The glyphs had shattered.
The ground groaned like a dying beast, stone fracturing in jagged spiderwebs across the courtyard floor. From the exposed hatch, an unnatural wind howled—a cyclone of distorted light and static-laced shadow.
Aether Caelum stood at its edge, the cracked seal crumbling beneath his boots.
From deep below, something was clawing its way out.
The Rift had awakened.
He could feel it—time unraveling at the seams, moments blending together, reality bending into probability. His fingers brushed the limiter seal on his wrist.
He didn't hesitate.
Aether tore it off.
The talisman hissed as the binding runes disintegrated in a cascade of violet sparks. His veins pulsed silver, light etching itself across his skin like flowing script. The world responded in kind.
The winds stopped mid-motion.
The howling died mid-note.
Aether stepped into the breach—and time obeyed.
Below the Academy Grounds
The tunnel beneath Duskwind's academy wasn't listed in any archive. Carved from ancient alloy and Rift-tempered stone, it twisted into darkness, deeper and older than anything that should've existed in a modern city.
And something moved within it.
Aether dropped silently to the floor of the chamber. All around him, the walls shimmered with strange circuitry—Temporal Conductors, if he had to guess—designed to regulate flow. But they were damaged. Or worse, infected.
At the center of the room, a rift pulsed. Not large. Not stable. A tear no wider than a doorway—but its presence was... wrong.
This wasn't a normal incursion.
It was a leak.
Something was bleeding into their world, testing the boundaries, warping time to find cracks.
He reached out, sensing the temporal lattice. Threads frayed. Knots pulled tight. The signature was familiar—not Void Beast, not exactly.
This rift had intention.
And then—
A screech.
The first beast lunged from the darkness—twisted beyond reason, its limbs stretched and folded as if caught mid-shift between seconds. Its face bore no eyes, only a rotating sphere of runes where its skull should've been.
Aether moved.
Three seconds.
That's how long he had in this state—Chrono Drive: Phase One.
He bent the timeline forward, slipping between moments. The beast slashed—and struck nothing. He reappeared behind it, blade flashing upward, carving into the nexus of its rune-core.
It burst into dust, time unraveling the unstable construct.
Two more emerged. Then five. Then ten.
This wasn't just a leak.
It was a staging ground.
Aboveground
Elira sprinted through the halls of the Academy, heart pounding. She'd triggered every emergency beacon she could find, screaming into the comms.
"Level-Three Rift breach under the west courtyard! Aether Caelum is inside!"
Her voice echoed through mostly empty channels—senior instructors were off-site at the Federation summit, and the remaining staff were scrambling to manage crowd control.
She found Kato and Marix mid-duel in the training arena, their match still ongoing. The moment they saw her face, their bravado dropped.
"Rift breach?" Marix asked, suddenly pale. "Here?! That's impossible. There's a failsafe network—"
"It's already failed," Elira snapped. "Move!"
Within minutes, a half-formed response team gathered—five students, two junior wardens, and one terrified logistics officer.
"Where's Caelum?" Kato asked.
Elira paused at the shattered hatch. "Still inside."
Marix scoffed. "If he's not dead already, he will be. He doesn't even have an awakening tier."
Elira drew her blade.
"You want to survive this?" she said coldly. "Then shut up, follow me—and don't get in his way."
In the Rift Chamber
Aether's breath burned in his lungs.
Seven seconds.
That's how long he'd held Phase One—far past his limit.
Blood trickled from his nose. His vision wavered. The last wave of beasts lay in twitching ruin, their bodies aged to dust, decayed across millennia in a matter of seconds.
But the rift...
It pulsed.
Then, it spoke.
"Timeborne. Fracture Child. We see you."
Aether staggered. The voice wasn't sound—it was memory. Thought. It filled the chamber like smoke, ancient and curious and hungry.
"Your timeline is fractured. But your potential is infinite."
"Take the Offering."
From the rift, a black crystal floated forward, suspended midair—spinning, humming. It radiated temporal energy far denser than any essence he'd ever felt.
Aether's hand twitched. Every instinct screamed no. Every curiosity begged yes.
Then the doors burst open behind him.
Elira and the others flooded in.
And the crystal reacted.
It shot forward—not toward Aether—but toward Elira.
Aether's eyes widened. "No!"
He dove across the chamber, activating Chrono Drive: Phase Two—the world grinding into slow motion around him.
He reached her just as the crystal made contact.
And everything exploded in light.
Aftermath
When Aether opened his eyes, the rift was gone.
So were the beasts.
So was the crystal.
Elira lay unconscious beside him, a faint glow pulsing at her chest.
He knelt beside her, heart thundering. A glyph had appeared over her sternum—one he recognized from his own sealed talisman.
"No..."
"The Offering chose her."
Around him, the others stared in disbelief. At the wreckage. At him.
At the silver light still fading from his hands.
No one said a word.
But the silence was deafening.
He had been seen.
And now… there was no going back.