The sky over the Eastern Archive fractured with a trembling roar.
Dust cascaded from the towering shelves as Aryan sprinted through the ancient corridor, scrolls fluttering like startled birds around him. Every few seconds, a deep pressure shock rippled through the floor—like a heartbeat traveling through stone.
BOOM.
Another tremor hurled him forward. Aryan barely caught himself on a pillar.
"ARYAN—RUN!"
Master Pravak's voice blasted through the hallway. Aryan twisted back.
Pravak stood at the entrance, palms out, golden barrier trembling, holding off a silhouette wreathed in rippling gravity.
A single step from the intruder made the entire hall bend inward.
"KAIRO—" Aryan whispered without meaning to. He didn't know the name, not truly, but the presence felt ancient… crushing… wrong.
Pravak shouted again, "Now is not your fight! GO!"
The barrier cracked like glass.
That was enough. Aryan turned and tore down the hall, sprinting toward the teleportation chamber.
Behind him, the barrier finally shattered.
But Aryan didn't turn back.
He couldn't.
A shrill whistle cut through the room—high, sharp, impossibly thin.
Abhi ducked instinctively as a bench behind him split cleanly in half, sound waves carving through metal as easily as cloth.
The lab lights flickered.
Master Adivar Udayan slammed his foot on the ground, releasing a counter-resonance that collided mid-air with the invisible attack, producing a crack of thunder.
"ABHI! Move!"
"I—I don't see anything! Who—!?"
Another sound arc scraped past his arm, leaving a burning numbness.
Adivar grabbed Abhi's collar and yanked him aside just before the attacker's next wave sliced through the spot he had been standing.
This one wasn't hiding. The figure walked forward with deliberate calm—air vibrating around him like a humming blade.
Hiro.
A man who didn't move fast—but made a sound move for him.
Adivar braced himself.
Abhi knew that stance—it meant delay him, don't win.
"Don't look back," Adivar whispered.
"Just run."
And Abhi ran.
Ahan shielded his eyes as a spiral distortion twisted the courtyard tiles, bending space like hot metal. The air rippled. The ground folded. A stone lantern stretched sideways before snapping back into place, exploding into dust.
"Master Kyle!" Ahan shouted.
Master Aster Kyle stood ahead, breathing heavily, hands forming layered spatial anchors that flickered like translucent squares around him.
"Ahan! You need to leave! NOW!"
"But—"
"NOW!"
The space in front of Kyle warped again—this time revealing a silhouette stepping through a fold in reality itself.
Ahan saw no face. Only the distortion. Only the impossible bending of air.
Zane.
The spatial reaver.
Kyle slammed an anchor into the ground. Ahan felt himself yanked backward by a force he couldn't resist—pulled through corridor after corridor until disciples caught him and shoved him toward the emergency gate.
"Ahan, move! Master Kyle will hold him!"
Ahan didn't want to.
He moved anyway.
Three domains.
Three masters.
Three intruders.
And three disciples fled for their lives.
The world blurred.
Aryan leapt over a collapsing bridge as gravity warped.
Abhi dodged another sound slice that tore through the stone behind him.
Ahan stumbled as a wall bent sideways for a moment before snapping straight.
All three reached the same thought at the same time:
What were those things?
They didn't know the answer.
Only that their masters had ordered them to run—and none of them had ever heard that tone before.
As panic surged in their blood, the trio activated their access seals.
Light swallowed them.
One after another, they appeared inside the Cave of Origins, collapsing onto the cold stone floor.
Aryan was shaking.
Abhi was clutching his arm, breathing unevenly.
Ahan's eyes were wide, unfocused.
For a moment, none of them spoke.
Then—
"You guys too…?" Aryan whispered.
Abhi nodded weakly. "Something attacked my society. Something is wrong. Master Udayan stayed behind—"
Ahan exhaled shakily. "Same. Space folded. It wasn't human."
They looked at one another.
None of them had ever seen each other this terrified.
Slowly, Ahan said the words none of them wanted to say aloud:
"Three attacks…"
He swallowed hard.
"At the exact same time."
A cold silence filled the cave.
Aryan clenched his fists.
"Who… who could do something like that?"
Abhi's voice trembled—not with fear, but realization.
"They weren't after us. They were looking for something. Something in the Society vaults."
Ahan looked up. His voice barely above a whisper.
"Then… what did they find?"
No one answered.
The only sound was their breath echoing through the ancient stone chamber—
—and the distant rumble of thunder outside, as if the world itself sensed the threat that had arrived.