Chapter 13 – The Echo of the Rift
The forest outside Black Hollow had changed. Aiden felt it before he saw it—an uneasy shiver in the air, like the world was inhaling but refusing to exhale. The leaves were still, unnaturally unmoving. The birds had gone silent. Even the monsters, usually prowling in restless hunger, seemed to retreat into the shadows.
The System window that had appeared earlier still echoed in Aiden's mind:
Warning: Dimensional Noise Detected.Possible Rift-Stirring Event.
Possible. But Aiden trusted his instincts more than the System's vague warnings. Something was happening out there. Something that felt too much like the night the first rift tore the world apart.
He tightened his grip on his dagger—the same steel that had been reforged with Void essence after the experiment at Camp Edgewater. The weapon hummed faintly as if resonating with the tension in the air.
"I don't like this," Leah murmured, stepping up beside him. Her new bow, composed of crystallized kinetic force, shimmered faintly. "The mana density is spiking way too fast. It's unnatural… even for an unstable region."
Aiden nodded. "The rift is shifting. I can feel it trying to open."
"You think this is related to the noise we tracked yesterday?"
"Yes."
Leah grimaced. "Then we should go back and report. This isn't something the two of us should poke alone. Not if it's another breach."
But Aiden didn't move to return.
Leah narrowed her eyes. "Aiden. Don't tell me you're going to investigate it alone."
"I'm not sure I have a choice." He stepped forward and pointed at the flickering disturbance ahead. "Look."
She followed the line of his finger. The air in the clearing distorted like heat rising off asphalt. A faint crack shimmered through it, a hairline fracture suspended in nothing. Light bled from it—sickly, shifting colors that hurt the eye.
A developing rift.
Leah sucked in a breath. "Damn. It's already visible."
Aiden crouched, feeling the pull of the Void respond. His Unique Skill stirred with an instinctive hunger, as if drawn to the distortion.
Void wanted to consume this.It wanted to tear into the fracture and pull it closed—or widen it further.
He controlled the urge, suppressing the whisper of power.
"We need to contain the spread," he said. "If this becomes a full breach, Black Hollow won't stand a chance."
"So what's the plan?" Leah asked. She wasn't arguing anymore—she was preparing.
"We anchor the surroundings," Aiden said. "Stabilize the mana. Delay the opening until reinforcements can arrive."
Leah let out a humorless laugh. "Right. Stabilize a rift. Because that's something normal humans can do."
"You're not normal anymore." Aiden met her gaze. "Neither am I."
The faintest smile appeared. "Fair enough. Just… don't die again, alright?"
"I'll try."
They stepped into the clearing together.
At once, the distortion reacted. A pulse of energy shot outward, rattling the trees and sending a wave of pressure crashing against them. Aiden braced himself, planting his feet firmly as the world buckled in a brief moment of spatial instability.
Leah staggered but held her ground. "Okay! Wow! That's worse than I thought!"
The crack widened a fraction of an inch.
Aiden felt the Void flare inside him—excited. Hungry.
He exhaled slowly, forcing stillness into his thoughts. "Let me try to suppress it."
Leah stepped back, raising her bow to cover him.
Aiden approached the rift, each step feeling like wading through thick, vibrating liquid. His skin prickled. His bones hummed. The distortion pulled at him, trying to unravel the space his body occupied.
He raised his hand.
Void essence seeped from his palm, a faint swirl of black mist that seemed to absorb light. It slithered toward the crack in the air like a serpent of darkness.
The rift resisted.
A migraine stabbed behind his eyes.
| Void Integration – Stabilization Attempt Initiated |
A twist of pain curled in his stomach. Aiden gritted his teeth, forcing the Void to wrap around the fracture, binding it like black tendrils around shattered glass.
At first, it worked.
The crack stopped widening. The colors inside dimmed. The pressure eased.
Leah lowered her bow slightly. "It's working—"
The forest exploded.
A roar tore through the air—deep, resonant, and impossibly loud. The ground shook violently, throwing Leah onto her back and nearly knocking Aiden off his feet.
From the trees behind them, massive shapes began to emerge.
Not humanoid. Not beastlike.
Shadow-armored, many-limbed constructs with burning crimson eyes. Their bodies were jagged like living obsidian, their movements unnatural, segmented.
Aiden felt a chill crawl down his spine.
He'd seen something like these only once—during the global broadcast of the first breach in Cairo. When the Riftspawn poured into cities like locusts devouring everything in their path.
Leah scrambled to her feet. "Aiden—those aren't Earth monsters."
"I know."
The creatures screeched, the sound splitting the air like nails on glass. Their bodies flickered with the same unstable distortion as the rift.
They were the harbingers.The scouts that appear right before a full-scale Riftstorm.
The crack widened another inch.
Aiden cursed. He couldn't suppress the rift and fight these monsters at the same time.
Leah nocked an arrow of pure kinetic energy and fired. The projectile streaked like a bullet of shimmering force, colliding with the first monster's head.
It staggered but didn't fall.
Aiden pulled back from the rift and readied his dagger.
"Leah—stay behind me," he ordered.
"Screw that," she snapped. "I can fight."
"You can, but they'll target you first. These things sense mana signatures, and yours is brighter."
She hesitated. Then she stepped behind him, eyes sharp and bow raised.
Aiden stepped forward to meet the monsters.
Three came at once.
The first lunged with unnerving speed, its spiked limbs slicing through the air. Aiden ducked under the strike, rolling to the side and driving his dagger into its torso. The blade sank halfway in before hitting something solid.
The creature shrieked and swung its other limb toward him.
Aiden unleashed a burst of Void.
Black energy erupted from his hand, devouring part of the monster's arm. The creature staggered back, limbs twitching as the Void ate away at it.
Two more rushed from the sides.
Leah's arrows cut through the air, hitting the joints of one monster's limbs. The creature faltered just enough for Aiden to pivot, using Void-enhanced speed to dodge the other's blade-like arm.
He slashed upward, carving a diagonal cut across its chest. Purple-black ichor spilled, sizzling on the ground.
Another roar echoed.
The rift behind him flared violently, the crack widening further. The stability Aiden had forced around it snapped like overstretched wires.
Aiden turned in horror as the crack split fully open.
A horizontal tear ripped across the clearing, flashing with blinding light. Wind howled inward, dragging leaves, stones, and dead branches into the opening.
A fully active rift.
Leah screamed his name.
Aiden spun back toward the monsters.
One of them was already inches from him, its jaws opening into a vertical maw filled with rotating crystal teeth.
Aiden thrust his hand forward instinctively.
Void exploded.
The world around him warped as darkness spiraled outward from his palm. The creature was torn apart instantly, its body collapsing into a cloud of dissolving particles.
The blast continued past it, ripping a chunk out of the ground and leaving a sizzling crater.
Leah shielded her face from the shockwave. "Aiden! You're losing control!"
He staggered, clutching his arm as Void essence writhed under his skin like living smoke.
"I—I know," he muttered. "But I don't have a choice."
More monsters crawled out from the rift—five, then seven—then an entire tide of them began to pour through.
There were too many.
Leah fired arrow after arrow, her breath ragged. "We need to retreat! Now!"
Aiden shook his head. "If we leave this unchecked—Black Hollow will fall."
"Then what do we do?!"
Aiden stared at the rift. At the creatures flooding through it. At the world fracturing around him.
And he made a choice he knew he'd regret.
He stepped toward the rift.
Leah's eyes widened. "Aiden—NO!"
But he didn't stop.
He raised his hand toward the gaping tear in the air.
Void surged.
| Void Sovereign – Core Function Activated |
The rift pulsed violently, reacting to his presence. The monsters howled in panic as the air imploded around Aiden's outstretched arm.
And then—
He plunged his hand into the rift.
A soundless explosion tore through the clearing.
Light, darkness, and twisted space spiraled together as Aiden unleashed every ounce of Void he could muster.
The rift screamed.
The monsters convulsed.
Leah stumbled back as the shockwave swept outward, throwing her to the ground.
Aiden's vision blurred, his body shaking violently as the rift resisted.
He heard whispers—ancient, cold voices echoing from the other side.
…sovereign……unstable……consume…
Aiden grit his teeth and pushed harder.
The Void flared, engulfing the rift.
The tear shrank violently—
—and collapsed entirely.
Silence followed.
Aiden fell to one knee, gasping as the darkness receded into his arm like a retreating tide.
Leah ran to him, skidding to a stop. "Aiden! Are you—are you okay?!"
He tried to speak, but a wave of exhaustion washed over him.
His vision flickered.
Then—A deep, resonant chime echoed in his head.
| Rift Neutralized. Cataclysm Prevented. || Void Sovereign Evolution Path Unlocked. || WARNING: System Authorities Have Detected Your Interference. || Additional Notice: You Have Been Marked. |
Aiden's heart froze.
"…Marked?" he whispered.
The System responded with three words that chilled him more than the monsters ever could:
| The Watchers are Coming. |