Layla reached the spot only seconds after Striver vanished. The air was still trembling from the distortion, a thin shimmer marking where reality had been ripped apart. She stared at it, her jaw tightening.
She had been too slow.
Her eyes narrowed for a moment, but she forced herself to focus. There was no time for emotion. She raised a hand and reached out with her senses, letting her awareness spread through the layers of space like ripples.
She found something quickly—Striver's presence—but it was faint. Flickering in and out, as if he existed and didn't exist at the same time.
Layla frowned. That shouldn't have been possible. Not even dimensional interference behaved like that.
She concentrated harder, drawing on the power she commanded. Space bent under her will, but the moment she pushed deeper, something pushed back. A resistance. Something protecting the place he had been pulled into.
She tried again. And again.
Every attempt was rejected.
Layla stepped back, breathing out slowly.
The barrier wasn't permanent. It was unstable, weakening little by little.
She would get through—just not yet.
Until then, she had no choice but to wait for the right moment.
---
Inside the MINDSCAPE
The King Wraith hadn't escaped its prison, but it had found a loophole.
It used its ability to copy Striver's powers and created another layer inside the MINDSCAPE. A smaller domain locked directly into Striver's mind — a battlefield made from his memories and fears.
Striver appeared inside it in his ten-year-old form, confused and unprepared.
A street stretched in front of him — familiar, quiet, and horribly unchanged. His small body froze as he realized what memory he was being forced to relive.
His parents.
The day he lost them.
The moment replayed in front of him. Not with gruesome detail, but with the emotional weight he remembered — the sudden danger, the shock, his own helplessness. He covered his face with trembling hands, trying to block it out.
His voice cracked.
"Please… stop…"
But the MINDSCAPE didn't stop. It shifted.
The street faded and turned into a burial site. Relatives stood around him with sympathetic expressions, but Striver now understood what he hadn't as a child. Some of them weren't sincere. Some whispered behind his back, thinking he wasn't listening.
The memory pulled him toward the next moment.
The discussion about who would take him in. The hesitation.
The way everyone avoided the responsibility until his mother's sister stepped forward at the last second.
For a brief period, that home had felt safe. Almost happy.
But the MINDSCAPE didn't linger there.
It showed him the moment everything changed — the visit from the woman who asked if he was being treated well. His small voice saying "I'm fine." And the shift that happened right after.
The chores. The punishments. The unfair rules. The fear he didn't understand.
He had survived by reminding himself of his parents' teachings.
But even then, the pressure had nearly broken him.
The memory dissolved again.
Now he was fifteen. Running home with visible injuries from earlier that day. People stared but didn't intervene. Some felt pity. Others didn't care.
He cleaned the apartment quickly. Cooked. Organized everything before his guardians came back.
They arrived in a loud, unstable mood. Striver greeted them politely out of habit, hoping to avoid trouble. His uncle placed a hand on his shoulder. His aunt's expression turned sharp.
Then—
The entire memory shook violently.
Screams erupted outside. The building rumbled.
Striver ran upstairs to the attic—the only place he felt safe. When he reached the window, he saw chaos in the streets. People fleeing from creatures he didn't recognize. His guardians left the apartment and drove off without saying a word.
The day the world began to fall apart replayed in front of him.
Only this time, it felt heavier. Like the Wraith was pressing down on him, trying to make him crumble under everything he had buried for years.
A shadow formed behind his ten-year-old self — the King Wraith.
Its voice was soft, echoing inside the entire MINDSCAPE.
"Your fears built this place. I only opened the door."
Striver clenched his fists.
"I'm not afraid of you."
The Wraith moved closer.
"You are afraid of the truth. Afraid of what your power really is. Afraid of who you might become."
Striver shook his head, but the MINDSCAPE tightened around him.
His chest felt heavy, like he couldn't breathe.
"Stop," he whispered through clenched teeth.
"Please… stop."
But the space didn't obey him.
It obeyed the Wraith.
---
Outside the Rift — Layla
Layla had not moved from the distortion. She sensed it weakening, but she still couldn't enter. She stepped closer again, pressing her hand to the flickering surface.
This time, she heard something faint inside the rift.
A child crying.
Her eyes sharpened immediately.
Striver.
She pushed her power forward and felt the barrier tremble. Still strong — but less than before.
"Almost…" she muttered.
Another pulse ran through the tear, and Layla felt the structure destabilize further.
Whatever was happening inside was hurting him.
She didn't know what he was facing or how deep the Wraith had pulled him.
But she wasn't going to leave him there.
She positioned herself directly in front of the tear and prepared for the moment it weakened enough to break.
"Just hold on," she said quietly.
"I'm coming."
The distortion flickered again, signaling the coming collapse.
When it dropped enough for her to break through, she would.
No matter what was waiting on the other side.
---