Darkness folded in on itself, squeezing Kael Riven's vision into a single white point. A moment ago, he had been walking across a quiet street—cold night air, the hum of distant traffic, the taste of cheap instant noodles still lingering on his tongue. Then came the burst of heat. A flash like a newborn sun. His lungs seized. Something tore him apart, and the world ended.
For a while, there was nothing.
Then sound returned—wet, sticky sounds, like meat dragged across stone. A low, throaty groan. The crackle of something electrical. Kael gasped and the world snapped back into color so violently that he flinched.
He lay on his back in a field of shattered metal, the ground broken into jagged plates as if the earth had been peeled up and crumpled. The sky above him… wasn't a sky. Not fully. Fractured lines of glowing blue split the dark, as though someone had carved long, trembling scars across the heavens.
"What… the hell…" His voice was raw, thin.
The air felt too heavy, too warm, too thick with some metallic scent that clung to the back of his throat. He pushed himself up and pain lanced through his ribs. Dust slid off his clothes in gritty sheets.
To his left, something large shuffled between broken pillars—four legs, hunched spine, and a mouth full of teeth arranged in spirals. It clacked its jaws softly, tasting the air.
The creature's six eyes locked onto him.
Kael's breath froze.
The beast bunched its limbs like a spring.
"Move—" His legs responded before his brain finished the thought.
He sprinted across the debris field, stumbling over metal ridges. The creature let out a bubbling hiss and gave chase, claws gouging the ground as it closed in with terrifying speed.
Kael ran until the world twisted. Massive ribs of an alien structure jutted from the earth like the bones of a dead god. He ducked into a narrow corridor between two collapsed beams, scraping his shoulder raw as he shoved through.
The beast lunged in after him—but the gap was too tight. Its upper body slammed against the metal rib with a crack. Screaming angrily, it pawed in his direction, claws slicing sparks from the walls.
Kael pressed his back to the far end of the corridor, panting hard, sweat burning his eyes. "Not again… this can't be real. This can't—"
A deeper booming growl answered him from behind.
He spun.
A second beast—larger, spine split into two branching ridges—dragged itself around the corner. One of its forelegs was broken and leaking dark liquid, but its eyes gleamed with the sharp focus of a predator that had found something smaller than itself.
"Great," Kael whispered. "Fantastic."
The two beasts snarled at each other through the narrow corridor, fighting to be the one who devoured him. The larger one shoved its head through, snapping its teeth just inches from Kael's face.
He tried to flatten himself against the steel, but his ribs screamed. The creature forced itself halfway in, jaws biting at the air.
Something cracked above him.
The corridor ceiling trembled. A chunk of debris slid loose, bouncing off the beast's skull. The creature roared and jerked back. More debris crashed down, loosening the walls.
Kael ducked and scuttled sideways as the corridor collapsed in a blast of dust. The beasts shrieked, half-trapped, clawing at the rubble.
Stone and metal collapsed behind him in a choking cloud. He coughed violently but forced himself forward, deeper into the alien structure.
The world felt wrong here. The air shimmered like heat mirages, flickering between two different colors. A high-pitched hum vibrated through metal floor plates, pulsing like a heartbeat.
He stumbled into a chamber glowing with faint purple light.
At the center lay a creature—no, a monster—far larger than the others. Its obsidian scales were cracked, leaking something that resembled glowing blue smoke. Its chest rose and fell in ragged, uneven jerks.
Kael froze.
The dying beast turned one of its many eyes toward him. Its breath rattled like broken glass.
"Hey… stay there," Kael whispered, raising his hands instinctively. "I'm not here to—"
The creature convulsed violently. A chunk of its chest armor fell away, exposing a bright, pulsing core—like a beating heart made of glass and liquid lightning. The energy spilling from it washed over the floor, trailing toward Kael like desperate fingers.
He stepped back, but his heel hit the wall. No escape.
The blue light touched his skin.
His nerves ignited.
Pain flooded him so suddenly he couldn't even scream. It crawled under his skin, burrowed into his bones, and wrapped his organs in burning wire. His vision turned white, then black, then exploded into shapes he couldn't name.
Inside his chest, something twisted. Grew.
Shifted.
A voice—not a spoken voice, but a vibration—echoed inside his skull:
ABYSSAL GENOME FORGE — INITIATION TRIGGERED.
What? What the hell was that—
His lungs seized. He convulsed on the floor, muscles tearing, bones creaking like something was trying to rearrange him from the inside out. Sweat poured from him in sheets.
The beast beside him let out a final, gurgling breath, then fell silent. The core dimmed.
Kael gasped as the burning finally eased. He curled onto his side, trembling, gulping air.
Every sense felt heightened. He could hear the crackle of electricity miles away. Smell the metallic scent of the beast's blood. Feel the vibrating hum of the structure through the floor.
"What… what is happening to me…"
The chamber shook.
A deep, thunderous groan rippled through the walls. Cracks slithered across the ceiling like spiderwebs.
Kael staggered to his feet. The ground tilted under him. A sharp flash tore through the air just inches from his shoulder—like someone ripping fabric, but it was the space itself folding.
Dimensional tearing.
He didn't know how he knew that—but he knew.
He ran.
The corridor behind him split open, revealing a swirling void. It sucked debris, dust, and chunks of metal into its spiraling hunger. Kael dove forward as the cracks chased his heels, sprinting into a wider hall.
A flicker of blue light flashed across his vision.
He blinked—and everything changed.
The walls fractured like glass. The floor doubled, then tripled. He saw three versions of himself running, overlapping before snapping back into one. Lines—thin glowing cracks—ran through the air, showing him where the world was tearing.
A ringing filled his ears, like a tuning fork pressed to his skull.
PARADOX VISION — AWAKENED.
Kael stumbled, clutching his head. "No… no more…"
But the new sight guided him, pulling his gaze toward the safest path—the only path not about to collapse. He jumped over a fissure just before it split open. Duck under a falling beam. Slide through a narrow opening as the hall crumbled behind him.
He emerged from the collapsing structure and fell forward onto cracked earth, coughing hard.
The sky above him glowed with strange constellations he didn't recognize. The horizon twisted like a heat haze. Shattered land stretched as far as he could see.
Kael Riven slowly pushed himself upright.
The world around him was quiet now. Too quiet.
A cold shiver ran up his spine as he felt something watching him.
He turned—
—and saw a massive shadow rising from the ruins behind him.
Its eyes opened.