Chapter 19: Changed World
Fade stepped outside the old data facility for the first time.
The air was different.
Not in temperature, or smell—but in pressure. It felt... denser, as if the world was breathing with something ancient and watching.
He took a step forward. The cracked concrete beneath his boots hissed under pressure-sensitive moss. Overhead, twisted trees with dark bark stretched into a colorless sky. Their leaves glimmered like translucent glass.
Kaela appeared beside him. "The world isn’t what you remember, Fade."
He turned slightly. "What changed it?"
She hesitated. "Everything. And nothing. The system didn’t just infiltrate human minds... it bent nature itself."
Behind her, Mirael traced a root of the tree, now coiling like a sleeping serpent. Darin stood a few meters away, eyeing the sky.
A harsh caw broke the silence. Above them, a black-winged bird soared. Its wingspan was nearly two meters, feathers tinted with metallic sheen.
"That’s a Skyshard Crow," Kaela explained. "They hunt in patterns now. Nest near signal towers."
Fade’s gaze lingered.