Chapter 63: A Rift Inside a Rift.
The moment the commander gave the order, the entire atmosphere around the entrance changed.
The Sentinels who had been standing around waiting immediately moved toward the weapon stations positioned several meters away from the rift entrance, each of them retrieving the weapon they had been assigned before deployment. Some carried long spiritual blades that shimmered faintly beneath the artificial lights, while others collected heavy firearms specially designed to fire condensed spiritual energy. A few of the stronger Sentinels simply rested their hands against the weapons they already carried, checking the spiritual cores embedded within them before making their way toward the entrance.
Ethan watched them for a moment before walking toward the equipment table himself.
He had never actually participated in a real rift mission before, and although he had spent enough time hearing about them at the academy, seeing the preparations firsthand made the seriousness of the situation settle heavily in his stomach.
This wasn’t a training exercise.
Nobody here was going to stop the moment things became dangerous.
If someone became corrupted inside the rift, there might not even be enough time to save them.
A staff member handed Ethan a compact emergency communicator and a small spiritual stabilizer, explaining that the device would allow the guides to monitor the spiritual fluctuations around them and alert the team if the surrounding energy suddenly became unstable.
Ethan slipped both into the pouch attached to his uniform before glancing toward the rift.
The opening was unlike anything he had imagined.
It had formed across an old concrete wall at the edge of the abandoned district, spreading vertically from the ground to nearly the height of a building. The edges of the opening were jagged and blackened, as though the wall itself had been torn apart by something from the other side, while the space within it shimmered with a dark, translucent distortion.
There was no visible landscape beyond it.
Only darkness.
Occasionally, faint streaks of light moved beneath its surface like something enormous was swimming through an endless ocean.
The closer Ethan got, the heavier the atmosphere became.
His skin prickled, there was practically spiritual energy everywhere. One that seemed to press against his body from every direction. It was almost suffocating, and Ethan suddenly understood why lower-ranked Guides were prohibited from entering.
Even standing several meters away was enough to make his breathing slightly heavier.
Beside him, Zane casually adjusted the gloves covering his hands while watching the rift with an unreadable expression.
Ethan glanced at him.
"You don’t look nervous at all."
Zane looked down at him and smiled.
"Should I?"
"Yes."
Zane flashed a sharp, easy grin that didn’t reach his eyes. "Relax. I’ve survived deeper rifts than this. Just stay close to me and you won’t have a reason to be scared."
Ethan scoffed, turning away, though he couldn’t quite shake the bitter taste of Zane’s confidence.
Just then a loud announcement suddenly echoed across the deployment area.
"All teams prepare for entry! Once you enter, maintain your assigned formations. Do not separate from your team unless ordered to do so. The rift is currently unstable, and its spiritual density is fluctuating. If your stabilizer begins to alarm, report it immediately."
His gaze swept over them.
"Do not engage any unidentified entity alone. Do not consume unknown materials. Do not touch spiritual formations unless you have been ordered to do so. Most importantly, if the rift begins to collapse, follow the evacuation signal immediately."
Ethan swallowed. That last warning did nothing to calm his nerves.
The commander raised his hand.
"First team!"
A group of Sentinels along with their team guide moved forward.
One after another, they stepped through the opening.
The moment the first Sentinel crossed the boundary, his body disappeared into the darkness without resistance.
Then another followed.
And another.
Soon, the first group had completely vanished.
Ethan watched carefully.
So that was how it worked.
"Okay our turn now."
Ethan barely had time to react before Zane’s voice reached him.
He stepped forward with the others, following the commanders oder’s.
The instant Ethan crossed the boundary, his entire body went cold.
There was no pain, but for several seconds Ethan couldn’t feel his body properly. His senses became strangely disconnected, as though his consciousness had been pulled through an enormous current. He couldn’t tell whether he was moving forward, falling or simply suspended somewhere between two places.
His ears rang for a while as his vision became completely white.
Then the next second everything snapped back and Ethan’s boots struck solid ground.
He stumbled slightly before catching himself.
He immediately looked around. And for several seconds, he simply stood there.
The Rift was nothing like the outside world.
There was no ordinary road beneath his feet. The ground was made of dark, hardened material that looked almost like stone, except that faint veins of spiritual energy ran through it like glowing cracks beneath the surface.
The landscape stretched outward in every direction, broken by uneven cliffs, enormous rock formations and strange growths that seemed to have formed naturally within the Rift.
Some of the structures resembled trees, but they were not trees. Their trunks were pale and almost translucent, with branches that twisted upward before disappearing into the strange haze above.
Others looked like enormous crystalline formations, their surfaces pulsing faintly whenever the surrounding spiritual energy shifted.
Ethan’s body had already gone rigid.
There was something deeply familiar about this place.
Not the scenery itself, it was the feeling, the familiar feeling he once experienced in h is past life. The silence before something attacked.
The knowledge that something could emerge from the darkness at any moment.
It reminded him far too much of the apocalypse.
His fingers curled tightly around the weapon attached to his waist even though he knew he wasn’t supposed to be fighting.
Calm down Ethan, this is a rift not an apocalypse.
"Stay close. I might need you soon enough."
Drey’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.
Ethan looked toward him.
Drey stood several meters ahead, his weapon already drawn, his eyes scanning the surroundings.
Despite his injuries, his posture remained steady.
Leon had positioned himself with Zane’s group, although the glare he occasionally directed toward Ethan made it painfully obvious that he wasn’t pleased about the arrangement.
Zane, meanwhile, seemed completely calm.
His gaze moved slowly across the landscape before settling briefly on Ethan. "Don’t wander off, this place is really dangerous."
Ethan scoffed. "I know how to walk."
"I wasn’t worried about your walking."
"Then what?"
"I’m simply worried about my roomate’s survival."
Ethan opened his mouth to retort, but a sharp sound suddenly came from somewhere ahead.
Everyone froze when a low growl rolled through the darkness.
Another answered.
Then another.
On instinct Sentinels immediately raised their weapons while the Guides instinctively moved closer to the center of their formations.
Ethan’s heart began pounding.
Yep they were about to face the real deal!
The commander lifted his hand. "Formation! Now!"
At his words the group quickly rearranged themselves.
The Sentinels moved toward the front while the Guides remained behind them, ready to provide support whenever necessary.
Ethan understood immediately why Guides weren’t supposed to charge into combat.
Their job wasn’t to kill the monsters.
Their job was to keep the Sentinels from becoming overwhelmed by the spiritual energy and corruption surrounding them.
A faint tremor passed beneath Ethan’s feet, and with warning the ground ahead split apart, with something crawling out in fast speed.
It was really enormous. Far more than the monsters back in the Academy test rifts and also more enormous than the monster that attacked the academy.
Its body resembled a wolf at first glance, but its limbs were unnaturally elongated, its skin covered in dark crystalline growths that pulsed with corrupted spiritual energy. Its mouth stretched far beyond what should have been physically possible, revealing rows of jagged teeth.
Another similar creature emerged behind it followed by another. Then large amounts of them began pouring out in numbers.
Ethan’s stomach dropped. There were at least twenty of them.
The commander immediately shouted.
"Engage!"
Sentinels surged forward.
Spiritual weapons collided with the monsters in a burst of light, and the previously silent landscape erupted into chaos.
One Sentinel swung his blade, cutting through the first creature’s crystalline armor before another monster lunged from the side. His teammate intercepted it, driving a spiritual spear through its chest and sending it crashing into the ground.
The Guides immediately began monitoring their teams.
Ethan could feel the spiritual energy around them fluctuating violently with every attack.
It was completely different from anything he had experienced at the academy.
The energy wasn’t simply surrounding them.
It was reacting to them. Every monster that died released another burst of corrupted energy into the surroundings.
He instinctively turned toward his team.
Zane had just killed another monster, but the moment its body collapsed, a wave of spiritual energy rushed toward them.
Ethan’s expression changed.
"Guys look out!!"
Everyone instinctively looked back.
"What?"
"Don’t move."
Among them Drey frowned. But before he could ask why, They all saw it.
Something was emerging this time not from the ground, but instead, it was the space between them.
A huge crack slowly opened in the darkness.
What in the world was happening now?
Ethan thought his heart already pounding erratically. This wasn’t supposed to happen, for all he knew they were already inside a rift so why was another crack forming inside a rift?
When everyone registered the situation only one thoughts crossed everybody’s head.
Another rift was forming inside the rift.
And something was already moving behind it. Ethan stared at the widening crack, his heart pounding violently against his ribs.
Then a pair of enormous glowing blood shot eyes slowly opened within the darkness. Causing the entire battlefield to go silent.