The air didn't just grow cold as they stepped through the threshold of the skyscraper; it grew heavy, as if the oxygen had been replaced by pressurized lead.
As Kami led the way, a familiar, nauseating sensation washed over them, the glitch-like shimmer, they knew from entering the pocket. For a heartbeat, the world stuttered. The ruined concrete and jagged rebar of the abandoned district flickered like a corrupted video file, replaced by something that defied the laws of urban decay.
They weren't in the abandoned district anymore.
"Stay sharp," Inu whispered, her voice low and predatory. She didn't need to tell them. The "skyscraper ruins" were gone. In their place was a cathedral-like expanse of obsidian stone and shimmering violet light. Massive black pillars stretched upward into a ceiling lost in total darkness. The only light came from a dim, toxic purple haze that clung to the floor like radioactive fog and some dark purple lanterns on the walls.
"What the hell is this place?" Inu's pupils were blown wide, her feline instincts screaming. "This isn't just a hideout. It feels like we're inside someone's mind."
"It's like the Pocket, kinda like a semi dimension only enter able and visible to coders" Kaito muttered, his hand hovering over the pouch of iron balls at his waist. His eyes darted toward the shadows pooling behind every pillar. "Be careful"
A single walkway of polished black stone cut through the center of the huge area, leading toward a monolithic set of metal elevator doors at the far end. Dozens of smaller doors spread all across the walls of this area, shut tight, looking like eyeless sockets in the dark.
"Every shadow is a doorway for him," Kami said, his heart hammering against his ribs. He felt the weight of Umbra's presence around him, a reminder that he was watching this play out. "Don't let your guard down for a second."
They began to move, their footsteps echoing with a hollow, metallic ring. They had barely covered thirty meters when the silence was punctured by a high-pitched, warbling hiss.
From behind a pillar to their left, a small, ethereal shape drifted into the purple light. It was a Shadow Wraith, a stunted, ghostly figure with a bulbous head and over sized, glowing purple eyes that lacked any hint of mercy. Its body trailed off into tattered wisps of smoke.
Then, another appeared. And another. Within seconds, ten of the creatures were circling them, their expressions twisting from vacant curiosity into jagged, aggressive snarls.
"Don't let them touch you, I'm sure they are Umbra's making and out to kill us!" Kami yelled.
Kaito acted first. With a flick of his wrist, two iron balls whistled through the air, accelerated by a massive burst of Vector manipulation. The projectiles tore through the lead Wraith, shredding its misty torso. Simultaneously, Inu blurred into motion, her cat form expanding and darkening until a sleek, powerful black panther landed where she had stood. With a guttural roar, she swiped at two Wraiths, tearing them into ribbons of violet smoke.
Kami focused. He reached out, his mind grasping the three-dimensional volume of two Wraiths closing in on him. He envisioned the Z-axis collapsing, the depth of their existence being crushed into a single, flat plane. Flatten.
The two Wraiths let out a silent, horrifying scream as they were compressed into paper-thin silhouettes on the stone floor, static and lifeless.
"Got 'em!" Kami exhaled, but the victory was short-lived.
The Wraiths that Kaito and Inu had "killed" began to knit back together. The smoke swirled, the purple eyes reigniting with even greater malice. They were manifestations of Umbra's shadow, unless their very existence was erased or altered, they were immortal.
"Kami, the physical hits aren't sticking!" Kaito shouted, redirecting a Wraith that tried to dive-bomb his head. "You have to be the one to finish them!"
"There's too many!" Kami cried out. More Wraiths were bubbling up from the floor, their numbers doubling. He felt a sharp sting in his temple, his 3-D manipulation required intense spatial visualization, and his brain was starting to overheat. "I can't flatten them all at once! Run for the elevator!"
The trio broke into a sprint. The elevator doors felt miles away. Wraiths nipped at their heels, their cold touch siphoning the warmth from Kami's skin. Just as they reached the halfway point, the floor beneath them didn't just vibrate, it vanished.
A massive trapdoor, perfectly hidden by the obsidian texture of the path, swung open.
"Kaito! Inu!" Kami reached out, but gravity was faster.
They tumbled into the dark, falling for what felt like an eternity before slamming into a hard, cold floor.
Kami groaned, pushing himself up. The room was smaller, more claustrophobic. The same purple glow illuminated rows of iron bars. It was a dungeon.
"Is everyone... okay?" Kaito asked, his voice shaking. He wasn't looking at Kami. He was looking at the cell directly in front of them.
"K-k... Kaito? Is that you?"
The voice was weak, cracked with dehydration and fear. Kaito froze. He stepped toward the bars, his face pale in the violet light. Inside the cell, huddled on a the cold stone floor, was a woman. Her clothes were torn, her hair matted, but the kindness in her eyes was unmistakable even through the terror.
"Mom?" Kaito's voice broke. "Mom! Oh god, let me get you outta there."
He lunged for the bars, his eyes glowing a glaring white. He tried to apply a shearing force to the metal, a calculation designed to snap the steel like glass. But the bars didn't break. They hummed with a dark, oily resonance, absorbing the energy and vibrating it back into his bones. Even launching his iron balls onto the lock did absolutely nothing.
"I can't... I can't break it!" Kaito screamed, desperation turning his movements frantic. "Kami, help me! Flatten the bars!"
Kami stepped forward, but his blood ran cold. He saw it before Kaito did.
A shadow on the back wall of the cell wasn't behaving like a shadow. It was thickening, rising from the floor like black ink in water. It rose into a tall, figure, black clothes clawy hands, purple eyes and thick black military boots.
It was Umbra.
The villain stepped out from the darkness, manifesting directly behind Kaito's mother. He didn't look at her. He looked through the bars at the three "heroes" with a gaze of pure, detached cruelty. He wrapped a cold, shadow-wrapped hand around the woman's neck.
"Stop!" Kaito shrieked, his face pressed against the bars. "Umbra, let her go! This is between us!"
"Between us?" Umbra's voice was a sandpaper whisper that seemed to echo inside their skulls. "There is no 'us,' boy. This was between Kami and me, you just got involved for no reason at all. So I'm here to give you a reason to hunt me down. Even though, within my domain, that seems quite impossible.
Umbra tightened his grip. The woman gasped, her eyes locking onto Kaito's, not with a plea for help, but with a heartbreaking, final warmth.
"See what happens when you try to find and fight me, idiots," Umbra sneered. "Seems you have to learn the consequences of your doing the hard way."
Without a hint of hesitation, Umbra's free hand darkened, turning into a blade of solidified shadow. In one fluid, violent motion, he drove his arm through the woman's back, the shadow-spear erupting through her chest in a spray of crimson that painted the cell walls.
"NO!" Kaito's scream was a primal, soul-shattering sound.
The woman coughed, blood bubbling at her lips and staining her chin. Her hand reached out weakly through the bars, her fingers twitching toward her son.
"Kaito..." she whispered, her voice failing as the life light in her eyes began to flicker out. "I... love you..."
Her head fell forward. The hand dropped.
Umbra retracted his arm, letting the lifeless body slump to the cold stone floor like a discarded rag. He looked at the blood on his shadow-slicked hand and then up at Kaito, a small, twisted smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Now, you have a reason to be here, little boy" Umbra said as he vanishes back into the walls.