The sky was wrong.
Above the shattered battlefield, clouds formed perfect concentric rings, locked in orbit. Debris hung frozen midair. The gravitational fields twisted every natural law.
Varen bled from a slash that hadn't even touched him — space itself had sliced through his shoulder.
Ilira Voss stood unscathed.
Her spear hummed in place, rotating slowly beside her like a miniature sun. The rings of stellar energy around her wrists had begun to fracture slightly — the only hint she wasn't holding back entirely.
"You're slowing," she said.
Varen smiled, wiping blood from his jaw. "Not bad for a dead man walking."
Then he vanished.
Voidstep. Half-fold. Echo Displacement. Chrono-desync.
Ilira didn't move.
She pulsed out an Orbitline Bind — invisible threads of celestial pressure, coiling through dimensional seams.
She felt his anchor instantly. A flick of her fingers—
CRACK.
Varen was yanked from mid-fold, reappearing above her in a bent trajectory. He crashed down with a collapse punch—
BOOM.
A shockwave burst through the valley. Earth crumpled. Mountains tilted.
Ilira bent backwards, standing sideways along the force, using her gravity shear to nullify the momentum. Her spear curved into her hand, reacting before she even issued the command.
She stabbed—
—and Varen disappeared again.
This time, reappearing behind her, arms raised in a twisted weave of aether.
"Blackout Spiral."
Void erupted.
It wasn't a wave — it was absence. Like the world itself peeled back to reveal nothing.
Ilira's smile faded.
She was swallowed.
☼ Seconds Later…
A silence rolled over the crater.
Then…
Light tore through the darkness.
Ilira exploded out of the spiral, armor scorched, her rings shattered, eyes blazing with fury.
Her body bled light.
"You shouldn't have used that," she said, breath short.
"I wasn't aiming to win," Varen said. "Just to mark you."
Ilira blinked—
And looked down.
Varen's blood was glowing. Not red. Rift-blue.
He'd poisoned her gravity signature.
☼ Deep Fold – Rift Vault Undercavern
Kaien limped through the crystalline tunnel. Every step made his bones ache, his core throb. The fold that saved him had only been partial — his molecules still hadn't fully stabilized.
But something was calling him.
The walls of the cave trembled slightly with each breath he took.
Then he saw it.
An obelisk, buried half in the stone — made not of matter, but memory. Echoes of ancient Riftborn warriors looped around it, flickering like ghosts. And in the center of the structure:
A hollowed gauntlet, floating in a pool of stilled time.
Kaien approached.
Words formed in his mind.
"You who walked the void,
and dared to return —
take the relic,
and claim the path we failed to finish."
Kaien reached forward.
The gauntlet wrapped around his forearm like it had been waiting.
His core reacted instantly — spiraling.
✦ [Riftcore Evolution: Phasebrand Gauntlet Acquired]
Phasebrand Gauntlet – A legendary Rift relic that merges space-fold energy with physical strikes. Attacks now warp between frames of reality, allowing phantom strikes, dimensional echoes, and the ability to delay impacts across time-stretched zones.
New Passive Unlocked – Core Reflection:
Kaien can now absorb and re-emit energy that targets him, up to a limit based on Rift stability.
He collapsed, screaming.
Not in pain — but in resonance.
His core was changing again.
This wasn't just Voidwalk.
This was something deeper.
He was becoming a Rift-Sent.
☼ Battlefield – Moments Later
Varen fell to one knee.
Ilira's spear hovered inches from his throat.
She was damaged. Singed. But victorious.
He smiled anyway.
"Didn't kill me."
"Didn't need to," she said coldly. "You're not the mission."
She turned to the southeast — where the Rift pulsed.
Kaien was changing.
Ilira narrowed her eyes.
"So… that's where the story splits."
End of Chapter 9.