Chapter 26: Fractured Threshold

The world around them was breaking.

Not like shattered glass. Not like a collapsing building.

This was something deeper. Fundamental.

The sky rippled in and out of focus—one moment a dark expanse, the next a jagged reflection of something wrong. The ground beneath them wasn't stable, wasn't real, shifting between cracked stone and something that wasn't meant to be walked on.

Vera pressed a hand against her forehead, breathing hard. "This isn't normal."

Vex gave a sharp, bitter laugh. "Normal? Normal stopped existing three apocalypses ago."

Riven didn't answer.

He was too busy listening.

Because the whisper was still there.

Still inside him.

"You are not real."

He ignored it.

Tried to.

But the words were sinking into his skin, into his bones—not an attack.

A correction.

As if the universe itself was trying to erase him.

He gritted his teeth. Not yet. Not now.

"We need to keep moving." His voice was hoarse, like something had been scraped raw inside him.

Vera frowned. "Move where?"

She wasn't being difficult. Just realistic. Everything was wrong. The city they had known, the streets they had memorized—they weren't there anymore.

Or rather—

They were, but they weren't theirs.

---

Vex checked his devices.

Still glitched. Still useless.

His fingers hovered over the cracked screen, jaw tightening.

"Can I say something insane?"

Vera exhaled. "Go for it."

Vex lifted his gaze, expression unreadable.

"I don't think we're in the city anymore."

Vera stiffened. "Then where the hell are we?"

Vex hesitated. Then:

"I think we're between it."

A pause.

Riven frowned. "Between what?"

Vex exhaled, glancing at the fractured horizon. At the impossible angles.

"The real world." He gestured to their surroundings. "And whatever's trying to replace it."

The words settled in cold and heavy.

Because it made sense.

Too much sense.

Vera swore. "So we're stuck in a transition?"

Riven didn't answer.

Because suddenly—

He could hear something moving.

---

Not footsteps.

Footsteps belonged to people.

These were adjustments.

Like the world itself was shifting to accommodate something new.

Vera tensed. Heard it too.

Vex muttered, "I'm gonna hate whatever happens next."

Then the air warped.

A ripple. A distortion.

And something stepped through.

---

It looked like a man.

At first.

Tall. Broad-shouldered. A heavy coat that flickered in and out of existence. Like it was being rewritten every second.

His face was almost normal.

But not quite.

Not anymore.

His mouth moved, but his words didn't match.

"This city is not yours."

The words didn't come from his lips.

They came from the air.

The man—if he had ever been one—took another step forward.

And everything behind him disappeared.

Vera gripped her weapon. "I don't like this."

Vex swallowed hard. "You're not supposed to."

Riven held still. Watching.

Because the figure was looking directly at him.

Not at Vex. Not at Vera.

Just him.

As if he were the only thing that mattered.

"You should not exist."

The words struck deeper this time.

Not just spoken. Not just heard.

They hit something inside him.

And suddenly—

The Monarch's voice whispered back.

"Then take him."

---

Pain exploded behind his eyes.

Riven staggered. Something was pulling him.

Not his body.

His self.

Like the universe was unraveling a thread and he was the thread.

Vera moved—fast.

She grabbed his arm, her grip too tight, too desperate.

"Don't you dare."

The world flickered—the man stepped closer.

Riven's vision blurred.

Because something was changing inside him.

Something was being rewritten.

And then—

He saw it.

---

A memory.

But not his own.

Not a dream.

Not a vision.

A recording.

The same thing happening—over and over again.

Figures just like them.

People caught in this same moment.

Some fighting. Some breaking.

None surviving.

Because every time, the Monarch won.

Every time, reality erased them.

And this time—

It would be no different.

---

Vera didn't let go.

She didn't move.

Didn't falter.

Even as Riven was slipping away.

Even as his form blurred, as the void swallowed him.

She gritted her teeth.

Then she did the only thing she could think of.

She pulled.

Hard.

---

Something snapped.

A sound like shattering glass.

The world twisted—violently.

And Riven fell—hard.

Back into himself.

Back into reality.

Back into existence.

For now.

---

The figure was gone.

The void still there, but weaker.

Vera was shaking.

Vex was pale.

Riven lay on the fractured ground, gasping. Real.

But for how long?

The Monarch had almost taken him.

And next time—

It might succeed.