Chapter 30: When the Mountain Trembles
The mountain groaned like a living thing.
Aiden and Kael sprinted up the winding ramp, boots slamming against stone that vibrated with each passing second. Dust drifted from the ceiling in thin streams as the entire temple shook in long, bone-deep pulses—like a heartbeat echoing from somewhere impossibly large.
Kael risked a glance back. "That shaking… that's the Leviathan?"
Aiden didn't answer immediately. He was listening—no, feeling.
The Echo inside him responded, whispering impressions in sensations he didn't have words for. A great shadow. A sky turned inside out. A hunger vast enough to swallow worlds. A mind like gravity.
And somewhere far above Halcyon Ridge…
It was moving.
Slowly. Methodically. A tidal wave that hadn't yet reached the shore but would soon drown everything in its path.
"Yes," Aiden finally said. "It's sensing the fragment. It knows it awakened."
Kael cursed under his breath. "That thing is on a different continent. How the hell—"
Aiden cut him off. "Distance doesn't matter to beings like that."
They reached the upper landing and burst into the main hallway of the temple. The once-still obsidian pools on either side boiled softly now, rippling with each tremor. The glowing symbols along the walls flickered like dying candles.
Kael slowed just enough to steady himself on a pillar. "How long do we have?"
Aiden paused—feeling again.
The Leviathan didn't move quickly. It didn't need to. Something that massive didn't rush. It simply shifted its weight and entire landscapes responded.
Hours?A day?
He couldn't be sure.
But he sensed one thing clearly:
"It's not coming directly yet," Aiden said. "It's searching. Thin tendrils of perception. Like… tasting the world."
Kael grimaced. "Tasting? Aiden, you're not helping."
A small smile tugged at Aiden's lips, involuntary and so human it felt reassuring even to himself.
Kael shot him a look. "Better. Means you're still in there."
Aiden didn't answer, but the warmth in Kael's tone helped ease the tension binding his chest.
They pushed into the grand atrium where they had first entered the archway chamber. The cracked stone doors still loomed overhead, half-collapsed from earlier quakes.
Aiden raised a hand.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the air folded.
Subtly. Invisibly.
The pressure shifted like a soft intake of breath.
Aiden's fingers tingled as the doors shuddered and groaned open without him physically touching them.
Kael stared.
"You moved that."
"Not on purpose," Aiden muttered.
Kael blinked. "That doesn't make it less impressive."
Aiden didn't reply.
Because the truth was…
It scared him.
Every time the Echo responded instinctively to his emotions—fear, anger, urgency—it offered him a taste of its power. And each taste felt easier. Familiar. Like slipping into a shape that fit better than his human body ever did.
He didn't tell Kael that.
Not yet.
As they stepped into the cracked outer hallway, a new tremor hit—sharper, more violent. Aiden staggered, bracing against the unstable wall.
Kael grabbed his arm. "The entire mountain's going to come down if we don't move!"
Aiden nodded and forced himself faster.
The temple exit loomed ahead, the faint daylight cutting through the dust-filled air like a beacon.
Aiden's senses sharpened as they approached it. He didn't mean them to—his perception simply expanded, widening like a lens. He felt every shift in the stone, every vibration in the earth, every whisper of air.
"There are people waiting outside," Aiden murmured.
Kael shot him a look. "Yeah. Halcyon Ridge sent a team to find us."
Aiden frowned. "Three of them are nervous. One is injured. One is…"
His breath caught.
"One is terrified."
Kael blinked. "You can tell all that?"
Aiden hesitated.
"I can feel their heartbeat."
Kael stared at him for a long moment. "Remind me to stop asking how Void powers work."
Aiden offered a weak smile.
They reached the exit—and sunlight flooded over them.
But the moment Aiden stepped out, he froze.
Not because of the rescue team in front of him—five figures in reinforced armor standing amidst the rubble-strewn plateau.
Not because of the brilliant sky.
Not because of the distant rumbling echoing across the landscape.
But because—
Everything was brighter.Sharper.More alive.
He could see the outline of wind currents.He could hear pebbles shifting beneath boots a hundred meters away.He could sense life—small insects burrowed beneath the soil, animals hiding in crevices, the faint pulse of vegetation deep underground.
It was overwhelming.
Aiden clutched his head, staggering.
Kael grabbed him. "Hey—hey! Stay with me."
The world flickered.
The sky dimmed—no, he dimmed—senses retracting, folding inward like a closing hand.
Aiden gasped.
The Echo had been trying to merge fully.
And Aiden had instinctively resisted, refusing to let the boundaries blur completely.
He steadied himself just as the rescue party rushed forward.
One of them—a woman with a ponytail and a scar along her chin—held up a hand.
"There they are! Kael! Aiden! We thought—" She stopped abruptly, staring directly at Aiden's eyes.
Her breath hitched.
Kael moved in front of Aiden instinctively. "We're alive. That's what matters."
She swallowed hard. "What happened in there? The mountain's been shaking for nearly twenty minutes."
Aiden opened his mouth—
—and stopped.
What could he say?That he merged with a cosmic artifact older than worlds?That an interstellar world-eater was tracking him through the ether?
He forced a calm expression.
"We woke something up," Aiden said. "But it wasn't hostile."
Kael shot him a quick glance but didn't contradict him.
The woman nodded hesitantly. "Well… Halcyon Ridge needs you both back. There's been… movement in the sky."
Aiden tensed. "Movement?"
She pointed behind him.
Aiden turned slowly.
The sky above the mountains shimmered with faint red fissures—hairline cracks barely visible but unmistakably real.
Kael whispered, "Rifts…"
Aiden felt cold.
Not because of the Rifts.
Because the Leviathan was testing the veil.
Its presence was pressing against reality itself.And the world was beginning to crack under it.
Aiden steadied himself.
He felt the Echo pulse inside him—calm, focused, waiting.
He took a deep breath.
"We need to return to Halcyon Ridge," he said. "Now."
Kael nodded. "And then what?"
Aiden looked at the fissures in the sky.
"Then we prepare."
Kael exhaled slowly. "For the Leviathan?"
Aiden's eyes darkened, swirling faintly with voidlight.
"No."
He turned back toward the town.
"For what comes before it."
The Echo inside him pulsed in agreement.
And far across the world—
The Leviathan stirred.