Caleb wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his arm, sucking in sharp breaths as he struggled to keep his stance steady. Jian Mei's training drills were unrelenting. He could barely feel his legs.
"Again," Jian ordered, eyes cold, arms folded. "And this time, if your foot slips, you'll do thirty full laps around the yard."
Caleb groaned but raised the training blade. "You really enjoy this, don't you?"
"I enjoy discipline," she replied. "And watching you trip over yourself is just a bonus."
He muttered something under his breath, earning a smack on the head from Riley who was passing by with a stack of dummy swords. "Careful. I once saw her make a guy spar blindfolded in the rain because he rolled his eyes."
"Was he okay?" Caleb asked.
"Nope. Lost a tooth and found enlightenment."
Caleb let out a small laugh, one of the few during training, but then he stopped. Something changed.
It began with a flicker of light in the sky. A ripple, like heat off the road, but darker. Then the wind shifted. Cold. Not the kind of cold you feel on your skin—but the kind that drags against your bones. The chatter died. Birds scattered. Jian's head whipped toward the western ridge.
"Positions!" she shouted. "Now!"
Beyond the compound, something tore through the sky with a deep, rumbling twist. A crack appeared, high above the trees—a spinning whirlpool of dark energy and red lightning.
Caleb stared, his mouth open. "What is that?"
Riley's voice was low. "A Riftgate. A real one."
"Wait, like a real real one?"
"No training simulation. That's a Singularity breach."
Then the screaming began.
The Rift opened wide like a bleeding wound in the sky, and creatures began pouring through. First one. Then five. Then too many to count. Shrieking, misshapen beasts, crawling on elongated limbs and trailing shadows that hissed like venom. Civilians ran. Union guards shouted commands. Someone near the perimeter got snatched into the air and torn in half. The sight paralyzed Caleb.
"I—I don't know what to do," he whispered, frozen.
"You hide," Riley snapped, grabbing his arm. "Back to the barracks. Go!"
But Caleb yanked his arm free. "No. Something's—something's calling me."
Riley turned. "What?"
"I don't know. It's like… I can feel it inside me. That thing in the sky—something's pulling me toward it."
Riley looked at him, panic in his eyes. "Now is not the time to be cryptic, Caleb."
"I'm not trying to be. I just—" Caleb's voice faltered as one of the monsters locked eyes with him.
It charged.
Fast.
Too fast.
He barely had time to move. There was no weapon in his hand, no way to fight, nothing—
But then something in his chest burned. Not in pain—more like ignition. A coil of pressure snapped loose inside him, and suddenly, his hands burst with swirling light. Black and violet tendrils curled around his fingers, condensing and sharpening into form. In seconds, a jagged blade of pure Riftenergy grew from his palm.
He didn't question it.
He moved.
The creature lunged, and Caleb met it with a slash. The blade connected—and cut. The Riftbeast let out a wet gurgle before collapsing.
Everything went still.
Caleb stared at his hand. The weapon was still there, humming, alive. His veins glowed faintly under his skin.
"I…" he whispered. "I made that."
Riley's mouth hung open. "You just manifested your Riftart?"
"I didn't even know I had one."
"That's not normal. That's not—Caleb, what the hell are you?"
"I'm me," Caleb said quietly. "But… I think I can control Riftenergy."
Riley took a step forward, grabbing his arm. "That's advanced. That kind of power—you could be ranked A-Class. Maybe more. Come on, we need to report this. Jian—"
But a new quake split the ground. Caleb's body stiffened as the sky above them cracked wider. A fresh wave of Riftcreatures poured out—but this time, something else followed.
Tendrils.
Massive, writhing extensions of the Riftgate itself. They snapped through the air like spears, slamming into the ground. One hit close—too close—and threw Caleb into the air. He hit the ground hard, vision spinning. When he looked up, Riley was screaming something he couldn't hear.
A tendril grabbed him by the leg.
He struggled, slashing at it with his energy blade, but the thing didn't bleed—it absorbed. The blade flickered and broke apart. Another tendril wrapped around his waist.
"CALEB!" Riley's voice broke through. "Don't you dare let go! Caleb!"
"I'm not trying to!" Caleb yelled, reaching toward him—but the pull was too strong.
The Rift was alive. And it wanted him.
As he was yanked toward the sky, into the spinning singularity, he saw Riley's hand stretch forward one last time—and then vanish behind the closing gap of light.
The Rift swallowed him whole.
And the world went dark.
No up. No down. No time. No breath.
When Caleb hit the ground again, it wasn't Earth.
It was a land of rust-colored skies and rivers that hissed. The stone beneath him pulsed like meat. Far off, screams echoed—some human, some not. Strange shadows watched from twisted trees. This was not Earth.
This was the Corrupted Realm.
He lay there for hours, maybe days, or maybe minutes. Time didn't feel real. But eventually, he stood, hand shaking, heart aching, mind already fraying.
There was no portal.
No Riftgate.
No rescue.
But the air was full of Riftenergy—more than he'd ever imagined. His body, though drained, felt... responsive to it. Like something inside him had finally entered the world it was made for.
He looked into the endless, broken horizon, clenched his fist, and whispered to himself:
"If this place wants to break me... it'll have to try harder."
He took his first step into the nightmare.
And behind him, unseen, a shadow followed.