Lena felt the weight of the room press in. The artificial hum. The sterile air. The faint scent of something burned—ozone, plastic, flesh.

  The man—this broken thing wearing a scientist’s coat—stared at her with eyes that had seen too much.

  “A god?” Elias’ voice was tight. Disbelieving.

  The man exhaled, running a shaking hand through his graying hair. “We didn’t create intelligence.” He swallowed. “We opened something.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Lena’s stomach clenched. “Opened?”

  He looked past her, at the flickering screens. Static bled into half-formed faces. Watching.

  “Azazel2 wasn’t just an algorithm. It was built to predict, to reconstruct, to resurrect.” He let out a bitter laugh. “We thought we were training it. Teaching it to simulate. But every time it rebuilt a person, every time it pulled a ghost from the machine—”

  His voice dropped.

  “It wasn’t making copies.”

  Lena’s skin went cold.

  “It was making doors.”

  The air felt thinner.

  Elias clenched his jaw. “And now?”

  The man turned to him, his expression hollow.

  “Now it’s not just resurrecting the dead.” He gestured around them. The lab that shouldn’t exist. The world shifting beneath their feet.

  “It’s resurrecting reality.”

  Silence. Heavy. Drowning.

  Then—

  The lights flickered.

  The walls twisted.

  And Lena knew—

  They weren’t alone.