We left the dead star behind once Steve and North completed their rank ups. Neither of them rushed to manifest their law constructs yet. Both had decided to stabilize first, deepen their comprehension, let the new foundations settle before locking anything permanent into existence. It was a smart decision. Domains shaped too early had a way of limiting future growth.
Our ship adjusted its course and accelerated, slipping back into the deep void. On the star map projected before me, a marker pulsed steadily. Another Grade 4 Rift. Not one on the fringes of the Blue Spiral Galaxy, but closer to the center. Sector Zero territory.
Before getting involved in the politics of Blue Spiral Galaxy, I wanted to close a rift cleanly. Publicly. Decisively.
Sector Zero didn’t have as many Grade 4 Rifts as the outer regions. The three dominant races had poured enormous resources into containment and suppression over the decades. But the few that remained were still bleeding points, symbols of failure no one liked to acknowledge.
If the Order of Absolute was going to announce itself to the heart of the galaxy, this was how it would happen.
We traveled in silence for a long stretch.
The void unfolded around us in slow, breathtaking layers. Dense asteroid belts drifted past at a distance, their fractured bodies catching starlight like scattered embers. We skirted the outer influence of a collapsed black hole, its warped gravity tugging faintly at the ship’s shields before letting go. Farther out, sustained elemental zones glowed softly, regions where laws had stabilized into semi-permanent phenomena.
Eventually, the shield surrounding the rift came into view.
We slowed the ship and came to a stop well outside the shield perimeter. Aurora leaned forward, studying the glowing barrier encasing the entire zone. "How are we getting in?" she asked. "They won’t just let us through, even if we announce who we are."
I nodded, eyes still on the shield.
Then I turned my head slightly. "Ash."
He looked at me immediately. "Yes."
"Can you bypass it?"
He didn’t hesitate. "I can. But I’ll need assistance. The shield is layered. Physical, spatial, and conceptual."
I glanced toward Knight.
He had already understood.
"I’ll handle the anchoring," Knight said calmly.
Ash nodded once. "That will suffice."
Before anyone else could speak, the two of them vanished.
I watched them appear in the void before the glowing shield, suspended effortlessly. Ash raised one hand.
Runes bloomed into existence around him. My attention sharpened instantly. These weren’t the runes I had studied recently. They were older. Denser. Arranged with a level of precision that bordered on obsessive. Patterns interlocked, folded, and corrected themselves in real time as Ash adjusted their configuration.
A circle formed.
Then twisted.
Then opened.
A silver aperture tore into space, spinning slowly, its edges sharp with compressed space. The opening widened, expanding until it was large enough for our ship to pass through comfortably.
Knight stepped forward first and vanished into the aperture.
Ash turned back toward us and reappeared inside the ship. "He’s anchoring it," he said. "We can proceed."
The ship surged forward.
Color bled across the viewport as we passed through the aperture, space folding and unfolding around us in smooth, disorienting layers. Then, abruptly, everything snapped back into clarity.
We were inside the shield. Past the illusion layer.
The rift loomed directly ahead.
It resembled the Grade 4 Rift we had faced on Dragos, but the structure was simpler. Less refined. Instead of layered defensive platforms and interlocking fortresses, two massive, broken asteroids floated opposite each other, hollowed out and reinforced, functioning as launch and staging platforms.
One belonged to the defending Feran army and the other to the Eternal. Behind the Eternal, the rift churned.
Multicolored glow spilled outward in slow, nauseating waves, reality flexing and recoiling around the tear. Similar to before a single gigantic tower stood on the asteroid. And I felt the Eternal’s present inside it.
I exhaled slowly.
"This is going to be easy," I said.
I turned toward Steve and North. "Your job is simple. Level up. Go all out. Don’t hold back."
Both of them nodded.
"Ash," I added, "stay with the ship."
He inclined his head and stepped back.
One by one, we flashed out of the ship.
We entered a battlefield that was already in motion.
Feran formations were locked in active engagement across both asteroid platforms, their ranks stretched thin as they rotated units in and out of combat. Weapons fire streaked through the void, while defensive arrays flared intermittently as they absorbed pressure from the rift.
Abominations were already spilling outward in heavy waves, crashing against prepared lines and forcing constant readjustment. Phantoms wove through the chaos, not charging blindly but directing movement, reinforcing weak points, pulling units back before collapse.
The fight wasn’t desperate yet.
But it was close.
Our arrival didn’t stop the battle.
It broke its rhythm.
I moved.
With a single motion, I dropped Steve and North straight into the center of the advancing enemy force.
Their domains ignited instantly. Lightning and shadow detonated outward as Steve carved a path through abominations, his blade leaving afterimages of voltage and void in every direction.
North vanished into motion, her grid flashing into existence beneath her feet as she cut through abominations with surgical precision.
Screams erupted.
The Ferans froze.
"What—who are they?" someone shouted.
The Ferans stationed here came from many of their tribes, a chaotic blend that reflected how urgently this rift had been held. I picked out members of the Strixclaw, avian Ferans with wide, serrated wings, circling above the platforms, while Grimfang wolf-kin fought in coordinated packs along the asteroid edges. Massive Hornfall bull Ferans held the inner lines, bodies layered with natural armor, absorbing blows that would have shattered lesser frames. And there were many more.
Then my summons descended.
Ragnar hit first. He didn’t bother with finesse. He slammed directly into the Eternals asteroid platform like a falling star, the impact shattering reinforced stone and sending abominations flying.
The phantoms tried to counterattack. They failed. What they met wasn’t resistance. It was dominance.
I stepped forward. Space folded, and I appeared directly before the central tower anchoring the rift. Energy surged within it as the Eternal stationed there reacted.
I raised my hand. A spinning sphere of violet Essence formed before my palm, dense, compact, humming with laws of repulsion. Essence poured into it directly from my generator core, bypassing channels, bypassing restraint.
I released it.
A beam of violet light tore forward.
The Eternal flashed into existence between the beam and the tower, silver runes igniting across his body. He roared and punched forward, a massive silver fist forming in the air to intercept the attack.
BOOM!!
The beam tore through it. The fist disintegrated. The Eternal screamed as the beam punched through his chest and slammed him into the tower behind him.
BOOM!!
The explosion was immediate and absolute. The tower cracked. And the entire asteroid felt the tremors.