The first circle appeared in the Pacific.
No one saw it happen.
Satellites glitched for exactly 0.7 seconds. Long enough for the feeds to smear, long enough for analysts to curse faulty equipment, not long enough for alarms to trigger. When the image stabilized, the ocean looked calm again.
Too calm.
Six minutes later, every seismic sensor on Earth spiked at once.
That was when people noticed.
Arjun Rao was thirty thousand feet above the Atlantic when the cabin lights went out.
Not flickered—died.
The aircraft dropped hard, a sudden loss of lift that ripped screams from passengers before the emergency lights kicked in. Oxygen masks deployed in a wave of yellow plastic and panic.
"Ladies and gentlemen—" the pilot's voice cracked through the speakers, strained and fast, "—we are experiencing multiple system failures. Please remain seated—"
The sentence ended in static.
Arjun gripped the armrests, heart hammering. He wasn't afraid of flying. This wasn't turbulence. This felt like the plane had flown into something invisible and hostile.
Outside the window, the sky was wrong.
Clouds stretched unnaturally thin, like they'd been pulled. Far below, the ocean glowed faintly red in vast, geometric patterns—circles etched into the surface of the world, each one miles wide.
Someone behind him whispered, "What the hell is that?"
Then the first scream turned into a prayer.
The plane lurched again, engines whining like wounded animals. The emergency lights dimmed. For half a second, everything went silent.
And then Arjun's phone turned on by itself.
No lock screen. No apps.
Just text.
CONVERGENCE EVENT CONFIRMEDPLANETARY STATUS: BREACH
A pressure settled behind his eyes, sharp and invasive, like fingers probing his skull.
He gasped.
Around him, others reacted—some clutching their heads, some screaming, some going limp in their seats.
The text changed.
SURVIVOR CANDIDATE IDENTIFIEDNAME: ARJUN RAOSPECIES: HUMAN
Human.
As if that label was suddenly… optional.
The plane screamed as metal tore somewhere deep in the fuselage. A flight attendant was lifted off her feet as gravity stuttered, then slammed back down hard enough to break bone.
The phone vibrated violently.
WARNING: HIGH-MORTALITY ENVIRONMENTADAPTATION REQUIRED
Arjun didn't get time to read further.
The world inverted.
The aircraft fell.
Not crashed—fell, like gravity had doubled its claim. Luggage tore free. People floated, then slammed, then floated again as reality stuttered like a corrupted file.
The last thing Arjun saw before blacking out was the sky splitting.
Not clouds.
The sky itself.
He woke up choking on smoke.
The plane was gone.
Not wreckage—gone. No fuselage, no wings, no fireball aftermath. Just scorched ground and debris scattered across what used to be a stretch of Portuguese coastline.
Arjun dragged himself upright, ears ringing. Bodies lay everywhere—some intact, some very much not. The smell of saltwater mixed with blood and burning electronics.
His phone lay beside him, screen unbroken.
STATUS: ALIVE (TEMPORARY)
He laughed once, hysterical. "Temporary. Great."
The ground trembled.
Arjun froze.
From the shoreline, something massive hauled itself out of the sea. It was vaguely humanoid, skin plated like wet stone, eyes glowing a dull amber. Water poured off it as it straightened to a height that dwarfed buildings.
As it roared, symbols ignited in the air around it—floating, rotating, alive.
This wasn't random destruction.
This was structured.
Systematic.
The phone buzzed again.
ENTITY DETECTED: CLASS-III ABYSSAL THRALLTHREAT LEVEL: FATAL
RECOMMENDED ACTION: EVASION
"No shit," Arjun muttered, already running.
He sprinted inland, lungs burning, feet slipping on sand and shattered concrete. Behind him, the thing moved with terrifying efficiency, each step cracking the ground.
People scattered in every direction. Some tripped. Some were caught.
Arjun didn't look back when he heard bones snap.
He ducked into the shell of a half-collapsed building, chest heaving. The phone grew hot in his hand.
OPTIONS AVAILABLE
A circle ignited on the floor in front of him—small, precise, glowing violet instead of red. It didn't burn the ground. It claimed it.
The air thickened.
Someone laughed.
Low. Amused. Female.
"Well," the voice said, smooth as silk dragged over a blade, "this world broke faster than I expected."
A figure rose from the circle.
She looked human at first glance—tall, elegant, long dark hair cascading down her back. Then she smiled, and Arjun saw the fangs. The eyes. The way shadows bent toward her like they wanted to be touched.
Wings unfurled behind her, black and iridescent, etched with faint runes.
She examined her hands, flexing her fingers. "Sealed," she said with mild irritation. "Weak. Bound to a shattered plane."
Her gaze snapped to Arjun.
Interest sparked.
"Oh?" she murmured. "You can see me clearly."
Arjun backed away until his shoulders hit concrete. "What are you?"
She stepped closer. Each movement felt… heavier. Like gravity leaned in her favor.
"I am Nyxara," she said. "Succubus. Abyssal court. Formerly important."
Her eyes flicked to his phone.
"And you," she continued, lips curling, "are about to die."
The roar outside grew closer. The building shook.
The phone flashed urgently.
CONTRACT OPPORTUNITY AVAILABLEENTITY: NYXARARISK: EXTREMESURVIVAL PROBABILITY WITH CONTRACT: UNDETERMINED
"What's the catch?" Arjun asked hoarsely.
Nyxara smiled wider. "You stop belonging to yourself."
She leaned in, close enough that he could feel heat radiating from her skin, smell something intoxicating and dangerous.
"You will feed me," she whispered. "Souls. Power. Desire. In return, I will keep you alive."
A wall collapsed outside. Something massive clawed its way closer.
Arjun looked at the prompt on his phone.
INITIATE CONTRACT?WARNING: IRREVERSIBLE
He thought of the plane. The sky tearing open. The word human on the screen like a category about to be deprecated.
He swallowed.
"Do it," he said.
Nyxara's pupils flared into slits.
"Oh," she said softly, pressing her hand to his chest as violet sigils burned into his skin, "you chose correctly."
Pain exploded through him—deep, intimate, absolute. Something wrapped around his soul and claimed it.
The phone blazed.
CONTRACT ESTABLISHEDPATH UNLOCKED: ABYSSAL WARLOCKSTATUS: BOUND
Outside, the thrall roared in frustration.
Inside, Arjun screamed as the world rewrote him.
Nyxara's voice echoed in his mind, pleased and predatory.
Welcome to the new food chain.
And this time—
He wasn't at the bottom anymore.