Echoes of the Rift

Sunrise found an opaque fog that covered the earth at its base, quiet or extinguished the rest of the world. Kael sat at the edge of a shallow creek, his reflection distorted by the ripples of the water. The Starforged Blade lay on his lap, its residual power, the blade itself, a real clue to the power it contained. Yet, despite everything, Kael felt the weight of doubt pressing heavily on his shoulders.

Lira crouched nearby, sharpening her daggers with methodical precision. Looking at Kael she furrowed her brow. It's rather still this morning, she said, interrupting the stillness. "You usually brood with more enthusiasm."

Kael huffed a quiet laugh but didn't look up. "Just thinking."

"That's a dangerous habit," Lira quipped, though her voice lacked its usual sharpness. "Want to share with the class?"

Kael's fingers stroked the edge of the blade while he at last made eye contact with her. "Do you ever wonder if we're making a difference? If all of this is even enough? The rifts, the Order. it feels like we're just scratching the surface. ".

Lira came to a halt, her hand frozen upon the handle of her dagger. For a second, her lighthearted attitude seemed to fade and gave way to a more pensive expression. "You don't fight a storm all at once, star-child. You take it one gust at a time."

Kael shifted his head and a subtle smile played on his lips. "That almost sounded wise."

"Just accept that you'll never see it again," she laughed with a grin. "Are you really finished with being melancholy, or should I pierce you to shake you out of it?"

Kael chuckled, the tension in his chest easing slightly. "I'm good. Let's get moving."

The forest gave way to a sprawling valley as the morning mist lifted, revealing a landscape dotted with jagged rocks and patches of wildflowers. Behind it, the skeletons of the demolishing of a fortress rose against the sky in its broken ramparts, a testament to the forgotten past.

[Alert: Anomalous structure detected. Energy signatures consistent with rift activity. Potential threat level: Moderate. Recommendation: Investigate with caution.]

Kael slowed down, as the voice of the system streamed directly into his mind. He gestured toward the fortress. "The system's picking up rift energy from that ruin."

Lira squinted at the distant structure, her expression skeptical. "I hate old ruins. They're full of things that hate us to death", etc.

"You hate a lot of things," Kael remarked with a smirk.

"And this is I," Lira stated dramatically, and gestured with the same hand towards herself. "Aren't you lucky to have me?"

Kael shook his head, a quiet laugh escaping him. "Let's just check it out."

Coming down to the fortress it was utterly still, and the dilapidated walls cast the trailing long shadows of the bright sun. Vines crawled down the joints of the stones, and the smells of moss and decomposition hung heavy in the air. Kael gripped the hilt of the Starforged Blade tightly, his senses on high alert.

Within the fortress, at its centre, at its very foundation, at the heart of a once magnificent hall calls them upwards, whose ceiling has long been destroyed. At the centre of the room, a platform, raised, at the top of it, an anomalous object radiated dark energy, pulsed. The idea was extraterrestrial, a strange mix of geometric and organic that seemed to violate the very basis of logic.

[Analysis: Rift stabilizer detected. Function: Anchoring local dimensional instability. Artifact origin: Unknown. Warning: Defensive measures likely.]

He entered slowly, narrowing the area of visual field and concentrating on the device with eyes. "The system says this thing is stabilizing a rift. We need to shut it down."

Lira tested the humans in the room, knives at the ready, "etc. "And let me guess—shutting it down is going to wake up something nasty?"

"Probably," Kael admitted, his tone grim.

As if on cue, the air in the room grew colder, and a low rumble echoed through the hall. Shadow fell to the edges of the room, coalescing into monsters with red glowing eyes. Their shapes were acute, nonreceptive, as though they were about to break down all the time.

Lira sighed, spinning her daggers in her hands. "Called it."

Kael drew the Starforged Blade, its celestial power ignited. "System, any advice?"

[Threat assessment: Riftborn sentinels. Weaknesses detected: Core energy instability. Recommendation: Target cores to destabilize entities. Caution: Prolonged engagement may amplify rift activity.]

"Aim for their cores," Kael instructed, moving to intercept the nearest sentinel. The creature lunged at him, its jagged limbs slicing through the air. Since then, Kael blocked and delivered a crippling arc to the Starforged Blade to the creature's core. It made a deep roaring sound as its visibility started to disintegrate.

Lira moved to the steps of a retreating sentinel, their measures graceful and precise. Her daggers are flashing with her attacks against the center of the monster, those attacks easily cutting through the shaky thing she forms. All of this is a pain," she said, as she maneuvered around another of the sentinels which is waving its arm.

Kael worked his way up through the ranks, taking out sentinels and progressing to the platform. The Starforged Blade gleamed with power, and the more blows it landed, the more intense it became. He realized the system as a guide to his movement, his degree of synchronizing with it improving.

[Host synchronization increased by 3%. Combat adaptation protocol enhanced.]

Finally, Kael reached the platform and held the Starforged Blade up over the rift stabilizer. The system's voice echoed in his mind.

[Warning: Overloading stabilizer may cause temporary dimensional collapse. Proceed with caution.]

There wasn't a plan left, Chael exhaled, and drove the blade home with ultimate force. Celestial energy poured into the device and overloaded its electronics. The stabilizer buzzed through what it hoped would be its final gasp, and then pow whoosh with a flash and throb through the room.

Wailing whimpers filled the air as the sentinels imploded, shrinking in on themselves and too damaged to hold their skin out of the tearing of the tether by the rift. Kael recoiled, his vision blurring from the energy shunt. Lira took hold of him and prevented him from rolling over, while supporting him comfortably with a firm grasp.

"You really need to stop doing that," she said, her tone equal parts annoyed and relieved.

Kael managed a weak smile. "It worked, didn't it?"

Lira rolled his eyes but got him up. "Come on, hero. Time to bail out of here before the whole area's coming down on top of us."

While leaving the decaying fortress behind, Kael felt unable to dismiss a sense of this being only the start. The rifts were growing stronger, and with each step forward, the weight of his destiny pressed heavier on his shoulders. But with Lira by his side, he knew he wasn't alone.