Chapter 2: Echoes of the Rift

The communications tower groaned in the wind like an old ship at sea. Kael sat with his back against a cracked server rack, staring down at his hands. The glowing veins had faded to a dull ember, but he could still feel the pressure—like heat under the skin, waiting to erupt.

Asha paced the room, fingers flicking across the holographic interface of her floating orb. It emitted a low hum as it scanned him, flickering red every few seconds.

“That mark on your chest…” she muttered. “I’ve only seen it once. And that was in a locked vault under the Spire.”

Kael glanced up. “And the Spire is…?”

“Top-tier Rift research complex. Deepcorp. Off-limits to anyone without retinal clearance and a death wish.” She paused, crossing her arms. “You sure you don’t remember anything from the breach?”

“I remember my team dying. I remember time... breaking.” He looked down again. “I remember that thing calling me Shatterborn.”

Asha’s eyes narrowed. “That’s old magic. Pre-Collapse prophecy. The Shatterborn were supposed to be catalysts—either world enders or reality balancers.”

Kael let out a sharp laugh. “Great. So I’m a coin toss.”

She didn’t smile. “More like a ticking bomb.”

Outside, the sky cracked with thunder. Blue lightning laced through unnatural clouds. The Rift loomed on the horizon—no longer dormant, its pulsing intensified, beating like some colossal, inverted heart.

Kael pushed himself to his feet, wincing as his side twinged. “We need to get out of here.”

“You’re not wrong,” Asha said, motioning to the orb. “That Rift spike a few minutes ago? It lit up every Null sensor in a fifty-kilometer radius. If the Order’s still active in this zone, they’ll be coming fast.”

“The Order of the Null?” Kael asked, frowning.

Asha nodded grimly. “Rift purists. They think Chrono-Essence is a cancer, and people like you are its tumors. Last time they found a Shatter-touched, they burned an entire block trying to purge it.”

Kael clenched his jaw. “I’m not letting them do that again.”

Asha handed him a small sidearm. “Then come on, Reaper. Let’s make sure they don’t get the chance.”

---

They moved fast, ducking through shattered alleys and old evac tunnels beneath the city. Asha knew the terrain well—she’d apparently lived in the fringe zones for years, scavenging, hacking, and working with black-market arcane-tech groups.

Kael, meanwhile, tried to keep his emotions in check. But every time he passed an area warped by the Rift—a melted traffic drone, a building frozen in a loop of collapse and repair—he felt it. The hum. Like something inside him was resonating with the chaos outside.

“You’re syncing with the entropy,” Asha said at one point, noticing his distracted expression. “If you don’t learn to control it, the Rift will.”

He didn’t respond. The truth was, part of him liked the sensation. The power.

Maybe too much.

They finally emerged into what remained of the Commercial District. Skyscrapers jutted into the sky like broken bones. Streetlights flickered without rhythm. A once-busy holo-billboard now looped static and flashes of forgotten advertisements.

Asha paused at the corner of a collapsed security outpost. “We’re close. There’s an old skyrail junction two blocks down. If we can reach it, I can boost the rail to run one last loop. It’ll take us to the outer rim.”

“And after that?”

“There's someone who might help us. A Rift Sage. If anyone can decode what’s happening to you, it’s him.”

Kael nodded, but his instincts screamed. Something wasn’t right.

Too quiet.

Too still.

He stepped forward—and the world exploded.

Gunfire rang out from above. Energy bolts smashed into the ground where they’d stood seconds ago. Asha cursed and dove behind a metal bench. Kael’s reflexes kicked in—he grabbed Asha and dragged her into a storefront just as three black-robed figures descended on grav-chutes.

Their armor was sleek and obsidian, marked with the Null insignia: a zero encased in flame. One of them raised a hand, and a pulse of silver light erupted, vaporizing the front of the building Kael had just fled.

“Confirmed Shatterborn signature,” the lead agent called out. His voice was filtered, almost mechanical. “Directive 17: Purge and contain.”

Asha activated her orb. It lit up, firing a scatter of arcane bolts that disrupted the sensors of the nearest Null agent. Kael, without thinking, stepped out from cover—and the world slowed.

Again.

He didn’t try to control it this time. He let it happen.

The bullets moved like syrup through the air. Sound warped and stretched. Kael focused, and time bent around him. He stepped past the shots, reached the agent, and slammed his fist into the man's chest.

Boom.

A shockwave erupted, sending the Null operative flying across the street. Time snapped back to normal.

Kael staggered. Blood trickled from his nose.

But the second agent was already moving. A blade of pure anti-essence extended from his gauntlet—meant to neutralize anything touched by the Rift.

Kael braced, but Asha intercepted the strike, her orb deflecting it with a resonant hum. She launched a pulse that shattered the agent’s armor and knocked him back.

“Three more inbound!” she shouted.

Kael felt his chest burn. The sigil lit up.

He raised both hands, focused—breathe, aim, release—and time warped around the entire intersection.

He unleashed another pulse, this one bigger—waves of inverted time energy exploding outward. Cars melted and reformed in midair. Glass turned to sand, then froze again. The Null agents screamed as their gear malfunctioned, disintegrating into paradox loops.

Then it was over.

Kael fell to his knees, gasping. The Rift’s echo throbbed in his head.

“You’re pushing too hard,” Asha said, crouching next to him. “You keep doing that and you’ll burn out. Or worse.”

He wiped the blood from his face. “They would’ve killed us.”

“They almost did anyway.” She paused. “Next time, let me draw fire while you focus. You’re not indestructible.”

Kael didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure what he was anymore.

---

They reached the skyrail junction ten minutes later. The platform was half-collapsed, but the rail hub was intact. Asha connected her orb to the control console and began a data override.

As she worked, Kael walked to the edge of the platform, staring down at the city. Fires burned in the distance. The Rift loomed larger now—its tendrils spreading slowly, like roots in water.

“You okay?” Asha asked quietly, not looking up.

Kael nodded. “I will be.”

“You said your team was caught in the breach. That means they’re… gone?”

He hesitated. “They didn’t just die. They were erased. Like they never existed. I checked the Reaper logs. No records. No last transmissions.”

Asha looked up. “That’s... not how death works. Even Rift kills leave traces.”

“That’s the point,” Kael said. “They didn’t die. They were unmade.”

Asha stared at him for a long moment. “You’re not just Shatterborn. You’re a Rift-node. A temporal focal point.”

“In English, please.”

“You’re a living echo chamber. Reality bends around you. When the Rift hit you, it didn’t just change you. It connected you.”

“To what?”

She stood, brushing ash off her jacket. “To everything. Every possible timeline. Every version of yourself. Every outcome.”

Kael felt cold.

“So I’m a threat to reality?”

Asha didn’t answer immediately. Then: “You’re also the best shot we’ve got at fixing it.”

The rail behind them hummed to life. Lights flickered. A decrepit skytrain coasted down the tracks, doors hissing open.

“Let’s go,” Asha said. “Before the Order regroups.”

They boarded, the doors closing behind them.

As the train pulled away from the shattered city and into the wastelands beyond, Kael looked out at the world he no longer understood—one he wasn’t sure he belonged to anymore.

But deep in his chest, the sigil burned quietly.

And far away, in the Rift's endless heartbeat, something had noticed him.

End of Chapter 2