One step across that gap, and the world changed.
The air around him stopped vibrating. Time felt frozen, not due to delayed perception, but because the laws of reality seemed to yield to chaos. This new world was neither land, sky, nor even space in the usual sense. The Seventh Rift was not just another dimension it was a wound in existence, a crack in the fabric of reality never meant to be understood.
Kael set foot in the void. His steps created invisible ripples, shattering fragments of time that hung like crystals. There was no sky. There was no land. Only the ruins of memories, shards of worlds, and deformed creatures wandering in their suffering.
"Welcome to the place where everything forgotten, everything abandoned, and everything rejected... gather to weep together," said a voice behind him but it didn't come from one direction.
The creature had no fixed form. Sometimes it appeared as an upside-down old woman, sometimes like a rabbit with a human mouth rambling. But one thing was certain: it was not mad. This world was what made Kael's logic begin to waver.
The Chaos System of the Rift
The Seventh Rift had its own power system that oppressed everything coming from the outside world. In the normal world, an attribute of 5.0 was impossible. But here, reality could be torn and repainted.
Kael currently had a combined attribute of 5.3 (total dimension strength), giving him a permanent instability bonus of 0.2.
Side effect: His spatial perception was disturbed. Sounds could be heard before the actions occurred.
But he laughed. Though his lips didn't move, the laughter echoed from his bones.
In this world, he felt... at home.
Fragments of the Past
A glimpse flashed in his mind a dead tree, a small body hanging from it. Little Kael gripping the earth, his face covered in blood and tears, yet silent. The people who had abandoned him once sent hunters to ensure his death. They failed. But he lost one eye, one rib, and the only small animal that had accompanied him for years a deformed white fox.
And no one cared.
The First Battle in the Broken Dimension
A large figure emerged from the crack of memory, resembling a fusion of five knights he had once killed. The figure wielded a sword that emitted a moaning sound.
"Kael, you have crossed the line. You are no longer human, nor a creature of the Rift. You are a distortion."
Kael only smiled. Not out of arrogance, but because, at last, he no longer had to hold back anyone.
The battle began. But this was not just a physical fight. It was a duel between ego and trauma. Each slash carried memories. Each impact uncovered buried pasts.
Kael didn't just defeat his enemy. He pulverized it until no fragment of its soul remained. And when the dust of the creature's destruction scattered, Kael stood alone... but not lonely.
In the distance, something watched him. Not a creature. Not a god. Not a demon. But... something that recognized his pain and smiled with deep sympathy.
The Sky's Eye Organization
From outside the Seventh Rift, a hooded woman watched everything through a black crystal.
"He got there faster than we expected," she said.
"Can we still control him?" someone asked from behind.
The woman shook her head gently. "No. But we can pave the way for him to choose the destruction we direct."
The Seventh Rift had accepted Kael. And Kael... had begun to love destruction.