The Rift Approaches

The countdown wasn't loud.

It didn't beep or flash or scream.

It simply existed visible in the top corner of Darian's field of vision as a line of white digits that pulsed every few seconds.

[Time Remaining: 14 Hours, 22 Minutes]

Every time his heart beat, the numbers dropped by a fraction.

It wasn't anxiety he felt. Not exactly. It was something deeper heavier. Like the world was holding its breath with him, waiting for the moment the gates would open and he would step into something no human mind had been designed to endure.

The Rift was coming.

And something inside him knew it.

Cadets from Battleborn Tier had been relocated to the pre-deployment facility, a hardened, pressurized sector deep beneath the eastern district of the Federation Academy. Here, the walls were denser, the air was colder, and the lights were tinted crimson, as if warning everyone inside that this part of the academy wasn't for training.

It was for war.

Darian stood in line at the armory, flanked by twelve other cadets all stripped of their usual arrogance. Even Ezek, standing at the head of the queue, said nothing as the heavy reinforced lockers hissed open one at a time.

When Darian's locker finally accepted his biometric ID, a soft voice echoed inside:

"Cadet: Darian Vex. Omega Stream Clearance. Loadout assigned."

The weapons inside weren't anything special. A short-edged vibroblade with an obsidian-black hilt. A sleek sidearm charged with kinetic cores. A combat harness that hugged his back like a second skin. Two autostim capsules locked into a quick-inject port at his wrist.

The final item was different. A square gray module labeled:

RIFT BEACON – EMERGENCY USE ONLY.

He stared at it for a second too long.

"You won't need it unless you die," said the armory officer, her visor reflecting his face. "And if you die, you won't be able to activate it anyway."

No one laughed. Not even the cadets behind him.

They were led from the armory into the deployment bay a circular staging ground with wide concentric rings, each embedded with interface pads and status beacons. A massive black vault door stood at the far end, sealed tight, Riftlight glowing faintly behind its seams.

Instructor Rhel waited beside a raised command pillar. Her armor was different from before thicker, battle-scarred, with her Federation rank marked in white glyphs that looked nothing like letters.

"This is your final briefing," she said. "Beyond that door is a Rift classified as Theta-12. Low intensity. Low depth. Medium stability. But make no mistake it is still a dimensional fracture."

She tapped the command screen. A map appeared above them, glowing red. A swirling field of distortion hovered around a central ruin structure labeled Zone Core.

"You will enter alone. You will survive alone. Your goal is to kill a Rift-class entity. Upon that kill, your core if one exists will awaken. Your path will solidify. And your classification will be adjusted accordingly."

One of the cadets raised a hand. A girl. Short, silver hair. Nervous voice.

"And if it doesn't awaken?"

"Then you die," Rhel said, without hesitation. "Or someone has to drag your unconscious body out before Rift pressure collapses your neural field."

Silence followed.

Rhel walked slowly around the outer ring, her voice steady.

"You were not trained to be comfortable. You were trained to survive inside anomalies that don't follow rules. The Rift is not an enemy. It is a mirror. It shows you what you are when everything else has been stripped away."

Darian felt that truth land in his chest like a slow punch.

[System Notification]

Deployment Initiation: 03:12:00

Core Pulse: Unstable

Phase I Pre-Awakening Threshold Detected

Trigger Condition: Dimensional Combat / Lethal Engagement

He exhaled through his nose.

So it was close. His Void Beast whatever it was was stirring. It wanted to move. It was just waiting for the right moment.

The right threat.

Back in the quiet of the Omega Cadet ready room, Darian sat alone.

No one else from the Battleborn core had been placed in his exact stream. Not even Ezek. Whether it was due to danger, secrecy, or simple experimental classification, he didn't know.

But he felt the difference.

He felt it in his breath.

The air around him seemed denser.

He didn't sweat. His hands didn't shake.

He was calm. Too calm.

"Am I afraid?" he asked aloud. "Or already adapting?"

No answer came, but the system did respond.

[Host Instinct Calibration: 67.1%]

Core Status: Dormant – Phase Drift Active

Warning: Void Signature Detected – System Archive Incompatible

Override Monitoring Protocols Engaged

Void Signature.

They didn't even have a name for what was inside him. Not a classification. Not a rank. Not a projected evolution tree.

Just… Void.

He leaned forward, elbows on knees, head lowered.

Something in him wasn't born of this world.

And he was starting to feel what it wanted.

Two hours later, the cadets were positioned along the outer wall of the Rift vault gate.

Ezek stood a few meters to the left, arms crossed. He glanced at Darian once, nodded more of a warning than a greeting.

"Hope you don't scream," he muttered. "The Rift doesn't like noise."

Darian didn't reply. He stared straight ahead.

The gate began to rumble.

Massive gears disengaged. The light in the room dimmed. And the line of Riftlight visible through the central seam began to expand curling out like flame underwater, bending the walls around it.

[Rift Alignment: Complete]

Zone Status: Semi-Stable. Entry Permitted.

Instructor Rhel's voice cut through the distortion.

"You enter. You kill. You return."

One by one, cadets stepped forward, their names flashing green as the system acknowledged their entry.

Each vanished into the Riftlight like water evaporating under heat.

Then the name changed.

[Cadet: Darian Vex – Omega Path – Entry Cleared]

He stepped forward.

The floor beneath him shifted. His boots touched Rift-forged steel. His system flared with heat.

And then the world unraveled around him.