The night was unnaturally quiet.Base City 5 slept under its protective dome, unaware that the air itself had started to twist.
Aiden sat cross-legged in the center of his room, breathing evenly.The System's soft chime echoed in his mind.
[Doubling Cycle Initiated]Physique: 209,715.2 | Spirit: 209,715.2[Warning — Local space compression: 0.3%]
A low hum spread through the walls.The glass of his window quivered.Reality bent.
Aiden clenched his fists, forcing his breathing to stabilize. Each inhale drew cosmic particles from the air; each exhale released ripples of invisible force.The energy didn't disperse. It folded back, curving around him like a storm trying to contain itself.
He felt the fabric of the room stretch, threads of space tightening against his skin.
"Not good…"
He shifted into meditation, channeling the power into the Obsidian Edge's resonance network. The blade responded instantly, its black-silver glow flaring beneath his ribs. For a brief moment, the pressure eased—then something snapped.
A tear opened in front of him.
It wasn't light or shadow. It was absence—like someone had carved a piece of reality out of existence. From its edges leaked a faint violet mist, carrying whispers that weren't sound at all.
Aiden's heart froze.
A spatial rift…? I actually tore space?
The System's voice cut through the chaos.
[Alert — Dimensional breach detected.][Stabilizing protocols failing.][Recommendation: Discharge excess energy immediately.]
"And how exactly am I supposed to—"
The rift widened.
Wind roared from nowhere. The furniture around him splintered and lifted from the floor. His desk smashed against the wall, metal bending like paper.Aiden threw his hands forward on instinct, channeling every ounce of Spirit into the Obsidian Edge.
The blade burst from his palm in a streak of black light, its edge vibrating at impossible frequency. He slashed once—pure instinct—and the world screamed.
The tear shuddered, then snapped shut with a thunderous shockwave that blew out every light in the apartment.
When silence finally returned, Aiden stood in the dark, chest heaving, surrounded by fragments of his room.
Outside, the dome's sensors went insane.
Within seconds, alarms howled across Base City 5.The Martial Association's network lit up with emergency alerts: gravitational anomalies, dimensional distortion, unidentified energy surge.
Captain Nyra Voss received the call personally.
"Sector C-17," the operator said, voice tight. "Exact coordinates match the previous energy flare location."
Nyra's eyes narrowed. "Deploy a suppression team. I'm coming with them."
Aiden barely had time to process what had happened before the sirens began to echo through the district.He looked out the shattered window and saw the faint red pulse of drones sweeping the streets.
He couldn't hide this anymore.
But he also couldn't let them find the Core connection—or the System.
He closed his eyes. The Obsidian Edge dissolved into his body again, leaving no trace.Then he drew his hood up and stepped into the hall.
The building was mostly empty; most residents had evacuated days ago after the "earthquake." He moved silently through the stairwell, slipping out into the alley behind the complex.
The city beyond glowed crimson under the alarm lights.Hovercrafts streaked overhead, searchlights combing through the smog.
If they scan me, I'm finished.
He ducked between two warehouses, channeling Spirit energy to cloak his presence. His Infinite Comprehension reacted instantly, adapting the energy flow until his aura folded into the ambient field. His body shimmered once—and vanished from the sensors.
At the same time, Nyra's transport touched down near the building.Her boots hit the cracked pavement as she barked orders.
"Perimeter up. I want gravity stabilizers running. No one leaves this zone."
Technicians unpacked field generators, surrounding the block in glowing blue arcs. The air thickened, stabilizing against residual distortion.But Nyra felt it—the residue wasn't from a reactor or weapon.
It was alive.
She looked up. The air still shimmered faintly, like heat waves in the sky.
"Whatever did this," she murmured, "wasn't human."
Aiden watched from two blocks away, perched atop an abandoned tower.From here, he could see the entire containment effort—vehicles, drones, soldiers in reinforced armor.They were efficient. Organized. Afraid.
He almost pitied them.
Almost.
He opened his System again.
[Reality distortion stabilized.][Recommendation: Host relocation suggested.][Warning — Association scanning field detected.]
"Yeah, I noticed," he muttered.
Then another line appeared.
[Option Unlocked — Dimensional Compression (Partial): Would you like to fold presence temporarily into subspace?]
Aiden frowned. "Fold presence…?"
He hesitated only a second, then confirmed.
The world blinked.
In an instant, everything around him became muted. Sound vanished. Color drained to grayscale.He stood in the same place—but not quite. The city looked translucent, as though viewed through fogged glass. Time itself slowed.
He realized he was standing inside a thin layer of subspace, just offset from reality.
"You've got to be kidding me…"
He waved his hand through the air; his fingers passed through a hovering drone without resistance.It didn't see him. Didn't even register he existed.
So this is subspace travel…
But the technique burned through Spirit fast. The edges of his vision darkened. Within seconds, his breathing turned ragged.
He canceled the ability and snapped back into the normal world, gasping.
The System chimed.
[Dimensional Compression (Partial) learned via Infinite Comprehension.][Efficiency +300%. Duration extended to 2 minutes.]
Aiden grinned faintly. Even near disaster, the System evolved with him.
Below, the Martial Association began sealing the area, marking it a restricted zone.He couldn't stay in the city much longer. The next doubling could level a district.
He looked toward the horizon—toward the mountain range beyond the dome. The wild zones. No civilians. No sensors strong enough to track him.
"Guess it's time to move."
Far above, in orbit, the Observation Probe recorded every second of the distortion.Its report streamed through the void.
[Phase 1 Breaching Event Confirmed.][Host control at 92%. Containment unlikely.]
And in the higher layers, the Watchers turned their gaze downward again.
"He tears reality already," one murmured."Too soon.""Or perhaps exactly on time."
The others said nothing.They simply watched.
Aiden stood on the city's edge, the neon glow behind him fading into the night.He felt the pulse of the Core deep below—steady, patient, almost comforting.
For the first time, he whispered to it.
"You wanted a vessel? Then you've got one."
The wind caught his voice and carried it into the dark.
He took one step forward—and the city disappeared behind him.