Unexpected Rift

CHAPTER EIGHT

The floor exploded. Stone fragments shot through the air as something enormous forced its way out of the darkness beneath us.

I jumped backward, Elena raised her sword. The four men scattered. A deafening roar shook the entire basement.

Then I saw it.

A massive black arm emerged from the hole. It wasn't the Shadow-Stalker.

I knew every creature that had appeared during the first week of the apocalypse.

Every monster. Every rift. Every dungeon.

This thing wasn't supposed to exist.

"Move!" I shouted.

The creature pulled itself out of the broken floor.

It was enormous.

At least four meters tall, with a body covered in dark scales. Two curved horns grew from its skull, and violet flames burned inside its empty eye sockets.

A long chain was wrapped around its chest.

At the end of the chain was a strange metal object that looked like a sealed box.

My eyes narrowed. I had never seen anything like it.

The System appeared.

[Unknown Entity Detected.]

[Classification Failed.]

[Threat Level: Unavailable.]

My stomach tightened. Even the System couldn't classify it. That was bad. Very bad.

The creature opened its mouth. A wave of heat rushed toward us.

"DOWN!"

I dropped to the ground. Elena followed immediately. The four men weren't fast enough. The flames swept across the basement.

One man screamed. His clothes caught fire as he rolled across the floor. Another slammed into the wall.

I grabbed the nearest man's arm and dragged him behind a stone pillar.

"Stay down!"

The creature roared again. The entire cathedral shook. Elena appeared beside me.

"What is that thing?"

"I don't know."

She stared at me.

"I thought you knew something."

"This isn't from my memories."

Her expression changed.

"You mean the future?"

I didn't answer. She understood anyway.

"You've seen this before?"

"No."

For the first time since meeting her, I saw genuine fear in Elena's eyes.The creature raised one massive foot. It slammed down.

BOOM!

The floor cracked. I stumbled. The creature's head turned toward me. Those violet flames locked onto my position.

My heart stopped. It had noticed me.

"Why is it looking at you?" Elena asked.

"I don't know."

But deep down, I had a feeling. The Temporal Echo.

Ever since I returned, strange things had been happening around me.

The first rift.

The Shadow-Stalker.

The System.

And now this creature. Maybe changing the future wasn't simply changing events. Maybe the future was fighting back.

The creature charged.

"Run!"

We scattered. Its fist smashed into the pillar where I had been standing. Stone exploded. I rolled across the floor and came up on one knee.

My eyes scanned the creature. No obvious weakness.No visible core..No information. I needed to survive long enough to figure it out. The creature swung again.

I ducked. Its arm passed over my head. I stepped forward and slashed at its side. The Widow-Maker struck its scales.

CLANG!

The blade bounced away. My eyes widened. I barely managed to jump backward before its other hand swept toward me.

The claws tore through my shirt. I hit the ground hard. Pain shot through my ribs.

"Damn it."

The Shadow-Stalker had been weak against the Widow-Maker.

This thing wasn't.

Elena charged from the side. Her silver sword struck the creature's leg. The blade cut through the scales. Black blood sprayed across the floor.

The creature roared. Elena immediately retreated.

"So it can be hurt!"

"Good!"

I stood. The creature turned toward her. That gave me an opening.

I looked at the strange metal box hanging from the chain around its chest.

Why was it carrying that?

The Temporal Echo suddenly pulsed. A vision flashed through my mind. The same creature. A ruined city. People running. The metal box opening. A blinding violet light. Then everything disappeared.

I gasped.

"What the hell..."

The creature raised its hand and my eyes widened in fear.

"Elena!"

She looked at me.

"Cut the chain!"

"What?"

"Don't attack its body. Cut the chain!"

She didn't question me. Elena sprinted forward. The creature swung its arm. She slid beneath it.

Her sword flashed.

CLANG!

The chain snapped. The metal box dropped to the floor. The creature suddenly screamed with pain. Its entire body began shaking.

The violet flames inside its eyes intensified. I stared at the box.

"Everyone get away from it!"

Too late.

The box opened. A wave of violet energy exploded through the basement.

I was thrown backward. My body slammed into the wall. My vision blurred. The sound of screaming filled my ears. Then everything went silent.

I slowly opened my eyes. The creature was gone.

So was the box.

Only a glowing violet mark remained on the floor.

I pushed myself upright. Elena was lying several meters away.

"Elena!"

I ran toward her.

She groaned and slowly opened her eyes.

"I'm alive."

"Good."

I looked around.

Two of the men were unconscious. One was dead. The fourth was nowhere to be seen. Then the System appeared.

[Abnormal Event Completed.]

[Hidden Rift has been temporarily sealed.]

[Host has received an unknown fragment.]

I frowned.

"Unknown fragment?"

Something cold moved through my chest.

A small violet symbol appeared on my hand.

It looked almost identical to the mark left on the floor.

I stared at it.

The Temporal Echo suddenly pulsed violently. This time, the vision wasn't from the future. It was from somewhere else.

A vast darkness. Hundreds of glowing rifts. And something sitting beyond them. Something watching. Then I heard a voice.

Not the System.

Not human.

A whisper.

"You were never supposed to return."

My eyes widened. The vision vanished. I stared at the mark on my hand. Elena noticed.

"What happened?"

I slowly closed my fist.

"Nothing."

But I knew that was a lie. The apocalypse wasn't following the future I remembered anymore.

Something else had entered the game.

And somehow...

It knew I had come back.