The blue screen was still there.
Three options sitting in front of his face like the system was waiting on him specifically.
*[1. Stop this.]*
*[2. Destroy the entity approaching you.]*
*[3. Unknown.]*
Aaron stared at option three for probably too long given the circumstances.
*What does unknown mean*, he thought. *What kind of option just says unknown—*
The figure was two steps away.
He hit option two.
CRASH.
The figure dropped. Not fell. Dropped. Like every single thing holding it together just stopped at the same time. Pieces of it hit the floor and the sound echoed through the whole chamber and then there was nothing left of it except dark fluid spreading slow across the stone.
Silence.
"What," Lim said. "What just— what did you— how did you—"
"Aaron." Nara. Eyes wide. "What did you do."
"I don't know," Aaron said honestly.
Then the two remaining head stone figures started glowing.
It wasn't light exactly.
The stones in their heads went from dark to something between gold and white and the glow spread down through their skin and the chamber got brighter and Aaron thought *okay that's not good* and then the aura hit.
BOOM.
Not physical. No impact. Just pressure. Sudden and enormous, dropping from everywhere at once like the ceiling had decided to become heavy.
Hess hit the floor first.
Then Jai. Then Voss. Then Sera and Lim together. Nara went to one knee fighting it, jaw locked, then down. Marcus last, one hand flat on the ground, trying to push back against something that didn't care how strong he was.
"Aaron—" Marcus. Barely.
Then he went down too.
Aaron stood there.
The pressure was real. He could feel it. Like something pressing on every surface of his body at once trying to find the way in.
It didn't find it.
He didn't know why. He just stood there in the middle of everyone unconscious on the floor and the two glowing figures at the back and the five statues starting to move again and thought *okay. okay it's just me.*
His screen flickered.
*[Unknown barrier activated.]*
He looked at it.
*I didn't choose that*, he thought. *I didn't choose anything.*
The five statues were moving toward the unconscious bodies on the floor.
Aaron stepped in front of the nearest one.
It swung.
He moved.
Not the way he'd moved before. Not stumbling out of the way or taking the hit and surviving it. He moved like he'd already seen it coming three seconds ago and just went to where his body needed to be.
The swing missed by nothing.
Aaron hit it back and the impact that came out of his fist was not the impact of someone who'd been null six minutes ago. The statue staggered. Actually staggered.
"Oh," Aaron said out loud to nobody.
Then the next one came and he moved again and hit it and it went back and he thought *I can see them. I can see exactly how they move before they move* and the fifth one came and he was already turning.
It wasn't clean.
He took hits. Real ones. One caught him across the shoulder and spun him and he hit the wall and pushed off it and kept moving. Another clipped his jaw and his vision split for a second and he spat and kept moving.
But they weren't putting him down.
He was putting them down.
One. The pressure hit it and Aaron felt the barrier doing something he hadn't told it to do, pushing back against the figure's stone, and the stone cracked and the figure dropped.
CRACK. Two.
"Come on," Aaron said. Not to anyone. Just out loud. Just because silence felt wrong.
CRACK. Three.
One of them grabbed him from behind and he drove his elbow back and spun and hit it with everything and the stone in its chest fractured and it went still mid-movement.
Four.
Last one standing.
Aaron looked at it.
It looked at him.
It ran.
Aaron caught it before it reached the entrance and brought it down and the stone shattered and the figure dropped and Aaron stood over it breathing hard with his shoulder on fire and his jaw throbbing and blood in his mouth from somewhere.
Five.
He straightened up.
Looked at the back of the chamber.
The two head stone figures standing there.
Still glowing.
Still watching.
His screen flickered.
*[WARNING.]*
*[WARNING.]*
*[UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED.]*
*[UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED.]*
Aaron looked at the two figures. At the stones in their heads that were brighter now than when this started. At the unconscious bodies on the floor around him. At Marcus face down with blood drying on his face.
*I could go for the stones*, he thought. *Same as before. Walk up. Pull them out.*
*[WARNING. DO NOT APPROACH.]*
*[USE OPTION 3.]*
Aaron stared at the screen.
Option three was still sitting there.
*Unknown.*
*[UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED.]*
*[UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED.]*
He looked at the two figures. They were moving now. Slow. Toward the unconscious bodies on the floor. Toward Nara. Toward Marcus.
He looked at option three.
*What does unknown mean*, he thought. *What happens if I press it.*
*[UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED.]*
*[USE OPTION 3. NOW.]*
He pressed it.
The world ended.
Not actually. It just felt like it for about half a second. Everything went white and Aaron felt something enormous pass through him the way sound passed through walls and then the chamber was gone and the figures were gone and the ruins were gone and for one single second Aaron saw the Academy grounds.
The Director.
Still fighting. Still standing. The creature in front of him and the ground cracked in every direction and the Director's face doing something Aaron had never seen on it before.
Losing.
Then the ground came up fast and Aaron's knees hit it and his hands hit it and the white was everywhere and his body made a decision he hadn't agreed to and he went down and the last thing he thought before everything went dark was.....
*The map was right.*
*It was always right.*
Everything became blackout for the AARON and then a sound camed...
KABOOM!