PROLOGUE: THE LAST STAND

The psionic power source pulsed violently, its glow casting shadows that flickered like specters on the stone walls of the monastery. Brother-Commander Elias stood in the sanctum, his sword held tightly in his bloodied hands. The air crackled with unnatural energy, the vibrations of the core thrumming like a heartbeat, filling the chamber with a foreboding hum. This power, ancient and unyielding, was the lynchpin of their world’s fate. If it fell into enemy hands, not just their home, but another world would be consumed.

The bells tolled, their solemn tone echoing through the monastery like a final warning. Beyond the walls, the creatures shrieked, their unholy cries carried on the wind. The defenders had already lost over half their men, their numbers dwindling under the relentless onslaught. Now, those who remained formed a desperate line, a thin shield between the sanctum and the advancing darkness.

“They’ve breached the inner gates!” Sister Miriam’s voice broke through the chaos as she entered the sanctum. Sweat and blood streaked her face, and her armor bore deep gouges from the claws of the invaders. “They’re overwhelming us. We’ve lost so many…”

Elias placed a steadying hand on her shoulder. “Then we hold here. Our stand is not in vain. We may fall, but we will buy time for Matthais to complete the seals.”

Miriam’s gaze shifted to the psionic core, where Brother Matthais knelt, chanting softly as intricate sigils formed in the air around him. The seals were nearly complete, they would bind the core, making it far more difficult for the enemy to wield its power. But the ritual required precision, and precision required time, time they did not have.

“Then we’ll buy it for him,” Sister Miriam said, gripping her blade. “We’ll hold the line until our last breath as we leave this in the creator’s hands. It is not for us to know his plan, only to fulfill our duty.”

Elias turned to his remaining knights and monks, their faces pale but determined. A deep, resonant thud shook the sanctum as the final barricade collapsed. The creatures poured in, grotesque shapes of shadow and sinew, their bodies defying the laws of nature. Some moved like specters, flickering in and out of sight, while others were hulking monstrosities, their jagged forms bristling with bone-like armor. Their shrieks filled the air, an unholy chorus that seemed to mock the defenders’ resolve.

Elias stepped forward, his sword igniting with psionic energy. “Protect the core! Do not let them through!”

The defenders, fewer than twenty now, rallied behind him. Miriam fought at his side, her blade a blur of light as it carved through the advancing horde. The sanctum became a storm of clashing steel and writhing shadows, the air thick with the acrid stench of blood and the electric hum of psionic energy.

But the creatures were relentless. For every one they cut down, two more took its place. A spectral beast darted toward Matthais, its claws reaching for the monk’s exposed back. Elias lunged, intercepting it with a swing of his sword. The blade struck true, the creature dissolving into smoke, but not before its claws raked across Elias’s side, leaving deep, bloody gashes.

“Miriam!” he shouted, his voice strained. “Hold the line!”

She nodded, her face set in grim determination. “Matthais is almost done!”

The monk’s voice rose above the din of battle, his words resonating with power. The final seal began to form, its light coalescing into a radiant barrier around the core. But the creatures seemed to sense the shift. Their attacks grew more frenzied, more desperate. One hulking beast charged through the defenders, scattering them as it barreled toward Matthais.

Elias surged forward, throwing himself in the beast’s path. His sword flashed as he struck, the blow staggering the creature but not stopping it. It roared, its claws swiping at him with terrifying speed. Elias dodged, pain lancing through his side as he drove his blade into the creature’s chest. The beast let out a guttural cry before collapsing, its body dissolving into ash.

“Matthias!” Elias called, his voice breaking. “Finish it!”

The monk’s hands trembled as he placed the final sigil. A blinding light filled the sanctum, the seals locking into place with a resounding hum. The psionic core pulsed once, then stabilized, its chaotic energy contained. Matthais let out a shaky breath, a faint smile crossing his lips.

“It is done,” he whispered.

But the victory was fleeting. From above, a shadow fell, and a clawed limb struck Matthais down before Elias could move to protect him. The monk crumpled to the ground, his lifeless eyes staring at the sealed core.

Rage and sorrow surged within Elias as he turned to face the remaining creatures. They were closing in, their forms flickering with malevolent energy. Blood dripped from his wounds, his strength waning, but still, he stood.

Planting his sword in the ground, Elias knelt before the core, his voice rising in a desperate prayer. “Creator, forgive us. We have failed to save this place. But Your plan is greater than our understanding. Deliver us all from this darkness. Fulfill the prophecy, as you have promised. Let Your light shine in the worlds the Master seeks to destroy.”

The creatures paused, their movements hesitant as if they felt the weight of his words. The core pulsed one final time, its light flaring brighter than ever. The creatures shrieked, recoiling as the radiance filled the sanctum. Elias closed his eyes, the warmth of the light washing over him even as the sharp pain of claws tore through his chest.

As the light faded, silence fell over the monastery. The creatures surrounded the sealed core but could not touch it. Though the defenders had fallen, their sacrifice had bound the power, delaying the enemy plans and buying precious time.

As Elias fell to the ground, his prayer seemed to linger in the air, carried by the radiant light of the sealed core. The energy rippled outward, unseen and unfelt, a wave that traversed the void between worlds. It moved like a whisper through the fabric of reality, reaching across dimensions. Somewhere far away, the earth trembled in response, and the first faint hum of disturbance began to appear in UN radar. The light had not been extinguished. It had been passed on.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

A few month later

Raj Patel wiped the sweat from his brow, squinting against the glare of the afternoon sun as he hunched over a set of malfunctioning seismic instruments. The equipment wasn’t supposed to fail this often—certainly not during one of the most critical measurements of his career. Yet, for weeks now, everything had been unreliable.

The ground beneath his feet had been grumbling. Not in the way fault lines typically do, but with an unnatural, rhythmic pulse that had been recorded in locations worldwide—especially in areas with no significant tectonic activity. He’d been tracking anomalies for two months, but San Diego, of all places, wasn’t where he expected to find something new.

Beside him, one of his colleagues—Dr. Elena Orlov, an expert in geothermal activity—frowned at her own set of instruments. “This can’t be right,” she muttered, tapping the screen of her tablet as it flickered in and out of functionality. “The readings are spiking again, and then… nothing.”

Patel glanced at her, knowing exactly what she meant. The data wasn’t consistent. The earth wasn’t behaving like it should. The instruments gave them spikes of geological shifts that should’ve indicated an imminent earthquake but there was no seismic event. There was only this strange, underlying hum.

Orlov crouched by one of the malfunctioning instruments, her hands deftly pulling out cables and recalibrating the device. “This isn’t normal, Raj,” she said, her voice sharp. “The electromagnetic interference: It’s spiking way beyond anything we’ve recorded before. It’s not tectonic, and it’s not atmospheric. It’s something else.” She stood, her eyes fixed on the horizon as the light bent unnaturally. “This… this might not even be natural at all. If it’s artificial. if it’s connected to those other anomalies, the implications are massive.” Her hands trembled slightly as she clutched her tablet. “I think we’re looking at something humanity isn’t ready for.”

Patel didn’t answer immediately. He had been avoiding that conclusion for weeks, preferring to think that each events like the unseasonal storms, the power grid fluctuations, the magnetic disturbances—was just coincidence. But with each passing day, it became harder to believe that this was anything other than connected.

“It’s like something is building up,” Patel said quietly, checking the tremor data again. “But there’s no epicenter, no warning signs. Nothing natural.” He sighed. “It has to be connected somehow to a unknown phenomena. Everything we’ve seen the shifts, the energy readings. None of it makes sense otherwise.”

Their equipment buzzed to life briefly, throwing up another spike before the signal died again. Orlov cursed under her breath and knelt to check the wiring again, her hands trembling slightly as she tried to fix the malfunction.

Patel’s phone buzzed, drawing his attention. He glanced at the notification. UN Task Force Briefing on Global Anomalies – Status Request.

The UN had been circling scientists like him for weeks now, gathering data, but they hadn’t done anything concrete yet

“I’ll send them the report later,” Patel muttered, pocketing the phone. “We need more consistent data.”

The air shifted suddenly, and Patel noticed the hairs on his arms standing on end. A crackling static charge filled the space around them, as if an invisible storm was gathering. The temperature plummeted, and his breath began to mist, despite the blazing sun overhead. Orlov rubbed her arms, glancing around uneasily. “Do you feel that? It’s like the air is… alive,” she muttered. The ground beneath them began to pulse faintly, not enough to shake but enough for Patel to feel it reverberating through his boots. A low hum built steadily, growing louder, and the instruments buzzed erratically as though fighting against some unseen force.

The quiet hum Patel had become used to abruptly changed. There was a sharp crack, like the earth itself was fracturing, and the instruments on both sides flared violently to life. “What the hell?” Orlov gasped as her tablet spiked, showing seismic activity off the charts. “Raj, this is—”

Patel didn’t need her to finish. He could feel it. The ground wasn’t shaking in a typical earthquake pattern; it was… shifting. The pulse was stronger now, a rhythmic beat that reverberated through his bones and heart like a jackhammer.

He looked up toward the city skyline, noticing that the air itself seemed to distort. The sunlight bent unnaturally at the horizon, and a strange glow began to form just above the surface of the road.

Patel’s heart skipped. This wasn’t geological. This wasn’t anything he could explain.

“Elena, pack up the equipment,” he said hurriedly, his voice trembling. “Something’s coming.”

But before they could react, the sky above them seemed to tear open. A deafening crack split the air, like the fabric of reality itself had ripped apart. Patel shielded his eyes as the light grew brighter, his breath caught in his throat. The air buzzed with a strange energy—something unnatural, something wrong.

A rift, jagged and glowing with pulsating energy, hovered just above the road ahead, suspended in mid-air like an open wound. Patel’s equipment went dead, every monitor shutting down, overwhelmed by the sudden surge. He tried to blink away the dizziness, but his head swam as the ground seemed to pulse in time with the rift.

“Raj!” Orlov shouted, her voice panicked. “What the hell is that?!”

“I don’t know,” Patel whispered, his mind racing as he struggled to process what he was seeing. “This… this isn’t possible.” And yet, it was.

The moment the rift stabilized, the wind around them began to shift violently. Papers and dust whipped through the air as Patel grabbed onto a nearby railing to keep himself steady. Orlov struggled to shield herself from the debris, but the two of them were transfixed by the rift.

Then came the sound. low at first, but growing louder. It was a guttural, inhuman growl, and it was coming from within the rift.

Patel’s blood ran cold as he saw movement inside the tear. Something, no, several somethings—were emerging. He blinked, trying to focus on the shapes as they stepped through, but their forms were distorted, shimmering like heat waves.

The first creature was large, its body sleek and predatory. It moved like a wolf, but its eyeless face was smooth, featureless, and unsettling. It sniffed the air, as if hunting, its body surrounded by a haze that made it difficult to track.

Then another. And another.

“They’re coming out of it,” Orlov said, her voice trembling. “Raj, we have to get out of here!”

Patel’s legs felt like lead as he forced himself to move. His mind was reeling, this couldn’t be happening. The rift had opened, and now these things were stepping into the world.

“Go,” Patel ordered, grabbing Orlov’s arm and pulling her toward their vehicle. “We need to contact the military. Now!”

As they scrambled to get their equipment into the truck, the creatures moved swiftly through the chaos. People were screaming in the distance as the creatures spread into the city, and cars swerved off the road, colliding in violent crashes. The creatures moved like shadows, fast and fluid, their heat-haze bodies making it impossible to focus on them for long. The rift continued to pulse, and more creatures poured out. Patel felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead. There was no end to it.

He slammed the door of the truck and pulled out his satellite phone, dialing the emergency military contact he’d been given weeks ago for anomalies. His fingers trembled as the line connected.

“Colonel Hayes!” Patel’s voice was frantic, his words tumbling out faster than he could process them. “This is Raj Patel. A rift—it’s torn open here, just in the middle of San Diego. It’s not natural—it’s… it’s something else. There are creatures, sir. They’re coming through, and they’re spreading fast!” He paused, glancing at Orlov as another jagged figure emerged from the purple glowing rift. “We don’t have time—there’s no end to them. You need to send backup immediately!” His hand tightened around the phone, his heart pounding. The growls from the creatures were getting louder, closer.

Patel’s voice was drowned out by the chaos, but Colonel Hayes listened intently on the other end of the line. “Patel, are you saying there’s a rift? A rift of what?”

“The air,” Patel stammered, watching as the rift expanded before his eyes. "There’s a tear in the sky. Things—creatures—they’re coming through. We need help, fast."

Colonel Hayes didn’t pause. “I’m dispatching units to your location. Hold tight.”

As Patel hung up, he turned to Orlov. Her face was pale, her eyes wide with fear. “What do we do, Raj?”

He looked at the rift again, feeling the weight of the moment crash over him. The world had changed in an instant, and there was no going back.

“We survive,” he said quietly, his voice barely audible over the roar of the creatures. “For now, we survive and get out of here.”

As the truck sped away, Patel glanced in the rearview mirror. The rift was still there, glowing brighter with each pulse, and more creatures poured out. He knew, with chilling certainty, that this was only the beginning.