Malcolm burst into Sector 0's lower plaza. The Spire stood under siege. Alphas scaled its facade, and undead clashed with Guild defenders. Explosions bloomed against the night.
At Level 10, his senses were sharper: the tang of blood, the hum of necrotic magic.
He Shadow Stepped across the plaza, reaching a Guild barricade. Elara stood atop an overturned vehicle.
Elara: "Thorne! Breach is on Level 47. Something's wrong. Hunters are going mad—seeing things, turning on each other."
Malcolm: "Mad how?"
Elara: "Whispers in their heads. Be careful."
Malcolm slipped into the Spire's shattered entrance. The central elevator shaft was open, cables severed. He climbed.
The higher he went, the worse it became. Walls were smeared with bloody scrawls—eyes, tentacles, impossible shapes. Hunters muttered about "the paleblood."
At Level 47, the air grew heavy. A cosmic hum vibrated in his bones. The archive chamber was now a charnel house. Bodies hung impaled on invisible threads of shadow. A pulsating rift bled reality, pouring out multi-limbed horrors.
A dying hunter staggered toward him.
Hunter: "Insight... too much insight... they see us..."
The man collapsed. Malcolm's HUD flickered.
Warning: Exposure to Cosmic Insight detected. Sanity meter initialized.
A pale blue bar appeared, already ticking down. Pressure built behind his eyes. Whispers promised forbidden knowledge.
Three elite alphas guarded the rift, their eyes glowing with wrongness.
Alpha Prime: "Hunter... The Great Ones stir. The paleblood calls."
Malcolm drew Shadowfang. He fought, Shadow Stepping between them. His attacks revealed glimpses beneath their skin—tentacles, eyes, twisting geometries.
One alpha raked his chest. Pain blossomed, followed by a vision: towering beings drifting between stars, watching the city. His Sanity bar dropped.
Malcolm: "Get out of my head!"
Gronk and Kira burst in. Gronk's hammer smashed an alpha. Kira's lightning caused feedback explosions.
Together they pressed the rift. Malcolm channeled all his power, plunging Shadowfang into the rift's heart.
Reality screamed. The tear sealed with a thunderclap.
Silence fell.
Cosmic Rift Closed. +2000 EXP. Progress to Level 11: 60%.
Item Acquired: Vial of Paleblood (Unknown properties. Caution: High Insight risk.)
A vial of silver-red fluid glowed where the rift had been.
Kira eyed it. "Guild's gonna want that locked up."
Malcolm: (pocketing it) "Guild can wait."
Elara arrived, pale. "The archives have records. The Necromancer bargained with something beyond. The rifts are doorways, and they're opening wider."
The whispers returned, softer now.
Malcolm: "Then we close them all."
As they descended, he felt watched—not by the Necromancer, but by something ancient and vast.
His Sanity bar hovered, no longer full.
In his pocket, the paleblood vial pulsed like a second heartbeat.
To be continued...