They stepped out of the door and into a radiant, white-lit passageway, illuminated by flawless light fixtures embedded into the ceiling like suspended stars. The brightness was clean and overwhelming, as though the very corridor breathed purity.
Dax remembered the hallway. It was the same one the woman had once guided him through when he was first brought to the ascension pod. But unlike that time, when the corridor had been eerily vacant, now it swelled with life.
The space was crowded with people, most of them moving in pairs. From their composure, their unity, and their synchronized steps, Dax could tell that the pairs were Matherons and their trainees, guardians walking beside their protégés.
He kept close behind Naya as she led him deeper into the glowing hall until the corridor unfolded into a broader passage, spacious and commanding.
They walked in silence, the kind of silence that stretched thin like a string pulled taut. Dax wondered if it was because of the tension that had brewed earlier between them, a tension that carried the subtle fragrance of something he would call almost romantic, or maybe because they were still weaving the fragile fabric of familiarity with one another.
'I hope it's the first one,' he whispered to himself, his heart tripping in confusion.
Unable to endure the weight of silence anymore, Dax spoke, his voice cutting through the air like a hesitant blade.
"Where exactly are we going?"
Naya turned her head toward him, her eyes flashing with a discomforting look; sharp, almost accusing.
"Really?" she replied, tapping her fingers against her side.
"Don't you know where we're going? Don't you know anything about this place, anything about the rules?"
Dax shook his head, his eyes steady on her.
"Should I?"
The girl exhaled loudly, raising her hands only to let them drop beside her thighs, a gesture of exhaustion... of frustration, as though every step with him made her task heavier.
"So you're telling me," she pressed, her voice sharper now, "that before you entered the ascension pod… you had never been here?"
Dax looked at her, his face struck with bewilderment. Suddenly, scattered pieces of the puzzle began to click into place. He knew now why his appearance at the ascension pod, long after everyone else was already inside, had felt off, like a note out of rhythm in a symphony.
"No," he replied firmly.
Naya's brows arched. Her reaction was more of admiration than shock, and Dax found himself relishing the way her face glowed with impressed intrigue. For once, he felt seen.
"How in the world did you make it out of the harness," she asked slowly, her tone laced with curiosity, "without receiving the training every other strong-willed received before entering the test?"
The truth was bare, standing naked before Dax's conscience. Perhaps it was because he had been weak-willed, because he had stumbled through circumstances instead of mastering them, that he knew nothing about the Parallax Dimension until now.
In truth, he shouldn't even be here. But the Devil had chosen him, for reasons still shrouded in shadows, and perhaps that alone was why his steps had brought him into this realm.
Dax tilted his chin at her, summoning a smirk.
"Well, guess I'm just good after all."
He could have confessed that he was weak-willed, but vanity... or maybe instinct... urged him to impress her instead.
Naya let out a low chuckle, shaking her head as she turned. "Well, maybe we'll have a little look around before I take you to the Stronghold."
She veered right, deliberately opposite of where the others were flowing. Together they strode into another hall, this one flanked on both sides by cylindrical pillars rising like sentinels, each crowned with yellow lights that glowed softly, as though breathing with life.
At the end of the corridor stood an elevator. They entered in silence, the soft hum of the machine wrapping around them as they ascended upward.
Ding.
The elevator chimed, its doors gliding open. Together, they stepped out onto the rooftop.
"Trust me," Naya said, walking forward with measured grace. "I wouldn't normally do this." She strode toward the three-foot raised edge of the rooftop, Dax trailing behind, as she finished with a sly grin: "Because you're a pain in the ass."
She turned to him then, her hand resting on the hilt of the sword at her side, while her other hand gestured wide with theatrical flair.
"Welcome… to the Parallax Dimension."
Her lips curved into a smile.
"It is the zone of the very things that attack our world. We chose to build here to keep the Parallax Servers hidden from the eyes of the ordinary weak-willed and the unchosen average-willed and the rest of the world. Here, we intercept them before they breach the walls of our world."
Dax let out a chuckle, but his laughter was immediately swallowed by a thunderous, low bellow.
"Woouuw."
His eyes widened, devouring the view before him.
The sky was breathtaking, a canvas of endless night, dark blue bordering on black, streaked with thin crimson threads that wove like veins across the heavens, mingled with swathes of purple light that shimmered like bruises of the cosmos. It was like a galaxy spilling its textures above their heads, vast and alive.
Then, from below the rooftop, his gaze caught movement; sharp bikes fluttering up from the level beneath them.
They were like no machine Dax had ever seen. Tireless, sleek, they bore cylindrical exhausts that bellowed thick blue energy, propelling them forward like thunderbolts. Each left behind a chromatic blur of cobalt light that stained the air.
All of them were streaming toward a colossal building ahead.
"That," Naya explained, following his line of sight, "is the Stronghold."
Dax's eyes widened further as he took in the structure. The Stronghold towered with intimidating grandeur, its glassy surface glimmering like polished obsidian, its form jagged and complex, as though multiple towers had been stitched together in some alien design.
The entire building seemed to breathe, as though alive, an enormous sentinel overlooking the abyss.
"The Stronghold is where the Transcended, the Beyonders, and the Veilbound gather," Naya continued.
"It is where matters concerning our existence are debated and resolved, where the balance of our world is preserved."
She didn't give Dax time to interrupt before pointing left.
"That is the Veilbound Tower." Her finger swept to another structure beside it. "And that is the Transcendeds' Tower."
Dax gawked in awe. The sheer enormity of the architecture dwarfed him. From their rooftop height, people below looked like insects crawling along winding paths toward the Stronghold.
The entire realm carried an aura both majestic and sinister, it looked like an underworld painted into existence, the kind of surreal nightmare he had only seen in animes.
The darkness is never lifted here. According to Naya, there was no sunrise, no morning, no evening, no rain. Only storm, occasional, violent storms that tore through the eternal twilight.
"Well," Naya said, tapping his shoulder lightly, "we've seen enough. Come on. We have a place of mandatory to be."
"What are they really doing there… at the Stronghold?" Dax asked, his voice tinged with suspicion as they turned back toward the elevator.
Naya smirked, her eyes flashing with mischief.
"Why spoil the surprise when we're about to see it for ourselves?"
That irritated him. His jaw clenched. This wasn't the first time he'd been given that same, infuriating line. First, the woman who shoved him into the ascension pod had said it when he asked about the harness.
Then, the Nexer itself, whose cryptic silence nearly cost Dax his life. And now, Naya.
"Urgh," he grunted, teeth grinding.
Naya chuckled softly as the elevator began its descent. "What's the matter? Can't handle someone else behaving like the Devil? Ridiculous."
Dax smirked, though his thoughts curled darker. He wasn't behaving like the Devil. He was the Devil, or at least carried his will. Every Beyonder inherited a fragment of that infernal will, but Dax bore the strongest of them all: the core, the root, the Devil's will itself.
Ding.
The elevator doors slid open, revealing the basement beneath the rooftop. The space was expansive, like the grand lounge of some ancient mansion, yet brimming with life, Beyonders crowded the place, their presence thick and imposing.
Naya strutted forward with her usual confidence, Dax following close behind, his eyes momentarily distracted by the sway of her hips.
They wove past the crowd until they reached the balcony-like edge. Beyond it lay nothingness, an endless abyss waiting hungrily below.
No Barriers where there to keep anyone from falling, and therefore one misstep could mean annihilation, falling from this height would reduce a body to a grotesque smear, nothing more than human butter splattered across stone.
Naya closed her eyes briefly. Dax frowned, wondering, was she praying?
As the thought simmered, his gaze dipped over the edge. A shiver travelled down his spine.
Then, Naya opened her eyes again, and in her hand, she held what looked like a toy; a small, miniature bike.
"C'mon," she said with a smirk, turning and walking back to the center of the chamber.
Dax chuckled, recognition flashing. He remembered summoning his own strange relic once; a spoon, the only trophy he had taken from the beast he killed.
"Is that… a toy?" Dax teased, his brows raised. "What Parallax Server did you kill to get that? Or was it its cat?"
Naya ignored him. She dropped the tiny bike onto the ground.
The instant it touched the floor, a blinding ripple of white light burst outward, expanding in concentric waves.
Vuuuussshhhhh.
The bike grew: no, it unfurled like something alive, swelling larger and larger until it stood before them, gleaming in full size.
Dax's eyes widened. His cheeks flushed with boyish surprise.
"No way," he muttered.
"yes way", Naya replied, mockingly.
The bike was magnificent. Blue in color, sophisticated beyond reason, its design gleamed like something stolen from the far future.
Naya swung herself onto it gracefully.
"C'mon, Daxxy," she called, her smile sharp as a blade.
"Or are you afraid?"