"Bzzzt-"
A piercing electrical crackle erupted from Milluki's terminal screen, and every data stream instantly dissolved into a frenzy of static.
The instant the iron door closed behind them, the entire top floor of the Lighthouse seemed to be seized by an invisible hand and began twisting wildly.
Bai Zhu felt his stomach churn. The floor beneath his feet grew soft as liquid, while the ceiling and walls melted and flowed like wax.
Within seconds, the spot where the lamp had stood turned into a pool of molten iron, then was swallowed by a black vortex that appeared out of thin air.
It was a pitch-black hole roughly two meters across, its edges glowing with a sickly purple-black halo. Countless tiny golden lights flickered and died inside it, looking just like countless eyes blinking in an abyss.
"The spatial coordinates... have failed..." Milluki's voice held unprecedented fear. He clutched Bai Zhu's back, as though afraid he would be flung into some unknown dimension. "My instruments say we're now... outside this world!"
Bai Zhu had no time for him.
The system interface that only he could see had already opened automatically. Blood-red flames burned around the entire panel's border, and several lines of core data had even become distorted symbols he could not recognize at all.
"He..."
Milluki's startled cry pulled Bai Zhu's attention back to reality.
Vick still stood a short distance away.
Or rather, the thing that had once been Vick did.
His shriveled skin peeled off in great sheets like damp newspaper, revealing not flesh and blood, but masses of constantly churning black mist.
"Urgh-"
Milluki watched as one of Vick's arms fell clean off at the shoulder and hit the floor. The severed surface was perfectly smooth, without bones or blood vessels, only more black mist crawling