The morning broke with a colorless sky.
A cold wind swept through the Vale Guild's training grounds, carrying whispers of unease. Even the usual hum of sparring recruits and crackling mana fields had quieted. Something felt wrong — like the world itself was holding its breath.
Arlen stood on the balcony outside the guild's main hall, his gaze locked on the distant horizon. Jagged clouds loomed there, black and churning, flickering faintly with unnatural light. The air trembled with a rhythm his instincts recognized — not thunder… something else. Something deeper. A pulse.
Behind him, the guild's bells tolled thrice. Emergency call.
"Looks like your quiet morning is over," a voice said behind him.
Arlen turned to see Lira striding out from the hall, clad in her light battle gear. Her silver hair was tied back, eyes sharp and alive with focus. The insignia of the Vale Guild gleamed faintly on her armor — a silver leaf entwined with a crescent. She carried her dual short blades at her side, aura already flaring.
"Yeah," Arlen replied, crossing his arms. "The air feels… unstable."
Lira nodded. "Father's summoned all ranked members. Whatever this is — it's not ordinary."
The guild's main hall was already crowded when they entered. Veterans and recruits alike filled the room, their chatter subdued. The Guildmaster's seat at the far end was empty, but the Vice Commander — a tall woman named Mira Vale — stood in his place. Lira's aunt, renowned for her unshakable calm.
"Attention," Mira began, her voice cutting through the room like glass. "At 0400 hours, the Silverleaf Academy reported unusual energy fluctuations along the western border. By dawn, a rift manifested — one larger than any ever recorded."
A holographic projection shimmered into the air, displaying the event: a vast, swirling vortex of energy ripping through the sky, half-hidden by dark clouds. Lightning and shadows danced across its edge, warping the landscape below. The ground around it was fractured, like reality itself had split open.
"Preliminary readings indicate cross-dimensional interference," Mira continued. "Spatial distortions are expanding at an exponential rate. All nearby settlements have been evacuated. The Council has authorized elite guild deployment — and we have been assigned containment and reconnaissance."
Murmurs rippled through the hall. Containment and reconnaissance meant one thing: they'd be going in.
Lira's jaw tightened, but she said nothing. Arlen's fingers brushed against his gloves. He could already feel the faint prickle of mana in the air reacting to the rift's energy — chaotic, unstable, alive.
Mira's gaze swept the hall before resting on Arlen and Lira. "Team Alpha will lead the first contact. Arlen Frost, Lira Vale — you're part of it. Support comes from Rynel and Kaine. Our mission is to establish a perimeter, gather readings, and return alive. Do not engage if unnecessary."
Her tone carried weight — a warning that this was more than just another anomaly.
As the teams dispersed to prepare, Lira turned to Arlen, voice low. "This doesn't feel like a normal rift."
"It's not," Arlen said simply. "The mana patterns are too synchronized. It's like it's calling out to something."
---
By midday, the team gathered outside the western border outpost. The sky above was dim and warped — a faint violet hue leaking into daylight. Waves of energy shimmered in the air like heat distortion, and the earth beneath their feet buzzed with mana resonance.
Rynel, a sharp-eyed archer, adjusted his visor. "I don't like this," he muttered. "Feels like walking into a storm that's thinking."
Kaine, a rune specialist with calm, gray eyes, crouched to study the ground. "Mana threads are splitting," he said, tracing glowing lines with a finger. "Not natural. It's rewriting spatial boundaries."
Arlen squinted toward the distance — and there it was.
The Rift.
It towered over the plains like a scar on the world, swirling with black and violet hues. Bolts of energy crackled from its edge, striking the ground with each pulse. Around it, gravity seemed to twist — rocks floated, light bent, sound distorted.
The closer they walked, the heavier the air became. Every breath was thick with tension and the metallic taste of magic gone wild.
"Vale Guild, you are cleared to proceed," Mira's voice echoed through their comms. "Maintain a distance of one hundred meters. Record all readings."
"Copy," Lira replied. She turned to her team. "Let's move."
They approached the edge of the containment zone, boots crunching over cracked soil. Arlen's senses flared — his lightning aura reacted instinctively, crackling faintly around him.
Lira glanced at him. "You feel it too?"
"Yeah," he said. "It's resonating with something inside me."
The words left his mouth before he realized what he'd said. Lira didn't press further — she knew better than to ask when Arlen's tone grew distant like that.
Kaine's scanner beeped erratically. "Readings are spiking — no, breaking. The rift's core is beyond measurable parameters. It's—"
A violent pulse tore through the air.
The team staggered. The ground split. A wave of blinding light shot outward, distorting their surroundings. For an instant, Arlen felt weightless — the world stretched, folded, then snapped back into place. Dust rose, energy rippled.
"Status!" Lira shouted, blades drawn.
"I'm good!" Rynel called. "Systems overloaded for a second."
Kaine was kneeling, hand gripping his scanner. "That was a dimensional surge. The rift's expanding again."
Arlen steadied himself and looked up — and his blood ran cold.
The rift had grown. Twice its size, maybe more.
And something was moving inside.
It wasn't a shape so much as a shadow — humanoid, distant, but massive. Every flicker of light within the vortex hinted at something alive. Watching.
The comms crackled. Mira's voice was sharp now. "Team Alpha, fall back immediately. The rift is destabilizing. Repeat, fall—"
Her voice cut off. Static. Then silence.
Lira's eyes widened. "No signal."
Rynel cursed. "We're too close!"
The air shuddered again — but this time, the pulse didn't just shake the ground. It pulled.
The world stretched inward toward the rift, wind screaming as reality bent. Rocks and debris were sucked upward.
"Back!" Lira shouted, grabbing Arlen's arm.
But the pull was too strong. The sky split with blinding light. The sound was deafening, like a thousand storms breaking at once.
And then — nothing.
---
Arlen opened his eyes to darkness.
His ears rang, his body ached, and the ground beneath him pulsed faintly. When he sat up, he saw… sky. Or something like it. A swirling expanse of light and shadow, no sun, no direction. The ground shimmered beneath him like glass reflecting impossible colors.
"Lira?" he called.
A faint groan answered from behind him. He turned to see her pushing herself up, dust and glowing ash clinging to her armor.
She looked around, expression hardening. "We're inside the rift."
Arlen clenched his fists, lightning flickering faintly along his gloves. "Then we're not leaving until we find the others."
---
Hours passed — or maybe minutes. Time didn't behave normally here. They walked through distorted terrain that shifted like a dream — mountains bent sideways, rivers flowed into the sky. Strange shapes flickered at the edge of their vision: beasts of energy and shadow, whispering in languages older than memory.
Lira tightened her grip on her blades. "This place… feels alive."
"It is," Arlen said quietly. "The mana density is unreal. It's reacting to us."
"Or watching us," she muttered.
The deeper they went, the worse it became. Gravity warped, pulling them sideways or downward at random. They learned to move cautiously, adjusting their mana flow with each step.
Then — a sound. Distant. A voice, faint and distorted.
"—ren? Lira! Do you read—"
It was Rynel.
His voice crackled through the comms, weak but real.
"Rynel!" Lira shouted. "We're here! Where are you?"
Static. Then a broken reply: "North… near ruins. Don't—"
Silence again.
Arlen and Lira exchanged a glance.
"Ruins," Arlen said. "Let's move."
They ran. The terrain twisted, but the closer they came to the faint energy signature, the more the air vibrated with power. Ahead, through the haze, ancient structures emerged — monolithic stones etched with glowing runes, forming circles around a central platform. The architecture was alien yet oddly familiar.
"This isn't human," Lira whispered.
Arlen's gaze darkened. "No. It's Ecliptar."
She frowned. "You've seen this before?"
"...Fragments," he murmured. "In dreams. Visions. I didn't know they were real."
Before they could investigate further, a low growl echoed across the field.
Shapes emerged from the mist — towering creatures, part flesh, part light, eyes burning with hollow fury. The corrupted guardians of this place.
Arlen's lightning crackled around him. "So much for reconnaissance."
"Then let's survive instead," Lira replied, blades flashing.
They moved in sync — her blades carving arcs of silver light, his lightning surging through the ground in jagged bursts. The beasts shrieked as they were torn apart, dissolving into vapor. The ground itself bled light from their passing.
When the last one fell, silence returned — heavy and endless.
Lira sheathed her blades, breathing hard. "This place… it's not just a rift. It's a world."
Arlen stared at the runes again, unease gnawing at him. "A world connected to mine."
He stepped forward, hand brushing one of the glowing symbols — and for a heartbeat, everything stopped.
The air froze, light flickered, and the ground pulsed with energy.
A voice — deep, ancient, familiar — echoed in his head.
> "You've come far, Fragment of Frost and Storm. But the sky remembers what it has lost."
Arlen staggered back, clutching his head as visions flashed before his eyes — a shattered throne, a field of stars, a name carried by wind: Ardentis. His true name. His forgotten self.
"Arlen!" Lira caught him, eyes wide. "What's happening?"
He gasped, trembling. "I… I don't know. But it knows me."
The ground beneath them began to split. Energy surged, the ruins glowing brighter than before. The sky warped violently overhead — the rift responding.
Lira gritted her teeth. "We need to move!"
They ran as the ruins collapsed behind them, pillars shattering into dust. Lightning and frost flared from Arlen's aura uncontrollably, reacting to the chaos. Ahead, the terrain twisted again — and through the shifting light, they saw movement.
A shadow, humanoid, massive.
The same presence they'd seen within the rift.
And as its crimson eyes opened, the world itself trembled.
> "You should not have come here, False Celestial."
Arlen froze.
Lira's blades lifted. "Arlen… what is that?"
Arlen's voice was quiet, but every syllable carried weight.
"Something that remembers me."
---