The Shattered Seal

The instant Kael's fingers curled around the cabinet's handle and wrenched it open, the world lurched.

A violent pulse burst forth, not of light or sound, but of something deeper—an unseen force that rippled through reality itself. The air distorted, bending as if space had momentarily forgotten its own rules.

The lights above flickered madly. The walls trembled, groaning under an unseen pressure, and a deep, resonant hum filled the air. Something had woken up.

Ronan stumbled back, shielding his eyes as an unnatural glow spilled from the now-open cabinet. His voice was sharp with panic.

"What the hell did you do?"

Kael didn't answer. He couldn't.

Because in that moment, he felt something stir within him. A sensation that went beyond fear or confusion. His mark burned, searing hot against his skin, pulsing in rhythm with whatever lay within the cabinet.

And then, the whispering began.

A voice. A hundred voices. Layered, fragmented—speaking words that had no place in the world.

It wasn't just a sound. It was in his mind.

Kael's breath hitched as something moved.

It was not a weapon. Not an object.

It was something else entirely.

A shape, half-formed and shifting, emerged from the darkness of the cabinet. Its form flickered, as though it wasn't entirely here, as though it existed in multiple places at once.

Kael's vision fractured.

For a moment, he wasn't in the facility anymore. He was… somewhere else.

Shadows stretching endlessly. An abyss swallowing all light. A soundless scream echoing through eternity.

He gasped, snapping back.

The Dominion user—the one who had seemed so composed before—tensed. His control over Restraint wavered. The walls of his reality were bending, something was breaking through.

His expression darkened. "That was not meant to be disturbed."

He moved with sudden precision, raising his hand.

And Restraint fell.

The air groaned as two forces collided.

The Dominion of Restraint, once absolute, struggled. The user pushed forward, attempting to bind the entity, to suppress it like he had done to Kael and Ronan.

But it wasn't working.

Reality itself twisted and snapped around the entity, like laws being rewritten mid-existence.

Kael saw it then—Restraint was faltering.

The Dominion user's power, once undeniable, was being unraveled by something far beyond its design.

For the first time, the man looked genuinely unnerved.

He let out a sharp breath, his voice quieter this time. "This is beyond my jurisdiction."

Kael didn't just see the entity.

He felt it.

Its presence wasn't just pressing against him. It was resonating with him.

The whispers were growing louder, but they weren't just meaningless sounds anymore.

They were slipping into his mind. Not words—something deeper. Something that spoke to the very core of him.

A name.

His name.

But not Kael Aetheris.

Something older. Something wrong.

Ronan grabbed him. "We need to get out of here! NOW!"

Kael barely heard him.

Because his fingers twitched.

A feeling—an urge—told him to reach out.

For one brief second, he almost obeyed.

But then—

The entity lurched.

A raw, uncontrolled surge of its existence flooded the space, sending a shockwave outward.

The force tore through the room, shaking the entire facility. The ground beneath them fractured.

Kael staggered back, gasping, the pressure crushing against his skull.

And the Dominion user—

He flinched.

Restraint collapsed entirely

The moment the Dominion user's power broke, everything spiraled out of control.

The walls screamed as the facility shook violently. Alarms howled, emergency sirens blaring through the corridors.

"LOCKDOWN INITIATED. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

The Dominion user clenched his jaw, stepping back. His entire demeanor had changed.

He no longer looked like a hunter.

He looked like someone trying to survive.

Kael and Ronan didn't hesitate. They ran.

The world around them was falling apart.

The floor beneath them cracked, chunks of stone and steel plummeting into the depths below. Sparks rained from the ceiling, lighting panels bursting.

Ronan growled, dodging falling debris.

"MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!"

But as they sprinted toward the exit, Kael heard it.

The whisper.

Right next to his ear.

A voice inside his skull.

"You are not complete."

His step faltered.

And in that moment—

The ground collapsed beneath them.

Kael and Ronan plunged downward, the air rushing past them.

They hit the ground hard, rolling. The fall wasn't fatal—but it hurt.

Coughing, Kael pushed himself up, wincing. The area they had landed in was lower in the facility, but the exits were still open—for now.

They had to move.

But before they could—

Kael heard it.

The last whisper.

A name.

A name that did not belong to him.

Yet it felt like it should.

It echoed in his mind, refusing to fade.

And he knew.

He knew that whatever had been sealed inside that cabinet—

It knew him.

They barely made it out.

The facility continued collapsing behind them, but Kael could still feel it.

Something had changed.

And someone would come looking for them.

Not just the organization.

Something else.

As he and Ronan escaped into the night,

Kael stared down at his own hand.

For a brief moment—

He swore it did not belong to him.