The Rift hummed around them, its pulsing glow casting eerie shadows against the cracked pavement. Aiden kept to the back, hands loose at his sides, watching. Always watching.
The team wasn't nervous.
Why would they be?
This was just an E-Tier Rift.
No one cared about Rifts this low-ranked. They were glorified training grounds—perfect for rookies, side cash for weak Hunters, and just dangerous enough to pretend they mattered.
But Aiden knew better.
Something was wrong.
He just didn't know what yet.
Jenna moved ahead, scanning the streets with sharp eyes. "Standard formation. Sweep, clear, regroup. Boss is still active, so stay alert."
"Yeah, yeah," Garrick muttered, flexing his hands. The metallic sheen of his reinforcement Trait thickened slightly over his gauntlets. "E-Rank boss in an E-Tier Rift? Not exactly a death sentence."
"It is if you get careless," Jenna shot back.
Aiden barely listened. His focus was elsewhere.
For a moment, his vision flickered.
The Rift twisted—just slightly, just enough to notice. Like something was pressing against it from the other side.
Then it was gone.
Like nothing had changed at all.
Maybe it was nothing.
Maybe.
Jenna gave a sharp gesture. "Move in."
The air inside was stale, the sky a dull, overcast gray that never moved. A fake world, stitched together by the Rift's rules.
Ruined buildings stretched ahead, crumbling at the edges like they had been left to rot for centuries. The occasional streetlamp flickered weakly, powered by something that wasn't electricity.
"Alright, spread out," Jenna ordered.
The team moved without hesitation.
Aiden stayed in the back.
Watching.
The Hunters weren't just using weapons.
They were using their Core Traits.
Weak abilities—D-Tier, E-Tier at best—but useful.
Marcus, a wiry guy with twin daggers, moved ahead first. His Trait let him send weak vibrations through metal, sharpening his blades just enough to cut deeper.
Tess walked beside him, her boots making no sound at all. Her Trait dampened her movements, making her nearly silent—good for ambushes, but nothing special in a straight fight.
Even Garrick—**loud, arrogant Garrick—**had a decent reinforcement Trait. His gauntlets gleamed slightly, his skin beneath them coated in a thin layer of hardened metal. Stronger than the others, but still nothing close to real power.
Fodder ranks.
That's all they were.
And yet—
They were still stronger than him.
Or at least, they should have been.
The first strays showed up within minutes.
Thin, spindly creatures with elongated limbs and jagged teeth. E-Tier trash.
Jenna moved first.
One clean strike—the nearest creature dropped, throat severed.
Marcus darted forward, his vibrating daggers carving through flesh like butter.
Tess moved between them, her silent steps letting her slip behind a creature before driving a knife into its skull.
Soren flicked his wrist, a superheated wire shooting out, cutting through two creatures at once.
Aiden didn't move.
Didn't fight.
Just watched.
The others barely noticed him.
That was fine.
It gave him time to see.
And his vision…
It wasn't normal.
Every movement. Every shift in their stance. Every twitch before an attack landed—he saw all of it.
Before it happened.
The creatures died in seconds.
Within minutes, half the strays were gone.
Routine. Simple. Exactly what they expected.
Aiden's fingers twitched.
Something was wrong.
Not with the team. Not with the fight.
With the Rift.
[SYSTEM UPDATE: PASSIVE SENSORY SYNCHRONIZATION IN PROGRESS.][STAT ADJUSTMENT: PERCEPTION +0.4][WARNING: ENVIRONMENTAL DISTORTION DETECTED.]
Aiden's stomach clenched.
There it was again.
That same System calibration message.
It wasn't just happening when he stepped into the Rift.
It was happening now.
His Perception had increased again.
Something about this place was interfering with him.
He glanced up.
The buildings in the distance—they weren't stable.
Not physically. Not visually.
Something about the way they shifted, **flickered—**like the Rift itself was being rewritten in real time.
A new sound.
A low, grinding noise rippling through the air.
Metal scraping against stone.
Aiden stiffened.
No one else reacted.
They hadn't heard it.
His pulse quickened.
And then—
The ground shook.
A guttural, distorted screech ripped through the air.
A building in the distance collapsed inward.
A massive silhouette emerged from the dust.
The E-Tier Rift Boss.
Or at least—
What was left of it.
Its torso had been caved in. Ripped open, shredded—torn apart from the inside.
And crouched in the ruins of its corpse—
Something else.
Something that wasn't supposed to be here.
[WARNING: UNIDENTIFIED ENTITY DETECTED.][SYSTEM ERROR—THREAT LEVEL ABOVE EXPECTED PARAMETERS.]
The creature rose.
Low D-Tier, maybe High.
Too strong for this Rift.
Too strong for them.
And the worst part?
It wasn't attacking.
Not yet.
It was watching.
And Aiden knew, deep in his gut—
It wasn't looking at the team.
It was looking at him.