The Frontier

The Hidden Path

The scream echoed through the ruins long after it had ended.

Aiden skidded to a stop at the mouth of a vast corridor, his breathing steady despite the sprint. Years of field expeditions had taught him one simple rule:

Never run blindly toward screaming.

He frowned.

"...Unfortunately, nobody ever taught me the equally important rule about not being ridiculously curious."

He peeked around the corner.

Nothing.

The corridor stretched ahead, illuminated by tall crystal pillars growing out of the floor like frozen lightning. Thin streams of glowing blue liquid flowed through grooves carved into the stone, disappearing beneath enormous archways.

Beautiful.

Terrifying.

"Beautifully terrifying," Aiden corrected himself.

"That's the scientific term."

He stepped forward.

His boot landed in the glowing stream.

Instead of splashing...

the liquid climbed onto his boot.

Aiden froze.

"...That's not how liquids negotiate gravity."

The glowing substance wrapped around his boot for several seconds before gently sliding back into its channel.

His scanner beeped.

LIFEFORM DETECTED

"What?"

He pointed the scanner at the stream.

LIFEFORM DETECTED

"...You're telling me the river is alive?"

The scanner simply repeated itself.

Aiden slowly backed away.

"Good river."

"No sudden movements."

Further ahead, the corridor widened into another chamber.

This one was different.

It looked...

broken.

Massive cracks spread across the walls.

Ancient statues had collapsed.

Fragments of crystal littered the floor.

For the first time since entering the ruins...

Aiden saw signs of violence.

He crouched beside a shattered pillar.

The edges were smooth.

Not broken by time.

Melted.

Almost as if something unimaginably hot had sliced straight through solid stone.

He ran his fingers over the surface.

"No erosion."

"No weather damage."

"This happened..."

He frowned.

"...recently."

A chill crawled down his spine.

These ruins were supposed to have been abandoned for thousands of years.

So who had damaged them?

A metallic clink echoed somewhere nearby.

Aiden immediately ducked behind a fallen statue.

Voices.

Human voices.

OmniCore.

"...split into teams."

"...find the chamber before Cole does."

"...Director Voss wants the Heart online before sunset."

The voices faded deeper into the ruins.

Heart?

Aiden frowned.

"The Heart?"

"That's either an energy source..."

"...or these people have a disturbing interest in anatomy."

He made a mental note.

Heart.

Important.

His thoughts were interrupted by a soft clicking sound.

Click.

Click.

Click.

Not mechanical.

Organic.

He slowly turned.

Nothing.

Click.

Closer.

He lifted the glow stick higher.

Still nothing.

Click.

Right behind him.

Aiden spun around so fast he nearly tripped over his own backpack.

"...Hello?"

Silence.

He laughed nervously.

"I'm beginning to miss the murderous flowers."

Then...

he noticed them.

Tiny footprints.

Appearing in the dust.

One after another.

As though someone invisible was quietly walking toward him.

His smile disappeared.

"Nope."

The footprints stopped.

Only three meters away.

Nothing stood there.

Just empty air.

Aiden swallowed.

"I'd really appreciate it..."

"...if invisible things could start wearing little hats."

No response.

The dust shifted.

Very slowly...

a shape emerged.

Not fully.

Like heat shimmering above asphalt.

The outline of a creature became visible.

About the size of a fox.

Long ears.

Slender body.

Six glowing eyes.

Its transparent fur rippled like flowing water.

It blinked.

Aiden blinked back.

The creature tilted its head.

"So..."

Aiden whispered.

"...you're invisible."

The creature chirped.

"...And adorable."

It chirped again.

"Please don't immediately prove me wrong by eating my face."

Instead...

it walked closer.

Carefully.

Curiously.

Until it stood only a meter away.

Aiden slowly crouched.

The creature sniffed the air.

Then...

to his complete surprise...

it sneezed.

Tiny blue sparks flew from its nose.

Aiden couldn't help laughing.

"Oh."

"Oh, you're magnificent."

The creature looked offended.

Suddenly its ears stood straight up.

Every muscle in its body tensed.

It stared toward the ceiling.

A low growl escaped its throat.

Aiden immediately stopped smiling.

"What?"

The creature backed away.

Growling louder.

Something heavy moved overhead.

Stone dust drifted from above.

Aiden looked up.

The darkness between the enormous ceiling beams...

was moving.

At first he thought they were vines.

Then one of them unfolded.

Legs.

Eight impossibly long crystal legs.

Followed by another.

And another.

His eyes slowly widened.

"...That's..."

"...a very large spider."

The creature hissed.

The spider descended silently upside down, its body nearly the size of a transport shuttle.

Its shell looked like polished obsidian streaked with glowing blue veins.

Eight luminous eyes locked onto Aiden simultaneously.

He smiled weakly.

"I take back everything."

"This..."

"...this is how people die in horror movies."

The spider opened its jaws.

Inside...

rows of crystal fangs reflected the blue light.

The invisible fox let out a piercing cry.

The spider lunged.

Aiden didn't think.

He reacted.

"DON'T EAT ME!"

He threw the emergency glow stick.

Not at the spider.

Past it.

The glowing rod struck a crystal pillar, ricocheted twice, and rolled across the floor.

The giant creature's eyes instinctively followed the moving light.

"...Huh."

Aiden blinked.

"It likes shiny things."

Then it remembered him.

"Oh, come on!"

The spider lunged again.

Aiden dove sideways just as two enormous crystal legs slammed into the stone where he'd been standing a split second earlier.

The impact shook the entire chamber.

Rock exploded around him.

A shower of crystal shards rained down.

Aiden scrambled behind a fallen statue, breathing hard.

"Okay..."

"Think."

"Giant alien spider."

"No weapons."

"No backup."

"No dignity."

"This is fine."

The invisible fox appeared beside him, chirping frantically.

"I'm glad one of us has a plan."

The creature hissed at him.

"...You don't have a plan either, do you?"

Another hiss.

"I'll take that as a no."

The spider moved silently.

That was somehow the worst part.

Something that size should have sounded like a collapsing building.

Instead...

it glided.

Each crystalline leg touched the floor without a whisper.

Only the faint click of its claws echoed through the ruins.

Click.

Click.

Click.

Aiden peeked around the statue.

The spider had disappeared.

"...That's impossible."

The chamber was enormous, but not that enormous.

Where—

A shadow passed over him.

He looked up.

"...Oh."

The spider clung upside down to the ceiling directly above him.

"That's worse."

It dropped.

Aiden rolled just in time.

The spider crashed through the statue instead, reducing several tons of ancient stone to rubble.

Dust filled the air.

The fox darted beneath the creature's legs with impossible speed, snapping at one of its joints before vanishing again.

The spider screeched.

It wasn't loud.

It was high-pitched.

Almost like crystal being scraped across glass.

Aiden covered his ears.

"Ow!"

"Okay!"

"So apparently the tiny invisible dog is suicidal."

The fox barked indignantly.

"Sorry."

"Invisible fox."

"My mistake."

The spider turned away from Aiden.

Its attention shifted completely toward the fox.

The little creature sprinted across the chamber, deliberately leading the monster away.

Aiden watched in disbelief.

"...You're distracting it."

The fox glanced back.

Almost impatiently.

As if saying,

Well?

Aiden sighed.

"I hate being the less responsible one."

He ran.

Across the chamber stood an enormous stone archway.

Beyond it...

another corridor.

He sprinted toward it.

Behind him, the spider realized it had been tricked.

It shrieked.

The sound echoed through every hallway.

The fox vanished into thin air again.

The spider immediately searched for a new target.

Aiden.

"Right."

"Of course."

He accelerated.

Years of fieldwork suddenly paid off.

He vaulted broken pillars.

Slid beneath collapsed beams.

Leaped across glowing streams.

The spider simply climbed over everything.

Unfair.

Deeply unfair.

Ahead...

the corridor narrowed dramatically.

Barely wide enough for one person.

Aiden grinned.

"Oh."

"Now we're talking."

He squeezed inside.

The spider reached the entrance seconds later.

Its massive body wouldn't fit.

It slammed into the walls instead.

CRACK.

The entire passage trembled.

Aiden kept running.

Behind him—

CRACK.

CRACK.

CRACK.

The spider wasn't giving up.

It was breaking the corridor apart.

"...Persistent little thing."

Another explosion of stone echoed behind him.

"I say 'little' emotionally."

The passage suddenly ended.

A dead end.

Aiden stopped so abruptly he nearly crashed into the wall.

"...Seriously?"

He looked left.

Solid rock.

Right.

Solid rock.

Behind him—

The spider forced another leg through the collapsing tunnel.

Crystal claws scraped toward him.

He backed against the wall.

"Well."

"I've had better Tuesdays."

His backpack bumped against something.

Click.

He frowned.

That wasn't stone.

He turned.

His hand brushed across the wall.

Smooth.

Warmer than the surrounding rock.

Symbols.

Hundreds of tiny symbols hidden beneath centuries of dust.

"Oh..."

"No pressure."

The spider forced half its body into the tunnel.

The ceiling cracked.

Rubble fell everywhere.

Aiden frantically wiped more dust away.

The symbols formed a circular pattern.

At the center—

A handprint.

Exactly his size.

"...You're kidding."

The spider lunged.

Aiden slammed his palm onto the stone.

Nothing happened.

"...Fantastic."

"I've been rejected by a wall."

The spider's jaws opened.

Crystal fangs rushed toward him.

Then—

The wall exploded with blue light.

The symbols blazed to life.

A pulse of energy erupted through the corridor.

The spider screeched.

Its entire body was thrown backward as if struck by an invisible tidal wave.

The ancient wall dissolved.

Not opened.

Dissolved.

Revealing another hidden passage beyond.

Aiden stared.

"...I..."

"...meant to do that."

The invisible fox appeared beside him again.

It chirped.

Its version of laughter, apparently.

"Oh, don't judge me."

He stepped into the newly revealed passage.

Behind him, the wall reformed instantly.

The spider slammed into solid stone with enough force to shake the mountain.

Silence.

Aiden leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.

"I vote..."

"...we never speak of this again."

The fox sat beside him.

Its transparent tail wagged once.

For the first time since landing on Aetheria...

Aiden wasn't alone.

He smiled.

"You know..."

"I think you need a name."

The little creature tilted its head.

"Hmm..."

"You disappear."

"You're sarcastic."

"You almost got me killed."

"...I'm going to call you Pixel."

The fox made a sound that was either approval...

or resignation.

Aiden grinned.

"Congratulations."

"You're officially my first alien friend."

Pixel suddenly stiffened.

Its ears flattened.

A low growl escaped its throat.

Aiden's smile faded.

"What now?"

Pixel wasn't looking behind them.

It was looking ahead.

At the end of the hidden passage...

a faint golden light flickered.

Someone was standing there.

Perfectly still.

Watching them.

Only the outline was visible.

Tall.

Humanoid.

One hand resting on a long staff.

The figure slowly raised the staff.

The golden light brightened.

A calm female voice echoed through the passage.

"...You were never supposed to survive the Guardian."

Aiden blinked.

"...Well..."

"...this has been a weird morning."