The world was not supposed to bleed.
And yet... it did.
A crack shimmered in midair like fractured glass suspended in time. Blue lightning slithered through the tear, leaking energy that made Steven's skin prickle.
"What the hell is that?" Steven whispered, stepping back, one hand instinctively glowing with a spell circle.
Zaira appeared beside him in a blink of light. Her eyes locked on the rift.
"No..." she muttered. "This shouldn't be here. The Veil isn't just torn—it's breaking."
Steven narrowed his eyes. "You mean the barrier between our world and—?"
"All of them," she interrupted. "Realms that should never touch are colliding. The Timekeeper's judgment destabilized the boundary."
A low hum rose from the rift, turning into a shrill screech. The temperature dropped.
Steven clenched his fists. "Of course it did. Every time we fix something, ten more things go to hell."
A clawed hand burst through the tear. Misshapen. Covered in obsidian scales.
Zaira's breath hitched. "Runes of Zynoth. That's not just a rift. It's a summoning gate."
Steven raised his hand, eyes glowing bright blue. "Then let's break it before anything else crawls through."
He launched a blast of mana that surged like a tidal wave. It struck the rift—
—and bounced off.
"No effect?" he muttered, stunned.
From behind, a voice echoed coldly.
"You cannot destroy what has already been unsealed."
Steven turned sharply.
A man in robes of shifting shadows stepped forward from thin air. No aura. No sound. As if reality didn't register his existence.
"Who the hell are you?" Steven growled.
The figure smiled faintly. "I am the one who remembers what the Codex forgot."
Steven's heart skipped.
Codex.
Zaira's eyes widened in recognition. "Wait… you're a Shadow Archivist. But they were erased—eons ago."
"Everything erased finds a way back," the figure replied. "Especially when the Veil breaks."
Steven stepped forward, his magic boiling at his fingertips.
"I don't care what memory you crawled out from. Close that rift. Now."
The figure didn't flinch. "You misunderstand, Starcaster. This is not the end of the world…" he extended a hand toward the rift as more claws began to rip through.
"…it's the beginning of remembrance."
Suddenly—
A monstrous roar exploded from the rift. A colossal beast with three jaws and no eyes emerged, its body shimmering like warped stardust. Every step it took bent gravity.
"Steven!" Zaira yelled. "That's a Riftborn! A beast made of collapsed timelines—"
"I got it!" Steven charged forward, glyphs spinning around his arms.
(Come on... focus.)
(If I let this thing out into the city—thousands die.)
He launched a spell. A complex seal burst into life beneath the beast's feet, binding it momentarily.
"Zaira, back me up!"
"Already on it!" She summoned twin blades made of radiant moonlight, slashing at the Riftborn's legs.
But the beast only roared louder, its flesh re-stitching in real time.
Steven gritted his teeth.
(Time... it's not linear to it. Normal spells won't hold.)
He remembered the Chronomancer's words:
"To defeat what defies time, you must become its contradiction."
"Then let's contradict the hell out of you," he whispered.
Steven's aura flared. His body lifted off the ground as the Codex within him pulsed violently.
A new spell formed—one not from this realm, nor any known to the spellcasters of Aetherion.
"Chrono-Severance!"
The world slowed.
Time cracked.
And Steven Lethal became a paradox.
(To be continued)