The sky was bleeding again.
Dark streaks of gold and black oozed through the clouds like veins across a dying heart. Lightning flickered in unnatural patterns—spiraling, not branching. Above it all loomed the Gate: a monstrous vortex of obsidian light, pulsating like it had a heartbeat.
Riven Vale stood on the crumbling rooftop of the tower, watching the world end for the second time.
The first time had been chaos. Fire. Screams. Buildings collapsing into the streets. People turning on each other long before the Hollowborn came. But this? This was quieter. Quieter and crueler.
Below him, the city was a graveyard.
Car husks rusted in the streets. A skeletal swing set creaked in the wind. The silence was broken only by the occasional snarl or the dragging scrape of something inhuman searching for warmth, scent, sound—anything to devour.
Riven adjusted the grip on his glaive, knuckles white. The blade hummed softly in his hands, vibrating with tension. It was old now—chipped, cracked, stained in places he no longer tried to scrub clean.
But it had killed more monsters than he could count.
Behind him, a shallow, raspy breath echoed from a shadowed corner of the roof.
"Kara," he said softly, not turning around. "Still with me?"
A weak groan. "Barely."
He walked over, kneeling beside the bundle of ragged blankets where his sister lay. She was pale—deathly pale. Her skin glistened with sweat, her lips chapped, and her breath came shallow and too quick. Her eyes were dull, cloudy with the Hollowborn infection.
He swallowed the lump in his throat.
Twelve years old. Too smart for her age. Too kind for this world. And dying.
"I found medicine in the lower levels," he lied. "Some kind of antivirals. Maybe it'll help slow it."
Kara's lips curled in a faint smile. "You're a shit liar, Riv."
"Language," he murmured, brushing a tangled lock of hair from her face.
She blinked up at him, unfocused. "It's okay. You tried."
No.
It wasn't okay.
He should've been faster. Smarter. Stronger.
He should've saved her.
---
A sudden clang rang from below—the telltale scrape of a Hollowborn claw against concrete. Riven's entire body tensed.
"They found us," he whispered.
Kara didn't flinch. She just closed her eyes.
"Do what you have to."
He hesitated. Every muscle in his body screamed to fight, to run, to do something. But there was nowhere left to run. The last safe zone collapsed a month ago. The tunnels were flooded. The radio beacons had gone silent.
And the Gate above was still widening.
The growling from the stairwell grew louder—dozens of them, maybe more.
Hunter-class.
Fast. Armored. Evolved.
They didn't groan like mindless zombies. They clicked. Hissed. Coordinated.
Riven stood up slowly, every inch of him aching. Blood caked his shirt, but it wasn't Kara's. Not yet.
He looked down at her one last time.
"I'll keep them off you."
"Riven," she whispered, reaching for his hand. "If... If you get another chance... try to be happy, okay?"
He didn't answer.
He couldn't.
---
They came through the door in a blur of limbs and snarls. Riven met them head-on.
The glaive became an extension of his will—slashing, blocking, sweeping in perfect arcs. Sparks flew as bone met steel. Hollowborn shrieked as their bodies hit the floor, twitching, bleeding black.
But they didn't stop.
They never stopped.
One latched onto his back. Another drove a jagged spike through his shoulder. He roared, impaling both on the same strike—but they kept crawling, biting, clawing.
His left leg gave out.
His lungs screamed.
Vision blurred.
But he kept fighting.
One more minute. Just one more.
He killed the last one with a broken polearm, screaming as he drove it through its chest. The creature hissed in his face before falling limp.
The rooftop fell silent again, except for his wheezing.
He staggered back toward Kara.
She wasn't breathing.
"No..." He dropped beside her, shaking her shoulders. "Kara, wake up. We're safe. I got them all—just—wake up."
But she didn't.
He leaned his forehead against hers, breath shuddering.
"Dammit."
The Gate above pulsed once—then again, brighter.
A sound echoed through the air like tearing metal mixed with a whisper.
> "Rebirth denied.
Trial incomplete.
Rewriting soul sequence…"
Riven blinked.
"What...?"
A new wind surged from above, lifting dust and blood into the air like a cyclone. The Gate widened, revealing something glowing deep within—a golden core of light.
A single thought formed in Riven's mind, clear and sharp.
"I don't want this to be the end."
He stood, facing the sky.
"If anyone's listening—god, system, demon—I don't care. Give me one more chance. Just one. I'll fix it."
The light exploded downward.
And everything burned white.
---
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]
> Reincarnation: Authorized
Host Soul: Confirmed – [RIVEN VALE]
Timeline Offset: -5.3 Years
Awakening Status: Unstable
Class: Undefined
Mark Detected: [HOLLOWFORM]
Warning: Subject contains dormant infection.
Destiny Forked. Outcome Unknown.
Welcome back, Riven Vale.
---
He woke up choking on air that wasn't ash.
The ceiling above him was low and familiar—corrugated metal, held together with bolts and tape. Sunlight streamed through a skylight patched with duct tape and cardboard.
The garage.
His father's garage.
The smell of oil and old soap filled his lungs. He sat up, heart racing, hand flying to his side—no stab wound. No blood.
He looked at his hands.
Smaller. Clean.
And on his wrist, a black mark pulsed softly beneath the skin—glowing with gold sigils in a perfect circle.
His breath hitched.
"This is real," he whispered.
He scrambled to his feet, knocking over a shelf. Wrenches and socket sets clattered to the floor.
A groggy voice called from another room. "Riven? You okay?"
He froze.
He knew that voice.
"Kara?"
Footsteps padded across the floor. A moment later, she appeared in the doorway—alive, healthy, squinting with sleep in her eyes.
Twelve. Just like before.
"I heard a crash—what happened?"
Riven stared at her.
She tilted her head. "Why are you crying?"
He ran to her and pulled her into a hug so tight she squeaked.
"Okay! Air! Need that to live!"
He laughed through the tears, holding her tighter.
This was real.
She was alive.
He was back.
And this time... he wouldn't fail.
---
> [NEW QUEST: SURVIVAL INSTINCT]
Objective: Prevent the first Gate collapse
Optional: Awaken before the First Dungeon opens
Countdown: 29 Days
Failure Consequence: [Mark Instability – Corruption Surge: 31%]
Outside the garage, the sky remained blue.
But deep within it, the Gate was already pulsing.
And far away—watching from the shadows of a dungeon not yet born—something opened its eyes.
---
To be continued...