“Maya...”

The voice slithered through the darkness like something alive.

Wet claws scraped slowly against the tunnel walls outside the chamber. Thick fungal veins pulsed brighter across the stone as the Deep Signal intensified around them.

Selena raised her rifle toward the tunnel entrance.

“Maya,” she whispered urgently. “Open the core door. Now.”

Maya didn’t move.

Because she recognized the voice.

Ethan.

Or whatever remained of him.

The darkness beyond the tunnel shifted.

Then he emerged.

Maya’s breath caught in her throat.

Ethan’s body had transformed into something horrifyingly beautiful. Black fungal growth spiraled across his skin in glowing patterns like veins of living obsidian. Long tendrils moved slowly behind him, connected to the walls as though the underground organism itself breathed through his body.

But his face—

His face was still human.

Mostly.

White eyes fixed gently on Maya.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he said softly.

His voice now carried layers beneath it.

Hundreds of whispers speaking together.

Selena tightened her grip on the rifle.

“Stay back.”

Ethan ignored her completely.

The fungal growth around the chamber responded to his presence instantly. Veins pulsed. Walls breathed. The Deep Signal flowed through him like blood.

“He’s becoming the bridge,” Selena whispered in horror.

Maya looked sharply at her.

“What does that mean?”

Selena hesitated.

Then the truth came out.

“The organism beneath us can’t fully survive on the surface.” Her voice trembled. “It needs a compatible host connected to both human consciousness and the Deep Signal.”

Maya slowly understood.

“It wants me because I was born resistant.”

Selena nodded weakly.

“And Ethan...”

Ethan smiled sadly.

“...is becoming the first successful connector.”

THOOM.

The chamber shook violently.

Somewhere far below, the ancient creature beneath the Root continued rising toward them.

The steel door marked NEURAL CORE ACCESS suddenly unlocked with a deafening metallic hiss.

Cold air poured from the darkness beyond.

The Deep Signal had opened the path itself.

Ethan looked toward the open doorway.

“It wants you to see.”

Maya stepped backward.

“I’m not going anywhere with that thing.”

“You already belong to it,” Ethan whispered.

Selena suddenly fired.

The rifle blast struck Ethan directly in the chest.

Black fluid exploded across the chamber walls.

But Ethan barely reacted.

The wound sealed itself instantly beneath moving fungal growth.

Selena stared in disbelief.

“Oh God...”

Ethan’s expression changed.

Pain flickered across his face.

Then anger.

The chamber lights burst overhead.

Dark fungal tendrils erupted from the walls around Selena, wrapping violently around her arms and dragging her screaming toward the ceiling.

“SELENA!” Maya shouted.

The rifle clattered to the floor.

Ethan looked horrified suddenly.

“I didn’t do that!”

The whispers beneath his voice grew louder.

The Deep Signal was taking control.

Selena struggled desperately as fungal growth spread across her skin.

“Maya!” she screamed. “The core—destroy it before—”

A tendril forced itself across her mouth.

Silencing her. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Maya grabbed the fallen rifle instinctively.

But Ethan stepped between her and Selena.

Tears mixed with black fluid running from his white eyes.

“Please,” he whispered. “Don’t make me hurt you.”

The ancient voice entered Maya’s mind again.

Closer now.

Almost inside her thoughts.

The bridge must open.

The neural core doorway pulsed with deep red light.

Something was waiting beyond it.

Maya could feel it calling directly to her blood.

To the part of her that BLACKTHORN created before she was even born.

The chamber trembled again.

Huge cracks spread through the walls while distant screams echoed upward from the surface world above.

Humanity was collapsing.

Fast.

Ethan looked at her one final time.

And for a brief second—

The real Ethan returned.

“Run,” he whispered.

Then his body convulsed violently.

The Deep Signal fully took hold.

Black tendrils exploded outward from his back as he screamed with dozens of voices at once.

And behind the open core door—

Something massive began moving in the dark.