The air around Orin crackled, heavy with the pressure of the rift looming overhead. The once calm Hollow Field was now tainted, distorted by the pulsing breach in the sky. Jagged tears in reality shimmered like broken glass, and from one of them, something slithered into existence.
Orin tightened his stance, knees bent slightly, boots planted firmly on the grass. His muscles still ached, but the dull pain that had gnawed at him earlier was retreating, replaced by a growing strength humming in his bones. The Chaos energy was healing him—not instantly, not completely—but enough. He was getting better.
He flexed his fingers, and the floating system panel in front of him shimmered again.
"New Ability Unlocked: Chaos Spear (Basic Form)."
"Warning: Instability detected. Usage may cause energy backlash."
Orin grimaced. "Great."
No time to waste.
The creature emerging from the rift was no comforting presence. It was jagged and wrong — half-smoke, half-flesh, with too many limbs that flickered in and out of phase with reality. Its eyes were hollow, but they saw him.
It screeched, a sound like shattering glass, and lunged.
Orin reacted without thinking.
"Chaos—Spear!" he shouted.
The energy inside him surged to his fingertips, wild and burning. A golden bolt of power exploded outward — too fast, too raw. It missed the creature by several feet, the uncontrolled shot slicing through the grass and carving a molten trench across the field.
Orin stumbled backward, blinking in shock. His hands tingled painfully from the backlash, like static burns crawling up his arms.
"Not good, not good!" he muttered under his breath.
The creature screeched again, diving at him. It moved in jerks and glitches, reality around it distorting every time it took a step.
Orin barely dodged, throwing himself to the side, his body moving faster than it had the day before. The Chaos energy wasn't just healing him — it was making him faster, sharper. He rolled to his feet, the pain in his ribs flaring but manageable.
"Come on!" Orin growled, gathering the energy again.
This time, he tried to feel it, not force it. Like remembering how to breathe. A second spear began to form in his hand — shaky, unstable — but real.
The creature lunged again.
Orin hurled the Chaos Spear.
It struck the beast in the shoulder — a glancing blow — but the result was immediate. The creature spasmed violently, its form flickering, destabilizing, chunks of it tearing apart like paper in a storm.
But it wasn't dead.
Not even close.
The thing reformed, shrieking louder than before.
Orin grimaced. "You've gotta be kidding me."
He could feel his energy draining fast — the floating HUD showed his Chaos reserve dipping sharply.
"Energy: 43% remaining."
"Half-empty already?"
His breathing grew heavier. Every attack cost him. Every mistake hurt.
The creature lashed out, claws raking the ground where Orin had stood a moment ago. He dodged again, more smoothly this time, but the effort sent a spike of pain through his side.
"You're not invincible," he reminded himself through gritted teeth. "You're just... getting better."
Another spear. Another throw.
He was getting the shape of it now, the rhythm.
The bolt struck the creature's midsection, and this time it shrieked in agony. A large chunk of its form dissolved into a mist of static. It staggered back, twitching and spasming.
Orin took a shaky breath.
"One more shot."
He pulled in the Chaos energy again, slower, more deliberate this time. The spear formed more cleanly, humming between his fingers like a living thing.
He hurled it with everything he had.
The third Chaos Spear hit dead center, piercing through the creature's chest.
The thing gave one final, glitched howl — and then it shattered into fragments, dissolving into the air like ash blown by the wind.
The silence afterward was deafening.
Orin collapsed onto one knee, gasping for air.
The HUD flickered:
"Energy: 27% remaining."
"Combat Record: 1 Rift Entity Defeated."
He wiped sweat from his brow, staring up at the rift above. It was shrinking now, sealing itself like a wound slowly scabbing over. But the damage was done. The field was scarred, the grass blackened where Chaos energy had burned into it.
And Orin...
He was still alive.
Barely.
He slumped onto the ground, staring up at the red-tinged sky. The world felt wrong again — the moment of peace shattered, the Hollow Field now just another scarred battlefield.
His arms trembled. His whole body hurt. But beneath the exhaustion, beneath the battered muscles and bruised ribs, something else stirred.
Pride.
He had fought.
He had survived.
He had won.
Even if it was messy, even if he had barely held it together, it meant something.
The System chimed softly again in his head.
"Synchronization Progress: 17%."
"Warning: Full body integration required for long-term survival."
Orin narrowed his eyes at the words.
"Long-term survival," huh?
He wasn't just here to survive anymore.
He was going to master this power.
He had to — or he'd be torn apart by the next thing that crawled out of the rift.
Rolling onto his side, Orin forced himself up onto his feet. His legs were wobbly, but stronger than yesterday. The Chaos energy pulsing inside him felt rough, unfinished — like raw metal before it was forged into something real.
He still had a long way to go.
He needed to learn.
To adapt.
To grow.
He glanced at the rift scars in the sky, still faintly pulsing at the edges.
Somewhere beyond that broken horizon, another world was waiting. Maybe it was collapsing. Maybe it was bleeding into this one.
But Orin knew one thing for certain:
He wasn't going to die here.
Not like this.
Not without a fight.