The Riftborn Hunter

Aiden's world erupted in light.

Not the soft glow he'd imagined as a kid, lying awake in the Kain family's cold estate, wondering what colors looked like while his siblings trained their Traits. Not the flickering warmth of torches he'd felt on his skin or the harsh glare of city lamps he'd heard hum.

This was something else entirely.

Not just light—it was sight.

And it broke him.

Aiden's breath snagged in his throat, pulse hammering like a war drum. His vision trembled—edges razor-sharp, colors bleeding into each other, depth twisting wrong. His brain screamed, clawing at an overload it was never built for—shapes slashing into focus, motion blurring, distances snapping too close then too far.

The Rift wasn't black—it lived. A writhing, twisting mass of impossible shapes, reality stacked and folded like nightmare origami gone feral. The buildings around him weren't just ruins—they breathed, their surfaces pulsing like stretched skin over jagged bone, veins of glowing energy throbbing through cracked walls.

The ground bucked beneath him, warping, refusing to stay solid—gravel skittering like it was alive. The air rippled, thick and charged, buzzing with unseen force that stung his lungs.

And the creatures—

Aiden's stomach lurched, bile clawing up his throat.

They were wrong.

Shadows peeled off the walls, limbs bending at angles that mocked physics—snapping, twisting, folding inward. Their forms flickered—solid one heartbeat, liquid the next—stretching too long, shrinking too small, like reflections on shattered water. Some clung to the buildings, eyeless heads swiveling toward him, jaws splitting wide enough to swallow a man whole, lined with teeth like splintered glass. Others slithered through pavement cracks, elongated fingers dragging behind, clawing the ground with a wet screech—puppets with their strings slashed, jerking toward him.

They watched him—not with eyes, but with intent, a hunger that sank into his bones.

A voice—thousands of whispers layered into one—raked through the air.

"He sees."

Aiden's breath hitched, sharp and ragged.

His fingers dug into the shifting ground, nails scraping as his body locked tight. His mind drowned, flooded by perception—every twitch of those creatures carved patterns he couldn't unsee, every fractured surface screamed weak points. His vision didn't just see—it knew, tracing golden threads of what came next.

A Hunter's body dragged into the dark, flesh peeling in ribbons.

Another torn apart mid-step, guts spilling before the shadow even struck.

Futures.

He was seeing them before they hit.

"No," Aiden rasped, voice cracking. "This isn't right."

The Kains had drilled it into him—sight was a gift he'd never earn, power a birthright he'd never claim. A blind reject didn't get miracles.

This wasn't a miracle.

This was a curse.

The Rift pulsed—harder, deeper, shaking his ribs.

Something shifted—a ripple in the dark, heavy and deliberate.

A glitch cracked through his skull.

[SYSTEM ERROR—PROCESSING FAILURE.]

[UNKNOWN SENSORY ACTIVATION DETECTED.]

[RECALIBRATING… ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.]

[USER STATUS: UNDEFINED.]

Aiden gasped, hands trembling. His body felt wrong—unreal—like something fundamental had snapped loose inside him.

The System wasn't guiding him.

It was scrambling to keep up.

A figure stepped from the shadows—tall, too tall, its form a void where reality refused to stick. No face, just a smooth expanse, but its presence crushed the air—suffocating, alive, untouchable.

Aiden's gaze locked on it, and his vision split—golden threads fracturing into chaos.

[UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED.]

[SYSTEM ERROR—DATA CANNOT BE PROCESSED.]

[UNKNOWN TRAIT INTERFERENCE DETECTED.]

The thing tilted its head, slow and deliberate.

The Rift shuddered—a low groan rippling through the ground.

Aiden's body froze, pinned by the weight of its stare—like a blade pressed to his soul.

The whispers turned frantic, hissing from every shadow.

"Not him."

"Not yet."

The creatures shrank back, their jagged forms quivering—afraid, maybe, or waiting.

The figure didn't speak. Didn't move.

But Aiden felt it reach—not with hands, but with something colder, deeper, threading into his skull.

His vision shattered—golden light bleeding into black.

[SYSTEM OVERRIDE ATTEMPT: FAILURE.]

[UNABLE TO PROCESS USER'S STATUS.]

[ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.]

Something ancient stirred inside him—a pulse he'd never known, waking from a cage he didn't build.

Aiden's breath caught, sharp and desperate.

This wasn't just sight.

This was more.

Not a gift from the System. Not a trick of the Rift.

This had always been there—buried, waiting, a secret the Kains had missed when they threw him away.

A voice thundered in his head—low, deeper than human, shaking his bones.

"Wake up, Seer."

Aiden screamed—raw, tearing from his throat.

And then—

Everything collapsed.