"Quin, I need you to stay here and guard these two," June said with an authoritative voice, pointing at the Vyshtani woman and her child.
"What about—" but before she could finish her sentence, June pictured his home and ripped open a tear in reality using his Space and Kinetic Essence.
Wind howled, rushing past him and vanishing into the tear like a vacuum devouring dust. The woman and child screamed for their lives as Quin sped over to them, holding on tight to prevent them from being sucked in. June focused more of his Essences to stabilize the rift before it widened further, and within seconds, the gale subsided.
Before him, the rift rippled, its jagged obsidian edges distorting the surrounding air. It stood tall like the Dungeon Gate and was just wide enough for June to pass through. Beyond it lay an onyx sea of emptiness, an abyss that swallowed any light that entered, like the open maw of an ancient horror waiting for prey. A sense of wrongness, similar to the Abyss, washed over June as he stared into the darkness beyond the rift, his eyes narrowing at the sight.
Did I just open a portal to the Abyss, Sarah?
No, that is the In-Between—the space between space, what you humans call dark energy and dark matter.
Huh, that makes a lot of sense, actually.
June took a cautious step forward.
Are all portals like this?
Not necessarily. You essentially tore a hole in the fabric of space to reach another point. What you did was a more raw and unrefined use of your Essences, brute-forcing your way through. Most portals require precise control of your Essences, not what you just did.
But it should lead me back to Earth.
Yes, it should.
June hardened his nerves as his cautious steps became more confident. His heart pounded faster and wouldn't slow down, as he was just inches from reuniting with his family. He took a deep breath and turned to smile at Quin. "Be back in a flash."
He stepped forward and let the rift swallow him.
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Quin watched as her father stepped through the tear in reality, or more precisely, a portal. After spending many lifetimes with him, she came to see him as her father—how could she not? He cared for her and trained her, preparing her for this moment. He also kept his promise to get her out of the repository. If his actions weren't those of a loving father, then she didn't know what would be.
"Where did he go?" the little Vyshtani boy asked his mother.
However, instead of replying, his mother silenced him, her body trembling in Quin's grip, probably from the trauma of the night.
When she choked the man attacking the fox woman—though she found it difficult to see him as such—she channeled Psionic Essence into him, probing his mind to understand what was happening. Her body visibly shuddered, the fury of a dragon's breath overtaking her. She finally understood what her father meant when he said that even worse monsters than those within the Dungeons existed in the real world.
What she discovered in his depraved mind disgusted her to the point of losing control. He reveled in the pain, suffering, and humiliation he caused others. He particularly enjoyed dominating women, young and old, taking pleasure in their flight, struggle, and cries of pain as he broke their will and showed them their place in life.
So she returned the favor as she slowly squeezed the life from him, torturing him as he had tortured all his victims. Yet, hidden within the evil she had seen, she also understood his language—his cruel words meant for torment now hers to wield. When her father's voice pulled her out of her rage-induced stupor, she refocused with the Althori language, Elythra, imprinted in her mind.
Quin released the woman and her child, then moved to check the tear. "It's okay now. The two of you are safe."
"You speak Elythra?" the woman asked, her voice filled with shock.
Quin leaned in toward the edges of the tear, finding that her father used Space and Kinetic Essence to create this portal. "Yes."
The woman fell silent as Quin peered into the rift, trying to pierce through the darkness inside with her heightened senses, but failing to do so. After a moment, the woman's voice came back, soft and uncertain. "Who are you?"
Quin steadied herself, as she always did for her father, then turned with a disarming smile. "I'm Quin." She stepped forward and reached out a gentle hand, helping the woman and her child to their feet. "It's a pleasure to meet you!"
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The world around June flipped, or at least tried to, but he remained unaffected by the whims of the In-Between. He stayed steady as a rock as the surrounding space distorted before he emerged on the other side of the portal. In front of him stood his home, a two-story contemporary-style building with a sleek, modern design.
However, that was no longer the case. June's heart sank as he saw the overgrown shrubbery and grass, a tangled jungle that now surrounded his once-beautiful home. Using Kinetic Essence, he lifted himself high above the grass and looked down at his house. The many glass windows on the front of his house lay shattered, scattered both inside and outside. The front door was gone, and a section of the house was completely missing.
His worst fears had come true. He soared higher and looked at his neighbors' houses. They all appeared to be in a similar condition to his, abandoned for some time now. He sent out a pulse of Life Essence, a skill he called Life Sense, searching for any signs of life. Like a radar on a submarine, beacons lit up all over the neighborhood. Too many.
Something was off about those signs of life. Whatever they were, they were still alive, barely, but something else radiated from them, like an inkblot that obscured their Soul Essence and Energy. Sarah's voice then shouted at him, fear dripping from her words.
Be careful, June! There are corrupted here.
A monstrosity that looked like a twisted dog covered in shadowy tendrils the size of a car trotted out from a garage to his left. The moment they locked eyes, June could feel a familiar force trying to invade his soul, just like the Dweller had. But it failed miserably. His soul was now a bulwark against the taint of the Dwellers. Without hesitation, June blasted the creature with a Kinetic Blast, splattering it onto the ground. All that remained was blood and black ichor mixing in a pool of its decayed flesh and bones.
Things were worse than he initially thought as thousands of dormant monsters suddenly came to life. The Dwellers had already corrupted Earth. The grotesque amalgamation of monsters, either shuffling or rushing out from dark crevices in the houses, was a sight he never wanted to see again. These corrupted beings took many forms, from large cats, rodents, insects, and birds to towering humanoid monsters with elongated limbs.
They all surged toward him like a tide of ants scurrying for a picnic basket. However, it soon became clear they weren't aiming for him; instead, their target was the rift.
Stop them, June! You can't let any pass through to Syrova, or you'll doom the entire planet, just like Earth!
June flickered before the rift and summoned a Kinetic barrier, blocking the monster's path. Ripples emanated from the impact points on his barrier as the monsters crashed into it. They snarled, claws slashing and jaws snapping, trying to break through but failing. June combined his Wind and Fire Essence, channeling them together. In the next moment, a fiery twister erupted around his barrier, incinerating the attacking monsters. The vortex stretched up to a hundred yards, a giant pillar of fiery destruction. With a thought, he expanded its radius, torching every corrupted monster in the area along with everything else.
Not a single thing remained except for him, the rift, and his house, as a ten-mile radius of scorched earth stretched before him. The blackened dirt smoldered, a reminder of his devastation. Wisps of acrid smoke drifted past him, carried by the breeze. His stomach churned, and his breath caught in his throat at the scent of charred wood and melted stone, mixed with a burnt undertone of oily, sweet, rotten flesh.
You need to destroy the corruption, June!
However, June ignored Sarah's voice as he flashed in front of his home, hovering just outside of his and Natalie's bedroom window. His eyes remained fixed on a corner of the room, the same corner where Natalie had cowered and taken her own life in the vision. To his relief, her body wasn't there, nor were there any signs of blood. He now knew that the visions the Dweller showed him weren't real, yet that did little to ease the pain in his heart. The Dwellers had somehow infected Earth with their corruption, most likely warping all life on it to their whims. But he had to be certain.
June sent out another pulse of Life Sense, this time covering the entire planet. The number of corrupted monsters shocked him. It was staggering and beyond understanding. The corruption must have tainted every living organism. The reality finally hit him—humanity had lost, and Earth was no longer theirs. Was he the last surviving human?
Sarah, what would the System do to a corrupted planet considered beyond recovery?
Complete and utter annihilation. The corrupted cannot be allowed to live and given the opportunity to spread.
June's eyes hardened as they scanned his once familiar bedroom, now alien due to years of abandonment and neglect. The bed remained unmade; the sheets thrown about carelessly. A layer of leaves and similar debris covered the floor in patches, while dresser drawers stood wide open and empty.
What would your recommendation be?
Sarah sighed before answering.
Destroy the planet. Earth is just one of trillions. I know it'll be tough, but you can start a new life in Syrova. Also, as a progenitor, you have a duty to defend this reality from the horrors of the Abyss, just as your fellow humans did. And as you've seen, they've failed. Now, it's up to you to fulfill that duty.
June floated down, passing through the window frame and landing softly on the scratched hardwood floor, with the shattered glass crunching underfoot. He walked over to Natalie's side of the bed and placed a hand on her pillow. The case was cold and rough from prolonged exposure to the elements. Picking it up, he brought it to his nose and inhaled slowly and deeply. Her scent of lilac and vanilla, mixed with her natural honey warmth, was gone; only stale, musky air remained.
The pillow slipped from his fingers as he let go of it, and it flopped onto the floor. He searched through the dressers for anything of hers but found only bare drawers. Everything was gone, even their photo albums, which Natalie kept in their closet, weren't there. He rushed through his home and saw that every room was similarly in disarray. His family wasn't here. They hadn't been for a long time.
June stepped outside and saw distant dust clouds approaching him. Of course, he already sensed what was coming fast—more corrupted monsters. In fact, all of them were converging on his location—well, not just him, but the rift. They were acting like a hive mind, trying to find a way off-world, and he couldn't let that happen.
The finality of what he had to do set in as he flashed before the rift. Even if the visions hadn't come to pass, he had still failed his family all the same. Fury burned within him as he channeled his True Soul into his fist and sent it plummeting into the ground, punching the Earth with the might of a god. The moment his fist hit the asphalt, he released his True Soul, sending it straight down into the earth. Spiderwebs cracked where he made contact as his True Soul rapidly plunged into the planet's core and shattered it.
For a moment, the world stood still, hoping it would stay hidden from the impending doom. Then the moment passed, and instantly the sky darkened, and the magnetic field disappeared. The ground beneath June cracked and crumbled, pulled down by the sudden vacuum of the missing heart of the planet. He withstood the collapsing gravity as rivers of magma erupted in colossal geysers; its intense heat not affecting him in the slightest. The oceans vaporized into scalding, torrential vortices of steam.
The planet imploded inward for a moment, pulling in everything except June and the rift, before a brilliant light flashed as it violently exploded. The resulting shockwave sent chunks of molten rock hurtling into space, many of which bounced off his barrier.
June floated there in the vacuum of space, surrounded by the destruction he wrought. There were no traces of the corrupted monsters left, completely and utterly wiped from the face of the world, just like the world itself. Iridescent auroras filled the sky as a multitude of energies danced to a tune only the cosmos could understand. There was beauty in the sight he beheld, yet haunting.
June took one last look at the ruin before turning and walking through the rift, closing it behind him.