The Citadel gates opened at dawn, blood-red light spilling across the broken highways. Sigma-9 marched out, boots striking dust and stone in rhythm with a distant, silent drum of fate.
Convoys of armored carriers rumbled forward, their wake kicking clouds of dust into the scarlet sky. Reclaimer units streamed east, disciplined and resolute, a tide of humanity pressing against an abyss that widened with every pulse of the Eastern Breach. This portal was not like the others; its edges had begun to tear the world, swallowing villages, corrupting the land, and reshaping nature itself. Refugees poured westward, fleeing the invisible maw, while the army pressed forward into chaos.
Leo sat in a rattling carrier with Owen and Evelyn, rifle resting across his knees. The shard pulsed faintly against his chest, a steady heartbeat of power that reminded him constantly the storm within him would not be ignored.
Owen tapped at his wrist console, eyes tight with concern. "The Breach is spiking harder than the Council admitted. Resonance fluctuations this intense… something's reaching through from the other side."
Evelyn hugged her medkit tighter, her gaze drifting to the horizon. "Then why send rookies like us?"
The answer was unspoken. They weren't here to contain the portal. They were here to test him.
By the time the convoy reached the outskirts, the land itself had become unrecognizable. Trees writhed unnaturally, bark glowing faintly as though veins of light pulsed beneath their surfaces. The soil shifted beneath their feet, rippling in time with the portal's thrumming heartbeat. Above, the sky tore into jagged seams, unnatural light spilling where none should exist.
And there it was, the Breach. A gash of violet fire splitting the horizon, its edges writhing like living flesh, tendrils of energy reaching hungrily across the plain. The ground trembled with every heartbeat it emitted.
"Gods…" Evelyn whispered, voice trembling.
Dozens of Reclaimer teams held defensive lines, artillery hurling artifact-charged shells at the creatures spilling from the rift. Winged predators shrieked above, six-legged beasts thundered across ruined plains, and the air reeked of ozone, blood, and brimstone.
Sofia drew her blade, face calm, eyes sharp. "Stay tight. Hold until the sealers stabilize the perimeter."
The first clash came instantly. A colossal beast barreled toward them, half-flesh, half-crystal, its limbs striking the ground like wrecking hammers. Owen's drones swarmed, firing beams that shattered its crystalline armor. Evelyn's gauntlets flared, shielding Leo from a massive slash.
Leo fired, shots precise, but the resonance in his veins screamed. The shard wanted release, wanted chaos, wanted the battle itself.
When the beast collapsed, blood hissing as it hit the scorched earth, Leo's hands shook. His rifle felt weightless, his chest unbearably heavy.
Then he saw it.
Across the battlefield, through smoke and fire, the hooded figure stood. Unmoving, untouched, watching.
The shard pulsed violently, pulling at him. The whisper tore into his mind:
Power has a price.
Light burst from Leo's veins, a tidal wave of energy that tore through the battlefield. Soldiers faltered. Drones shattered. Beasts convulsed, screaming, caught in his orbit of resonance. The ground beneath him split, glyphs burning across the dirt like molten scars.
"Rivers! Focus!" Sofia's voice cut through the chaos, hands gripping his shoulders.
"I… can't…!" he screamed, the shard's roar drowning reason, a tide threatening to drown him entirely.
Visions struck him: cities crumbling into portals, chains binding a colossal figure made of stars, a voice older than time whispering, Ascend or die.
Then darkness.
When he awoke, Evelyn knelt over him, hands glowing as she steadied his pulse. Smoke hung thick. The battlefield had quieted unnaturally. Soldiers lay scattered, some injured, some dead. The beasts had fled. The Breach throbbed weaker, as though fed, nourished, and finally sated by him.
Sofia stood nearby, blade red with blood, eyes calculating. "What happened?" Leo rasped.
Her gaze cut into him. "You happened. Half the line nearly broke because of your surge."
Owen crouched beside him, pale and shaken. "You drained the Breach. It… fed on you. That's why it weakened."
Leo's stomach turned. "So I'm a weapon to them after all."
No one answered.
That night, as the surviving Reclaimers regrouped, whispers spread like wildfire:
"The rookie lit up the sky.""Nearly killed us all.""But he held the Breach.""No… it held him."
Leo sat apart, staring into the fire, the shard pulsing quietly against his chest, almost content.
Sofia approached, kneeling beside him. "You need to understand something, Rivers. Power is never free. Every time you wield it, it takes a piece of you. Today, you paid in blood—not just yours, but theirs."
Leo's voice was hollow. "So what do I do? Stop using it?"
Her gaze was steady, unwavering. "No. Learn to pay smarter."
Beyond the firelight, the hooded figure lingered once more, watching, silent, a shadow against the chaos it had set in motion.