They moved through ash and silence.
West of the Vault, the terrain shifted. Snow gave way to charred earth, ashen plains marked by rift-burn scars that glowed faintly beneath the surface. Towering husks of once-trees loomed in skeletal silence, petrified mid-burn by some long-forgotten pulse. It looked like a battlefield—but older. Forgotten by time. Haunted by something that never truly left.
Calyx limped, her brace stiffening with every uneven step. She refused help. Selis didn't push it, but Arix noticed the small flinch every time her boot caught the edge of blackened rock.
They moved in staggered silence. Even Thorne, who often broke tension with dry barbs or low commentary, said nothing. He hadn't spoken much since the Vault. Since nearly dying. Since watching Arix evolve.
Kael walked ahead, scanning with an old recon scope. "We've got heat signatures. Not Obsidian. Too dispersed."
"Scavengers?" Selis asked.
"Or worse."
Arix felt the echo thrum in his ribs. It pulsed slow and deep, as if the land itself spoke through it now. The sky above was low and bruised, swirling clouds flickering with static. Lightning flashed within them, but never struck. It hovered. Waiting.
> [System Alert: Rift Zone Interference – Navigational Systems Offline]
[Echo Resonance Unstable – Anomaly Field Detected Nearby]
"Something's wrong here," he muttered.
Calyx turned toward him. "Define wrong."
"It's like the shard is reacting to the land. Like… like this place remembers pain."
Selis raised an eyebrow. "Rift trauma? I've read theories—territories that retain memory impressions after major rift events."
"This is more than impression," Arix said.
As if on cue, a tremor rippled through the ground. The trees rattled. Black dust swirled.
Then the sky tore.
It wasn't dramatic at first—just a fissure of light, like someone splitting the clouds. But it widened into a spiral. A gash in reality. And something crawled out.
The creature wasn't Obsidian. It had no armor, no weapons. It shimmered like oil, featureless, limbs bending at wrong angles. It didn't walk. It flowed. More followed, slipping from the rift tear like water breaking surface tension.
Kael raised his weapon. "Aberrants!"
Five. Then seven. Then a dozen.
Calyx shouted. "Form on me!"
The team tightened. Arix felt the shard surge—not in warning, but in anticipation. The pulse of the void beat through his spine.
> [Ability: Rift Shatter – Unlocked]
[Cooldown: High | Damage Radius: 15m | Fracture-Type: Kinetic/Spatial]
He unleashed it.
The ground cracked. A violet shockwave exploded outward, flattening three of the things, sending a fourth tumbling into black crystal. The others recoiled, shrieking in silence.
Thorne took the gap and charged, hammer raised. The blow reduced one to splinters, but a tendril lashed his side, drawing blood.
Kael provided cover fire. Selis ran triage mid-combat, dragging Calyx behind scorched rock as more emerged.
They weren't infinite, but they didn't stop.
Arix lost count after fifteen.
They were being tested.
Calyx's rifle jammed. She ducked behind cover. Arix took her place without thinking. He fought without hesitation, his body a blur of motion and Echo power.
The creatures targeted him more than the others. Drawn to the shard. One nearly reached him—until Kael dropped it with a precision shot.
Eventually, silence returned.
Ash and ichor stained the plains.
> [System Update: Aberrant Population Neutralized]
[Field Integrity – Temporary Stabilization Achieved]
They gathered to breathe. Selis checked wounds. Kael lit a flare and drove it into the ground, marking the site.
"What the hell were they doing here?" he asked.
"Guarding," Arix said.
"Guarding what?"
Arix turned slowly. Beyond the field of battle, half-buried in ash, was a spire. Twisted. Metallic. Familiar.
Another Vault.
But not dormant.
It pulsed.
And this one wasn't calling to them. It was warning them.
---
They made camp under the shadow of a hollowed transport carrier. The thing had once been a mobile siege platform, judging by the exposed fusion core and rusted harpoon mounts. Now, it served as shelter from the drifting ash.
Calyx sat propped against a reinforced panel, leg still braced, rifle within reach. She didn't speak much. Arix could tell she was watching the spire—measuring it with the same wariness he felt in his chest.
"Whatever's in there," Kael muttered, "it isn't like the others."
"No," Selis agreed, tightening a dressing on Thorne's ribs. "It's older. The readings are spiking in patterns I've never logged. Like a heartbeat—intermittent, erratic."
"Sentient?" Arix asked.
"Maybe," she said. "Or just alive enough to hate."
The fire crackled low. No one laughed.
Later that night, Arix found himself pacing alone, the echo pulsing like a distant drumbeat behind his thoughts. He kept glancing at the horizon, where the Vault's glow grew brighter with each hour. It wasn't just a structure. It was aware.
He wasn't afraid—but he was wary. Something deep in his bones whispered that crossing into this next Vault would change more than just his strength.
He thought of the Aberrants. The way they moved. How they'd come through the Rift like they belonged here.
He thought of Calyx, the way she shielded her fear in silence.
Of Thorne, still breathing but quieter with every mile.
Of Kael, getting more precise, more dangerous—like he knew what was coming.
And Selis, whose hands never stopped working, even when no one was watching.
This wasn't just a team anymore. It was something heavier. Something that held the world's weight on broken shoulders.
The shard pulsed again.
> [Echo Sync: 52%]
[Emotional Anchor: Stable]
[Potential Divergence Detected – Vault Response Pending]
He turned toward the Vault.
Tomorrow, they would breach it.
And nothing would be the same.