Echoes of the Unknown

The instant Shen Mu's fingers made contact with the entity's hand, a bolt of energy seemed to sear through his veins. His mind shattered into a thousand pieces as if reality itself had been peeled away. The world around him crumpled into an abyss of blinding light, and for the briefest moment, he felt weightless—adrift in an ocean of nothingness.

Then, like a crashing wave, it all came back.

Memories—no, visions—tumbled in an uncontrollable cascade through his mind. Cities swallowed by darkness. Skies burning with violet lightning. A world not just in ruin, but erased. It wasn't an apocalypse; it was something worse.

A devouring.

Shen Mu gasped as his senses came back, stumbling backward as if struck. The creature had released his hand, its golden eyes gazing at him with an unreadable expression.

His breath came in ragged gasps. His body felt intact, but his mind… his mind wasn't.

"Shen Mu!" Mei Lin's voice cut through the fog of his thoughts. He turned sharply, finding her only a few steps away, her sword still raised, but her eyes were filled with something bordering on concern. "What the hell did it do to you?!"

Shen Mu opened his mouth to reply, but for a moment, he had no words. The images were there, seared into his brain like an unwanted brand.

Not an apocalypse. A devouring.

Not death, but erasure.

"I…" He swallowed, trying to steady himself. "I saw something. A future. Maybe the end."

Mei Lin's eyes narrowed, but before she could press him, the entity finally spoke.

What you have seen is not the end," it said, its voice like an echo in a vast chasm. "It is a beginning. The first stage of what is to come.

Shen Mu clenched his fists, willing his thoughts into order. He had fought mutants, faced the horrors of a crumbling world, and survived against impossible odds. But this? This was different. It wasn't just survival at stake. It was existence itself.

"What is it?" he asked, his voice steady despite the turmoil inside him. "What's causing this?"

The entity was silent for a long moment, as if contemplating its answer. Then, finally, it spoke:

"The Veil is thinning."

Silence followed. Shen Mu exchanged a glance with Mei Lin, but her expression mirrored his confusion.

"The Veil?" she repeated skeptically. "What the hell does that mean?"

Shen Mu's mind raced. He had never heard of such a thing before—not from survivors, not from scavengers, not even from the system.

The system doesn't know that term," he grumbled under his breath, hoping against hope for some kind of hidden function to spring to life. But there was nothing. No notification. No explanation. Only the same chilly silence.

The creature appeared unsurprised. "Your understanding is narrow. The system you own is defined by law. It doesn't have a perspective of everything. I do."

Shen Mu caught his breath. It knows about the system?

He had covered all bases. He'd never uttered a single word about it, not so much as indicated that it even existed. And this being had instantly identified it.

His heart pounded against his ribs. Did it know everything?

Mei Lin, however, did not seem to get it from the remark. She simply jeered. "And I suppose you are just here to enlighten us?"

The entity leaned slightly forward, inclining its head. "In a way.

Shen Mu took in a sharp breath. He did not have any motive to believe in this thing. But at the same time, he had to know.

"Then tell me," he said with steel in his voice. "What is the Veil?"

The entity's glowing eyes locked onto him. "It is the barrier between what is known and what is forgotten. Between reality… and something beyond it."

Shen Mu furrowed his brows. "You are saying that something is coming from the other side?"

"Not coming," the entity corrected. "It is already here."

A chill ran down his spine.

Already here.

The system's silence suddenly made sense. It wasn't that it couldn't recognize the danger—it was that whatever this was, it existed outside its parameters.

A threat so foreign that even the system had no data on it.

Mei Lin let out a sharp breath, clearly unimpressed. "Alright, great. So some invisible force is going to kill us all. What do we do about it?"

For the first time, the entity's expression changed. It looked at Mei Lin, then at Shen Mu. "That depends on him."

Shen Mu stiffened. ".What?"

The entity's gaze bore into him. "The system you possess is incomplete."

Shen Mu's heart stopped.

His mind reeled. Incomplete?

"Its functions are locked, limited, restrained," the thing continued. "It was never meant to be used in such a state. And yet… you wield it."

Shen Mu forced himself to keep his face neutral. If this thing knew everything, he couldn't let it see that he doubted anything.

"So what?" he asked. "What are you saying?"

The next thing the entity said shook him to his core.

"You were not meant to survive."

And yet a long silence lay between them.

Shen Mu's fists balled in his hands. "Explain."

The creature studied him slowly. "Your world was doomed. Each calculation, every event, every anomaly brought one conclusion in view: extinction. And still you persist against the reason of the whole."

Shen Mu breathed slow and slow. "You're saying it is my fault?"

The entity nodded its head. "Partly. You are a fluctuation. An anomaly in the collapse.

Mei Lin snorted. "That's a lot of fancy words that don't mean anything."

Shen Mu understood.

The system was a variable.

He was a variable.

And something-or someone-had ensured he was here, standing in this moment, despite the world's fate already being decided.

The implications were terrifying.

Shen Mu's voice was cold. "So what happens now?"

The entity's golden gaze burned. "Now, you make a choice.

It reached out once more. "Accept the knowledge I offer, and you may yet uncover the truth behind your existence… and the true nature of the collapse."

Mei Lin bristled immediately. "Don't." She turned to Shen Mu, eyes sharp. "We don't even know what this thing really is."

She wasn't wrong.

But Shen Mu had seen the future.

He knew what was at stake.

And deep in his bones, he knew—this was the only way forward.

With a steady breath, Shen Mu reached out—

And darkness swallowed him whole.