorien nods. “Then let’s not waste time.”

No arguments. No hesitation.

We move.

“Are we not gonna talk about why those things attacked us?” Kaida says, frustration creeping into her voice. “Last time, we found them in a cave on the mountain, way far from here. Now they just happen to show up? And they looked a hell of a lot like that giant thing chasing us before we jumped.”

She’s right.

They shouldn’t have been there. The last time we fought them, they were isolated, deep in that mountain.

But this time…

I feel the weight of their glowing purple eyes in my mind, their jagged, stretching grins, the way they followed us under the water, the unnatural wrong movement. And I know.

They’re connected.

To him.

I need to tell them about the creature in the Nexus. The one that’s been whispering to me. The one that wants me to free it.

I open my mouth—

“Don’t,” Shade says sharply.

I freeze.

The others are still watching me, waiting for an answer.

But Shade’s voice curls tight in my thoughts, urgent, warning. “Not now. Not yet.”

I swallow hard. My fists clench.

“…I don’t know,” I lie. “But I don’t think it was a coincidence.”

Lorien watches me a second too long.

“Whatever they are,” I say, forcing my voice to stay steady, “we might see more in this place. We need to be careful, find Lyra, and get out.”

Simple. Direct. A plan we can focus on.

Because if I let myself think too much—about the creatures, about him, about the fact that Shade doesn’t want me talking about it—I’ll lose it.

Kaida exhales sharply. “Great. Love that for us.”

Hrothgar grips his axe tighter. “Then let’s stay moving. I don’t like how quiet it is here.”

Neither do I.

The silence is unnatural, thick and heavy, pressing in from all sides. No wind. No echoes. Just the faint, pulsing glow of the strange symbols along the ground.

I glance at the map again. The arrow is still flickering, but it points forward.

So we keep walking.

I look around as we walk, trying to take in where we actually are.

The ground beneath us is smooth, polished like stone, but when I touch it with my boot, it doesn’t feel like stone at all. More like… something softer, something that almost responds to pressure. The strange glowing symbols pulse faintly beneath us, shifting in slow waves, but they don’t form words—just shapes, patterns that seem to change if I look at them for too long.

The sky above is worse.

It’s not just dark—it’s wrong. A swirling mass of deep blues and purples, streaked with veins of pale gold. The “stars” aren’t real, flickering in and out like glitches in a broken screen. There’s no horizon, no end to this place—just an endless stretch of this warped, shifting landscape.

It feels like we’re walking through something that isn’t finished.

A place not meant to exist.

It’s almost like the dreams.

But even those had some sort of twisted logic—a warped reflection of things I understood. A nightmare, yes, but a nightmare that made sense.

This place?

It’s unreal.

The way the symbols shift underfoot, the way the sky flickers like a broken illusion—it’s like this world is coming apart while we’re walking through it. Like we’re in a space that isn’t fully formed, or worse… one that’s constantly changing.

“We’ve made it this far,” Hrothgar says, his voice steady, like he’s trying to ground us all. “It’s the home stretch—find Lyra, get back to the castle, and escape this world.”

Simple enough right? We can do that.

But nothing in this world has ever been that easy.

“Yeah, what could go wrong?” Veyron mutters.

Kaida immediately slaps him upside the head.

“Are you trying to curse us?!” she hisses.

Veyron groans, rubbing his skull. “It’s not a curse, it’s just—”

The ground shifts beneath us.

Not violently, not like an earthquake, but subtly—just enough that I feel it move, like something breathing underneath our feet.

We all freeze.

The pulsing symbols brighten for a split second—then dim again.

Lorien grips his spear. “Did anyone else feel that?”

“Come on, move!” I snap, shoving down the cold dread creeping up my spine.

We start running again, faster now, every step feeling wrong against the shifting ground. The symbols pulse irregularly, flickering between patterns, like they’re reacting to us.

No. No. No.

The ground shudders, and the figures rise.

Their bodies are wrong—twisted, disfigured, like something trying and failing to be human. Some have arms too long, fingers tapering into claw-like points. Others are hunched and misshapen, their limbs bending in ways they shouldn’t.

Some look humanoid—others don’t.

And their faces—

At first, they’re just blank. Empty. Featureless.

Then, suddenly, their heads jerk, snapping in unnatural angles as they take a step forward. Then another. Their movements are erratic, broken, like marionettes with their strings half-cut.

And then—

Their faces change.

Not all at once. Not smoothly.

One moment, they’re empty. The next, a flash of something horrifying—

A wide, stretching grin with too many jagged teeth.

A gaping hole where eyes should be, dripping black ooze.

A face that isn’t human at all, twisted into something nightmarish.

Then—blank again.

And then it happens again.

And again.

Flashes of nightmare, shifting between emptiness and horror, over and over, like they can’t decide what they are.

My breath catches. My grip tightens on my bow.

We’re surrounded by them. The creatures from my dream.

I lift my crossbow, leveling it at the closest figure. My hands shake, but I steady them. This isn’t like before—no running, no hiding. We’re trapped.

We fight, or we die.

The others react instantly. Hrothgar raises his axe, stepping protectively in front of Kaida. Veyron already has his daggers out, shifting into a low stance. Lorien’s eyes are locked onto the creatures, analyzing them, waiting for their next move.

Kaida mutters a curse under her breath, flames flickering at her fingertips. “I hate this place.”

The closest figures move.

Not charging—lurking, creeping toward us in erratic, jerking motions. Their heads snap side to side, their faces still flickering.

I fire.

The bolt slams into the creature’s chest. For a split second, it stops, its entire body shuddering, twitching—then it lets out a wet, unnatural sound, like something trying to laugh through a mouth it doesn’t have.

Then it keeps moving.

“They’re still coming!” I shout.

“Not for long,” Kaida growls. She thrusts her staff forward—fire erupts from her staff, slamming into the figures ahead of us. The flames wash over them, licking at their twisted bodies—

But they don’t scream. They don’t burn.

The fire warps, bending around them, sinking into their forms like water into dry earth.

And then—they ripple.

Their faces twist—jagged grins stretching too far, hollow eyes widening as if mocking us.

“What the hell?!” Kaida stumbles back, horror flashing across her face.

Hrothgar swings his axe, cleaving straight through one of them. The body splits—but instead of falling, the halves reform, stitching back together like melting wax.

Lorien curses. “They’re not normal.”

“No kidding,” Veyron snaps. He ducks as a tendril-like limb lashes toward him, rolling back to his feet. “We need a plan!”

The creatures move faster.

I fire again, this time aiming for the head. The bolt hits, snapping one of the creature’s heads back—

And then it just shudders, the impact melting away like nothing happened.

None of our attacks work.

Just like those other creatures.

Lorien thrusts his spear forward, but the creature ripples around the blow, reforming as if it had never been struck. Kaida throws another blast of fire, but the flames vanish into them.

Hrothgar growls, swinging his axe in a wide arc. The blade connects, and for the first time, one of the figures actually staggers, its form distorting violently.

It felt that.

But it doesn’t die.

Shade’s voice slides through my thoughts, sharp and cold.

"You can’t fight them, Artemis. They aren’t killable."

My breath hitches. What?

“Enchanted weapons—your dagger, Hrothgar’s axe—they can hurt them more. Delay them. But they’ll always come back."

My mind races. Then how do we stop them?!

A pause.

“Only pure light can hurt them for real."

Light?

I move, slinging my crossbow over my shoulder and drawing my dagger. If Shade’s right, this won’t kill them, but it’ll slow them down at least.

“Stick to enchanted weapons!” I shout. “Regular attacks won’t do much!”

Hrothgar nods sharply, swinging his axe again—the blade cleaves through one of the creatures, and for the first time, it screams. A distorted, echoing wail.

But it doesn’t die. The wound knits back together, slower than before, but still.

Veyron curses, flipping a dagger between his fingers. “Great. Love fighting things that don’t get hurt.”

Kaida’s flames are useless here. She grits her teeth, frustration flashing across her face, but she doesn’t panic. “So what, we just stall them forever?”

“We need to move!” Lorien shouts, his spear snapping out to keep one of the creatures at bay. “Find a way out of this!”

He’s right. We can’t win this fight.

We need to run.

The ground pulses again beneath us—whatever this place is, it’s reacting to us, reacting to them.

And then—

A faint glow flickers in the distance. Not like the pulsing symbols beneath our feet—this light is different. Steady. Constant.

If only ‘pure light’ can hurt them…

It’s our only chance.

“There!” I point. “Go!”

No one hesitates.

We run.

I slash at anything that gets too close, my dagger cutting through their shifting forms. They stagger, rippling from the blade, but they don’t stop.

One of them hits me—a solid, cold impact that knocks the breath from my lungs. Pain flares through my side, but I grit my teeth and shove it back with all my strength, the dagger’s magic forcing it to recoil.

No time to stop. No time to check the damage.

I keep running.

The others are right beside me, weapons flashing, keeping the creatures at bay just long enough for us to push forward.

And then—

I see it.

The source of the light.

It’s—a creature? Or a plant? Or both?

It’s massive—larger than anything I’ve seen, its body hunched low like an elephant, but with the thick, sturdy shell of a turtle. Its skin is deep green, almost moss-like, blending into the environment as if it grew from this place itself.

And on its back—

Flowers.

Glowing, bright flowers bloom along its shell, casting soft, golden light in every direction. Their glow is steady, unwavering, so pure that even the air around it seems different.

The creatures chasing us hesitate at the edge of the light, their shifting forms flickering, recoiling.

This thing—whatever it is—they don’t want to get close to it.

“What is this thing?” Kaida asks, still eyeing it like it might suddenly decide we’re intruders.

“I don’t know,” I say, my voice quieter than I intended.

Shade shifts in my mind, his presence feeling almost… weaker but still there.

“These are the creatures you’ll find here—or at least, one of them."

I glance at the glowing flowers, the warm, pulsing light radiating from the creature’s shell. There’s something… ancient about it. Something that feels right in a way nothing else here does.

Shade exhales, almost like he’s gathering his strength before continuing.

"Those other things—the ones that chased us? They aren’t meant to be here. They’re part of him."

My stomach tightens. Him.

The one in my dreams. The one whispering to me.

"Parts of him that weren’t sealed away."

I swallow hard, my fingers curling into fists.

The creatures—the grinning, shifting, impossible things—aren’t just monsters.

They’re pieces of whatever’s trapped in the Nexus.

And they’re still hunting me.

Hunting us.

I glance back at the creatures lingering at the edge of the light. They aren’t leaving. They aren’t retreating. They’re just waiting. Watching with their shifting, flickering faces, their bodies rippling like half-formed nightmares.

They aren’t done with us.

Lorien exhales, running a hand through his still soaked hair. “If we’re safe with this thing… maybe—maybe we should rest while we can.” His voice is steady, but I can hear the exhaustion beneath it.

He’s not wrong.

We’re all drenched, battered, barely holding ourselves together. If those things attack again… we won’t make it.

The creature shifts slightly, its massive form settling lower. The golden flowers on its back glow a little brighter, the warmth radiating outward like a campfire in the middle of a freezing night.

I hesitate, then nod. “Yeah. We rest. But not for long.”

Because this might be safe.

But the Nexus isn’t safe is it?

I step towards the glowing creature, drawn in by its warmth, but—

Something feels off.

It’s not bad, not dangerous, but the moment I move too close, a strange sensation settles over me—like stepping into a place where I don’t belong. My skin prickles, my stomach twists in a way I can’t explain.

I take a slow step back, and just like that, the feeling fades.

I don’t know why.

I don’t like that I don’t know why.

Before I can dwell on it, Kaida crosses her arms, glaring out at the creatures still standing just beyond the light. Their blank faces flicker, shifting between empty and horrifying, but they don’t move.

“So now we’ve got these things after us,” she mutters. “How the hell are we supposed to reach Lyra now? They’re just waiting, standing there menacingly.”

Veyron scoffs. “Menacing is an understatement.”

“They can’t stay forever… right?” Lorien asks, though there’s a note of doubt in his voice.

No one answers.

Because we don’t know.

And that’s the worst part.

We don’t know anything about this place.

Even less than our already pathetic understanding of the rest of this world. At least out there, things seemed to follow some kind of logic, even if it was different. Here? Things are… wrong? Or at least that’s how it feels.

I glance at the map again. The arrow is still flickering, but it’s clear—it’s pointing away from here, past the creature, deeper into the unknown.

Veyron notices. “The arrow points that way, right? Past our big glowing friend?”

I nod.

He clicks his tongue. “Great. Love that for us. Can it move? Maybe we can lead it that way.”

I hesitate, looking up at the creature. It hasn’t spoken, hasn’t reacted beyond existing in this space. But something about it feels… aware. Watching.

If we can get it to follow us…

We might have a chance.

But if it won’t…

“How do you propose that, Veyron?” Kaida asks, raising an eyebrow. “In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t even know what this thing is.”

Veyron shrugs. “I dunno. Maybe lure it with food?”

Kaida stares at him. “Food.”

“Yeah.” He gestures vaguely at the massive creature. “Big creature, probably eats, right? Maybe we toss something in front of it, see if it follows.”

I glance up at the thing. Its massive form is as still as stone, the glowing flowers swaying gently along its back. It doesn’t look hungry. Then again, it doesn’t look like anything I can make sense of.

Kaida sighs dramatically. “Oh yeah, I’m sure it’ll love the soaking wet food we’ve got after nearly drowning.”

Veyron smirks. “Hey, I don’t see you coming up with ideas.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Can we not argue while nightmare creatures are literally staring at us?”

Lorien crosses his arms, his gaze flicking between us and the Guardian. “Food might not be the worst idea, but we don’t even know what it eats.”

I sigh.

Because, really—this is our plan?

But looking back at the shifting horrors waiting just beyond the light…

We don’t have any better ones.

“Okay,” I exhale, rubbing a hand down my face. “Maybe it’ll be interested in something we have.”

Kaida gives me a flat look. “You’re actually trying this?”

I gesture toward the thing still standing motionless, its glowing flowers swaying gently. “Do you have a better idea?”

She grumbles under her breath but doesn’t argue.

Hrothgar ignores the bickering, already digging through his pack. “Well, if we’re testing this, might as well start simple.” He pulls out a piece of dried meat and holds it up. “Anyone want to bet if it eats?”

Kaida groans. “I hate that this is our plan.”

Lorien watches the creature carefully. “If it does react, we’ll need to be ready to move.”

I nod, glancing toward the creatures still waiting outside the glow of its light. They’re not leaving.

If this works, we might have a way forward.

Hrothgar steps forward, holding out the dried meat like he’s offering a treat to a very large, very unpredictable animal.

We all watch. Waiting.

The creature doesn’t move. The glowing flowers on its back sway gently, their golden light pulsing in slow waves. It doesn’t react at all—not with interest, not with confusion. It’s like it doesn’t even see the food.

“Yeah, that’s about what I expected,” Kaida mutters.

Veyron crosses his arms. “Maybe it’s a vegetarian?”

Hrothgar rolls his eyes and pulls out something else—a chunk of bread, slightly damp from our earlier near drowning. He holds it up instead.

Still nothing.

Lorien frowns. “I don’t think it eats. At least, not the stuff we do.”

I stare at the creature, unease prickling at my skin.

We’re wasting time. The things waiting just outside the glow are still there, still watching.

“We need another plan,” I say, lowering my voice.

Kaida throws her hands up. “Oh, now we need another plan?”

“I’m open to your idea!” I shoot back.

She huffs. “Fine. Then maybe? Talk to it?”

Silence.

…That’s actually not the worst idea.

I take a slow breath, stepping closer, forcing down the strange off feeling that comes with being too near to it.

“Can you hear me?” I ask, feeling ridiculous. “Do you understand us?”

For a long moment, nothing happens.

Then, finally—

The creature shifts, slow and deliberate. Not like an animal reacting to a threat, not like something mindless following instinct—this movement feels intentional.

It heard me.

The glowing flowers on its back pulse brighter for a moment, golden light washing over us like a slow breath. Then its massive head tilts, as if considering me.

The others tense. Weapons half-raised. Ready.

“I really hope you know what you’re doing,” Veyron mutters.

I definitely don’t.

But we don’t have many options.

“Can you understand me?” I ask again, carefully watching its reaction.

The air around us shifts.

Not wind. Not temperature. Something deeper, something I can’t describe. Like the entire space around this creature is adjusting to our presence.

Then—

A low, deep sound rumbles through the air. Not a growl but indescribable.

A response?

Kaida grips my arm. “Okay. It knows we’re here. Now what?”

I swallow hard, heart hammering.

“Now,” I whisper, “we figure out if it’s going to help us…

I take a slow breath, forcing my voice to stay steady.

“Hey, big guy. Or girl. Or… whatever you are.” I gesture toward the glowing flowers, the massive shell, the sheer strangeness of it. “We need to go that way.” I point past it, in the direction the map’s arrow is still flickering toward.

“Could you maybe… go that way too?”

The creature remains still for a long moment. Too long.

Kaida mutters under her breath, “We are so dead if this thing doesn’t want to move.”

Hrothgar tightens his grip on his axe, just in case.

Then, slowly—the creature shifts.

Its massive limbs press against the ground as it begins to turn, the glowing flowers swaying with its movement. The golden light pulses brighter for a moment, spreading further, pushing the things waiting beyond its reach back just slightly.

Then it takes a step.

A massive, slow step, moving in the direction we need to go.

It’s actually listening.

Veyron stares. “Well, damn. Guess you’re a beast whisperer now.”

I exhale, tension easing just a little. “Let’s go before it changes its mind.”

We move with it, staying in the safety of its glowing light, following its slow, steady pace.

“Okay, this is good and all,” Veyron says, keeping pace beside me, “but we still have no idea what this place actually is.” He gestures around at the shifting sky, the glowing ground, the unnatural stillness beyond the creature’s light. “And if there’s anything worse than those things here—which I’m sure there is.”

He’s not wrong.

We still don’t know what the Nexus is. Not really.

He keeps going. “And when we actually get to Lyra, what exactly is the plan? Just keep begging this thing to go where we need?” He gestures toward the massive creature leading us forward. “That’s assuming all of those creatures are even scared of it.”

Another good point.

We don’t know how far this thing’s protection extends. We don’t know if Lyra is even somewhere we can reach. And if she’s still Lyra at all…

I grip my crossbow tighter. “We don’t have all the answers yet, but we’re closer now than we’ve ever been.” I glance at the map again—the arrow is still flickering, but it’s steady. It knows where she is.

“We find her,” I continue, voice firm. “Then we figure out what comes next.”

Veyron exhales, shaking his head. “Great. So we’re still winging it.”

Kaida pats his shoulder. “You should be used to that by now.”

He groans. “I can wing it, I love winging it. I’m always winging it.”

“Uh huh.”

End of Chapter 47.