2026-09-23 03:34:26CHAPTER EIGHT
The floor exploded. Stone fragments shot through the air as something enormous forced its way out of the darkness beneath us. I jumped backward, Elena raised her sword. The four men scattered. A deafening roar shook the entire basement. Then I saw it. A massive black arm emerged from the hole. It wasn't the Shadow-Stalker. I knew every creature that had appeared during the first week of the apocalypse. Every monster. Every rift. Every dungeon. This thing wasn't supposed to exist. "Move!" I shouted. The creature pulled itself out of the broken floor. It was enormous. At least four meters tall, with a body covered in dark scales. Two curved horns grew from its skull, and violet flames burned inside its empty eye sockets. A long chain was wrapped around its chest. At the end of the chain was a strange metal object that looked like a sealed box. My eyes narrowed. I had never seen anything like it. The System appeared. [Unknown Entity Detected.] [Classification Failed.] [Threat Level: Unavailable.] My stomach tightened. Even the System couldn't classify it. That was bad. Very bad. The creature opened its mouth. A wave of heat rushed toward us. "DOWN!" I dropped to the ground. Elena followed immediately. The four men weren't fast enough. The flames swept across the basement. One man screamed. His clothes caught fire as he rolled across the floor. Another slammed into the wall. I grabbed the nearest man's arm and dragged him behind a stone pillar. "Stay down!" The creature roared again. The entire cathedral shook. Elena appeared beside me. "What is that thing?" "I don't know." She stared at me. "I thought you knew something." "This isn't from my memories." Her expression changed. "You mean the future?" I didn't answer. She understood anyway. "You've seen this before?" "No." For the first time since meeting her, I saw genuine fear in Elena's eyes.The creature raised one massive foot. It slammed down. BOOM! The floor cracked. I stumbled. The creature's head turned toward me. Those violet flames locked onto my position. My heart stopped. It had noticed me. "Why is it looking at you?" Elena asked. "I don't know." But deep down, I had a feeling. The Temporal Echo. Ever since I returned, strange things had been happening around me. The first rift. The Shadow-Stalker. The System. And now this creature. Maybe changing the future wasn't simply changing events. Maybe the future was fighting back. The creature charged. "Run!" We scattered. Its fist smashed into the pillar where I had been standing. Stone exploded. I rolled across the floor and came up on one knee. My eyes scanned the creature. No obvious weakness.No visible core..No information. I needed to survive long enough to figure it out. The creature swung again. I ducked. Its arm passed over my head. I stepped forward and slashed at its side. The Widow-Maker struck its scales. CLANG! The blade bounced away. My eyes widened. I barely managed to jump backward before its other hand swept toward me. The claws tore through my shirt. I hit the ground hard. Pain shot through my ribs. "Damn it." The Shadow-Stalker had been weak against the Widow-Maker. This thing wasn't. Elena charged from the side. Her silver sword struck the creature's leg. The blade cut through the scales. Black blood sprayed across the floor. The creature roared. Elena immediately retreated. "So it can be hurt!" "Good!" I stood. The creature turned toward her. That gave me an opening. I looked at the strange metal box hanging from the chain around its chest. Why was it carrying that? The Temporal Echo suddenly pulsed. A vision flashed through my mind. The same creature. A ruined city. People running. The metal box opening. A blinding violet light. Then everything disappeared. I gasped. "What the hell..." The creature raised its hand and my eyes widened in fear. "Elena!" She looked at me. "Cut the chain!" "What?" "Don't attack its body. Cut the chain!" She didn't question me. Elena sprinted forward. The creature swung its arm. She slid beneath it. Her sword flashed. CLANG! The chain snapped. The metal box dropped to the floor. The creature suddenly screamed with pain. Its entire body began shaking. The violet flames inside its eyes intensified. I stared at the box. "Everyone get away from it!" Too late. The box opened. A wave of violet energy exploded through the basement. I was thrown backward. My body slammed into the wall. My vision blurred. The sound of screaming filled my ears. Then everything went silent. I slowly opened my eyes. The creature was gone. So was the box. Only a glowing violet mark remained on the floor. I pushed myself upright. Elena was lying several meters away. "Elena!" I ran toward her. She groaned and slowly opened her eyes. "I'm alive." "Good." I looked around. Two of the men were unconscious. One was dead. The fourth was nowhere to be seen. Then the System appeared. [Abnormal Event Completed.] [Hidden Rift has been temporarily sealed.] [Host has received an unknown fragment.] I frowned. "Unknown fragment?" Something cold moved through my chest. A small violet symbol appeared on my hand. It looked almost identical to the mark left on the floor. I stared at it. The Temporal Echo suddenly pulsed violently. This time, the vision wasn't from the future. It was from somewhere else. A vast darkness. Hundreds of glowing rifts. And something sitting beyond them. Something watching. Then I heard a voice. Not the System. Not human. A whisper. "You were never supposed to return." My eyes widened. The vision vanished. I stared at the mark on my hand. Elena noticed. "What happened?" I slowly closed my fist. "Nothing." But I knew that was a lie. The apocalypse wasn't following the future I remembered anymore. Something else had entered the game. And somehow... It knew I had come back.
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AUTHORITY OF DOMINION
CHAPTER ELEVEN My blood ran cold. I knew that ability. Authority of Dominion. In my previous life, it had belonged to Julius Everton. It was one of the abilities that made him terrifying after the apocalypse. He could force weaker creatures to obey him, suppress their instincts, and eventually control monsters that should have been impossible for a human to command. But he shouldn't have it yet. Not today. Not on the first day. Julius looked at his glowing hand with fascination. The Gold-Hoarder Golem remained motionless in front of him. Its enormous body was lowered, almost as if it were kneeling before its master. Julius laughed. "Aeron." I didn't respond. He turned toward me. "You look surprised." I tightened my grip around the Widow-Maker. "I am." "Good." His smile widened. "For once, I'm the one who knows something you don't." I stared at him. That wasn't entirely true. I knew more about the future than he could ever imagine. But the problem was that the
The Gold - Hoaeder Golem
CHAPTER TEN The growl came again, deep and heavy. Powerful enough to make the floor beneath my feet vibrate. Dust sifted from the ceiling. The chandeliers trembled overhead, their crystal ornaments clinking together in a frantic, uneven rhythm. Somewhere behind the walls, an alarm began to wail, adding another layer of noise to the growing chaos. The people inside the bank began screaming, some ran toward the entrance. Others rushed toward the elevators. A few froze where they stood, staring at the vault as if their minds refused to accept what they were seeing. The security guards tried to stop the crowd, but panic had already taken control. Their shouted orders disappeared beneath the roar of terrified voices. One guard was knocked to the ground by the fleeing customers, while another drew his weapon with shaking hands and aimed it uselessly at the vault door. I ignored them. My eyes remained fixed on the vault. Julius stood several meters away, completely calm. Too calm for
The Second Rift
CHAPTER NINE The mark on my hand refused to disappear, I rubbed it with my thumb. Nothing happened. It wasn't painful, but I could feel something beneath my skin. A faint pulse, almost like a second heartbeat. I pulled my sleeve over it. "Can you walk?" Elena pushed herself up from the floor. She winced and grabbed her side. "I can." "Then we need to leave." She looked around the ruined basement. "What about them?" I glanced at the unconscious men. "We can't carry everyone." Elena stared at me for a moment before nodding. We climbed the stairs. The cathedral looked completely different from when I had entered it. Broken stones covered the floor. Dust floated through the air, and several sections of the ceiling had collapsed. Outside, the city had descended into chaos. Sirens screamed in the distance. Cars had crashed into one another. People were running through the streets. Some were crying. Others were simply standing in the middle of the road, staring at the sky. The
Unexpected Rift
CHAPTER EIGHT The floor exploded. Stone fragments shot through the air as something enormous forced its way out of the darkness beneath us. I jumped backward, Elena raised her sword. The four men scattered. A deafening roar shook the entire basement. Then I saw it. A massive black arm emerged from the hole. It wasn't the Shadow-Stalker. I knew every creature that had appeared during the first week of the apocalypse. Every monster. Every rift. Every dungeon. This thing wasn't supposed to exist. "Move!" I shouted. The creature pulled itself out of the broken floor. It was enormous. At least four meters tall, with a body covered in dark scales. Two curved horns grew from its skull, and violet flames burned inside its empty eye sockets. A long chain was wrapped around its chest. At the end of the chain was a strange metal object that looked like a sealed box. My eyes narrowed. I had never seen anything like it. The System appeared. [Unknown Entity Detected.] [Classificati
The Timeline Changed
CHAPTER SEVEN The footsteps grew louder. I slipped the Seed of Agility into my pocket and tightened my grip around the Widow-Maker. There were at least five people above me. I knew this place. The basement had only one entrance, and whoever had entered the cathedral would have to pass through the main hall before reaching me. In my previous life, Saint Jude had become one of the first shelters in Oakhaven. Hundreds of survivors eventually gathered here. But that hadn't happened immediately. On the first day, only a handful of people had come looking for safety. And among those people was someone I had desperately needed in my first life. Someone who had died before I ever realized how important she was. I heard voices above me. "Check every room." "Do you think the creature is still here?" "It shouldn't be. The rift closed." My eyes narrowed. These weren't ordinary civilians.Their voices were too calm.I moved toward the staircase. Then I stopped. A strange feeling crawled a
The First Kill
CHAPTER SIX The moment my knife entered the creature's chest, I knew something was wrong. There was no resistance. The blade passed through its body as if I had stabbed a cloud of smoke. My eyes widened. I twisted my body just as a black claw swept across the space where my head had been. I hit the ground and rolled. The claw struck the stone floor. BOOM! Chunks of ancient stone exploded into the air as I pushed myself backward and stared at the Shadow-Stalker. It was exactly as I remembered. Nearly three meters tall, its body constantly shifting between solid flesh and thick black smoke. Its arms were too long for its body, ending in curved obsidian claws capable of slicing through steel. Two violet eyes burned inside the darkness where its face should have been. But there was one difference. It was looking directly at me, as it knew that I know it. In my first life, I had never been this close to the creature when it emerged. I had arrived three days later. By then, the Sh
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