Chapter 9 — The Fracture Within
The air in the shattered courtyard hung heavy with a tension that refused to disperse. Even after the spectral figure dissolved, its presence clung to the ruins like frost—cold, biting, lingering in every breath Aiden drew.
Ren paced in a tight circle, jaw clenched hard enough to crack teeth. Lyra typed furiously on her tablet, muttering in rapid bursts as she fought to stabilize the failing dome generators. Soldiers moved in groups, checking corners, pulling survivors from rubble, setting up temporary energy barriers with portable emitters.
Only Aiden stood still.
He couldn't move.
The echo of the entity's words kept looping in his mind like an impossible nightmare.
Heir of the Primordial Rift.A war older than the universe.The only one who can close the final Rift.
It didn't feel real.It couldn't be.
And yet… the void mark pulsed beneath his skin like a heartbeat that didn't belong to him.
Ren finally stopped pacing and turned sharply toward him. "Cross. Inside. Now."
Aiden didn't argue. He followed Ren through the damaged hallway into a makeshift briefing room—what used to be a training hall before half the roof collapsed. Now reinforced plates held it together, and a hastily assembled projector cast shaky holograms against the wall.
Lyra entered behind them, breath still unsteady.
Ren closed the door. "Talk."
Aiden sank into a chair, head still spinning. "I told you… everything."
"No," Ren said firmly. "You gave us what you heard. Now we need what you felt."
Aiden blinked. "Felt?"
Lyra stepped forward. "Aiden, you weren't just hearing that entity. You were synchronized with it. There was direct resonance between your mark and its presence. That kind of connection is… unprecedented."
Aiden rubbed his temples. "I didn't ask for any connection."
"That doesn't change the fact you have it," Ren replied.
Aiden snapped, louder than intended. "I didn't want any of this!"
Silence.
Ren's expression softened—just a fraction.
"We know," he said quietly. "But we're out of time for what anyone wants."
Lyra placed her tablet on the table with deliberate care. "Aiden… did it feel like that entity could control you?"
Aiden opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Thought.
Shivered.
"No," he said eventually. "It didn't try to force me. It wasn't… pushing."He swallowed."It was calling."
Lyra's eyes widened. "Calling—like a summoning signal?"
Aiden shook his head. "No. More like… like a voice you recognize even though you've never heard it."
Ren exchanged a tense look with her.
Lyra spoke carefully. "Aiden… we reran your scans while you were unconscious."
He stiffened. "And?"
Lyra tapped a panel. A hologram flickered to life—his vitals, the void mark, unstable resonance waves.
"These readings show that the void energy inside you… isn't corrupting you. It's merging with you. Integrating perfectly. Humans exposed to even a fraction of this usually experience meltdown or mutation. But your markers—"
She pulled up another graph.
"—are stabilizing. The void isn't treating you as a host. It's treating you as… a native."
Aiden's stomach dropped.
"So I'm not human anymore?"
Lyra hesitated—but Ren answered without sugarcoating.
"You're human," he said. "But also something else."
Aiden looked at his hand. The void mark pulsed softly, almost like an answer.
Lyra continued. "And that's why the entity targeted you."
Ren crossed his arms. "Not out of malice, but because it knew what you are. Or what you're becoming."
Aiden pressed both hands to his face. "This can't be happening."
Lyra's voice softened. "Aiden… whatever you are, we need you alive. And we need to understand your abilities if we're going to survive what's coming."
Aiden exhaled shakily. "You think the war it mentioned is real?"
Ren's eyes hardened. "Three continents are reporting Gate collapses identical to ours. We're seeing signatures we've never observed before. The world is changing. Fast."
Lyra added, "And Aiden… you might be the only key we have to understanding why."
Aiden closed his eyes.
Heir of the Primordial Rift.A war older than the sun.The only one who can close the final Rift.
It felt insane.
But the entity's voice still echoed with undeniable truth.
"What do you need me to do?" Aiden asked quietly.
Ren nodded once—sharp, decisive. "First, we're relocating. This facility is compromised. A secure bunker under the Solara Research Tower is still intact. You'll be safer there, and Lyra will have the equipment she needs."
Lyra leaned over the table. "And while you're there, Aiden… we need you to try something."
Aiden looked up. "Try what?"
Lyra hesitated for half a second—long enough to worry him.
"Using your Voidbound ability again," she said. "Consciously. Deliberately. Not under stress."
Aiden's veins went cold. "I barely held it together last time."
Ren stepped forward. "You're not doing this alone. We'll have containment fields, suppression cuffs, emergency void dampeners, medical support. If things go wrong—"
Aiden cut him off with a hollow laugh. "If things go wrong, a dampener won't save anyone."
Ren didn't deny it.
Lyra folded her arms. "That's why we're going to proceed slowly, safely, and intelligently."
Aiden hesitated. "And… if I refuse?"
Ren didn't look angry.
Just tired.
"Aiden, the world is being swallowed alive," he said quietly. "Every hour, Gates collapse. Every hour, something else breaks through. You're the first person ever recorded to naturally stabilize void energy. We need you. Humanity needs you."
Aiden felt the weight settle on him like a boulder.
He wanted to run.Hide.Pretend none of this was real.
But then he remembered the little girl in the alley.The screams in the streets.The collapsing Gate.The entity calling his name.
He couldn't pretend anymore.
He finally nodded. "I'll help. Whatever it takes."
Lyra let out a breath of relief. "Good. Then we move within the hour."
Ren placed a communicator in Aiden's hand. "Stay in my sight. No wandering. If the mark reacts again, you alert me immediately."
Aiden nodded.
As they left the briefing room, an operator ran down the hall toward them, breathless.
"Commander! Reports just came in from the Northern Continent!"
Ren stiffened. "What now?"
The operator's face was pale. "A mega-city has vanished."
Ren's eyes widened. "Vanished?"
"Not destroyed," the operator whispered. "Not collapsed. Not evacuated."
He swallowed hard.
"Just… gone."
Lyra grabbed the tablet from his hands. As the feed loaded, her skin drained of color.
Aiden looked over her shoulder.
Where a massive city—home to nine million people—should have been…
…there was only swirling black fog.And at its center—
—a faint ring-shaped fracture glowing with the same pattern as Aiden's void mark.
Ren's voice was barely above a whisper.
"This is the beginning."
Aiden felt his mark burn.
Not in warning.
In recognition.
And deep in his mind, the entity's final words echoed again—
"Prepare, Voidbound.""The outer stars are waking."
Aiden clenched his fists.
The war had already begun.