The air fractured.
Pressure slammed through the street like a silent shockwave—no sound, no explosion, just an invisible force twisting the world in front of Kayden's eyes. The breach above them pulsed once more, widening into a trembling ring of pale distortion.
Kayden felt the pull immediately.
A cold drag along his bones.An ache behind his eyes.A tightening in his breath.
Impact Zone Within: 7 Seconds
APEX's warning pulsed through him, clean and precise, but still somehow distant—as if even the system could feel the strain of what was descending.
Phineas stood a few meters away, one hand pressed against the concrete pillar Kayden pushed him behind, his posture rigid, gaze fixed upward even though he couldn't fully see the breach.
"What's happening now?" Phineas demanded.
Kayden didn't answer.
He couldn't.
His senses were drowning in pressure—the Sensory Module overwhelmed, pushing data into him too quickly.
Spatial tearing.Kinetic displacement.Anchor proximity.Shock radius.
His vision blurred.
He stumbled forward, catching himself on the edge of a parked car.
Phineas moved toward him. "Kayden—!"
"Stay back," Kayden forced out, voice barely stable. "Don't come closer."
Phineas stopped, fists clenched, eyes sharp with a storm of confusion and unwilling helplessness.
The breach's light twisted, spiraling inward as if pulling a shape from another layer of existence. The air vibration deepened—not loud,but heavy.
Kayden felt something inside the anomaly focusing on him.
Not a gaze.Not a presence.
A recognition.
Commander…You are in its path.
APEX's voice flickered with urgency.
Sensory Module at maximum load.Command protocols insufficient for survival.Initiating emergency unlock—Combat Awareness Module.
Kayden's heart thudded once—hard.
His vision snapped into clarity.
Every detail sharpened.Every fragment of movement felt stretched, visible, traceable.
The system's voice cut through him:
"Commander Kayden Voss Arclight—unlocking Combat Awareness Module."
Light flared for a split second—not in the air,but behind his eyes.
A new interface unfolded silently inside his perception:
COMBAT AWARENESS — TIER 0 (INITIATED)Reaction Tracking: EnabledThreat Vector Mapping: EnabledSpatial Path Prediction: PartialCognitive Acceleration: PartialDuration: Unstable (Synch 3%)
The world slowed.
Not dramatically—not like a cinematic freeze—but in a subtle, terrifying way.
Kayden could see the slightest drift in the dust beneath his feet, the micro-vibrations of the street lamps, the twitch of Phineas's fingers as he braced for something he couldn't understand.
Phineas's voice cut through the narrowed silence.
"Kayden… why do your eyes look like that?"
Kayden didn't hear him fully.
Because suddenly, he could see the anomaly descending.
Not as a creature.Not as light.
As a vector.
A path of force spiraling downward, tracing a clean line that would intersect the ground—
Right where he was standing.
Impact Predicted: 2.1 SecondsFatal Probability: 94%
Kayden's breath vanished.
He moved.
Not with grace, not with strength—but with instinct guided by something sharper than fear.
He threw himself sideways.
The world snapped back into full motion as the breach's energy slammed into the ground where he had just stood.
The impact was silent—but devastating.
Concrete cracked in a spiderweb pattern.A faint crater formed, glowing at the edges with pale light that flickered like dying embers.
Phineas staggered from the shockwave, eyes wide.
"Kayden!" he shouted, taking a step forward.
Kayden raised a hand without looking back.
"Don't come closer," he said.His voice wasn't loud—but it carried a weight Phineas listened to.
The anomaly pulsed again, crawling across the cracked pavement like a swirling mist of fractured space. Kayden's Combat Awareness mapped its movement instantly—lines of trajectory, arcs of force, angles where reality thinned.
He could avoid it.He could survive it.
But only if he didn't panic.
APEX's voice guided him—calm, steady, direct.
"Commander, you are adapting quickly.Maintain focus.Use prediction lines."
Kayden steadied himself, stepping left just as a second distortion lashed toward him—a silent arc that burned a thin line through the air where his chest had been.
Phineas froze behind him, witnessing something pass through the space between them. He couldn't see its shape, but he felt the brush of cold across his cheek.
He whispered, horrified,"…This is real."
Kayden didn't respond.
The anomaly recoiled, contracting around the glowing crater, as if gathering strength for another strike.
Combat Awareness pulsed again.
Anchor detection: forming.Anomaly core: unstable.Containment risk: escalating.
Kayden's breath slowed.
He could see the anchor point now—a swirling tear in the center of the crater, beating like a faint, broken heart.
That was the breach's center.
If it expanded—the entire street would collapse inward.
APEX confirmed his fear:
"Commander—anchor must not fully open.Survival of this zone depends on your ability to avoid collapse radius."
Kayden stepped back slowly, never breaking visual contact.
Phineas watched him with a dawning understanding—not of the anomaly,but of Kayden.
"You knew it was coming," Phineas said quietly. "You knew exactly where it would hit."
Kayden's eyes remained locked on the breach.
"…Yes."
"And you moved like you'd done it before."
Kayden didn't deny it.
Because Phineas wasn't wrong.
APEX pulsed urgently.
"Commander—final strike forming.Evade pattern downloading."
Kayden's muscles moved before he consciously decided—a clean sidestep, a pivot, a precise retreat.
A final distortion slammed downward—missing him by inchesand sealing the crater with a ripple that echoed through the street.
The anomaly flickered.
Shrank.
Collapsed inward—a silent implosion of light and fractured air.
And then—
It was gone.
No explosion.No residue.Just an unnatural calm settling over the street like dust.
Phineas stared at the cracked pavement.
Then at Kayden.
Then back at the sky.
"Kayden…" he whispered, voice barely steady."What are you?"
Kayden didn't answer.
Not because he couldn't—but because there was no simple truth to give.
APEX spoke softly, almost like a warning.
"Commander… the world is changing.And now…you are no longer the only one who knows."
Kayden lowered his head.
He could still feel the Combat Awareness Module humming faintly inside him, fading slowly but leaving behind an imprint—a promise of what he could become.
Phineas watched him with a new kind of silence.
Not suspicion.Not fear.
Recognition.
And something deeper:
A feeling that their lives had just crossed a line neither of them could return from.