Day 281

I don’t know how long I stood frozen after seeing that silhouette... and hearing that voice — “Beware” — cold as a frozen whirlpool of time.

Time smeared like oil across glass, and my mind got stuck between moments. I could feel reality itself vibrating ever so slightly, like ripples across a quantum lattice of being. That voice wasn’t just a warning. It was... an intrusion, a rupture, a pulse from another layer of the matrix. In a sense, it was energy — a waveform encrypted in the rhythm of the universe.

Just then, the lab doors burst open. Heroes rushed in — den41k1, prince13, Mirage, Almazik456 — frantic, loud, disoriented. Their words cut through the haze of my thoughts like lightning bolts:

“Professor, beyond the edge of the desert, we discovered a new mountain range. And within it — monsters. Not just powerful. Different. Their energy… it overwhelms. We’re certain: their grade surpasses everything we've seen. Even Ancient.”

But it was SeLeg’s words that shattered my understanding:

“Professor,” he said, “I fought one of them. And as I dodged its attacks, I realized… it was controlling my gems. It didn’t touch them. It just… pulled the intention out of my mind, and turned my power against me.”

I froze — not from fear, but realization.

This was a new kind of intelligence. Not just evolution. A synergy with the very structure of energy.

It didn’t use the gems — it understood them. It guided them. Amplified them. As if its mind was in resonance with the quantum nature of the crystals, reading SeLeg’s intention before it even manifested.

This was more than tactics. This was insight. This was interference with the manifestation of will.

“Forgive me, quantums…” I whispered, “…but if they can manipulate our gems — then surely… they can manipulate us.”

And suddenly, I felt a chill — not from fear, but from comprehension.

If these beings truly think, if they engage not through physics but through cognitive alchemy, through a neuro-energetic channel between mind and matter, then we are... vulnerable.

All of us.

We face a race not just stronger — but older, deeper, intertwined with this world at a level we’ve never even imagined.

I exhaled — as if for the first time in days — and whispered:

“We need shelter. Immediately.”

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