Aiden took a slow, shaky breath.
The Rift pulsed, thick with the weight of something wrong.
The thing standing before him—the real boss of this place—wasn't just strong.
It was waiting.
Waiting for him.
And now, for the first time, Aiden saw it clearly.
A hulking shadow.
Its limbs were slick with something too dark to be blood, its form constantly shifting at the edges—not flickering like before, but warping, bending. The thing looked humanoid in the vaguest sense. Broad, thick-limbed, with a torso that pulsed like it was breathing. Its fingers were long, jagged claws, still dripping with the remains of its last kill.
No face. No mouth.
Just a hollow void where a head should be—a spiraling abyss of shifting black, pulling in the light around it.
Aiden's stomach twisted.
It was staring at him.
Not at Jenna.
Just him.
Aiden clenched his fists.
And then, it moved.
It didn't lunge. Didn't charge like some mindless beast.
It flickered.
Aiden barely had time to react before a clawed limb lashed toward him.
He tried to dodge—too slow.
The impact hit like a hammer to the ribs.
Aiden crashed into the pavement, gasping. His entire body screamed in protest, but he forced himself up, staggering to his feet.
The creature was already there.
Another flicker—another strike coming too fast.
Aiden barely twisted away, rolling across the ground as the claws tore deep gashes into the concrete where he'd just been.
Jenna had been fast.
Tess had been faster.
Neither of them had been fast enough.
And Aiden?
He wasn't even close.
His lungs burned. His ribs throbbed.
The monster was playing with him.
It could've killed him already.
Aiden gritted his teeth, his hands curling into fists.
Something inside him cracked open.
A sharp, electric burn surged behind his eyes—like white-hot wires threading into his skull.
Pain.
Too much.
Aiden's eyes erupted in golden fire.
Reality split.
The battlefield fractured—shifting between multiple versions of itself at once.
The air itself felt wrong, warping between possibilities.
Golden afterimages of himself scattered across the battlefield—each one acting out different futures.
One lunged.One dodged.One froze.Most died.
It was too fast.
Too many deaths, too much to process.
Aiden's breath hitched. His body locked up.
His own visions paralyzed him.
The monster didn't wait.
A claw tore through his side.
Aiden stumbled, nearly falling.
Blood spilled.
He was too slow.
His power wasn't an answer.
It was a flood.
Drowning him.
Aiden barely dodged the next strike, but his body lagged behind his vision.
His foot caught on the uneven pavement.
Another afterimage of himself flickered beside him—one that dodged faster.
Too late.
The monster's next attack ripped across his shoulder.
Aiden gasped, blood dripping onto the pavement.
He wasn't fast enough.
The golden echoes of his failed futures flickered, each one shifting through different possibilities.
A future where he dodged too late. Dead.A future where he attacked too early. Dead.A future where he hesitated for a second too long. Dead.
He had to choose.
Aiden lunged—but his body couldn't keep up.
Pain blurred his vision.
The monster's form flickered, preparing to strike again.
Aiden forced himself to move—but his body rebelled.
Too much strain.
His afterimages were collapsing too fast.
He didn't have a perfect future to follow.
No ideal path.
Just survival.
Aiden picked the best failure.
The one that lived.
His body blurred, a golden afterimage barely keeping up.
The monster struck.
Aiden was already moving.
Pain—sharp, brutal—tore through his ribs as he slipped under the claw, barely surviving.
His fingers wrapped around his fallen knife.
The world stabilized for just one second.
Aiden drove the blade deep into the abyss where the creature's head should've been.
The Rift convulsed.
The monster froze.
Then, it collapsed.
Aiden barely stayed standing.
The golden afterimages of his failed futures disintegrated, scattering like dying embers in the wind.
The world snapped back into place.
The body of the monster began to dissolve—but something remained.
A small, flickering wisp of light.
It drifted toward him.
And then—
It slammed into his chest.
Aiden locked up.
The System flashed.
[SEEK THE SOURCE.]
[VISIONARY CODE ACTIVATION: +3%.]
[UNSEEN ENTITY INTERACTION CONFIRMED.]
[ANOMALY STABILIZED… PARTIALLY.]
Aiden gasped.
His head pounded. His vision swam.
His body couldn't handle the strain.
He felt closer to something.
Something deep. Something old.
But he didn't understand.
Not yet.
His fingers twitched. Something felt… different.
Then—
He remembered his Hunter-issued wristband.
Aiden forced himself to glance down.
It was a standard model, designed to track rank and Hunter stats.
He shouldn't have changed.
He was still F-Rank.
Right?
He pressed the small interface on the side, letting the display flicker to life.
His breath caught.
[HUNTER STATUS UPDATE]
[Rank: F → E]
[Core Trait: Unactivated]
[Potential Trait: UNKNOWN]
[Mana Capacity: 0.7 → 1.2]
[Reflex Calibration… Incomplete.]
Aiden's pulse spiked.
He wasn't F-Rank anymore.
His body had changed.
And he hadn't even realized it.
What the hell was happening to him?
A voice broke the silence.
"You…"
Aiden turned.
Jenna was still standing.
Her eyes were on him.
No, not him.
His eyes.
She took a slow step forward, grip tightening on her sword.
"I thought…" Jenna's voice was hoarse.
"I thought the Kains' loser son was blind."
Aiden didn't answer.
Because he didn't know what to say.
.