Raven staggered forward, boots echoing in the surreal silence of the corridor. Except, it wasn't really a corridor. There were no walls. No ceiling. Just endless darkness pressing in from every direction. The only real thing was the smooth ground beneath his feet, cold and unnatural, stretching endlessly.
His breath fogged the air, though there was no wind, no temperature. Just void. For a moment, Raven wondered if this was death or an empty, silent limbo between worlds.
Finally, light appeared.
Not a pinprick, but a horizon-wide bloom that devoured the darkness. It spilled across the plane like spilled milk, chasing shadows to extinction.
Raven shielded his eyes, heart pounding. The silence broke with a distant hum, low and droning, as he stepped toward the light. The blackness behind him folded into nothing. What greeted him on the other side wasn't salvation.
It was awe.
He stood on the edge of a massive stone plateau, suspended in the sky. Other land masses..floating islands drifted in the distance, as if gravity had given up.
Towering trees with crystal leaves swayed in a wind he couldn't feel. Rivers of silver shimmered through fields of lavender grass, and glowing clouds meandered across the sky, painting light instead of casting shadow.
The air had a taste of ozone, and something sweet, like burnt sugar and rain. It prickled against his skin like static. And he wasn't alone.
All around him, people emerged from swirling, portal-like tears. Some stumbled, others crawled or sprinted in confusion. Thousands. Millions. It was as if the entire human race had been poured into this place.
Children clung to parents. Elderly folks dropped to their knees in tears. Laughter and cries rose in a confused, conflicting harmony. A symphony of disbelief.
Someone nearby whispered, "Are we saved?"
It felt like the answer should be yes. But Raven remained still, watching. His eyes narrowed.
Something was wrong. It all felt… manufactured. Pristine, but hollow. A perfect lie wrapped in beauty. A cage with golden bars. He realized it was anxiety, a reaction to the new world.
Then the voice came again. This time more mechanical, deep, and inhumane.
[A census of mortal souls concludes: Five billion lost children of Earth.]
[You are chosen from their number, a vessel for the Awakening.]
[The spirit of Raven Halbrecht now bears the mantle of Riftwalker.]
[Welcome to the fractured lands of Riftworld.]
[Its one and only law: Perpetual evolution.]
[Let the Great Trial of Survival begin.]
"What?" Raven breathed.
He wasn't the only one, though. Across the crowd, others stared into the air where glowing blue prompts appeared before them. Confusion turned to dread. Only a portion of the gathered masses received the message.
Those who didn't get a prompt were confused. They looked at those who had with thousands of unasked questions. They couldn't see the messages, only the effects they had on the recipients. The non-Awakened could only vocalize their fear in different ways:
"What's wrong?"
"Is everything all right?"
"Awakened?" a young man said, fear thick in his voice. "Why only some of us? What does it even mean?"
Before anyone could speculate, the sky dimmed.
Clouds..those strange, glowing clouds, turned crimson. The light bled across the horizon like a slow bruise. Then came the rain.
Raven flinched as the first drop struck his cheek. He wiped it away with trembling fingers. It wasn't water.
The droplet clung to his skin, thick and luminous. It was red..not blood-red, but glowing, almost alive. It glimmered like liquid rubies.
Then came another. And another.
The crowd began to murmur. Some screamed. Most simply stared at the sky as the rain fell harder.
Then, the voice returned.
[The Descent of the Crimson Rain… ]
[...the Dissonance of Awakening.]
[The touch of Crimson Rain is the Great Transmutation.]
[Fear your loved ones, for they are so no longer. They are the horrors of your own darkest fears, now made manifest. They are the Aberrants.]
[The Trial of Purity commences.]
Raven's heart skipped.
"What the hell are Aberrants?"
His question was answered in the worst way possible. The man beside him collapsed, his body spasming violently. Raven jumped back, horrified, as the man thrashed, foamed, and clawed at his own face.
Black veins bulged across the man's skin. His eyes rolled back, and his screams warped into guttural growls. His body contorted, bones snapping, limbs stretching. Teeth elongated. Fingers split into claws. His face twisted into something feral, inhuman. Then, for a heartbeat, there was the same unusual silence that had come when the gate opened. Then his eyes opened.
The changed man was already five feet in front of him, breathing heavily with saliva drooling all over his torn clothes.
Raven took a shaky step back. The thing lunged. Paralyzed by fear, Raven squeezed his eyes shut. Seconds passed, and he felt nothing. He slowly opened his eyes, and...
The creature tackled a woman nearby, its jaws clamping onto her neck. The sickening crunch was drowned out by her screams. Blood sprayed across the lavender grass. Others turned and ran. But it was already too late.
All across the plateau, people dropped. Children. Men. Women. Dozens...then hundreds collapsed and convulsed. The crimson rain was rewriting them. Transforming them into monsters.
The Awakened, those like Raven who received the earlier message, remained unaffected. But the rest? They became Aberrants.
The peaceful moment had shattered. The world twisted into a nightmare. Mutated humans, now snarling horrors, hunted the untainted. Screams filled the air, bodies slammed against stone, and blood soaked the ground.
Raven swallowed hard and turned, trying to flee. The portal he came from was gone. No swirling gate, no light. Just empty space.
They were trapped.
"C'mon, weird gate, don't be a diva," Raven whimpered, almost crying.
A woman, her child in her arms, ran past him, only to be taken down by an Aberrant with elongated limbs and a shrieking voice like grinding metal. Raven watched in horror, his fists clenched. The woman's screams were drowned out by the rising chaos. Her child's small body lay on the ground, its limbs and left hand torn away. Raven wanted to vomit, but there wasn't time.
Raven knew he couldn't charge. He wasn't strong. He wasn't a fighter. But something inside him stirred...something angry, something awake. Still, he didn't charge into battle. He didn't scream some heroic vow. He did what anyone would do.
He ran.
Through the chaos, through blood and fire, he ducked behind broken pillars, sprinted past weeping survivors, and dodged the claws of mutated fiends.
Raven clenched his fists, the taste of fear bitter on his tongue. He looked up at the sky, hoping for something, anything that could undo this. A sign...maybe a lie. Just a way out of this nightmare.
"Please... maybe a weird bird will come and carry me away from this hell."
Raven was actually starting to miss Earth!
Nothing of the sort happened, but all he got was another message.
[Introducing: Rifts]
A low rumble passed through the ground like a beast breathing beneath the stone. Across the plateau, massive gashes tore into the air—rifts—pulsing with unstable energy, warping reality itself. From within those swirling vortexes came a sound.
He looked ahead...
"You have to be kidding me..."