Chapter 35: The Rift Opens

The silence after the entity's disappearance was suffocating, stretching across the ruined city like an invisible hand pressing down on their lungs. Even the wind, which had carried the eerie whispers only moments ago, had vanished, leaving nothing but the sound of their own breath and the distant crackling of fires still burning in the wreckage.

Kai stood still, his heart pounding in his chest as the last remnants of whatever had just happened faded from his mind. His vision swam, his equilibrium slightly off, as if he were standing on the edge of some unseen precipice. His fragment still burned inside him, a molten core of energy that refused to settle.

Juno was the first to break the silence. "I'm getting real tired of this cosmic horror shit." She exhaled sharply, running a hand through her dust-caked hair. "What was that? What happened to you?"

Kai pressed his fingers to his temple, trying to steady the storm raging inside his mind. "I don't know," he admitted, though he hated saying it. "It wasn't just speaking to me. It was—" He hesitated, struggling to put it into words. "It was showing me something. Or making me feel something."

Reyes, still gripping her rifle like a lifeline, narrowed her eyes. "And?"

Kai shook his head. "It was a warning."

Juno let out a humorless laugh, filled with frustration. "A warning for what, exactly? Because last I checked, we already lost the damn Moon, and the world's been ending for a while now. What else could possibly go wrong?"

Before Kai could respond, a deep, distant rumble rolled through the ground beneath them. It was different from the aftershocks they had come to expect. This wasn't the result of collapsing buildings or shifting tectonic plates. This was something else.

And it was getting louder.

Reyes stiffened, shifting her stance as she turned her gaze toward the horizon. "That's not natural."

Kai followed her line of sight, and his breath hitched.

The sky had begun to split.

A jagged, obsidian crack tore through the fabric of the atmosphere itself, stretching across the heavens like a wound in reality. The same energy that had resonated within his fragment now pulsed from the rift, sending waves of shimmering distortion rippling outward. It wasn't just another anomaly.

It was a gateway.

And something was coming through.

Juno took a step back, shaking her head. "No. Nope. I refuse. I refuse to deal with this today."

Reyes was already adjusting her rifle, her stance solid, her expression carved from stone. "It doesn't matter what we want. It's happening."

Kai barely heard them. The rift called to him.

He could feel its pull deep in his bones, the same way he had felt the fragments awaken inside him. It was not a mindless tear in space—it was deliberate.

And then—

The first figure stepped through.

It was humanoid in shape, but that was where the familiarity ended. Its body was composed of shifting obsidian plates, jagged yet fluid, like molten rock frozen mid-eruption. Its eyes were empty voids, deep wells of darkness that consumed light rather than reflecting it. And it was not alone.

More of them followed, emerging from the rift in perfect synchrony, each one moving with an unnatural grace, their forms flickering at the edges like unstable projections.

Juno lifted her gun. "Yeah, screw this."

The moment her finger tensed against the trigger, the air collapsed.

A wave of force erupted from the nearest figure, striking like a hammer of invisible gravity. The shockwave sent them sprawling, weapons clattering to the ground as the sheer presence of the creatures pressed against them like an ocean tide.

Kai barely managed to keep his footing, his fragment burning hotter than ever. His pulse pounded in his ears, his breath coming in short gasps as time itself seemed to glitch around the invaders.

Then, for the second time that day, a voice that wasn't a voice spoke inside his head.

"Witness."

The world fractured.

Not in the way his powers allowed—this was something deeper, something absolute. Time bent, reality blurred, and for the briefest moment, Kai saw a glimpse of something beyond.

A battlefield. A war. A universe unraveling.

And at the center of it all, a force greater than anything he had ever comprehended.

It was watching him.

The vision shattered, and he was back.

Juno was yelling something, but it was distant, muted against the ringing in his skull. Reyes had already recovered, her rifle aimed and ready, though the tightness in her jaw betrayed her unease.

The figures remained motionless, their empty eyes locked onto Kai.

One of them stepped forward.

It did not speak in words, nor did it need to.

The message was clear.

This was not a simple invasion.

This was not an accident.

They had come for the fragments.

They had come for him.

Kai clenched his fists. He had seen enough.

Without hesitation, he activated Temporal Shatter.

The world around him froze, time bending to his will, the air thick with resistance as he stepped through the moment. He pushed, forcing the pause to extend just a fraction longer, just enough to get into position.

He reappeared behind the lead entity, his hand crackling with energy as he drove his fist toward its core.

But before his strike could land, the creature turned.

Its body moved through frozen time as if it wasn't frozen at all.

Its arm shot out—lightning-fast, unnervingly precise—and caught his wrist mid-strike.

Kai's blood ran cold.

They weren't just immune to time distortion.

They commanded it.

The entity's grip tightened, and the power in Kai's fragment faltered, as if something greater had reached into him and severed his connection.

For the first time since gaining his abilities, Kai felt powerless.

And then—

The rift widened.

A new presence emerged.

Not another soldier. Not another invader.

Something worse.

Something ancient.

Something familiar.

Kai's breath caught as recognition slammed into him like a tidal wave.

He had seen this entity before.

Not in reality.

Not even in his visions.

But in the fragments themselves.

In the whispers.

In the moments before the Moon died.

This was the force that had shattered the sky.

And now, it was here.

Juno's voice cut through the haze. "Kai! What the hell do we do?!"

His body refused to move. His mind struggled to process what stood before him.

The entity lifted a single hand.

And the world collapsed into darkness.