The cavern felt tighter the moment the man stepped into view.
It wasn't that he took up space; it was that everything else recoiled from him. The shadows bent away. The crackling Rift energy quieted in his presence, like the very essence of the place feared him.
Kairen's breath caught.
Daniel—normally unshakable, unmovable, indomitable—went still in a way Kairen had never seen. Not fear. Not awe. Something heavier. Like facing a ghost he had buried with his own hands.
Rowan whispered, "No way… That's—"
Eli didn't finish. His voice died the moment the man's eyes flicked toward him. He shrank back, as if instinct alone knew:
This man is a predator you do not make eye contact with.
The Entity paused mid-lunge.
A strange, glitch-like ripple passed along its limbs, as though its very existence struggled under the pressure of the newcomer's presence.
It stepped back—
Not much.
Just a single careful pace.
But that alone was a statement.
Ruin Entities did not retreat.
The man spoke again, voice calm, measured, emotionless.
"I said step away from him."
The Entity finally responded, voice echoing from nothing.
"You are not written to be here. You are an anomaly."
The man's gaze sharpened.
"So are you."
Kairen found his voice at last.
"…Alec?"
The man turned his head slightly toward him.
Not fully.
Just enough to confirm that he had heard.
Alec.
Rowan exhaled shakily. "That's impossible. Alec is—"
"Dead," Daniel finished flatly. His voice had no tremor, but the tension in his fists betrayed what he truly felt. "We buried him."
Alec gave no reaction to the statement—or to the disbelief or the weight of his own death hanging in the air.
Instead, he raised one hand, palm open, facing the Entity.
"This level of contamination shouldn't exist in a mid-tier Rift," he said. "You're exceeding your parameters."
The Entity's form pulsed violently.
Not anger.
Agitation.
"Do not address me as if I were a function. I am—"
Alec cut it off with a single step forward.
"—a scrap of a larger mistake. You're not a will. You're a consequence."
Rowan muttered, "Since when does Alec talk like a walking system message?"
Daniel didn't answer.
His eyes never left Alec.
"Kairen," Daniel said tightly. "Behind me. Now."
Kairen didn't move.
Not because he was frozen—
Because something inside him responded to Alec's presence in a way he didn't understand.
His Disorder Core… stabilized.
It wasn't calming.
It wasn't silenced.
It was obeying.
Like a loyal beast bowing to a higher apex.
The Entity lashed out first.
Tendrils shot across the cavern, splitting the ground where they landed. Stone cracked. Air warped. Rowan pulled Eli back, Daniel moved to intercept—
But Alec didn't budge.
He raised one hand, fingers slightly curled, and made a gesture so small it barely counted as movement.
The attack stopped.
Not blocked.
Not deflected.
Stopped.
Mid-air.
Frozen, like someone hit pause on reality.
Rowan's eyes widened.
Eli's mouth fell open.
Daniel whispered something under his breath.
Alec looked at the suspended tendrils with mild disinterest.
"You've grown desperate," he said. "Imitating a higher-tier attack pattern. That's sloppy."
The tendrils snapped—
Not from Alec's attack—
But because the Entity forcibly withdrew them, as if the contact burned it.
"How… are you here?" the Entity demanded.
Alec didn't answer.
He simply raised two fingers.
The ground obeyed.
Stone reshaped itself beneath Alec's feet, forming clean, symmetrical patterns that looked nothing like natural formations. Lines of pale luminescence carved themselves into the dust.
A formation?
No—
Something older.
Something beyond Hunter classifications.
Daniel finally snapped, "Alec, what are you doing?!"
Alec didn't turn.
"Kairen," he said—ignoring Daniel entirely. "When I tell you to move, you move. Understood?"
Kairen swallowed.
"…Yes."
His voice came out barely audible, but Alec nodded as if that was enough.
Kairen felt it again—
That unsettling resonance.
A pull between Alec and his Disorder Core.
Not a bond.
Not allegiance.
Recognition.
Like two pieces of a broken mirror sensing each other across an abyss.
Kairen's knees weakened.
He grabbed the cavern wall for support.
Rowan moved toward him. "Easy. What's happening?"
"My core—"
Kairen gritted his teeth. "It's reacting to him."
Daniel's head snapped toward him instantly.
"To Alec?"
Kairen nodded.
The pressure inside his chest tightened, like his own energy wanted to step toward Alec without permission.
Eli whispered, "Why… why would Kairen's core be reacting to a dead hunter?"
Rowan swallowed hard.
"Because Alec isn't coming back as a hunter."
The Entity finally grew frustrated.
"You are not part of this Rift's weave," it growled.
"Your existence contradicts the script. You should not be alive."
Alec blinked slowly.
"I didn't say I was alive."
The words sank like lead.
Even Daniel froze.
Alec raised his hand again—no dramatic flourish, no energy signature, no aura spike—and the cavern itself shifted.
The shadows bent.
The Rift pulsed.
The ground trembled as if bowing.
The Entity recoiled, its voice distorting.
"No—no, you cannot override—"
Alec spoke a single word.
"Subdue."
The cavern obeyed.
The Entity was forced to its knees.
Pressed by nothing visible.
Pressed by something inevitable.
Kairen had never seen anything like it.
Not in the Hunters' archives.
Not in Ruin Beasts.
Not even in his own System.
This was a higher order of authority. Not magic, not ability, not power.
Control.
Alec finally faced the Entity fully.
"I'm retrieving him," he said. "Step aside."
"He is ours—"
Alec's voice sharpened.
Just slightly.
Barely.
Enough to shake the cavern pillars.
"He never was."
The Entity broke free from the pressure—not fully, but enough to lash out again.
This time, it didn't aim at Alec.
It aimed for Kairen.
Daniel moved instantly.
Rowan too.
Eli stumbled but tried to raise the spear.
They wouldn't reach in time.
Kairen braced—
Alec appeared beside him.
Not walked.
Not teleported.
Simply was there, as if his position corrected itself.
His hand rested lightly on Kairen's shoulder—
And every chaotic spike inside Kairen's core folded into silence.
Alec's voice dropped low.
"Move."
Kairen obeyed before he thought, stepping exactly three paces backward.
The Entity's tendrils hit the ground where he had stood—shattering the stone but leaving Kairen untouched.
Alec's hand lingered on Kairen's shoulder half a second too long, then withdrew.
Daniel stormed forward, grabbing Alec by the arm.
"Alec—look at me!"
Alec turned his head slowly.
Daniel's voice cracked—not from fear, but fury.
"You died in my arms. I searched that entire Rift for your core remains. You didn't come back. So what are you?"
Alec blinked once.
"I am what returned."
It wasn't an answer.
But it was the truth.
The Entity screamed—not in pain, but in desperation—as it drew in more Rift energy. The crack above widened. Darkness spilled like ink across the cavern ceiling.
Rowan cursed.
"It's trying to open the Rift wider!"
Daniel clenched his fists.
"We can't let it reach a breach threshold—this mountain won't survive!"
Eli backed up, trembling.
"What do we do?!"
Alec didn't look at the spreading crack.
Instead, he looked at Kairen.
"Your core is destabilizing again."
Kairen forced himself to stand straight.
"It stabilized when you touched me."
"I didn't stabilize it," Alec corrected. "It stabilized because it recognized me."
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
"Why would it do that?"
Alec finally allowed emotion—
A flicker.
A ghost of a shadow.
"I was the first."
Kairen's blood went cold.
"The first…"
He swallowed.
"The first what?"
Alec's gaze darkened.
"The first vessel to bear a Disorder Core."
Kairen's mind reeled.
Daniel froze completely.
Rowan exhaled, "…holy hell."
Eli simply stared, mouth open.
Alec continued like it was merely information.
"The experimental cores originated from an older Rift structure. Your abilities… your evolution… your instability… they were all predicted."
Kairen felt sick.
"Predicted?"
"Not by humans," Alec said. "By the Rift itself."
The Entity shrieked in the background—warping into something larger—but the words held Kairen like chains.
"I was the prototype," Alec said. "You are the first successful successor."
Kairen staggered.
Daniel took a step toward Alec, eyes blazing.
"You should have told us."
Alec finally looked directly at him.
"You weren't meant to know."
Daniel trembled.
Not with fear—
With betrayal.
"And what about Kairen? Were we just supposed to watch him break the way you did?"
Alec's expression flickered again—
Not regret.
Recognition of consequence.
"Kairen will not break," he said. "Not unless you interfere."
Daniel nearly swung at him.
Rowan grabbed Daniel's arm.
"Not now—look!"
The Entity had finished absorbing the Rift energy.
It rose—
Not physically, but dimensionally.
Half of its form hovered between planes, flickering like a nightmare caught between layers of existence.
Its voice echoed from every direction.
"If the vessel rejects us, we will take him by force."
The cavern ceiling cracked fully.
Raw Rift energy spiraled above.
Kairen felt the pull—
His core responding like a magnet dragged toward its origin.
He fought it, teeth clenched, hands shaking.
Alec stepped beside him.
"Kairen."
He met Alec's gaze.
"You're going to pass out if you resist alone."
"I'm not—"
Kairen's knees buckled.
He caught himself with one hand.
Eli shouted his name.
Alec placed two fingers against Kairen's chest—directly over the core.
Not touching skin through injury, not applying pressure.
Just contact.
The Disorder Core went silent again—like turning a dial from chaos to focus.
Alec nodded slightly.
"Better."
"…How are you doing that?" Kairen whispered.
"I'm not."
Alec tilted his head.
"You are responding to me."
The Entity lunged.
The cavern collapsed in its wake, walls splitting, air distorting, echoing a dozen layers of sound that didn't belong in one world.
Alec murmured, "Stay behind me."
Daniel protested.
"You can't take that thing alone!"
Alec gave him a faint, almost human glance.
"I'm not alone."
He extended his hand behind him—
—and Kairen felt his body move without thinking.
Not controlled.
Not manipulated.
Called.
He stepped forward, beside Alec.
Rowan grabbed Eli, pulling him back.
Daniel's eyes widened—not with fear, but understanding.
"You trained him," Daniel whispered. "Even after death… you're still training him."
Alec shifted his stance.
"Kairen. When the Rift stabilizes, draw in the leftover energy."
"Won't that overload my core?"
"Only if you let go."
Kairen inhaled sharply.
Then nodded.
The Entity lunged with enough force to crumble mountains.
Alec and Kairen moved as one.
Alec's hand cut through the air—
Not striking, not blasting—
But dividing.
The Entity's attack split into harmless strands.
Kairen's body moved before thought, fueled by instinct and resonance. His Disorder energy didn't roar. It didn't scream. It flowed—steady, controlled, sharp.
He struck with an open palm.
The Entity reeled back—
Not from damage—
But from rejection.
Alec followed with a single step that bent the cavern floor into a perfect arc.
"You can't claim what chose its own path," Alec said.
The Entity screeched,
"HE BELONGS TO THE RIFT!"
Kairen shouted back,
"I belong to myself!"
Their combined energy surged.
Alec raised two fingers.
"Kairen—"
Kairen finished with him:
"—converge."
The cavern detonated with light.