Maya stepped toward the overload switch.

The world seemed to slow around her.

THOOM.

THOOM.

The neural core pulsed like a dying star suspended beneath the earth. Red light flooded the cavern while thousands of connected human bodies drifted silently inside translucent membranes.

Watching.

Waiting.

The colossal eye beneath the chamber remained fixed on her.

First Daughter...

The voice no longer sounded ancient.

Now it sounded sorrowful.

We offered eternity.

Behind Maya, the Shepherd roared as mutated Harvesters tore into its massive body. Black fungal blood exploded across the chamber walls while bone-like claws ripped chunks from its flesh.

Still it fought.

Still it protected her.

Selena fired wildly into the swarming creatures crawling across the ceiling.

“We’re out of time!” she screamed.

Ethan convulsed violently before the neural core. Tendrils wrapped around his body tighter and tighter while his white eyes flickered between humanity and something far older.

“Maya...” he whispered weakly.

The overload switch waited inches from her hand.

One choice.

Humanity.

Or the Root.

The Deep Signal flooded her mind one final time.

No lies now.

Only truth.

Maya saw civilizations destroyed by war.

Children starving.

Cities burning.

Human beings murdering each other for thousands of years.

Then she saw the Root.

A single endless consciousness without pain, hatred, or loneliness.

Not evil.

Not good.

Just survival taken to its final form.

And for one terrifying second—

Maya understood why people surrendered to it.

Because peace was seductive.

Even false peace.

Tears filled her eyes.

“You don’t save people,” she whispered aloud. “You erase them.”

The colossal eye beneath the chamber narrowed.

The temperature in the cavern dropped instantly.

The Deep Signal became angry.

Every fungal vein across the chamber walls pulsed black.

Mutated Harvesters screamed together with one voice.

Then suffer alone.

The creatures surged forward.

The Shepherd threw itself into them with a thunderous roar, crushing bodies beneath its claws while fungal spikes erupted from its back like spears.

Selena emptied the last rounds from her rifle.

“MAYA!”

Ethan looked directly at her.

And smiled.

Not the creature.

Not the Deep Signal.

Just Ethan.

“You already chose,” he whispered.

Maya pulled the switch.

For one second—

Nothing happened.

Then the neural core screamed.

The sound exploded through the underground world like the death cry of a god. Every fungal vein in the chamber flashed blinding white while the massive organic heart began splitting apart from the inside.

THOOOOOM.

Shockwaves tore through the cavern.

The floating human bodies inside the core suddenly opened their eyes together.

Thousands of voices screamed simultaneously.

The Deep Signal shrieked inside Maya’s skull.

NO—

The colossal eye beneath the earth widened in terror for the first time.

Cracks spread through the chamber floor.

The Root was dying.

Ethan gasped violently as fungal tendrils detached from his body. Blood poured from his mouth while he collapsed forward onto the stone.

The mutated Harvesters around the cavern began convulsing uncontrollably. Their bodies collapsed into twitching masses of black fungal flesh.

Selena grabbed Maya’s arm.

“We have to move NOW!”

But Maya couldn’t look away.

The Shepherd stood motionless amidst the collapsing swarm.

Its pale eyes met hers across the chamber.

And slowly—

The creature nodded.

Gratitude.

Then the cavern exploded.

The neural core ruptured in a blinding eruption of red light and black organic matter. Shockwaves shattered the underground structure while entire sections of the chamber collapsed into the abyss below.

Far beneath the earth, the ancient creature screamed.

Not in rage.

In loneliness.

The Deep Signal was dying.

But as Maya and Selena ran toward the collapsing tunnels with Ethan barely conscious between them—

A final whisper echoed inside Maya’s mind.

Soft.

Fading.

This is not the only world where we sleep.