The darkness boomed and pulsed.
A slow, steady beat like the heart of something ancient and eternal. From that Abyss came the first whisper, hollow, brittle, yet carrying the weight of countless ages.
[Initializing Soul Resonance Protocol...]
[Error: Below Required Threshold]
[Override Engaged. Reason: Fate Event Detected.]
[Designation: Kaitri Anam]
[Bloodline: ???]
[Spirit Compatibility: ???]
[Weakness: pending]
The words were loud yet unheard, not in any human sense. They moved through the veins of light buried in the fabric of reality itself.
It paused. Then whispered once more, voice colder than the void itself.
[Warning: Candidate Spirit Awakening Successful]
[Colour: Blue]
[Rank: Undefined]
[Caution: Probability of success - 0.01%. Proceed?]
It paused again then a sound cascaded, louder and clearer, an echo of worlds. It did not sound mechanical, nor human… Like a memory of war that refused to die.
The void rippled once again.
Then the decision came, silent, inevitable.
[Proceeding...]
***
Three years earlier,
The sun was…dying? Or so it seemed to the thirteen-year-old boy staring up from the shattered edge of a glass-domed corridor. Crimson light covered the horizon, staining the silver skyscrapers of Halycon's Capital City. Something was tearing the sky open, a wound in the fabric of space bleeding fire and shadows into the world below.
The RIFT.
Kaitri Anam had seen it in the books from his father's library, in government broadcasts, in documentaries and movies designed to terrify and reassure all at once. Dimensional fissures might occur without warning. Trust the Guardians. Stay inside the safety zones. The words echoed now like a joke in his head.
Because the fissure wasn't on the usual danger zones. It wasn't far away on some newsfeed. It was here. Above him.
The glass above cracked. Dust drifted down in thin veils. Beyond it, in that pulsing wound, something moved. No, not one thing. Shapes with and without form, shadows in the silhouette of humans and others unrecognised, crawling on invisible currents.
A roar rolled across the city. Sirens screamed a heartbeat later, distant and panicked.
"Kaitri!"
He turned at the sound of his name. His mother stood firm in her black combat suit by the flickering blue of the containment barrier. Her eyes, silver with an ethereal glow, locked on his. Unshaken. Unyielding.
Behind her, his father was already moving, blade drawn, carving unreadable runes into the air with brutal precision. Spirals of white fire bloomed around him, forming walls of light to hold back the things falling from the sky above.
The Pure-Spirited. Humanity's shield. Heroes, superhumans, his parents. And for the first time in his life, Kaitri saw fear in their eyes.
"Run."
His mother's voice sliced through the chaos like the edge of a blade. He opened his mouth to say something but before the words could escape his lips, the barrier shattered. The hallway detonated in blue shards of light, and air turned solid as a pressure wave hammered him off his feet.
For an instant, all he saw was fire. For an instant, the world was gone.
When his vision cleared, he was on the ground, ears ringing, blood in his mouth. His mother was gone. His father was gone. In their place, a shadow stood. No… not a shadow. Something… that was covered in a shadow. Can shadow float in air without a surface? Its edges writhed like smoke in reverse, consuming the light, drinking the air.
And then…It smiled.
Not even with a face. With a presence that invaded his skull, whispering without words.
His body froze. That thing looked and felt wrong. How was it able to smile without smiling? 'I have to run… Feet, don't fail me now,' he thought as he gripped a little hand next to him.
The thing moved without moving. One blink, and it was gone, drawn back toward the breach as sigils of fire tore through the air. His father's voice boomed, hoarse and furious, words of command spilling like blood.
Kaitri saw a coin flying towards him, then he blinked and suddenly, he was far out in a forest kilometres away from the Estate.
***
By the time the Guardians arrived, the corridor was a grave. The fissure sealed behind layers of rune and protocol. The city burning at 5:30pm hue.
Kaitri stood in front of his home remembering three things.
The weight of his sister's hand in his, trembling like a dying bird.
The stink of ash and blood where his parents had stood.
And the whisper, not from the creature, but from something deeper, deep in his soul.
The Scion will Rise once more. Correct Existence. Correct Life.
Right then, he released his grip on the little hand and collapsed.