The Pinnacle of Despair

The air was alive with an electric tension, a predator's anticipation before the pounce. Kade and Zeke froze, their bodies instinctively recognizing what their minds refused to process: the world had shifted, and so had its rules.

The woman in the distance—the one whose transformation had begun with an unsettling twitch—let out a guttural scream, a sound that belonged more to a nightmare than reality. Her limbs extended grotesquely, joints bending in directions they weren't meant to. Flesh sloughed off in patches, revealing jagged, blackened bone beneath. Her face stretched, her jaw unhinging with a sickening crack, teeth elongating into razor-sharp fangs.

Kade's breath hitched. Wretch, the word came unbidden to his mind, as if his brain had conjured it from the ether. He didn't know where it came from, but it felt right. This... thing wasn't human anymore.

"Move!" Kade barked, grabbing Zeke's arm.

Zeke hesitated, his gaze locked on the creature. His mind screamed at him to run, but his feet were rooted in place. This can't be real. His world—so orderly, so controlled—had no place for monsters. But as the Wretch turned its hollow, blackened eyes toward them, reality snapped into sharp focus.

It lunged.

Kade shoved Zeke to the side, barely avoiding the swipe of claws that left jagged gashes in the asphalt where they'd been standing.

"Get up!" Kade shouted, dragging Zeke to his feet. The Wretch howled, the sound reverberating through the broken cityscape, and charged again.

They ran, feet pounding against the fractured pavement. Around them, the chaos grew. More people twitched and convulsed, their bodies twisting into horrifying shapes. Some collapsed mid-transformation, their fragile forms unable to withstand the strain. Others rose, monstrous and hungry.

The city had become a battleground.

"This way!" Kade yelled, pulling Zeke into a narrow alley. The walls were cracked and crumbling, but it offered a momentary reprieve. Kade leaned against the brick, chest heaving.

"What the hell is going on?" Zeke demanded, his voice hoarse.

Kade shook his head, trying to steady his breathing. "How the hell should I know? One minute, I'm delivering a package, and the next... this." He gestured vaguely toward the destruction.

Zeke ran a hand through his hair, still struggling to catch up. "You're always in the middle of something shady, Kade. Always."

Kade shot him a look. "Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Perfect. You want to debate my life choices, or you want to survive?"

Before Zeke could respond, the Wretch's growl echoed through the alley. Kade's heart sank. "It's tracking us."

Zeke's face paled. "How? It's like it knows—"

"Because it does." Kade cut him off, glancing around. His eyes landed on a rusted fire escape. "Up there." He pointed, already moving toward it.

The Wretch appeared at the mouth of the alley, its twisted form silhouetted against the eerie glow of the fissures. It snarled, its clawed hands scraping against the brick as it advanced.

"Hurry!" Kade climbed the fire escape with practiced ease, reaching down to pull Zeke up. The Wretch leapt, its claws narrowly missing Zeke's ankle as they scrambled onto the rooftop.

The city stretched out before them, a landscape of chaos and ruin. Fires burned unchecked, their orange glow painting the horizon. The streets were littered with the dead and the dying, and the air was filled with the sounds of screams and inhuman growls.

"What do we do now?" Zeke asked, his voice trembling.

Kade scanned the rooftops, his mind racing. "We need to find somewhere safe. High ground, somewhere we can see them coming."

Zeke nodded, his hands shaking. "And then what?"

Kade didn't answer. There was no "then what." There was only survival, one second at a time.

But even as they plotted their next move, the pull returned. That same inexplicable force that had drawn them to the city center now tugged at them again, stronger than before.

Zeke felt it too, his eyes narrowing. "Do you feel that?"

Kade nodded reluctantly. "Yeah. And I don't like it."

Whatever was happening, whatever had caused the sky to split and the world to break, wasn't finished. The pull was leading them somewhere—drawing them toward answers, or perhaps something far worse.

For now, though, there was only one certainty: the world had changed, and it wasn't done with them yet.

Kade hauled himself onto the rooftop, his chest heaving with exertion as he turned to pull Zeke up behind him. The city stretched out below them, a ruined labyrinth of flickering lights and shadowed chaos. Flames licked at buildings in the distance, and columns of smoke rose into the night sky, blending with the unnatural colors that twisted and churned above.

Zeke leaned against the rooftop's rusted railing, his gaze fixed on the horizon. "What the hell is happening out there?"

Kade didn't answer immediately. His eyes were drawn upward, to the epicenter of the unnatural storm swirling above the tallest skyscraper. A jagged rift split the heavens, its edges glowing with a light too bright to look at directly. It throbbed like a heartbeat, rippling outward in waves that seemed to vibrate through Kade's very bones. The pull he'd felt before now roared in his mind, an undeniable force that made his hands tremble.

Zeke followed his gaze and stiffened. "That… wasn't there before."

"No kidding," Kade muttered. "Any bright ideas? Or are we just going to stand here and wait for the sky to eat us?"

Before Zeke could respond, the rift began to widen. The light intensified, spilling strange colors across the ruined cityscape below. Then came the sound—deep and resonant, a voice that was not a voice, reverberating inside their skulls. It was cold, distant, and utterly indifferent.

"Hear us, remnants of a broken species."

Kade staggered back, clutching his head as the words forced their way into his mind. He saw Zeke wince but stand firm, his jaw tight as he stared at the rift.

"You have been weighed. You have been measured. You have been found… wanting."

The words carried a crushing weight, filling Kade with an inexplicable sense of inadequacy. The voice continued, unaffected by the chaos below.

"We are the Ascendants. Your world is but one of many, a canvas upon which evolution may paint its masterpiece—or its failure. You have failed to grow, to adapt, to overcome. And now, you shall prove your worth—or perish."

Kade's heart pounded in his chest. "What the hell are they talking about?" he hissed, but Zeke didn't respond. He was transfixed, his eyes locked on the rift.

"One among you has been chosen. A seed of potential amidst a field of decay. He shall rise to join us, and the rest… shall struggle. Suffer. Adapt. Only through fire is true strength forged."

The light from the rift grew blinding, forcing Kade to shield his eyes. He turned toward Zeke, a sense of dread washing over him as he noticed the change. Zeke's body was unnaturally still, his face calm, but his eyes burned with a light that wasn't his own.

"Zeke," Kade said, stepping forward. "What's going on? What's happening to you?"

Zeke turned to him slowly, his expression eerily serene. "It's me," he said softly. "I've been chosen."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kade grabbed his arm, shaking him. "Chosen for what? By who? Don't tell me you're actually buying into this crap!"

Zeke's gaze flicked to Kade, a flicker of sadness crossing his face. "This isn't a choice, Kade. I can feel it. They're pulling me… I don't think I can stop it, even if I wanted to."

Kade's grip tightened. "The hell you can't. Fight it!"

The rift above them pulsed again, and a figure began to descend—a being of light and shadow, its form shifting and flickering like a living mirage. It was impossibly tall, humanoid in shape but utterly alien in presence. Its face was featureless, save for two burning orbs where eyes should have been.

Kade instinctively stepped between Zeke and the figure, his heart pounding. "Stay the hell away from him!"

The being did not respond. It extended an arm, and Zeke took a step forward, his movements slow and deliberate, as if he were sleepwalking.

"Zeke, no!" Kade shouted, grabbing him again. "Don't do this! You don't even know what they want from you!"

Zeke turned to him one last time, his expression filled with a strange mix of resignation and determination. "I think I do. They want me to become something more. Maybe… maybe this is how I can finally make a difference."

The words hit Kade like a punch to the gut. "You're not making a damn difference if you're dead, Zeke! We stick together—we always have! Don't let them take you!"

But Zeke's body shimmered with the same light as the rift, and Kade felt his grip slip away. The Ascendant reached out, placing a hand on Zeke's shoulder. In an instant, they were enveloped in blinding light, and Kade was thrown backward by the force of it.

When he opened his eyes, Zeke was gone.

The rift above began to close, the voice of the Ascendants echoing one final time:

"The rest of you shall rise—or fall. The choice is yours."

The light faded, and the rooftop fell silent. Kade stared at the empty space where Zeke had stood, his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

"Damn it, Zeke," he whispered, his voice shaking.

The pull that had guided him here was gone, replaced by a seething rage that burned hotter than anything he'd ever felt. The Ascendants had taken everything—his world, his future, his only friend.

And they would pay.

As the city burned around him, Kade stood alone on the rooftop, the beginnings of a plan forming in his mind. He didn't know how he would fight beings as powerful as the Ascendants, but one thing was certain:

He would find Zeke. And he would tear down anyone or anything that stood in his way. He felt a pit of regret, having only met his friend again after years apart, he never had the chance to apologize. Though he knew he didn't have to, some bonds between comrades didn't need lofty words and apologies. Now he stood motionless, cast aside by those supposed gods, atop a skyscraper, the pinnacle of despair.