They wasted no time.
The second the creature twitched behind the girl, Kai lunged forward and summoned two mirror images that split from his body like smoke.
Akari dashed beside him, her serpent hissing as it wrapped up her right arm like a living gauntlet.
Her blade shimmered faintly—scratched, chipped, but still sharp enough to slice bone.
Tentacles shot forward from the shadows behind the girl—long, fibrous, twitching wet like nerves.
Kai's illusions went first. One was snagged and crushed instantly, vanishing in a pop of static mist.
The other slid under the reach, drawing the thing's eye.
Then Kai himself darted in behind it, arm mutating mid-step into a jagged hook of chitin-laced bone.
He swung low, slashing a tendon-thick tentacle off clean.
Akari jumped straight at the wall, kicked off, and twisted in midair. Her sword struck true, carving a shallow cut into the beast's writhing upper mass.
Her snake lunged with her, biting down on a smaller tendril.
Then the girl screamed.
But it wasn't a human scream anymore.
Her body spasmed, cracked apart like wet paper as her form unravelled into gelatinous matter. From that mess, something enormous pushed itself out, bending steel and shattering tile.
[Riftborn Identified – "Tentacle Blower"]
Threat Tier: E+
The air went heavier, damper. It smelled like rotting algae and melted plastic. The beast was at least three meters tall, its upper body wide and hunched with layers of pulsating flesh.
Dozens of eyes blinked across its chest. Its tentacles were no longer twitching—they were dancing, precise, controlled.
Kai slid back, breathing fast. "It evolved."
Akari spun her sword and reset her stance. "Then let's break the shell open."
The creature roared. The sound blasted down the corridor like pressure, shaking the rusted scaffolds. Tentacles whipped out with ridiculous speed.
Kai ducked, dodged left, used the illusions to misdirect. One tentacle smashed through a wall where he'd just been.
He darted close again and stabbed his mutated arm into the side—but it only went halfway in. The skin was tougher now.
Akari tried to flank, but the thing predicted her arc. One tendril slammed her sideways, skidding her across the rail tracks.
She spat blood. "Damn. Okay, that stung."
Kai growled. "What riftborn tiers can you handle solo?"
"E. Max."
He blinked. "Seriously?"
She wiped her mouth and stood. "You?"
"F+"
Akari snorted. "You're pretty weak."
Kai grinned faintly. "Yeah, well, so are you."
Then, the creature roared again—and this time, it started moving forward. Like it wasn't even afraid of them.
Tentacle Blower lunged.
Kai leapt left, illusions splitting from his feet mid-dash like shadows peeling free. Akari ran right, her blade drawn, serpent coiled tight up her arm, eyes glowing.
The beast spun toward her—wrong move.
One illusion leapt at its head, the other at its back, while Kai himself drove low, his arm already mutating into a scythe of jagged Heloxian bone.
"This reminded me of a fight," she muttered as he slid under its stomach. Back then… when he first saw me—
The creature roared, three tentacles crashing down. Kai blocked one, the other smashed his shoulder and sent him rolling into a cracked pillar. Dust flew. He coughed blood, eyes sharp.
"Alright, Kai!" Akari shouted, vaulting off a beam.
She came in like lightning, blade slicing a clean arc through the creature's side. Her snake hissed and lunged too, sinking venom into the flesh. It spasmed, twisted, roared again—but this time, it backed off.
Kai stood, swaying. "Don't stop! I'll distract it!"
He charged recklessly, left hand forming a bone javelin, right arm already regenerating. The illusions danced again, this time slower, more ragged.
Tentacles swatted one, then two—then the third landed a glancing hit on Kai's real shoulder. Bone cracked. His arm went numb.
I need to get stronger! He gritted his teeth and stabbed the javelin straight into the eye cluster.
The monster screamed.
Akari followed through. She didn't hesitate. She spun, her blade flashing once, twice—slicing through the remaining tentacles, dancing between their strikes like she knew their rhythm. Her serpent weaved with her, biting, lashing.
She yelled, "Now!"
Kai blinked, caught the signal, and pushed forward. He kneed the monster hard in the chest, enough to break its stance. His mutation flared, arm reshaping into a claw-hammer. He swung—missed.
A tentacle!
It slammed him back down again. He coughed, grunted, rolled out of instinct.
Akari didn't pause.
She ran forward, leapt, blade above her head, serpent screaming.
"This is the end!"
One clean cut. From head to chest. The Tentacle Blower split in half with a wet, horrible noise. Its mass twitched once. Then collapsed in a pool of thick, black bile.
Kai lay on the floor, breathing hard, one eye open. "Remind me never to joke about weaklings again."
Akari stood over him, blood dripping down her cheek. "You're lucky I was here."
He chuckled once. "Thanks… Akari."
"Thanks?"
Akari blinked like she misheard, then her arms flailed, her serpent nearly sliding off her shoulders. "You—you actually thanked me!?"
Kai kept walking. "Obviously. You carried the fight."
She puffed her cheeks, but a smile tugged at her lips. "Damn right I did. Don't think I won't brag about this later."
"Yeah, yeah…"
They didn't slow down. The tunnel ahead bent into a curve, flickering red lights humming above like dying stars.
A monster leapt from the side—Kai didn't stop walking.
He stabbed it through the jaw with a bone-spike and yanked it back with a flick. Akari sliced down a crawling worm-thing that lunged from the wall, clean, one motion.
Another came screeching from the emergency stairwell.
Akari grabbed Kai's shoulder and boosted herself off him. "Duck!"
He did. Her heel barely missed his face. The monster didn't get the chance to scream before it got diced midair.
"Seriously," he muttered, brushing off slime. "You're showing off now."
"Maybe," she smirked, "but if I don't flex, who else will?"
Another horde burst through a broken train door up ahead. Shattered Riftborn—patched together limbs, half-electrical heads, sludge for torsos. Kai cracked his neck. "Alright, next round."
Together, they charged again.
[Riftborn Identified – "Gutterspine Groper"]
Threat Tier: F+
The swarm came fast. Broken limbs scraping concrete, twitching eyes, fused metal and skin pulsing with sludge.
It was another pack of malformed Riftborn, stitched together like rejected prototypes.
Kai didn't wait. He threw a bone spear straight into the largest one's eye. It didn't kill it, but it staggered back.
Akari dashed past him, her serpent lunging from her neck like a coiled whip. It bit straight into the monster's throat and dragged it down.
"They're tougher this round," she said, spinning her sword and parrying a smaller creature that pounced.
"Then don't hold back!"
Kai split into two illusions and rushed into the side, baiting half the pack.
One illusion got sliced instantly, the other dodged and led a trio into a collapsed rail car.
Kai used the chaos to flank them. He hardened his arm and punched through a torso, then kicked the rest away.
Akari jumped into the air and shouted, "Cover me!"
Her snake coiled around her waist, then launched her like a slingshot. She spun midair and slashed downward, slicing a Riftborn from head to spine.
Then the serpent burst forward and wrapped around the remaining monsters, tightening.
With a crack, the monsters convulsed and then burst apart—black sludge raining onto the rails.
Kai shielded his face from the blood, then lowered his arm. "…You used the snake's compression?"
"Yep!" Akari landed lightly beside him, brushing dust off her shoulder. "I don't use it much since I just got this snake, but hey—it's worth it."
She smiled wide, fangs slightly showing. "We make a pretty good team, huh?"
Kai glanced away. "Don't look at me like that…"
"Aw, are you flustered?"
"No," he mumbled, face slightly red, "you're just loud."
They found a half-buried maintenance booth near the rails and sat down on its cracked steps.
Kai wiped the sweat from his face, then leaned back, staring at the faint pulse of the rift walls far ahead.
Akari sat beside him, her serpent coiled lazily around her shoulders.
She reached into her coat, pulled out a tiny wrapped candy, and offered it to him.
"Strawberry," she said, smiling. "You liked this flavor, right?"
He took it, hesitated, then popped it into his mouth. "You really carry candy into rifts?"
"Why not? It helps with the nerves." She leaned back too, swinging her legs a little. "So, Kai—what's your dream?"
He glanced at her but didn't answer right away.
She stretched her arms and looked at the ceiling. "Mine's simple. I want to rebuild my clan. They were protectors once, but they were wiped out. I want to bring them back—not through war, but by saving people, helping others, doing something that matters."
Kai blinked.
That's almost the same…
And I want to bring it back. Not just for revenge, but to prove we still exist.
"That's interesting," he said, voice soft. "Really noble of you."
She turned to him. "What about you?"
He paused. The air felt heavy again. "I… want to get stronger. Strong enough to protect something I lost."
"That sounds sad."
"It's not." He looked at her candy wrapper still clutched in his hand. "I'm moving forward."
Akari smiled and stood. "Then let's both move forward. And when we're strong enough—we'll make the world remember our names."
"I don't even know your full story yet, but somehow… I feel like we've known each other for a long time," she continued
"…Yeah."
They found it at last — the Gemstone, glowing faintly beneath a pile of rubble, humming with faint energy.
"So, there's only one, right?" Kai asked, eyes narrowing.
"Yes," Akari nodded, "That's the core of this rift."
Without hesitation, Kai struck, his transformed arm smashing through the gem with a sharp crack. The gemstone shattered, shards scattering, and the faint pulse of the rift began to fade.
Instantly, the world around them blurred and warped — the rift collapsing.
They reappeared back in the real subway tunnel, dust settling on the cracked walls.
[SYSTEM ALERT: GeneDevourer Mission Complete]
[Rift Closed: E- Rank]
[Reward: €5000 transferred]
[Reward: 6x Common Material Packs, 5x Uncommon Material Packs]
→ [Convert to Normalized Fragments? Y/N]
Kai smiled wide, punching the air. "Let's go!"
Akari laughed, "Nice work, Kai!"
But before they could start heading out, a sudden light flickered at the tunnel's end. Something moved — fast and urgent.
"Wait, a train!" Akari shouted, eyes wide, "It's coming!"
"It's because of you, Kai!" She grabbed his arm.
Without thinking, they sprinted full speed down the track — faster and faster — their breaths ragged, hearts pounding.
The tunnel rumbled, metal screeched, the train roaring behind them.
Kai reached the subway entrance first, then turned and pushed Akari upward toward the platform edge.
He leapt after her but stumbled on loose gravel.
The train thundered past, so close it blew dust and wind over them.
Kai crashed down, his hands bracing on Akari's sides to keep her from falling.
She looked sideways, eyes flashing red with pain, and gasped.
He clenched his jaw. "I messed up…"