Cyrus Solaris
Multiple pillars of light erupted into the sky from far-off corners of the rift.
Chaos erupted. Students screamed in terror as the rift shuddered, sending violent tremors through the ground.
I froze as a tide of centipedes consumed Professor Varn's body. Behind him, the rift exit shrank to nothing, sealing us inside.
I felt thousands of cosmic energy signatures erupt into existence all around us.
Astral behemoths.
The rift was now active.
A manic voice echoed throughout the rift.
"Let the feast begin!"
My stomach dropped; goosebumps prickled down my back.
That's the same voice I heard from outside the rift.
I felt a zap strike my back, forcing me to turn around.
"Cyrus! Come on, we need to get out of here and regroup with Professor Thorne at the mines!" Sora yelled.
Her voice pulled me out of my daze just as the centipedes lunged toward me. I reacted instantly, unleashing Tidal Push and sending them flying back.
I channeled all the cosmic energy into my legs and dashed after my cluster.
I couldn't believe this was happening. We had our exam in the bag.
We were going to be the first to finish, be allowed to enter the vault, and get our provisional licenses.
Now… I have no idea what is going to happen.
As I caught up to my group, the jungle inside this rift seemed to come alive. The plants began emitting the same aura as the behemoths, growing a level of awareness they hadn't possessed before. The terrain itself became more difficult to navigate.
That wasn't the only thing.
Through Gravisense, I felt several large masses moving towards us, with growing cosmic energy signatures.
I unsheathed my staghorn blade and prepared myself.
"Two behemoths are coming; look alive!" I closed my eyes to focus and kept dashing behind my team.
The earth beneath us shuddered with each passing step. I heard screams from deep in the jungle, the kind that would make your blood curdle.
You can't die here, Cyrus. You have a mission to complete.
Then, a creature standing ten feet tall burst from the brush on our left. It had eight legs and a hardened exoskeleton, moving like a massive insect.
At the same time, creatures resembling gigantic dragonflies emerged from the right, flanking us from both sides.
Damn it!
Without a second thought, I used tidal push. Knocking the giant spider out of the air, and pouncing on top of it, activating gravity well to pin it to the ground, as I drove my blade through its abdomen.
My blade didn't make a deep enough gash to pierce the exoskeleton. Just as I tried to pull my blade out, gravity well subsided, and I felt several large pointed objects pierce my body.
My grip loosened from my blade, and I gasped for what little air I could, as my lungs were punctured clean through.
I saw red. Rage burned inside me as I continuously activated gravity well, desperately trying to crush the legs impaling my body.
The behemoth was at the embryonic stage, but its exoskeleton made it much more difficult to penetrate its body.
Wait, where is my stress ball?
Quickly, I scanned the entire area. I saw the rest of my team taking on the pair of large dragonflies.
After a few more moments of searching for my stress ball and fighting off the spider's attacks from its other legs, I found it and levitated it over the spider.
If a sharp object won't do. How about a blunt one?
I used gravity well on the stress ball, crashing down on the spider.
Created a dent, but it wasn't enough. The exoskeleton still held firm, and its legs continued piercing through my body.
So I repeated the process again and again, pouring more force into gravity well until finally, the shell began to fracture.
Cracks spread across its exoskeleton, exposing the soft flesh beneath and releasing a rancid stench.
I plunged my hands inside the spider and tore its soft organs apart with my bare hands.
My pulse raced, tensing my muscles, as a wave of heat flushed through my body. My body started to go numb from the constant stab wounds, as the scale of the eternal hydra fought to heal my wounds and keep me from dying.
"Cyrus," a muffled voice said behind me.
I didn't stop. I knew I couldn't give a creature like this an opening; I had to make sure it was nothing but a pile of mush.
Then I felt a shock.
'Cyrus, it's finished, you killed it," another voice said. This time it was much clearer.
I looked over my shoulder and saw the giant dragonflies with their wings clipped, lying dead on the ground. Right next to them was my cluster, horror painted on their face.
I turned and looked down at the spider. There was nothing left of the creature, except its few legs that were lodged into my ribs.
How long was it like that?
I got off the mushed corpse of the spider and began to pull the legs out of my body. Blood poured from each wound, making me light-headed. My vision blurred as I stumbled forward, eventually collapsing and vomiting onto the ground.
"Yo, Cyrus, are you ok?" Voen said, running up to me, assessing my wounds.
He laid me on my back and began to bandage me up.
I took hold of his hand and shook it away.
"Save that for someone who needs it."
Voen gave our cluster and me a sharp look.
"Are you insane? With how much blood you are losing, you are lucky to be alive."
I just closed my eyes and breathed, pushing more cosmic energy to the scale of the eternal hydra.
Then I felt my body rebuild the damaged organs and restitch the skin.
"What is happening?" Voen shouted hysterically.
I heard the rest of my cluster crowd us, watching as my body repairs itself.
"Is this normal?" Simon asked
"No, it's not, well not at my level," Voen responded.
"Cyrus, how are you doing this?"
I continued my breath work as my wounds finished healing.
Then I opened my eyes, and I wished I hadn't.
Damn it, I forgot to check it once the rift activated.
Up in the sky, the asterism Bronte's Crown was glowing brighter than before. Normally the asterism would take the form of a V‑shaped cluster of stars with branching lightning‑like streaks jutting from its ends.But this time its configuration was different. This time the point of the "V" was missing.
Which could only mean…
I shot up, got off the ground, and started sprinting.
"I'll tell you later; we have to run!"
My cluster dashed after me.
"Did you sense another behemoth?" Sora asked.
"No. It's much worse. The asterism is about to activate, and we are in its area of effect!"
But I was too late.
A massive wave of water was surging towards us, its height higher than the world trees themselves.
'Brac–"
The tsunami crashed over us, engulfing our bodies in a violent sea of blue.