The city didn't wait for decisions.
It began collapsing anyway.
A deep, grinding tremor rolled through the ruins, not from beneath but everywhere at once. Walls cracked vertically instead of falling sideways. Streets warped, bending like soft clay under invisible pressure. The sky darkened as if something massive had leaned closer to watch.
Tharyx felt it immediately.
This wasn't a structural collapse.
This was a withdrawal.
"The district's being consumed," he muttered.
Zalivra didn't need the explanation. He was already running. "CONSUMED IS BAD! BAD IS VERY BAD!"
Another rift tore open above a shattered tower, smaller than the first but far more unstable. Black-violet light spilled out like blood from a wound. Gravity hiccupped. A fountain rose sideways, water spiraling into the air before vanishing into nothing.
Tharyx turned sharply.
More rifts were forming hairline fractures in reality, spiderwebbing across the district. Each pulse made his shadow react, twitching, stretching toward them like it recognized kin.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
[Environmental Hazard Escalation Detected.]
[Rift Density: Increasing.]
[Recommended Action: Evacuation.]
"Well, at least we agree," Tharyx said.
He grabbed Zalivra by the collar and dragged him out of the path of a collapsing balcony. Stone smashed down where they'd stood a second earlier.
Zalivra wheezed. "I hack. I appreciate the rescue, but if you could stop the city from exploding, that'd be great too!"
They sprinted.
The streets twisted as they ran, paths warping subtly, landmarks shifting just enough to disorient. Tharyx narrowed his eyes. This wasn't random destruction.
The city was folding inward.
Something was compressing the district either to erase it or seal it.
A roar echoed beneath their feet.
Not an explosion.
A movement.
The ground ahead of them bulged violently.
"STOP RUNNING!" Zalivra screamed.
"Bad idea," Tharyx replied, and then the street erupted.
A massive claw tore through the stone, black as void and large enough to crush a carriage in one grip. It slammed down between them and the exit archway, shattering the street and sending shockwaves rippling outward.
The claw flexed.
Stone powdered beneath it.
The arm attached to it was still underground.
Slow.
Confidence.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
[Major Entity Manifestation Detected.]
[Threat Level: Unknown.]
[Suggestion: Do not engage.]
Zalivra shrieked and dove behind a fallen pillar. "I AM NOT ENGAGING ANYTHING THAT HAS A HAND BIGGER THAN MY HOUSE!"
The claw dragged itself free inch by inch, carving a trench through the earth. Shadows poured off it like smoke. The air grew heavy, pressure pushing down on Tharyx's shoulders.
This wasn't a beast.
This was an anchor.
Something was sent to prevent escape.
Tharyx scanned rapidly. The archway behind the claw was intact but unreachable. Buildings to either side were already being swallowed by expanding rifts, streets collapsing into vertical voids.
Only one unstable rift remained nearby, small, flickering, erratic.
Unstable.
Dangerous.
Possibly lethal.
Zalivra followed his gaze and went pale. "No. No, no, no. You are NOT thinking what I think you're thinking."
The claw twitched.
Another began pushing up beside it.
Time was gone.
Tharyx exhaled slowly.
His shadow stirred threads, tightening, stretching toward the unstable rift, resonating with its frequency like a tuning fork.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
[Warning: Rift instability exceeds safe parameters.]
[Entry not recommended.]
"Noted," Tharyx said.
Zalivra screamed, "JUMP, JUMP, JUST DON'T TAKE ME WITH YOU!"
The claw slammed down again, closer this time, the impact sending both of them skidding across the ground. Tharyx rolled, came up hard on one knee, shadow snapping into place to absorb the force.
The rift flared violently.
Now or never.
Tharyx sprinted.
The world seemed to resist his gravity, pulling harder, air thickening, but his shadow pushed back, carving a path through pressure and distortion.
He reached the rift's edge.
Reality screamed.
For a fraction of a second, he hesitated.
Then he jumped.
The moment he crossed the threshold.
Everything broke.
Colors inverted. Sound shattered into fragments. His body stretched, compressed, folded through itself. His shadow detached completely, unraveling into countless threads that lashed wildly through impossible space.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
[ERROR.]
[ERROR.]
[System Synchronization Failure.]
The message glitched, flickering in jagged fragments across his vision.
[User status: ???]
[Location: UNDEFINED.]
[Shadow Thread Integrity: CRITICAL.]
Tharyx felt himself falling sideways through memories that weren't his. Cities are collapsing in reverse. Beasts are dying before being born. Shadows standing without owners.
Pain spiked
Then snapped.
The world slammed back into place.
He crashed onto stone, skidding across a narrow platform as gravity reasserted itself violently. He rolled, came to a stop inches from the edge of a vast drop into mist-filled darkness.
Silence.
His vision stabilized.
The system flickered weakly once more.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
[Rift Transit: Incomplete.]
[Status: Survived (Barely).]
[Bonus Applied: You shouldn't have done that.]
Tharyx lay still for a moment, breathing hard.
Then he laughed.
Behind him, far away, the collapsing district folded completely inward. The giant claw vanished as the city sealed itself shut, swallowed by darkness.
He was alive.
Somewhere else.
And his shadow
His shadow was wrong.
It no longer lay flat beneath him. It clung to the stone like a living thing, threads writhing slowly, as if recovering from trauma.
The system flickered one last time.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
[Hidden Path Triggered.]
[Shadow Thread Permission: PARTIALLY UNLOCKED.]
Tharyx's smile faded.
"Partially," he whispered.
The mist ahead shifted.
Something moved within it.
And this time
It wasn't attacking.
It was waiting.