The alarm's echo chased through the Guild corridors like a living thing. Aiden ran beside Lira, boots striking the marble floors in rhythm with the rising panic around them. Raiders poured out from dorms and training halls, their armor half-buckled, weapons blazing with mana. The red lights flashing along the ceiling painted everything in a harsh glow.
"Where's the breach?" Aiden shouted over the noise.
Lira checked the communicator strapped to her wrist. "Sector Nine. That's deep in the residential zone."
"That shouldn't be possible," said another Raider who had joined them, a bulky man with iron-colored gauntlets. "The barrier core is intact. Rifts don't form inside the city."
"Then it's not a rift," Lira muttered, drawing her twin blades. "It's something worse."
They reached the central elevator, and the doors slid open to reveal a team already waiting, commanders, medics, and scouts. The tension was sharp enough to taste. Aiden stepped in, his mind racing with the system's last words. Dominion expanding.
The elevator dropped fast. The hum of machinery filled the silence until one of the younger Raiders glanced nervously at Aiden. "You're the one from the plaza, right? The Dominion guy?"
Aiden said nothing.
The Raider looked away quickly, muttering an apology.
When the doors opened, a wave of cold air hit them. Sector Nine's streets were drenched in a pale mist. The lamps flickered weakly, their mana cores struggling to stay lit. Something was wrong with the light, it bent at the edges, twisting shadows in impossible directions.
The first corpse was only a few steps from the elevator. It was half dissolved, the body stretched thin as if reality had pulled it apart. Lira knelt beside it, grimacing. "No energy residue. No monster signature."
The man with gauntlets, Marcus, scanned the air. "Then what did this?"
A sound answered him. Not a roar or a scream, but a hum, deep and resonant, like the air itself had a heartbeat. Every light in the street went out at once.
Then came the eyes.
Dozens of them, opening in the mist, glowing faintly gold. They floated without shape, just points of light staring back.
Lira whispered, "Those aren't beasts."
Aiden stepped forward, gripping his sword. The mist rippled around him. "No. They're looking for something."
The system flickered in his vision.
> Dominion Detection: Anomaly Source Identified.
Entity Type: Unknown.
Behavioral Note: Seeks Dominion signature.
He tightened his grip. "They're after me."
The eyes shifted all at once, focusing on him. The mist shivered. From its depths came shapes, humanoid, thin as smoke, moving with impossible grace. They made no sound as they advanced, their forms flickering between solid and transparent.
Marcus raised his gauntlets. "We don't even know if those things can be hit..."
Aiden didn't wait. He charged forward. His sword cut through the mist, and the moment it touched one of the creatures, the air itself seemed to tear. The figure shattered, dissolving into fragments of light.
The others screeched in a chorus that rattled the windows.
Lira leapt beside him, her blades moving in twin arcs of silver. "Guess that answers that."
They fought together, but the creatures multiplied faster than they could kill them. Each time one fell, two more emerged. The mist thickened, crawling up the walls and turning the streets into a labyrinth of shadows.
The Guild forces tried to hold the line, but communication failed, the mana channels flickering out one by one. It was as if the entire district had been cut off from the rest of the city.
Aiden's vision blurred for a moment. The world pulsed, then froze, time itself slowing. He saw lines of energy weaving through the mist, connecting the creatures to something deeper underground. A core. A seed.
He heard the voice again. The same one from the night before.
"You are the first to wake. The rest are only echoes."
When the world snapped back, Aiden shouted, "There's a source beneath us! They're being summoned from below!"
Lira nodded. "Then we go down."
They forced their way through the creatures, cutting a path toward an old transit tunnel sealed off years ago. The gate had been torn open from the inside, its metal twisted like paper. Beyond it, the mist pulsed brighter.
As they descended, Aiden's system flickered again.
> Dominion Syncing... 63%
Warning: Overload risk detected.
Stabilize or lose control.
His vision dimmed for a moment. The air felt heavier, the power inside him pressing against his chest. Lira noticed the strain on his face. "You good?"
"Just… keep moving."
The tunnel widened into a cavern filled with light. Floating at its center was a crystal, black and gold, spinning slowly in the air. The mist streamed from it like a living storm.
Marcus stared. "What in the hell is that?"
Aiden stepped closer. "It's trying to connect to my Dominion."
Lira's voice dropped. "Then stop it before it connects."
He raised his hand, and the air bent around him. For a moment, the mist recoiled as if afraid. Then, from the crystal, a hand reached out, made of pure shadow and grabbed his arm.
Pain tore through him. Images flashed across his mind, cities consumed by light, people kneeling before a throne of darkness, a symbol burning into the sky: a circle split by a line, glowing like an eclipse.
He screamed, forcing the energy back. His own Dominion flared, a burst of black and silver light that shook the cavern. The shadow hand shattered, the crystal cracked, and the mist dissolved into nothing.
Silence fell.
Aiden dropped to one knee, gasping for air.
The system appeared again.
> Dominion Expansion Halted.
New Ability Unlocked: Domain Pulse
Effect: Reveals hidden anomalies and suppresses unstable rifts within a limited radius.
Lira crouched beside him. "You okay?"
He nodded weakly. "For now."
She looked around at the ruined cavern. "Whatever that thing was, it wasn't random. Someone put it here."
"Someone who knew about the Dominion."
They exchanged a look, the same thought passing silently between them.
Above them, the city alarms went silent. The Guild had contained the breach, but the unease lingered.
As they climbed back to the surface, Aiden glanced at his reflection in a shard of broken crystal. His eyes glowed brighter now, and faint patterns traced along his skin, marks that pulsed with each heartbeat.
Lira noticed. "You're changing."
"Yeah." He looked toward the city skyline, the barrier flickering faintly in the distance. "And I don't think it's done yet."