Immortal Mythos: Bound by Void-Chapter 25: The Rift Unleashed

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The sky had been clear just moments ago. But now... it split.

A thunderous crack echoed across the mountains, tearing reality like paper. Time slowed for Yuki, and he felt it again—that pressure, that terrifying pull. But this wasn't like before.

This wasn't the void.

This was something else.

In the distance, Ren, Himari, Aiko, and Haru froze mid-conversation. All of them turned at once, spiritual senses flaring as an unseen ripple burst through the air. They barely had time to react.

Figures cloaked in black mist emerged, their forms barely visible—just flickers of distorted energy. A dark wind swirled, choking the atmosphere.

"What is this...?" Aiko whispered, stepping back. Her aura trembled.

Himari's eyes narrowed. "This isn't from our world."

Before they could escape, chains of black energy surged from the mist—silent, fast, and unrelenting. In an instant, they were gone.

Taken.

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Cut to Yuki, Haru, and Nogitsune

Yuki's heart dropped as he saw the sky fracture above the forest. "Ren... Aiko...!"

"They've been taken," Nogitsune said, his voice low and tense. "This energy... it's not human. It's not mythic either."

"We need to move," Haru growled, stepping forward, eyes wild. "We need to save them—!"

But before they could even plan, the space around them began to warp again. This time, Yuki felt it—inviting him.

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"Only you," came a disembodied voice, echoing through his head.

Without warning, Yuki was pulled into the rift—his body suspended, vision fading.

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Yuki awoke to a landscape of flowing sand and shifting stars. The sky was neither night nor day, but both. Time didn't flow here—it folded.

A voice spoke again, clearer this time. "You must learn what no one else can teach you."

Yuki stood, realizing he was alone... but not weak.

This realm—this timebound training ground—was meant to forge something greater within him. Something new.

Here, he would learn to fuse void manipulation and reality warping into one:

Void Fracture—a state where Yuki could bend and shatter dimensions, but only if he balanced destruction with creation.

But the clock was ticking.

His friends were trapped.

And something worse was coming.

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It was like falling into a dream where nothing made sense—then waking up and realizing the nightmare was real.

Aiko opened her eyes first.

Darkness surrounded her, not the usual absence of light, but something heavier. Breathing felt harder here, like the air was thick with secrets and whispers. She wasn't restrained, but she couldn't move far—some invisible force held her within a certain boundary.

Then she heard it: breathing. Not hers.

"Ren?" she called out, voice shaking.

"I'm here," came Ren's voice from the other side of the gloom. He sounded calm, but Aiko could feel the tension in his aura. "Don't move too much. This place reacts when we do."

A soft blue flame flickered to life, illuminating Himari seated silently in a meditative position, her hair swaying gently as if underwater. Haru sat near her, gripping his shoulder where something had burned through his skin. The black mark still pulsed slightly.

"This place..." Himari murmured. "It's not just another realm. It's alive."

"Alive?" Aiko asked, eyes narrowing.

"Sentient," Himari said. "A sealed place, older than even mythics like us remember. I think this was meant to trap things—things that should never be freed."

A deep, mechanical hum rolled through the void-like prison. The ground beneath them shuddered, and shapes began to form in the dark—like watchers. Eyes. Dozens of them, blinking in and out of view.

A figure approached.

Not cloaked in shadow, but draped in flowing silver robes that shimmered unnaturally. His face was half-covered by a smooth mask that shifted shape every few seconds.

"Welcome, broken ones," the figure said. "You are guests of the Forgotten Gate."

"What do you want?" Haru barked, flaring his aura.

The figure tilted his head. "Not me. It. It chose you... because you are the key to what's coming."

Ren stepped forward, shielding Aiko slightly. "Where is Yuki?"

The figure smiled—his mask twisted into a fox's grin. "Where he must be. Where time breaks, so he may become the fracture."

And then he vanished.

A heavy silence followed. The prison pulsed again—echoes of something stirring far beneath them.

Something was waking up.

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The silence didn't last long.

The ground beneath their feet began to shift—not violently, but like a slow breath from something ancient. The flickering lights returned, now revealing glimpses of twisted architecture. Crumbled spires floated in the void like fractured memories. Symbols from forgotten languages pulsed faintly on black stone walls that shouldn't have existed.

Aiko stepped closer to the markings, her fingertips hovering just above them.

"I can... feel them," she whispered. "These symbols... they're like seals. Old ones. Meant to contain something. Or someone."

Ren narrowed his eyes. "This place might be a prison, not just for us—but for whatever lies below."

Himari was silent, her focus locked on the distant hum. She was listening again. Feeling.

"It's not just one presence," she finally said. "There are many. All tangled. Screaming, whispering, waiting. We're not alone."

Haru leaned against a wall, jaw clenched. "Then let's find a way out before those things stop whispering and start moving."

They began walking, each step echoing through a corridor that seemed to form ahead of them. The air changed with every turn—sometimes cold and sterile, other times dense with heat like a furnace had just burned nearby.

Then they found it.

A chamber with a platform in the center. Floating just above it was something like a crystal—but it didn't shine. It absorbed light. Reflected nothing. And inside it, they saw shapes—vague, twitching, clawing.

Himari's breath caught. "This... this is the core. The thing holding this place together."

Aiko stared into the crystal and for a brief second, her eyes turned pale silver—visions racing across her mind.

She saw glimpses of Yuki.

Alone in a space where time did not flow. His body flickering in and out of visibility. Training. Failing. Rising. Screaming silently.

Then, a voice—one not hers—spoke in her head.

> "He will break. Or become the break."

Aiko stumbled back, caught by Ren just before she fell.

"He's in danger," she said quickly. "Not from death—but from losing himself."

They all stood in silence, the gravity of her words sinking in.

And then the lights went out—completely.

When they came back on, one of them was missing.

Haru.

Gone.

No sound. No struggle.

Just... gone.

Ren drew his blade. "We move. Now."

Himari's eyes narrowed. "Something's hunting us. Separating us."

Aiko's hand curled into a fist. "Then we stop being hunted."

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