The earth groaned.
Across the planet, seismic alarms screamed as tremors struck without warning. Buildings rattled, roads split open, and coastlines quivered under the weight of unseen forces.
In the **North Atlantic Ocean**, not far from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the **Ninth Crack** tore into the sky. A blinding tear — 3 kilometers wide — opened like a jagged wound above the churning waves. Unlike the other cracks, which simply hung in eerie silence, this one **pulsed**.
It beat like a heart.
Rhythmic waves of force radiated across the globe — invisible at first, then undeniable. These pulses, later known as **ARC Surges**, triggered massive earthquakes and strange tidal shifts. Entire islands trembled. Glaciers collapsed. Forests twisted as if breathing.
And deep beneath the Atlantic, tectonic plates began to **move**.
New land was rising.
---
### **Osaka, Japan**
Blood ran down Liam's forearm, warm and bright against the torn sleeve of his jacket. He was panting, hunched behind an overturned vending machine, his knuckles bruised and raw.
Across from him, the mutated husk of a dog twitched once before going still — its oversized body steaming faintly, as if dying had released built-up energy.
Its eyes, once glowing faintly blue, were now dim and empty.
Liam's hand was shaking.
He hadn't meant to kill it — not consciously. When it lunged at him, he'd barely had time to react. The spear in his hand struck its temple, and something inside him had *flared*. A surge — violent, electric — exploded from his palm on contact.
The beast convulsed mid-air and hit the pavement like a dropped engine block.
That wasn't normal. That wasn't *human*.
Liam stared at his own hand, his breath uneven. It tingled with heat and pressure. Something beneath his skin buzzed — not like adrenaline… something *alive*.
He pushed himself up slowly, keeping an eye on the alley. The dog had been the third mutated animal he'd encountered today. He didn't want to know what else was hunting now.
He stumbled toward a partially collapsed stairwell, trying to get to higher ground.
Then the sky changed.
---
It started as a flicker on the horizon — a pale white light that shimmered even in broad daylight. Liam looked westward from the rooftop of an abandoned school building and saw it:
A **crack in the sky**.
It was different.
This one felt *closer*… not in distance, but in *presence*. It radiated. The air felt thicker, charged. His breath caught as he stared at it, and that same pressure in his chest began to pulse again.
Then the tremor hit.
The building beneath him groaned and shifted. Liam dropped to his knees, gripping the edge of the rooftop as the city rumbled around him. Sirens wailed distantly — warning systems late as always.
He saw birds in the distance — thousands of them — scattering in a spiral away from the coast.
And then… silence.
---
Across the world, the effects were instantaneous.
The **Atlantic Crack** had released something more than just ARC energy.
It had triggered **change**.
Massive undersea shifts raised new islands — black stone formations with unnaturally smooth surfaces. Sonar scans failed to penetrate their depths. Seismographs exploded with data. New fault lines opened in western Europe, eastern Canada, and the Caribbean.
New York experienced a minor tsunami. Morocco's coast saw strange lights in the ocean. In Ireland, entire cliff faces collapsed into the sea.
Satellites confirmed what no one wanted to believe:
**The Earth was expanding**.
---
Meanwhile, Liam stumbled back into the shadows of the ruined building, his head spinning. He could feel the ARC energy inside him growing louder — like a chorus of whispers just beyond the edge of hearing.
He closed his eyes.
The memory of killing the dog — of the energy *responding* to his will — repeated in his mind. It hadn't been just adrenaline. It had been a **transfer**. A reaction. Maybe even an absorption.
And now, with the Ninth Crack open… it was amplifying.
He wasn't just holding ARC energy anymore.
It was flowing through him.
But it wasn't free.
His pulse raced. His thoughts felt too sharp. Something inside him was **stirring** — something old, violent, and *hungry*. Like the ARC wanted more blood. More conflict.
*Kill again,* a faint echo seemed to say.
He shook the thought away and steadied his breath. Not yet. Not unless he had to.
---
Elsewhere, governments scrambled to adapt. Reconnaissance flights near the Atlantic Crack reported **atmospheric instability**, radio interference, and strange gravity shifts. One drone vanished mid-transmission, its final image showing **angular structures** rising from the sea.
Scientists met in panic. Some proposed this was a planetary reaction — a phase shift in Earth's structure. Others believed the ARC Cracks were artificial, and the Earth was being repurposed… terraformed.
But all agreed on one fact:
The world they knew no longer existed.
---
Liam opened his eyes.
The sky above him shimmered faintly now — a barely visible aurora, even during daylight. Buildings around him bore claw marks, shattered windows, and warped metal.
Osaka was no longer a safe city. None of them were.
The ARC energy inside him pulsed again. This time, not as a whisper — but as a **pull**.
A direction.
Like something — or *someone* — was guiding it.
He didn't understand it yet. But he knew this: staying still would kill him. The world was moving, breaking, shifting. So he would move too.
His hand tightened around the his spear.
---