CHAPTER 19 — The Rift That Watches
The moment Aren stepped through the shimmering tear in reality, the world behind him dissolved into silence. No wind. No sound. No sense of up or down. Only a vast expanse of shifting colors — deep violets, drowning blues, and threads of silver drifting like smoke across a starless void.
It didn't feel like entering a place.
It felt like entering a mind.
Aren exhaled shakily. "This… isn't a dungeon," he whispered.
Beside him, Mira tightened her grip on her spear. "It's watching us. I can feel it."
Kael, steady as always, scanned their surroundings. "Rifts are supposed to be unstable pockets of magic. But this one…" He shook his head. "This feels alive."
They walked forward carefully, boots touching ground that didn't fully exist — a transparent, rippling surface like stepping on the surface of a still lake. Light bent around their legs in ways that made Aren uneasy, warping and stretching as if the Rift were studying his movements.
A soft whisper brushed his ear.
…lost… found… chosen…
Aren froze. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Mira asked.
Kael frowned. "Aren, stay close. The mana density here is enough to twist the senses."
Twist the senses.
Aren understood the warning, but it was too late — the Rift had already woven its fingers around his thoughts.
As they moved deeper, the colors thickened like fog. The ground pulsed faintly beneath their feet, in rhythm with a heartbeat that wasn't theirs. Shadows drifted without a source. Shapes formed and dissolved in the corner of his vision — hands, wings, strange sigils, eyes.
Always eyes.
Watching.
Judging.
Seeking.
Aren swallowed hard. "I think this Rift… knows I'm here."
Kael's jaw tightened. "Rifts don't know. They don't think."
"Then what's this one doing?" Mira muttered.
Aren didn't answer. He couldn't. Because the next whisper wasn't faint at all.
…found you…
Aren spun —
And something slammed into him from the side.
The blow sent him crashing across the rippling ground, sliding until he barely caught himself on one trembling hand. Mira screamed his name, her voice echoing unnaturally through the Rift.
Aren forced himself up just as the creature emerged.
It was massive — a beast made of fractured crystal and black smoke, its body shifting like broken mirror shards glued together by darkness. Several jagged limbs crawled and clicked like a monstrous spider, while its head split into four glowing maws.
A Rift Beast — but nothing like the ones from adventurer reports.
Mira stepped in front of Aren. "That thing wasn't in the brief!"
"It's evolving," Kael said sharply. "Stay close. We handle this fast."
The beast screeched — a sound that fractured the air like shattering glass.
It charged.
Kael rushed forward with his sword, but the beast's crystal legs sparked against the ground, moving faster than expected. Mira thrust her spear, forcing the creature to twist away — but its shadowy tendrils lashed out like whips, striking the ground where she stood seconds before.
Aren stayed back, breathing hard. His pulse hammered. His skin crawled with the Rift's mana, energy building in his veins like pressure waiting to burst.
Now, a voice whispered inside him. Show them.
Aren clenched his fists. "Not now… not—"
The beast lunged at Kael.
Aren reacted without thinking.
His hand snapped forward — and a shockwave of raw, undefined mana slammed into the beast's side, sending it crashing into a floating shard of fractured stone.
The Rift pulsed… approvingly.
Kael stared at Aren. "What did you just—?"
Aren shook, his palm smoking. "I… don't know."
The beast recovered, hissing, its eyes burning brighter.
And Aren realized something terrifying.
It wasn't just attacking.
It was testing him.
Kael tightened his stance. "Get ready! It's coming again!"
Mira gritted her teeth. "Aren, stay behind us!"
But Aren could feel it — the Rift's attention narrowing, sharpening, focusing entirely on him.
The Rift had chosen him.
And the beast intended to prove whether that choice was a blessing…
or a mistake.
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