The first thing I heard was the sound low, pulsing, alien. Like the world itself was groaning in pain.
The towers of Elaris, once calm and glowing, now trembled with light that stuttered and broke. The sky above cracked open into swirls of violet and black, energy bleeding through like ink in water.
Kael's voice snapped through the chaos. "Akiya, move!"
He grabbed my arm, pulling me through the rush of panicked citizens. The air was thick with shimmering dust fragments of Aether light raining from ruptured conduits.
"What's happening?" I shouted.
"The Aetherborn," he said grimly. "They've breached the Shield."
A shriek cut through the air not mechanical, not human. I turned just in time to see it: a creature crawling from the shimmer where the Rift's light met the city's barrier. Its form flickered between solid and spectral half flesh, half shadow. Its eyes glowed with the same violet light that burned in my veins.
My heart froze. "They look... alive."
"They're not," Kael said, drawing his weapon a blade of solidified light that hummed like the Core itself. "They're echoes of those who tried to consume the Aether. Stay behind me!"
But the creature was fast.
It lunged, the air warping around it, and Kael barely managed to parry. Sparks of blue light sprayed across the plaza as metal met energy. I stumbled back, shielding my face and felt that same pulse again inside me, stronger, angrier.
The city screamed. Explosions of light burst along the towers as defense drones swarmed overhead, firing beams that barely slowed the invaders.
Kael turned toward me, shouting, "Get to the lower platforms! Go!"
But I couldn't move. The glow beneath my skin had become a steady blaze. My pulse thudded in sync with the Rift above every beat louder, every breath heavier.
"Akiya!" Kael yelled again, but his voice was distant now, drowned out by the rising hum in my head.
The world slowed.
I could see every flicker of light, every fragment of dust frozen midair. The creature's next strike came in slow motion and instinctively, I raised my hand.
The air rippled.
A sphere of blue-white energy burst outward from my palm, slamming into the creature with a force that shattered the plaza floor. It screamed a sound like static and agony before disintegrating into a thousand shards of violet light.
The shockwave knocked Kael to his knees. I stood there, trembling, my arm still extended.
"What... did I just do?" I whispered.
Kael looked up at me, eyes wide. "You channeled the Aether. Without a conduit. That's impossible."
"I didn't mean to!" I gasped. My whole body was shaking, energy arcing off my fingertips like lightning. The glow in my veins was burning now, crawling up my arms, my neck.
"Akiya, listen to me!" Kael shouted, grabbing my shoulders. "You have to control it focus! The Aether responds to thought. Calm your mind or it will consume you!"
"I can't!"
The ground cracked beneath us as another pulse ripped free, sending debris flying. Kael held on tighter, his forehead pressed to mine.
"Kimi wa daijōbu da," he whispered.( You're okay). "Breathe. Feel the rhythm of the Core."
His voice cut through the chaos like a thread of light. I closed my eyes, forcing myself to inhale, to listen. Beneath the noise, beneath the fear, I felt it that heartbeat again. The same pulse that hummed through the city.
I matched my breath to it. One beat. Two. Three.
Slowly, the glow receded. The air calmed. The hum softened into stillness.
When I opened my eyes, the square was silent. The sky still burned with Rift-light, but the immediate threat was gone.
Kael exhaled shakily, still gripping me. "You did it."
I nodded weakly. "Barely."
He glanced around the city guards already moving to contain the damage, the distant sound of alarms echoing through the streets. "That was no ordinary attack. They were probing. Testing your strength."
I swallowed. "They were looking for me."
Kael met my eyes. "Yes. And now they know exactly what you are."
By the time the fires were out, Elaris was no longer the same. The towers that once pulsed with harmony now flickered uncertainly, as if the city itself was afraid.
The Council called an emergency assembly. Lyra's expression was unreadable as she faced us in the fractured chamber.
"The Aetherborn have returned," she said. "And they came for the Rift-borne girl."
"Name's Akiya," I muttered under my breath.
Lyra ignored me. "We cannot risk another surge. She must leave Elaris immediately."
"What?!" Kael snapped. "You can't send her out there alone!"
"She will not be alone," Lyra said coolly. "You will accompany her. Take her beyond the city walls to the ruins of Miralith. If she truly has the power to restore balance, it must be tested there."
Kael's jaw tightened. "That region is unstable."
"That is why she must go."
Her golden gaze shifted to me. "The Rift chose you, Akiya Tanaka. Now you must choose whether to embrace it... or be devoured by it."
The chamber fell silent.
I looked at Kael his steady eyes, the faint light reflecting off his armor. My hands were still trembling, faint trails of energy pulsing beneath my skin.
"I don't know if I can control it," I whispered. "But I'll try."
Kael's lips curved slightly. "Then we begin at dawn."
Outside, thunder rolled across the shimmering sky not from weather, but from the Rift itself. It pulsed once, like a heartbeat, and I could almost swear I heard that voice again, whispering faintly in Japanese:
「...Akiya... kagi o hirake...」
(Akiya... open the key...)
A chill ran down my spine.
Whatever was waiting beyond the walls it already knew my name.
(Path to miralith)...
The city gates stood open for the first time in centuries. Beyond them the world shimmered beneath the violet sky endless ridges of crystalline rock, rivers of light threading through black sand.
Kael and I stopped at the threshold. Behind us, Elaris hummed with wounded light; ahead, the horizon pulsed with danger.
"Once we cross," Kael said, "the Shield won't protect us. The Aether is wild here."
"Great," I muttered. "From lab accident to alien wilderness. Just my luck."
He almost smiled. "Stay close. The Core still stirs in you it may draw attention."
We stepped out. The air changed instantly denser, charged. My hair lifted as if the wind itself carried static. Every breath tasted of ozone and metal. The faint hum in my veins answered the rhythm of the land, a quiet thump-thump that refused to fade.
For hours we walked across broken plains. Shards of old towers jutted from the ground, half-swallowed by sand. I brushed one, and an image burst in my mind: a city like Elaris, bright and alive, then falling into shadow.
"Miralith," Kael said quietly. "Before the first Rift War."
"So this used to be…"
He nodded. "Our sister city. It reached too far into the Rift's power. When the Aetherborn rose, Miralith fell first."
The wind shifted, carrying faint whispers. I froze. "Did you hear that?"
Kael's hand went to his blade. "Echoes. The dead speak through the Aether here."
"Comforting."
He crouched by a fractured pillar, tracing symbols glowing faintly beneath dust. "These runes speak of a 'Gate-Heart.' A device meant to stabilize the Rift. If it still exists…"
"…it could send me home," I finished.
He met my gaze. "Or destroy both worlds."
Night fell fast. The stars here weren't like ours they moved, flowing slowly like rivers of light. We made camp beside a ridge where the sand glowed faintly blue.
Kael tended a small energy lantern while I sat on a rock, staring at my hands. The glow was returning, faint but steady.
"Still can't turn it off," I said.
"You shouldn't try," he answered. "It's part of you now."
"Easy for you to say. You're not the one who might explode."
He chuckled softly. "No, but I've been close enough."
I looked at him. "You've faced the Rift before, haven't you?"
His smile faded. "I lost people there. My brother led the first expedition into the breach. He never returned."
The silence that followed was heavy. Finally I said, "Then why help me? I'm the reason it's open again."
Kael turned the lantern low, shadows softening his face. "Because you didn't open it to destroy. You sought connection. That matters."
Something warm flickered between us small, fragile. Then the ground trembled.
A pulse of violet light surged from beyond the ridge. The air cracked. Kael was on his feet instantly, weapon drawn. "They've found us."
Shapes emerged from the dark tall, thin, wrapped in smoke. The Aetherborn. Their eyes burned with the same color as the Rift.
One hissed, voice fractured: "Key… of the Gate…"
Before Kael could strike, one lunged at me. Instinct took over. I raised my hands and the earth responded. Energy burst upward in a spiral of blue light, slamming the creature aside.
The others shrieked. Kael moved like lightning, his blade slicing arcs of silver through the night. I felt the hum build again inside me, louder, until the world blurred into sound and light.
"Kael!" I cried. "I can't...."
"Control it!" he shouted. "Center yourself think of the Core!"
I closed my eyes. For a heartbeat, I saw Elaris the towers, the harmony of light and reached for that rhythm. The power snapped into focus, no longer wild but precise.
When I opened my eyes, the Aetherborn were retreating, dissolving into smoke that bled back into the Rift.
Silence fell.
Kael stood breathing hard, blade dimming. "You just drove them off."
I swayed, exhausted. "Or scared them."
He caught me before I fell. "Either way, you survived. Miralith is near. Rest."
As the first pale glow of dawn touched the horizon, I looked toward the distant ruins black silhouettes against a rising sea of violet light.
Somewhere in that dead city lay the Gate-Heart. And deep inside me, the voice whispered again:
「…Akiya… saigo no tobira o hirake…」
(Akiya… open the final door…)
I shivered. "Kael… I think the Rift is calling me."
He met my eyes, steady and calm. "Then tomorrow, we answer."
."....to be continued...."