The entrance to the Riftforge was nothing like they expected.
It wasn't a grand gate or ancient temple.
It was a crack in the world itself—hovering between flames and starlight, bleeding unstable reality into the winds.
When Brent, Rae, and Lysa stepped through, their bodies were immediately torn apart—and rebuilt.
It wasn't pain.
It was redefinition.
System Notification:
Welcome, Riftforged Initiates.
Trial Series: Adaptive Nexus Mutation.
Relic Fusion Chambers Activated.
Warning: Time Distortion Active (1 hour = 1 month outside).
Brent landed hard onto a cracked obsidian platform, twilight flames roaring around him. Rae and Lysa materialized nearby, light and ember fire shielding their fall.
Above them, the Rift pulsed.
Shadows twisted—and monsters unlike anything they'd seen before surged out.
Mutated Riftborn:
Bonewrought Wyrms (Flame-resistant serpents of living steel)
Voidlash Manticores (Teleporting nightmare beasts)
Chrono-Scythe Wraiths (Able to fracture time itself)
Brent charged into battle without hesitation, his Abyssal Ember burning a hole straight through the first Wyrm's plated head. Rae struck with precision, weaving time-slowing sigils to counter the Wraiths. Lysa's healing waves became searing pulses, burning the manticores when they got too close.
Each kill fed their cores.
Each wound evolved them.
Hours—or maybe months—passed in the distorted Rift time.
Relic Chambers
When the first wave ended, towering pillars of ancient crystal rose from the shattered ground.
Inside each floated relic fragments—shards of power drawn from their own souls.
The system offered them a choice:
Brent:
Twilight-Ember Vanguard (A shield-sword hybrid that amplifies both healing and offense.)
Rae:
Moonlit Covenant (A ring of binding moons that boosts defensive fields and retaliation spells.)
Lysa:
Ember Warden's Heart (An amulet that stores fatal injuries and releases the stored energy to heal all allies at once.)
Forging the relics required something brutal—
Sacrificing a piece of themselves.
Brent gritted his teeth and severed a fragment of his old fear—the fear of failing his family.
Rae offered her lingering resentment toward her lost sister.
Lysa, her grief over what had been stolen from their bloodline.
Each offering was burned into the relics, fusing soul and steel.
When the ritual ended, each of them felt different.
Not just stronger.
Lighter.
Meanwhile…
Vaelrick could not wait.
Their growth had spiraled beyond his projections.
He needed to act before they could fully complete their preparations.
Atop the broken spire of an abandoned Gatekeeper fortress, he unleashed a new creation—
A hive of Riftborn monstrosities fused with twisted echoes of fallen warriors.
And he unleashed the Scion Clone—Kalen's dark mirror fully merged with Her influence.
Vaelrick's Plan:
Breach the Riftforge while time is distorted.
Overwhelm Brent's team before they can complete their next evolution.
Sever their Nexus Bond permanently.
His eyes, glowing with dark brilliance, fixed upon the distant pulse of the Rift.
"You belong to the Abyss now, Emeris."
And with a single wave of his hand, the invasion began.
Back in the Riftforge
The ground trembled violently.
The next trial had begun early—but it wasn't part of the system's design.
Brent, Rae, and Lysa spun toward the horizon where the sky was cracking apart, Riftborn monsters and corrupted echoes pouring through.
Brent tightened his grip on the Twilight-Ember Vanguard.
Rae slid the Moonlit Covenant onto her hand, her aura flaring in lunar arcs.
Lysa clutched the Ember Warden's Heart against her chest, her emberlight roaring higher.
They were no longer students.
No longer victims.
They were Riftforged Guardians.
And they would not fall without lighting the whole world on fire first.
The Riftforge screamed around them.
Reality shredded into spirals of corrupted light and darkness as the Hive of Riftborn poured through the broken sky.
System Warning:
Timeline Disruption Detected.
Unknown Entities Intercepting Trial.
Emergency Evolution Protocols Unlocked.
Brent barely had time to shout before the first wave of abominations slammed into them.
Bonewrought Wyrms coiled through the air, their steel scales rattling like war drums.
Voidlash Manticores blinked in and out of existence, leaving bleeding trails of ripped dimensions.
And at their center—
Kalen.
Or what was left of him.
A new being stood there—
Kalen's face stretched into a monstrous grin, veins pulsing with violet-black corruption, armor fused to his body like molten glass.
"Brent… Rae… Come play."
The voice was wrong.
It wasn't just Kalen anymore.
It was Her speaking through him.
Battle Unleashed
Brent roared forward first, flames bursting from his limbs like rockets, Twilight-Ember Vanguard slamming into the first manticore and splitting it in two.
Rae's body shimmered with Lunar arcs, her Covenant unleashing mirror shields and exploding radiant mines across the battlefield.
Each step she took cracked the ground with celestial power.
Lysa stood between them, heart pounding with impossible heat. The Ember Warden's Heart around her neck began to glow white-hot, absorbing each mortal wound they barely dodged.
She gritted her teeth—and released it.
An explosion of ember-fire swept the field, burning dozens of Riftborn to ash.
Still, it wasn't enough.
Kalen's clone moved through the wreckage like a god of war, laughing, slicing, corrupting the very air.
Emergency Evolution
System Notification:
You are approaching total core collapse.
Riftbreaker Ascension Pathway Accessible.
Warning: Side effects may include permanent soul fusion, irreversible evolution, loss of mortal boundaries.
Brent didn't hesitate.
Neither did Rae.
Nor Lysa.
They slammed their hands together over the Vanguard Relic—combining their fires, their souls, their very essence.
Unity Form: Overclocked.
Brent's flames turned blue-white.
Rae's lunar field became a supernova, bending gravity itself.
Lysa's emberlight solidified into crystalline wings.
Together—they became a Riftbreaker Triad.
One entity of living soulfire and fury.
They moved faster than thought.
Fought with weapons that bent light and shadow.
Crushed Riftborn nightmares like they were nothing but smoke.
Kalen's Fall
The Kalen-clone snarled, charging them with abyssal power.
The Riftbreaker Triad caught him mid-air—three strikes in perfect harmony—
One through the heart, one through the soul, and one through the corrupted mind.
The shell of Kalen shattered into shards of violet glass, the echo of Her screaming into the void.
But even as they breathed in victory—
The Rift cracked again.
A colossal figure stepped through.
It wasn't Vaelrick.
It was Her true body.
Vast.
Ageless.
Made of starlight and shadow.
And then they understood—
She wasn't just an invader.
She was a fallen Nexus Guardian, corrupted eons ago during the first collapse.
She wasn't here just to rule.
She was here to consume the Cradle of Worlds itself.
Backlash
The moment they realized the truth, the Rift shattered beneath them, throwing Brent, Rae, and Lysa back into separate timestreams within the Forge.
They awoke scattered, injured, but alive.
The cost of the Riftbreaker Form was heavy.
System Update:
Brent Emeris: Level 52 — Core Attributes Fully Ascended.
Rae Ellanor: Lunar Weaver Core Phase 2 Complete.
Lysa Emeris: Emberheart Healer Lineage Full Awakening.
Each of them had evolved beyond normal human limits.
But they were running out of time.
The Second Gate loomed ahead, shuddering under the force of the invading entity.
Their only hope?
Find the lost Cradle Seeds hidden across the shattered realms.
Forge the Nexus Bond into a weapon strong enough to destroy Her corrupted core.
Awaken the ancient Guardians still sleeping beyond the Gate.
Ending Line:
Brent wiped the blood from his mouth, standing against the broken skyline.
"We're not done yet," he growled, eyes blazing like twin suns.
"We're just getting started."