The rift screamed.
Not in sound—sound was too small a word for the vibration that tore through the clearing. The forest shuddered, every tree bowing, every root recoiling as if the world itself curled instinctively away from what was emerging.
Mana crackled in spiraling arcs of blue-white light. The air distorted, bending inward, pulled toward the tear like breath sucked into a void. Leaves evaporated on contact. Moss blackened. Soil lifted in trembling fragments.
Zerrei felt everything.
The pull.
The pressure.
The familiarity.
The Creator's presence pressed against the boundary—testing, probing, slipping tendrils of will through the breach like fingers reaching for a lock they already knew how to open.
Zerrei's Heartglow spasmed.
Lyra grabbed him by both shoulders, grounding him before he collapsed again. "Stay with me. Do NOT let him in."
"I—I'm trying…"
His voice cracked. His limbs trembled. Golden cracks along his body flared bright then dimmed, flickering irregularly.
Behind them, Oren traced defensive sigils in the air so fast the lines blurred. His breath came shaky, panicked, but determined. Arden stood in front of him as a physical wall, raising his axe like he intended to personally sever the entire rift if it dared to pulse again.
Vessel Five stood closest to Zerrei—towering, unmoving, claws planted deep into the ground like anchors against the pull. Its blue core flickered in violent, uneven bursts.
"…Creator… intrusion… rising…"
Zerrei stared at the silhouette forming within the breach.
The outline sharpened.
Not fully human.
Not fully physical.
But no longer intangible.
A boundary-crossing existence.
A fracture of identity pressing into the world.
Zerrei whispered, "He's stepping through."
Lyra's voice hardened. "Then we stop him."
"How?" Arden shouted over the surging wind. "We're fighting a PERSON who's also a THUNDERSTORM!"
"Focus!" Lyra barked.
Arden shut up—but fear still vibrated through his stance.
Zerrei forced himself upright. His legs felt like carved wood rather than living movement, stiff and trembling. His golden-thread mark pulsed like a lantern pulled between two storms.
The Creator's whisper curled through the air.
"Zerrei."
Zerrei's breath stopped.
Lyra tightened her grip on him. "Ignore him."
He tried.
But his name—his new name, the one he had claimed—felt different on the Creator's tongue.
Like a possession.
Like a memory.
Like unfinished work returning to its maker.
Zerrei shook his head violently. "No… no… I am not—him."
"You're not," Lyra said fiercely. "Say it."
Zerrei looked at her.
Saw the steadiness in her eyes.
The strength she gave freely.
The stability she never demanded anything in return for.
So he whispered—
"I am Zerrei."
The golden-thread mark glowed in response.
The rift flared violently at the declaration.
Oren shouted, "Zerrei, your identity resonance is clashing with the Creator's! It disrupts his connection!"
Arden grinned wildly. "GOOD! Keep screaming your name, puppet!"
"It's not screaming," Oren snapped. "It's existential resonance assertion—"
Arden slapped his shoulder. "SHUT UP, LET HIM DO IT."
Zerrei swallowed.
Then took a step forward.
Lyra didn't stop him.
She stepped with him.
Their shadows stretched toward the breach.
The Creator's silhouette took another half-step through.
The boundary wavered, bent.
Zerrei's Heartglow throbbed painfully.
He felt the faintest touch—not physical, but internal—as if the Creator's presence brushed the edges of his memory.
A small, cold voice inside him whispered,
You belong to me.
Zerrei gasped. "NO—!"
Lyra jerked him back toward her. "You are HERE. Not THERE. HERE, Zerrei."
Her voice cut through the panic.
The Creator's whisper thickened.
"You were carved for purpose. Do you feel it?"
Zerrei's knees buckled.
"Stop—stop—stop—"
Lyra steadied him. "You don't listen to voices that demand. Only to truth."
Zerrei pressed his hands to his head. "He's pulling—harder—he's using the breach like—like a hook—"
Oren's eyes widened. "He's leveraging Zerrei's internal mana imprint. The Creator has his original code—he's forcing Zerrei's Corelink to re-synchronize!"
Lyra spun toward him. "Break it!"
"You break it!" Oren protested. "I'm trying to keep us from exploding!"
Arden roared, "I WILL BREAK HIM WITH MY AXE."
Arden did not understand the mechanics.
He didn't need to.
His spirit, ridiculous as it was, buoyed Zerrei just long enough to breathe again.
Vessel Five suddenly lunged forward, planting itself between Zerrei and the breach.
Its entire body shuddered.
"…ZERREI… NOT… BELONG…"
Blue mana crackled violently along its limbs. Its glowing core flared bright, like something trying to overwrite itself or expand beyond its frame.
The Creator's whisper paused.
Then changed tone.
"…Vessel Five."
Vessel Five froze—claws digging deeper into the ground until the bark around them splintered.
"…reject…" it growled.
"You disappoint me."
Vessel Five's whole frame trembled.
His voice was colder now—flat, clinical, emotionless.
"Return to function."
Zerrei felt the command ripple outward like a silent wave.
Vessel Five spasmed.
"No!" Zerrei pushed against Lyra's hands, reaching toward the hunter. "DON'T LISTEN—!"
"…reject… command…" Vessel Five growled.
But its limbs twitched violently.
The Creator's whisper sharpened.
"Obey."
Blue lightning erupted from Vessel Five's core, shooting into its limbs in sharp bursts.
Oren gasped. "He's activating the embedded directive chain!"
Arden yelled, "TELL HIM TO STOP EXISTING!"
Lyra shouted, "ZERREI—talk to him! NOW!"
Zerrei stumbled forward, putting himself closer to Vessel Five—close enough that the hunter's shuddering frame nearly knocked him down.
He grabbed Vessel Five's forearm.
Golden light leapt from his hand—instinct, not spell.
"Vessel Five!" Zerrei cried. "Look at me!"
The hunter's head jerked.
Blue eyes flickered—wild, unstable.
"…Zerrei… identity… confirm…"
Zerrei pressed both hands to its chest.
"You are free."
The words pulsed with his Heartglow.
The golden-thread mark burned warm.
"You are not his," Zerrei whispered. "You choose."
Vessel Five roared—
not in rage, but in pain—
as the command chain struggled to reassert itself.
Inside Zerrei, the familiarity of the Creator's voice still echoed, tugging at something deep, something old, something awful. His limbs trembled from the strain. His Heartglow faltered.
But he pushed harder.
"Vessel Five," he breathed, "choose YOU."
For one horrible moment—
Zerrei thought the hunter would collapse.
Then Vessel Five's core pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Then—
"…choose… free…"
The command shattered.
Blue sparks disintegrated into dust.
Vessel Five sagged to one knee, exhausted but autonomous.
Zerrei's legs buckled too, collapsing beside it.
Lyra rushed forward, catching him again. "Zerrei!"
He gasped for breath he did not need. "I—held him back—he almost broke—"
Lyra pressed her forehead briefly against his. "But he didn't. Because of you."
Oren stared in awe. "I cannot emphasize how impossible that was. Zerrei counteracted a direct command override from the Creator. He shouldn't—he shouldn't be able to do that—"
Arden punched the air. "HE SHOULDN'T BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING AND YET HERE HE IS. TAKE THAT, NATURE AND SCIENCE."
Oren stared, offended. "That's not how this works—"
"SHUT UP, MAGE," Arden roared.
The rift pulsed again—
louder, stronger, brighter.
The Creator's silhouette sharpened.
A hand extended through the breach.
Not fully formed.
Just a distortion.
But visible.
A hand of pure arcane intention, reaching outward.
Zerrei froze.
Lyra tightened her grip on him. "Don't look."
But he couldn't stop.
Because the hand—
Looked familiar.
It was the hand he had once seen reaching over his carved frame. The hand with metallic rings used to adjust the core. The hand that shaped his early movements. The hand that flipped through the Creator's notes on vessels as if Zerrei were just another entry.
Zerrei's pulse stuttered.
"Don't let go of yourself," Lyra whispered fiercely. "Not now."
Zerrei squeezed her hand.
His Heartglow pulsed faint gold again.
The Creator's voice followed the hand, soft, dangerous, quiet:
"Enough running."
Zerrei shook violently. "I wasn't running—"
"You were built to return."
"No," Zerrei whispered.
"Come."
Lyra snarled, "He isn't yours!"
The Creator's voice sharpened.
"He is mine."
Zerrei screamed.
Lyra pulled him back.
Arden swung his axe wildly at the air.
Oren's shielding spell flared into gold.
Vessel Five lunged in front of Zerrei, taking the brunt of the psychic blast.
The rift cracked wider.
The hand stretched further.
Zerrei's mind flooded with memories—
The lab.
The tools.
The feeling of being lifted without consent.
The quiet voice that always evaluated, never cared.
The cold table under his back.
The light he couldn't look away from.
He sobbed.
"I don't want to go back!"
Lyra gripped his face, forcing his gaze toward her.
"You're not going back."
"BUT HE'S HERE—"
"And so are we."
Zerrei's breathing steadied.
Barely.
But it steadied.
Arden shouted, "ZERREI! USE THAT FOREST GLOW THING!"
Oren shouted, "HE MEANS YOUR HEARTGLOW!"
Zerrei closed his eyes.
He reached inward.
Toward the forest.
Toward the golden thread.
Toward the Heartwood.
Toward the identity he had fought for.
And he whispered—
"I am Zerrei."
The rift exploded in light.
The Creator's hand jolted.
The breach shrank—one fraction.
Zerrei shouted again—
"I AM ZERREI!"
The rift buckled.
A storm of mana surged outward.
Vessel Five held the line—
Claws cracking the earth—
Roaring against the pull.
Arden gripped Oren so they wouldn't fly off the ridge.
Oren layered another shield.
Lyra wrapped Zerrei in her arms so he wouldn't be dragged toward the breach.
The Creator's voice, distorted and enraged, burst through the rift:
"ZERREI—YOU—ARE—MINE—"
Zerrei screamed in defiance—
"I AM NOT YOURS!"
Golden light burst from him—
striking the breach—
forcing the silhouette to recoil one final step—
And the rift—
SNAPPED—
shutting just enough to stop the Creator from crossing.
Silence.
Horrified, breathless silence.
Then—
The ground collapsed beneath them.
The forest screamed.
The sky cracked.
Zerrei whispered—
"He's coming around. Not through."
Lyra's voice trembled.
"Then we run."
Arden grabbed Oren.
Vessel Five lifted Zerrei.
The forest opened a single path—
Northern.
Bleak.
Waiting.
Zerrei pressed a hand to his chest.
His Heartglow flickered—
but held.
"We go," he whispered. "Before he takes the next step."
And together—
they fled into the collapsing forest
toward the next battleground.