The road to the ruined city was cracked and half-swallowed by nature. Twisted vines crawled over cars frozen mid-crash, streetlights bent at wrong angles, and broken glass glittered along the path like fallen stardust.
Nuel walked in silence, his eyes tracking every shadow.
Beside him, Kael adjusted his pack. "The city wasn't evacuated in time. Rift tears opened without warning. People vanished, mutated, or were frozen mid-motion. Don't trust what you see."
Nuel nodded. "I wasn't planning to."
Nyra and Elara moved ahead, blades and senses sharp. As they entered the outskirts, the air turned oddly still—no birds, no breeze. Just a humming tension, like the world was waiting to exhale.
They passed a skeletal bus, half-melted into the asphalt. Inside, figures sat motionless—like statues made of smoke and memory. Nuel paused, staring through the broken window.
"Echoes," Kael said quietly. "Fragments of the moment the Rift opened. Trapped in time."
"Are they… aware?" Nuel asked.
"No. But sometimes they repeat moments. Be careful. Some Echoes scream."
The deeper they went, the stranger it became. Colors shifted subtly—greens too vivid, shadows stretched too long. A supermarket entrance was blocked by a transparent wall of static, buzzing softly. Time here moved in stutters, like a broken film reel.
They set up camp inside a small clinic building that had somehow remained untouched. Nuel explored the upper floor, ending up in what used to be a pediatric waiting room. Toys still sat on shelves. A cracked mural of cartoon animals smiled down at him.
He sat on a bench, fingers tightening around the bracelet. "Why me?"
He didn't expect an answer. But he got one anyway.
The light shifted—and a boy appeared on the far end of the room. Maybe ten years old. Dark hair, wide eyes. He stared at Nuel without blinking.
"Hello?" Nuel asked, standing.
The boy tilted his head. "You left me."
Nuel blinked. "What?"
"You left us. When the sky broke."
Nuel stepped back. "You're not real."
"I was," the boy whispered.
Then—his body twitched, flickered—and with a horrible sound like tearing cloth, his form bent backward, face distorting into a gaping void. His scream wasn't loud—it was wrong, like a hundred voices at once, crying from beneath water.
Nuel stumbled back, hitting the door. Just as suddenly, the Echo vanished.
Kael was there in seconds. "You saw something."
Nuel nodded, shaken. "A kid. Said I left him."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "The city's full of regrets. It's feeding off yours."
"I never knew that kid."
"You don't have to. The Rift knows your doubts. It twists them."
Nyra appeared behind Kael. "We found something in the square. You'll want to see it."
The city square was cracked and overgrown. At its center stood a statue—an angelic figure holding a burning torch, wings spread wide. Around its base, five stone slabs lay shattered.
But what drew Nuel's eyes was the mural behind it. Painted across the building wall in deep crimson: the same three interlocking circles from the ruins. But this time, they glowed faintly. Pulsing.
Kael's voice was grim. "This wasn't painted. It bled through."
Elara knelt beside one of the slabs. "These are memorial stones… but the names are gone. Like time scrubbed them clean."
Nuel walked toward the mural, and the bracelet warmed on his wrist. The light from the circles intensified with each step. He raised his hand.
Suddenly, the world went still.
Everything froze.
Then the mural moved.
The circles spun slowly. The paint peeled back like skin. And through it, Nuel saw—himself.
Standing at the center of a burning city.
His eyes were glowing. People knelt around him—some crying, some screaming. In the vision, he raised his hand… and the Rift behind him split wider.
He looked like a god. Or a monster.
Then the image shattered.
Nuel gasped, falling back.
Kael caught him. "You saw something?"
"I was… changing. Like I was one of them. But worse."
Kael helped him stand. "The city shows possibilities. Not certainties."
Nuel shook his head. "Then why did I feel like it fit? Like I'd already done it?"
They stood in silence, the mural now dark.
Nyra looked around. "We shouldn't stay long. The energy here is unstable."
But before they could move, a chime echoed across the square.
All heads turned.
A door had opened across the plaza—its interior glowing with golden light.
"A Rift Gate," Kael breathed. "Unstable. Unnatural. But we might find answers."
Nyra stepped in front. "Or death."
Kael looked at Nuel. "Your call."
Nuel stared at the gate, heart pounding. Every instinct told him to run.
But something deeper pulled him forward.
He looked back at the others. "We go together."
They nodded.
And as the four stepped through the light, the city behind them shivered—and began to wake.