The Riftborn’s Curse

The Collapse of Reality

Light.

Blinding, searing, all-consuming light.

Ethan's world shattered into a thousand burning fragments. The cavern walls that had surrounded them vanished, replaced by a white void that stretched infinitely in every direction.

He couldn't feel the ground beneath him.

He couldn't hear his own breath.

The only thing that existed was the whisper of something unseen.

A voice.

"You have seen the past. Now face your fate."

Ethan gasped as a force crashed into him—not physical, but existential. His golden-shadow aura flared violently, struggling against the unseen pressure that now surrounded him.

Then—pain.

Not normal pain.

Not the kind that burned flesh or shattered bones.

Something deeper.

It felt like his very existence was being rewritten.

He gritted his teeth. "Not… this… again."

He had fought the Rift. He had fought gods.

But this?