Chapter 3 — The Scientist's Gamble
Three weeks after the rift opened, the world had changed.
Skies shimmered with auroras even in daylight. Birds migrated in circles, confused by magnetic interference. Seas pulsed with phosphorescent tides that glowed at night.
And beneath it all, the war for Earth began.
In the underground research fortress beneath Geneva—codename Helios Core—Dr. Alex Grams stood before a holographic lattice of rotating energy signatures. The room smelled of ozone and cold metal. Every screen around him streamed data, each line a fragment of chaos.
"The pattern repeats every 0.0021 seconds," said Yara Chen, zooming in on a glowing waveform. "Each cultivator's energy signature aligns with the rift's core frequency."
Alex nodded slowly. "Meaning their power is sustained through quantum resonance. They draw from the rift like… a battery."
"Can we cut it off?"
"That's the plan."
He walked toward the center console. There, a transparent containment pod held a sphere the size of a grapefruit—smooth, silver, and pulsing faintly with blue light. It wasn't metal, nor energy, but a hybrid substance built from nanocarbon lattices and stabilized dark matter condensates.
They called it Project Nullpoint.
Its function was deceptively simple: disrupt dimensional resonance by creating an artificial vacuum of reality—a zone where no energy, not even Qi, could stabilize.
If it worked, it could neutralize cultivator energy fields within its radius.If it failed… it could erase a city block.
Alex placed a hand on the console. "How long until the prototype's ready for deployment?"
"Eighteen hours," Yara said. "But sir, there's a problem. We don't have a delivery system capable of containing it under resonance stress."
"We'll make one."
He turned toward the engineering bay's glass wall, where automated arms assembled a sleek, dart-shaped craft. "Activate the Helios Drone prototype."
"Sir, that's not flight-tested—"
"Neither was a nuclear reactor the day we built it."
As night fell, reports came flooding in.
Cultivator forces were advancing across Asia. A sect calling itself the Azure Spirit Alliance descended upon the Himalayas, transforming entire regions into "spiritual sanctuaries." Their mere presence altered gravity fields and caused unpredictable environmental shifts.
In North America, a group named the Crimson Blade Sect had appeared—using sword light capable of slicing through tanks.
Earth's combined military responses met the same fate: electromagnetic interference, failed targeting systems, destroyed satellites.
Humanity's science had hit a wall.
But Alex refused to believe in walls.
"Sir," Yara said, her voice low as she entered the lab. "We've confirmed multiple energy readings near Tokyo. Tianxuan's forces are moving again."
Alex turned from his console. "Then we'll test Nullpoint there."
Yara hesitated. "If this goes wrong…"
He looked up, eyes sharp. "Then history ends a few minutes earlier than it was supposed to."
Tokyo, 02:47 A.M.
Rain poured across the city, neon lights flickering in the storm.
On a rooftop overlooking the coast, Alex watched the dark sky pulse with violet veins of energy. In the distance, the Heavenly Monolith floated silently, surrounded by cultivators channeling streams of golden Qi into the ocean below.
They were building something—a conduit, maybe a gateway.
Beside him, the Helios Drone hovered, its sleek frame humming with restrained power. The Nullpoint core pulsed inside, ready to be activated.
Yara's voice came through his earpiece. "Telemetry stable. Dimensional field aligned. Target lock at sixty percent."
"Engage."
The drone shot forward, cutting through the rain like a silver streak. Alex watched as it approached the monolith, invisible to most detection methods.
At five hundred meters, it released the Nullpoint core. The sphere dropped silently—then expanded, unfolding a shimmering shell of blue light.
And for a moment, everything went quiet.
The rain froze midair.Lightning paused.Even the rift's pulse dimmed.
Then—collapse.
The sphere imploded inward, creating a void of silence. The cultivators around the monolith staggered, their auras flickering. One of them screamed as his Qi aura shattered like glass.
Alex's heart pounded. "It's working—!"
Then the sky screamed back.
A surge of golden light burst from the monolith. The energy slammed into the Nullpoint field, distorting space itself. Alarms roared in Alex's earpiece.
"Overload! The core's destabilizing—!"
He ran toward the rooftop console. "Divert its field! Ground it through the drone!"
"Sir, you'll blow the feedback into the control network!"
"Do it!"
The feedback surged through the drone's control link, arcing in bright blue light. For a moment, the entire sky over Tokyo lit up like a second sun—then collapsed into darkness.
Silence.
When Alex opened his eyes, the monolith was still there—but its golden glow had dimmed. The cultivators were retreating, dragging their wounded.
He exhaled, collapsing against the railing. "We cut the link…"
Yara's voice came through faintly. "You did it, sir. The resonance field collapsed over a twenty-kilometer radius. You neutralized their energy channels."
Alex closed his eyes. "Then maybe we just gave Earth a fighting chance."
Hours later, he stood in the Helios Core briefing chamber, surrounded by projections of global energy readings.
"Partial success," he said. "We proved Qi can be disrupted. But the Nullpoint's field destabilizes after ninety seconds. We need a sustained version."
Yara leaned against the table. "Sir, they'll adapt. If they figure out how you disrupted them—"
"They already have," Alex interrupted quietly. "They're learning faster than I expected."
He tapped the display, showing footage from Tokyo. In the final seconds before the explosion, Tianxuan himself appeared, extending his hand toward the Nullpoint sphere.
"He understood what it was," Alex said. "He didn't just react—he analyzed it. They have scientists of their own."
Yara's eyes widened. "Cultivator scientists?"
"Not like us," Alex murmured. "They don't study equations—they study Heaven's laws. But to them, it's the same thing."
He turned toward the window overlooking the underground city of Helios Core. "If we're going to survive, we'll have to learn the same way they do."
That night, as he stood alone in the lab, he replayed the data over and over.
The Nullpoint worked because it disrupted resonance, not energy itself. Meaning Qi wasn't mystical—it was structured. Measurable. Predictable.
He smiled faintly.
"Magic," he whispered, "is just physics we haven't named yet."
He turned toward the schematics of the rift projected above his desk. "And if they can reach through worlds…" he murmured, "then so can we."
The next phase of Project Helios began that night—one that would change humanity forever.
Because Alex wasn't building a weapon anymore.He was building a bridge.