Reality began to crack.
It started as whispers in Kael's dreams voices that weren't supposed to exist, colors that had no name, and memories that weren't his. When he opened his eyes each morning, the edges of his vision shimmered, like the world itself was made of glass about to shatter.
He told himself it was fatigue, the aftermath of the Rift War. But deep down, he knew. The world was changing or rather, unraveling.
The city of Solara was quiet now. Its towers, once humming with plasma energy and neon light, flickered in strange rhythms. Birds froze mid-flight for a second too long before resuming motion. Time stuttered. Space sighed. The Rift's echoes were spreading.
Kael walked through the ruins of the Memory Spire, the same place where Akiya had vanished...., no, ascended. He still remembered the look in her eyes before she dissolved into the Rift's light. Determined. Fearless. Infinite.
He clenched his fist.
"She became one with it…" he whispered. "But what does that mean now?"
As if in answer, the air rippled.
Light fractured in front of him, forming a floating prism of energy. Inside it for a heartbeat he saw her.
Akiya.
She was transparent, like a reflection in moving water, her eyes glowing with soft blue fire. Her battle suit was torn, her hair flowing like liquid starlight. She reached out a hand, her expression serene yet sorrowful.
"Kael…"
Her voice wasn't a sound. It was a feeling that rippled through his mind, carrying warmth, loss, and warning all at once.
He took a step closer. "Akiya? Is that,.. is that really you?"
The prism pulsed, and reality flickered again. The walls around him twisted into fragments of other places, the barren plains of the Otherworld, the metallic corridors of the old station, even glimpses of floating shards of sky.
Akiya's form trembled. "The Rift… it's not done. It's waking up."
"What do you mean waking up?" Kael demanded.
Her voice echoed inside his chest, trembling with the hum of power. "Something was sealed within it… not just energy. A mind. A will. It calls itself the Fragment Emperor, a being that exists across dimensions, feeding on what's broken between worlds."
Kael felt the world tilt again,.. a pulse of gravity that bent the light.
"So that's what's causing this?" he asked. "The distortions, the cracks in time..."
"Yes," Akiya said, her form flickering violently now. "He was part of me when I merged. But now he's breaking free. I can't hold him much longer…"
Kael reached forward instinctively, but his hand passed through light and pain. His heart raced as the prism split into thousands of tiny shards that rained down like crystal snow.
Akiya's last words echoed through the collapse:
"Find the Fracture Keys. They're our only chance. And Kael… don't let him rewrite what we became."
Then the vision shattered.
Kael fell to his knees, gasping as reality snapped back into shape. The Memory Spire was gone replaced by a crater humming with blue energy. The Rift's pulse was growing louder, synchronized with his heartbeat.
Behind him, Lyra and Kaela arrived, weapons drawn, their faces pale from the distortion.
"What happened here?" Lyra asked, scanning the debris.
Kael rose slowly, eyes burning with new purpose. "She's still here," he said softly. "Akiya's alive, but she's fighting something far worse than death."
Kaela frowned. "Alive? In the Rift?"
He nodded. "And she just gave us a warning. Something's coming, something that can rewrite worlds."
The wind shifted. For a second, the sky above them fractured again, showing glimpses of countless realities cities on fire, oceans inverted, stars turning to black crystal.
Kael looked up. "The Fragment Emperor…"
Lyra gripped her rifle tighter. "Then I guess it's time we fight something beyond gods."
Kael's hand brushed the cracked ground where Akiya had stood. The blue glow pulsed faintly beneath his fingers as if the Rift itself remembered her touch.
He whispered, almost to himself, "Hold on, Akiya. I'm coming."
And as he turned, the horizon split open, a thin, glowing fracture stretching from the heavens to the sea. From it, a voice rumbled, ancient and vast:
"The worlds will converge. And I will reign where meaning dies."
Kael didn't flinch.
He just smiled, the fire of a legend reborn in his eyes.
"Then let's see if a god can bleed."
...To be continued....