Dooom!
A black-haired man sat on the roof of a mansion, his sharp eyes scanning the horizon. Thorngage frowned.
" What's this ominous feeling?"
There were guards spread out across each and every corner of this huge mansion and everyone who met this man would stand in place, bow and say…
"Primarch."
He'd just nod at them and they'll raise their heads and continue their guarding job.
"I've got a feeling something big is coming… whether that's good or bad, I can't tell yet."
The man walked down the hallway, his steps steady as his eyes tracked every guard in sight, studying their movements and the way they held their positions.
All of a sudden, an unnatural pressure crushed the air itself, driving everyone to the ground. Only the man managed to stand his ground, though the weight of the pressure still pressed heavily upon him.
"Primarch, who would have this much aether amongst the Phantom Creed to be able to put this much pressure on everyone?" One of the guards asked, the pressure still pushing down on him.
Aether is the fundamental energy of the world, accessible only to people whose abilities have awakened.
"No one has this much aether." Thorngage responded.
A few seconds later, the crushing pressure faded and everything returned to normal.
"Phew! I thought I was going to die for sure." The guard who spoke with Thirngage earlier said.
"There is a person who I think can cause this much pressure." Thorngage said.
" Really. Wait Primarch, you don't mean…"
"Yes, he is the only one. Round everyone up in front of the Null Room."
In a matter of seconds, all sixty guards were summoned to the front of the mansion's most secure room. Standing before them were six figures, including Thorngage, the one who had ordered the guards to assemble. Among them were three men and three women.
"Primarch, are you sure about this?" Elira Duskborne asked, her bright blue eyes wide with concern. Her hair shimmered a vivid shade of blue, and at 5'7", she had an imposing presence despite her worry.
"You don't have to worry. Thorngage knows what he's doing," Rhaen Ignar said, his red hair catching the light. At 183 cm tall, his calm demeanor was hard to ignore.
"But—"
"I said, don't worry," Thorngage interrupted, his voice firm.
He held a small, round stone plate divided into five sections, each designed to hold an individual crystal. The guards standing beside him each clutched one crystal.
Elira stepped forward first, placing her bright blue crystal on the plate. It pulsed briefly with a soft glow. Rhaen followed, laying down his blood-red crystal, which also shimmered before he stepped back.
"I hope this works," said a black-haired young man, also in his early twenties. He placed a black crystal on the plate, but unlike the others, it did not react.
Lyss Vorn, calm and composed with long blonde hair, stepped up next. She placed her yellow crystal on the plate, which glowed softly, echoing the earlier reactions.
"Finally, it's happening, huh?" Tirion Ardent, a white-haired teenager in his late teens, murmured with a grin. Flicking his half-white, half-black crystal, he placed it on the plate. The moment it touched the stone, a new phenomenon erupted.
The stone plate blazed to life, flames of multicolored fire dancing across its surface—each flame reflecting the color of its corresponding crystal. Yet, Thorngage remained untouched, standing calm amidst the spectacle.
With precision, Thorngage placed the activated stone plate into a slot beside the door guarding the room. Stepping back, he gestured for the others to stand clear.
Slowly, the door creaked open, revealing a dark chamber emanating ominous energy waves. The pressure inside was palpable, reminiscent of the intense force they had felt during the first anomaly.
At the centre of the room stood a coffin-like device nearly three metres tall. It was built with a thick opaque crystal at base and on the sides. These sides had been etched with moving celestial runes which pulsed with energy like the heartbeat of a god.
Across the front, another large transparent crystal which was supposed to cover the device had cracked into two which lay on the floor.
Everything in the room was astonishing, but what stood out most was the teenage boy seated atop the three-meter-tall device with his eyes glowing faintly in the dark,his face hidden beneath the shadows. Two sheathed katanas rested beside him, each radiating an otherworldly aether of its own.
"Inside the Null room, the god sleeps –untouched by the flow of centuries." Thorngage said in a low tone. "So the myth…was real after all."
Everyone was left in a daze after they had raised their heads and their eyes had met Axel's gaze, the teenage boy. They were now shaking as if they had seen death in person.
"I'm Thorngage Dravenor, the current primarch of the Phantom Creed sworn to leadership by the previous Primarch to protect you."
" Primarch? Protect me?" Axel stood next to Thorngage gazing down at him.
No one saw the moment Axel left the coffin-like device. Even in a world where awakened beings could tear through the air faster than sound, his movement wasn't just fast—it was impossible.
"Who kept me in there?"
The voice was cold yet calm, carrying command without anger.
" From our education as the Phantom Creed, we learnt that you were kept there by Grandmaster Akira."
"Where is he? Or should I rather ask, where are we?"
"It's been ten centuries since you were kept in that device."
" What do you mean by ten centuries? Which era are we in?"
"Lord Axel…this year now is 3015. In your time, reading this, it would be the year 1035. The world you once knew…it no longer exists."
The place was silent. Not even a whisper stirred. And before anyone could blink, Lord Axel had vanished.
"How are we supposed to protect Lord Axel with our body being this fragile before him?"
" He's too powerful to be protected."
"Perhaps, he'd be the twenty-first (21st) Grandmaster of Eryndral."
The guards mumbled amongst themselves.
"Silence." Thorngage stood up.
"You've seen the truth now: the Grandmaster we've been protecting wasn't someone we could've defended if he hadn't been in stasis. But this isn't the end. There are things we can do to help him and we will. So let's give everything we've got. Let's be strong. Let's be sharp. Let's be useful. Together, we can make a difference!"
"Yes, Primarch" They all responded in unison.
"I'll go look for Lord Axel. The rest of you should get something reasonable to do."
"Prelates, there's an Aether quest you'll have to go and take care of. The association called for our help this time." Thorngage called, referring to the five other guards who placed their crystals on the stone plate to unlock the Null Room.
"I think you should get prepared and leave. I'm going to search around for Lord Axel."
****
Axel stood on the roof of the mansion, the wind brushing through his hair as he looked into the city below. There was something in particular that had caught his sight, the sleek, moving carriages of steel and glass. They glided without horses, their roars unlike any creature he knew. For a moment, Axel wondered if the world itself had learned magic in his absence. In his time, only horses carried men – now even steel seemed to obey.
"Lord Axel."
He turned to see Thorngage drop to one knee.
"Lord Axel, my blade is yours to command."
"Stand up."
"It seems you can't hear the Riftsong from this far. I don't have time right now but when I'm back we will have a lot to talk about." Before Thorngage could even speak again Axel disappeared again.
This time, though faintly, Thorngage felt it — as if Axel had walked past him. He wasn't teleporting to his destination; he was moving, literally walking… only at a speed no human eye could follow.
*Riftsong is a phenomenon only Resonants could hear. Resonants are those who have awakened their powers. The Riftsongs are mysterious vibrations that echo across reality whenever the balance of aether is disturbed. Riftsongs become harder to hear the farther you are and the lower your rank.
When the Riftsong is heard, an Ecliptic rift is formed. Ecliptic rifts are shimmering scars in a space caused by a damage in the fabric of reality itself which links the surface world to the abyssal layer – a different layer world where corrupted aether takes monstrous form and mutates other living things turning them into beasts.
The rankings of these Ecliptic rifts are from the lowest; Bronze rift, Silver rift, Gold rift, Platinum rift, Master rift and Grandmaster rift. The rankings are the same as how Resonants are ranked. When an Ecliptic rift is formed, a countdown automatically starts, each differing by the rank of the rift. From the lowest ranks of rifts the countdown starts from 72 hours, 48 hours, 24 hours, 12 hours, six hours and an hour.
After the countdown ends, the Ecliptic rift breaks releasing the aether beasts it had been holding back into the human world. According to each rank, a specific damage could be made when the beasts come out.*
***
"No passenger cars are allowed to pass here right now, just special access rights." A visibly muscular man fully clad in a Type-03 Vanguard armour, a basic armour of the modern army – durable, lightweight, and powered by low-grade aether cells for enhanced endurance, directed pedestrians out of the vicinity where the Ecliptic rift had appeared.
"Where are the Resonants supposed to take care of this rift."
The man's gaze lingered on the Ecliptic rift—until his eyes suddenly widened.
"No… this one's almost out of time!"
He didn't even have time to reach for his phone before the first beast tore through the rift—followed by several others, the first beast snarling,wild and real.
"I guess I'll have to start before that team arrives."
The man approached the feline-like beasts, tightening the metallic, fingerless gloves around his hands.
"Feline traits, silver fur, blue eyes…" He smirked faintly. "This is definitely a Velvark."
But before the beast could even get near him, they were already dead.
Clack!
It was the only sound that followed: the sound of a sword sliding back into its sheath. The man's eyes widened as he finally noticed the beasts fallen, motionless, and split cleanly before him.
He turned, and there stood a teenage boy dressed as if from a thousand years ago, two distinct swords sheathed at his side.
The boy didn't speak, didn't move. He only looked at him and that single glance was enough to send a shiver through the man's entire body.
"What an intimidating pressure…" The man's breath trembled. He couldn't believe it; his body was frozen, terrified of a boy who looked no older than seventeen.
"Hey!" He forced the word out, his voice trembling.
"What do you think you're doing–slacking off in front of a fractured Ecliptic rift?" Axel's voice was cold, emotionless.
The man froze. Each word struck like a blade to the soul—sharp, heavy, and laced with authority. That tone… it was the voice of an experienced Resonant, someone who had lived and survived countless battles.
Axel's gaze drifted toward the dying light of the rift.
"I knew this generation would be hopeless," he muttered.
"I'll be back," he said quietly, stepping into the rift.