Chapter 6: Whisper of the Forgotten Rift
The moment Kairo crossed the barrier, he knew something was wrong.
Not the usual wrong—rifts always carried distortion, raw mana bleeding into the physical world, gravity shifts, a metallic tang on the tongue. But this was different.
This place felt aware.
It wasn't just a tear in reality—it was watching him.
The Rift had appeared overnight, deep in Sector 9's industrial wasteland. Official reports marked it as a Class-C breach, unworthy of elite attention. No fatalities. No recorded entities. No guild had claimed it yet.
Which made it the perfect target for Eclipse's newest Shadow Initiate.
Kairo stood at the mouth of the fracture, a swirling vertical slash of shifting energy, pulsing blue and violet like a wound trying to heal—and failing. Buildings nearby were half-eaten by corruption, their edges melted into unnatural angles. Cranes dangled like spider legs over the ruined skyline.
He exhaled once, steadying himself.
And stepped inside.
[Entering Subspace: Rift ID 042-Ω - "The Forgotten Domain"][Environmental Warning: Mana Density—Unstable. Spatial Displacement Likely.][System Sync: 78%][Auto-Log Initiated…]
Kairo's boots crunched on the sand.
He blinked.
The city was gone.
He now stood in a vast desert of shimmering glass dunes, beneath a black sun suspended in a frozen sky. Wind howled across the landscape like a dying god whispering its last breath. There was no horizon—just endless reflection.
And in the distance, a shape.
A tower.
Twisted. Jagged. Hollow at its center.
Drawn like a moth to flame, Kairo began to walk.
Half an hour later, after avoiding at least three shifting sinkholes and what he was pretty sure was a buried mana beast snoring beneath the sand, he reached the base of the tower.
The structure pulsed.
It wasn't built from stone—it was formed. Like bone and shadow had fused to make a cathedral that had forgotten its god. Glowing glyphs shifted across its surface, rearranging every few seconds.
A gate.
At its center stood a door sealed by runes—and something else.
A body.
No, not a body. A statue. Of a girl.
Young. Barefoot. Head bowed. Hands pressed together in prayer. Her entire body was made of obsidian glass, veins of light crisscrossing her skin. And yet—
Kairo felt her breathing.
His system chimed.
[New Event Detected: Oracle Echo][Initiating Psychic Sync...][Warning: Unknown Protocol Detected. Interference Risk: High.]Proceed? [Y/N]
He hesitated.
Then tapped Y.
The world tilted.
A blast of noise and color flooded his senses—flashes of ancient cities, wars between entities made of light and shadow, the girl's eyes opening, tears of fire falling onto desert sand—
Then silence.
When he came back, the door was open.
And the statue was gone.
Only her voice remained. Whispering inside his head.
"You heard me. That means you can change it."
"Don't forget... they buried the truth beneath the system."
"Beware the Architects."
Kairo staggered forward, disoriented, but driven.
He stepped inside the tower.
The inside didn't match the outside.
It was a library.
An impossibly massive one.
Shelves stretched up into darkness, taller than skyscrapers. Books floated. Some pulsed with mana. Others screamed quietly. Scrolls unrolled themselves mid-air before vanishing in sparks.
Knowledge. Forbidden. Forgotten.
Then a new presence entered the room.
Kairo turned fast, claws half-formed.
A boy. No older than fifteen. Dressed in an old Hunter uniform, stained with dried blood.
But his eyes—
They were too old.
"Yo," the boy said with a tired smile. "Didn't expect company."
Kairo narrowed his eyes. "You alone in here?"
The boy nodded. "Been alone since I died. More or less."
"...You're dead?"
"In here, yeah. Outside? Couldn't say. Time's funny when the Rift eats your soul."
Kairo's breath caught. "Who are you?"
The boy stepped closer.
"Name's Ren. Used to be an Echo bearer. Like you."
The air around him shimmered. Echo fragments hung like broken glass suspended in time.
Kairo's system pinged violently.
[Alert: Echo Resonance Detected – Level Incompatible][Entity: Ren – Class: Unstable Memory Construct / Echo Core Guardian][Threat Level: Unknown]
Ren sat on a floating book and swung his legs. "The Rift remembers. Even when the world forgets."
"You're not human anymore."
"I'm what's left of someone who mattered," Ren replied. "And if you're here, maybe that means I still do."
He stood.
"I'm gonna test you now."
Kairo readied himself. "Why?"
"Because if you can't survive me, you can't survive what's coming."
With that, Ren vanished.
Kairo dove just in time as the space he'd stood in imploded, collapsing into itself like a popped balloon. Mana laced with corruption swirled around the boy's outline.
Then he attacked.
Kairo barely dodged the first flurry—ghostlike punches backed by devastating pressure. Each strike seemed to phase through reality and then snap back, hitting from impossible angles.
This wasn't a fight. It was a trial.
Kairo activated Shadowstep, appearing behind Ren and slashing down with his claws.
Blocked.
Ren didn't even turn.
He knew.
They clashed—blade against claw, step against step, flickering across the tower like echoes caught in a time loop.
Kairo's lungs burned. Blood dripped from his lip. Ren smiled faintly.
"Close," he whispered. "But not enough."
Kairo screamed, releasing every ounce of mana into a final charge. Void Claws. Shadowstep. Mana Assimilation. All in one burst—
Ren caught his wrist.
"Good," he said. "You're learning."
And with a grin, he vanished.
Kairo hit the floor.
The library cracked.
[Trial Complete.][Echo Link Absorbed: Fragment – "Ren, Last Archivist"][New Ability Unlocked: Memory Surge (Once per day – Replay last 3 seconds to alter outcome)][Level Up – 4][Link Slots: 3/5]
Kairo gasped.
The tower began to fall.
No escape. No door. Just light swallowing him whole.
Then—
Darkness.
And then—
Air.
He awoke in the real world, lying on the broken pavement outside the Rift site. The tear was sealed.
Gone.
A siren echoed far off. Drones hovered, scanning.
He sat up slowly, heart pounding.
But he wasn't alone.
A figure stood at the edge of the site, cloaked in Eclipse black.
"You lived," they said.
Kairo said nothing.
They threw him a small, metallic badge.
It shimmered.
"Specter First Rank," they said. "You're moving up."
Then vanished into the shadows.
Kairo clutched the badge tightly.
The forgotten Rift hadn't just tested him.
It had awakened something inside him.
And he wasn't sure the world was ready for it.