The forest shattered before her.
Trees split in half by gravitational shears. Leaves burned in midair. The wind didn't howl — it curled, pulled sideways by invisible hands.
Kaien stumbled from the ridge, coughing against the pressure.
His instincts screamed before he saw her.
A single spear pinned the world in place.
Embedded in the earth below, it held a ripple of stillness — like the entire region had been pressed under the thumb of a god.
He had no doubt who had thrown it.
She descended from the sky with no sound, wrapped in solar light and coiling fragments of orbiting metal. Her long braids drifted around her head like a slow solar flare.
Her boots didn't touch the ground.
Ilira Voss had arrived.
Kaien backed up, breath shallow. Varen was nowhere. His Voidwalk had ended hours ago — and he'd only barely recovered.
She looked at him the way a meteor looks at a valley.
"You're him," she said softly. Her voice was calm, yet undercut with pure iron.
"Kaien of the Rift. Wild Core class. Thread signature: fractured, expanding, uncontrolled."
Kaien raised a hand. The air around it folded slightly.
"You the welcoming committee?"
"No," she said, lifting her spear. "I'm the correction."
⚔️ [CelestiaCore Hunter: Ilira Voss vs Riftborn: Kaien]
Kaien moved first — desperate, folding himself sideways, then downward in a triple-bend maneuver that would've confused any standard fighter.
Ilira didn't blink.
She pinned the fold.
CRACK!
Kaien's body jerked mid-fold and slammed back into realspace, coughing blood.
Ilira walked toward him without haste, her spear dragging orbit trails in the air.
"You're trying to outpace mass." She tilted her head. "Your Rift style is clever. But clever doesn't beat anchor."
Kaien tried to activate Voidwalk, but Ilira flicked her fingers.
One of her Stellar Pinions appeared above him and slammed down — not piercing, but freezing the very aether in his core.
Kaien fell to one knee. His vision split.
"You're not like the Nullhound," he gasped.
She crouched in front of him.
"No. The Nullhound chases. I end."
Ilira lifted her spear for the final blow.
And stopped.
A fold opened beside Kaien. Not one he created.
Varen.
He stepped out, one hand forward, a thin line of collapse energy trembling at his fingertips.
Ilira rose slowly, eyeing him with something between recognition and respect.
"Varen," she said. "Still hiding in dead folds."
"I don't hide," Varen replied. "I wait."
He walked beside Kaien and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You're not ready," Varen whispered. "But you will be. Get out of here."
Kaien's eyes widened. "No—"
"Now."
Ilira didn't move. She allowed the fold to open behind Kaien.
Let him slip through.
Because she wasn't here to kill hope.
Not yet.
She turned to Varen.
"You took in a Riftborn. Trained him. You broke your oath."
"I made a better one."
"Then die with it," she said coldly.
⚔️ [Ilira Voss vs Varen the Riftwalker]
They clashed.
No folding, no stalling — just gravity vs void.
The sky above bent into a spiral as their cores collided. Trees disintegrated in perfect rings. Light collapsed inward, and sound froze, caught between Ilira's spatial locks and Varen's anti-threads.
She was faster. He was more fluid.
But Ilira pinned the world with every movement.
And Varen was only just delaying her.
☼ Meanwhile – Deep Fold
Kaien fell through three dimensions of broken space.
He landed hard, alone, in a crystallized cave. No sign of Varen.
No sign of Ilira.
His hands shook.
She hadn't even used her full power.
She hadn't needed to.
He'd been a child before a star.
But somewhere deep inside…
His Riftcore pulsed. A second beat emerged — not just Voidwalk.
Something older.
Someone had survived this before.
A memory locked in the Rift. A message.
And Kaien — barely alive — knew:
He'd need more than training.
He'd need a weapon built from collapse.