Chapter 16: The Things That Follow Us
The air was heavier than it should’ve been.
It had only been two days since the Rift tunnel opened — since the kneeling beast called him "Commander" — but the world already felt different. Like something old was shifting beneath the ground. Like breath being held too long and something was suffocating the others.
Viera stood at the edge of the base’s mana lab, watching crimson pulses flicker through the holographic maps floating above her console. Her lips were pressed into a thin line. The readings were unstable — wild — growing faster than any Rift corruption she’d ever seen.
She tapped a command. Another map opened, showing a region twenty kilometers out from the tunnel site.
That part was corrupted too. Trees twisted. Soil blackened. Mana levels spiking, and it was strange because this mana wasn’t normal energy.
She whispered, "It’s spreading."
Inside the base, Ning Que was trying not to feel like a prisoner.
His hunter badge was gone. His weapons locked. His name now carried whispers, suspicion, distance. He walked the halls and people stepped aside. Even Linx, who never shut up, barely made eye contact anymore.
He sat at a comm terminal, fingers hovering over the screen. The only thing he had was the system.
He wanted to help. To do something. Anything. But he didn’t know where to start. Every time he tried to focus, the system lingered. He was slowly beginning to hate it.
{Sovereign Protocol dormant. Emotional stability detected. Memory delay holding.}