Through the past

His crimson eyes widened in surprise as he looked at the girl and the body at her feet. When the pool spread and blood touched the lake, it instantly turned a bloody hue. It was a matter of moments; Arlok hadn't entirely grasped where he was, whether it was an illusion or reality. Yet, he stepped back, using his available strength to pull Anna toward him, along with the body and everything he could take with him.

"Error!" Anna tried to shoot the oddly dressed man, but with a single motion, the gun slipped from her hand.

"Who are you?!" the girl shouted, attempting to return to the room with the lake.

But the three locks cracked and crumbled, and the golden gates swung open. A colossal hand destroyed the altar, and the water from the lake surged towards the ceiling. Not a single drop crossed beyond the gates.

A roar, stirring even Arlok's weary body, erupted from the dark side of the golden gates. Arlok pointed his hand in that direction, but the force ceased to function again, the cause lying elsewhere - his lungs hurt, and this pain terrified him.

"Aria, record," he noticed the crystal on his hand in place, glowing with the same color.

"Executing!" Carnage struggled to allocate his powers; they quickly dwindled in suppressing the Corrosion in his lungs, and the Core itself seemed reluctant to let the man use his powers this way.

When the palm of the colossal hand collided with the invisible barrier in front of the gates, Arlok and Anna saw a gigantic closed eye. Experience or maybe just intuition and observation played their roles, but Carnage hastily covered his own eyes first and then Anna's. A flash of incredible power followed.

Many columns fell under the influence of this being. When the eyes closed, the white radiance subsided, and Arlok partially opened his eyes. The hand was retracting back into the golden gates as if someone was pulling it back.

Three bright stars appeared on the black ceiling. They began descending slowly toward the gates, but abruptly, one of them dimmed, and another started blinking strangely, as if losing its strength. Thus, the three stars formed three locks on the closed gates again: one was not glowing, the second was on the verge of fading, and the third shone incredibly bright, as the others were supposed to.

Before their eyes, the invisible gates closed. Now, instead of the room, they saw a continuation of the destroyed corridor. When Arlok tried to step back, he simply passed further down the corridor, as if there had been no room at all.

"You don't speak human; the same creature that attacked me earlier?" Carnage looked at the girl.

"Who are you, scum, an Imperial scoundrel?! Why did you throw me out of the room, and how did it even happen?!" The girl stood and took a couple of steps towards Arlok.

"Negative, sir, she's a human, entirely sentient in Eden, but there are remarks. Remark: her ancestors underwent Protocol 17, but considering that the girl didn't sense the analysis, her body has evolved with the same issue as before Protocol 17 - a weak connection with Eden."

"Start translating her language; we need to speak the same language!" Carnage ordered, looking at Anna's wild eyes, her hands as bloodied as her clothes.

The man's eyes fell on the boy's corpse.

"He died instantly; the brain was too severely affected, and two shots hit the liver," Aria said.

"They fought for something..." Arlok summed up, but it wasn't a final answer.

The question was different: who were these people, why were they "fighting" each other, and most importantly, what was happening in this strange place?

Another section of the corridor was intact, clearly leading somewhere. Carnage's thoughts were trying to find questions and answers.

"The body is making itself known," he sighed, trying to concentrate, while the girl couldn't move, restricted by Eden.

The pain in his entire chest clouded the man's vision.

"Speech analysis completed; the woman's language is similar to ours, accelerating the process significantly."

"Kid, who are you?" Eden ceased restricting the girl's body.

"That's what I wanted to ask you!" the girl answered roughly.

"Name!" The index finger on her left hand snapped and broke only at Carnage's command.

"Anna Hamp!"

"What's from that a name, and what is it?" Aria translated, but she could also be mistaken in her assumptions.

"Anna is the name; Hamp is the surname."

"Well done, now tell me why you came here?"

But before he received an answer, after his words, Arlok began to cough relentlessly, saliva mixed with blood, and he had to spit it all out on the ground. He collapsed, his body suddenly becoming incredibly heavy.

A powerful, relentless blow to the face knocked the man down. Anna did it as soon as she freed herself from Eden's strong grip.

"You scum, where did you put my gun?! Do you think I won't kill a brute like you without it, a rapist?" She kicked him, aiming at his face, chest, and hands.

As he tried to get up, she started hitting him even harder. But Carnage couldn't rise; a sharp, unbearable pain pursued him, along with a growing roar.

"Beast," he was losing consciousness; the blows and the pain were stronger than his already confused will.

When Arlok fell powerless, the girl scanned the area, gasping for breath and looking towards the "new" corridor. Her fervor didn't fade for a moment; it meant something incredible awaited further into the depths.

She ran off, clutching the bloodstained notebook.

After a few minutes, with great effort, Carnage stood up. His body hurt even more than before.

"Blood on my face?" He licked his lips. "I don't even remember when was the last time I received such wounds."

"During the Second Cyber War," after this response, Arlok smiled and adjusted his suit.

He began walking with difficulty, fearing to use Eden, thinking that excessive use of it had led him to such a state. But these were nothing more than assumptions; most of the incoming Eden was directed to his lungs. This was Corrosion, and now he understood it without further examinations.

"That notebook, something was written there, she wrote something!" He slowly limped away from the body.

**

A crack appeared in the middle of the forest. One barefoot step followed another. A girl in a white dress with long hair emerged from the spatial crack.

"Long time no see, Werner," she smiled without opening her eyes.

"Yeah, it's been a while, Kali," he looked displeased at the girl.

The girl playfully approached the red-haired man.

"And what, you chickened out again? You can never do anything on your own!" The girl said cheerfully.

"You, old hag, think you can do whatever you want?!" He began to transform his body.

"Later, Werner, first your idea," she began to walk casually in an unknown direction. "And where is he?"

"Oh no!" He struck the ground.

"What happened?"

"The dungeon disappeared..."

"Isn't your idea to destroy it?" She leaped onto the trees, examining the surroundings.

"Yes, but if the Lord managed to destroy it, then it's dangerous!"

"Dangerous or not, we must destroy any fragment that lands on this side."

"You're too naive, Kali. He's a monster, nothing more..." She smiled, covering one eye.

"I think, like 'him,' you're a shard, a part that can handle him," Werner became even more nervous after Kali's response.