The first scream cut through the silence like a blade.


    Aiden froze. He had never heard a person die before, but he knew instantly—that sound didn’t belong to someone still breathing. It was raw, guttural, choked off too soon.


    Then came the second scream. And the third.


    Squad Eclipse broke formation. Boots pounded against concrete. Shadows shifted unnaturally. Aiden turned his head toward the noise, but all he could do was listen.


    "What the hell is that?!" someone shouted.


    "Get back! Get back!"


    Aiden moved purely on instinct, throwing himself against a nearby wall. His pulse thundered in his ears as another shriek tore through the squad, followed by a wet, sickening crunch.


    A body hit the ground. Then another.


    Aiden swallowed hard. This wasn’t a normal Rift attack. He had been in Rifts before, heard the way creatures moved. He had fought alongside Hunters who had the power to tear monsters apart.


    But this was different.


    The thing hunting them—it wasn’t moving like a mindless beast. It wasn’t charging them head-on like the lesser creatures that usually emerged from Rifts. This was a predator. It was waiting, lurking, striking when they least expected it.


    And Squad Eclipse had no idea what to do.


    Aiden tried to control his breathing. He needed to think.


    The mission was supposed to be reconnaissance. No engagement, no unnecessary risks. Yet Dain had pushed them deeper, ignoring every warning sign. Now, half the squad was dead, and the rest were blindly scrambling to fight something they couldn’t see.


    Aiden clenched his fists. He needed to move. Standing still was as good as waiting to die.


    Another scream ripped through the air, followed by the sound of tearing flesh. Aiden tensed. That was close—too close.


    Someone stumbled past him, gasping for breath. He recognized the voice.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Varon. One of the squad’s stronger fighters, a C-Rank Hunter.


    "Varon!" Aiden hissed. "What’s happening?"


    A choked sound escaped Varon’s lips. "They’re—they’re inside the shadows." His voice trembled. "They don’t move like anything I’ve seen before. They—they don’t make sense."


    Aiden’s stomach twisted.


    Shadow creatures. That explained why the squad hadn’t noticed them at first. Some Rifts produced entities that could merge with the environment, lurking just beyond the edges of perception. Most required special vision enhancements to see.


    Aiden had no enhancements. No abilities. Nothing.


    And yet, he could feel them.


    The weight of the air, the shifting distortions in sound—everything screamed at him that the Rift was alive, breathing around them.


    Varon coughed, trying to catch his breath. "Dain—Dain''s lost it. He''s trying to fight, but you can’t hit them. They move before you even strike. They’re—they’re toying with us."


    Aiden pressed his back against the cold wall, his hands tightening into fists.


    He was useless. He had no weapons that could harm these things. No power to protect himself. No way to even see the enemy.


    The others were dying, and soon, so would he.


    Varon gasped, his breathing growing heavier.


    "Varon?" Aiden whispered.


    Silence.


    Aiden''s chest constricted.


    Then he heard it.


    A slow, wet tearing sound.


    A breathy, inhuman whisper, so close it sent ice through his veins.


    Then something dropped at his feet.


    Aiden recoiled. His fingers brushed against something warm, slick. His stomach lurched as he realized—it was Varon.


    A hand. A severed hand.


    Aiden staggered backward, bile rising in his throat. His mind screamed at him to move, to run, to do something. But there was nowhere to go.


    Then, for the first time, he heard them.


    Not the Hunters. Not his squad.


    The things inside the Rift.


    A whisper, layered and distorted, slipping through the air like a phantom breeze.


    "One remains."


    Aiden''s body turned ice cold.


    Another whisper, lower this time.


    "He does not belong."


    The presence around him thickened, pressing in from all sides. The air itself seemed to shudder, as if the Rift was reacting.


    Aiden''s breathing came fast and shallow. His hands scrambled against the concrete wall, searching for something—anything—to hold onto.


    The whispers twisted into something almost… amused.


    "Shall we show him?"


    Something slammed into his chest.


    Aiden''s world tilted.


    For a moment, he was weightless. Then he hit the ground hard, the air knocked from his lungs.


    Pain exploded through his ribs. He coughed, tasting blood.


    A deep, vibrating growl rumbled through the air. Something shifted above him, the air growing thick with the scent of decay.


    Aiden squeezed his eyes shut.


    This was it.


    This was where it ended.


    Left behind. Forgotten. He had always known he would die this way. Alone.


    The shadows moved.


    Something reached for him.


    A pressure built behind his eyes, sharp and burning. A pulse of something foreign, something ancient ignited deep in his skull, like a crack splitting through stone.


    A sound, low and distant, echoed through the Rift.


    Not a growl.


    Not a whisper.


    Something deeper. Something that did not belong here.


    Aiden gasped as his vision exploded into light.


    And for the first time in his life—


    He saw everything.