Chapter 2 — Falling is a lesson
Kael was still falling
At first there was only darkness and the rush of air tearing past his ears. His stomach lurched as the ground vanished beneath him, instinct screaming that this was too fast, too deep, too final.
He flailed, grasping at nothing.
Then the fall changed.
The air thickened, turning resistant, syrupy. His descent slowed—not gently, but abruptly, like an unseen hand had clamped around his spine and decided he was dropping too fast to be useful.
"Useful for what—" Kael shouted.
The words were ripped from his mouth as the darkness around him fractured.
Not cracked. Segmented.
Layers of black peeled away, revealing vast planes beneath them—overlapping environments that looked unfinished. Half-formed terrain. Mountains without erosion. Rivers suspended in the air, frozen mid-flow.
Kael spun, disoriented.
"This isn't real," he muttered again, though the lie felt thinner each time.
Text appeared, steady despite his motion.
TRIAL PARAMETERS LOADING
ENVIRONMENT: ADAPTIVE ZONE (LOW STABILITY)
He twisted midair, heart pounding. "You keep using words like that explains anything."
No answer.
The pressure returned—not crushing this time, but guiding. His fall angled sharply, pulling him toward one of the incomplete layers below. Wind roared as the fragments of a world rushed up to meet him.
Kael hit the ground hard.
The impact knocked the breath from his lungs, pain flaring through his shoulder as he rolled across rough stone and skidded to a stop. He gasped, chest heaving, fingers clawing at the surface beneath him.
It felt solid. Cold. Real.
He lay there for a moment, waiting for more pain that didn't come. Then he pushed himself onto his elbows and looked around.
The sky was wrong.
It wasn't empty, but it wasn't whole either—bands of gray and dull blue stretched overhead like torn fabric, with darker voids visible between them. Light bled through inconsistently, casting shadows that didn't quite match their sources.
Kael rose slowly to his feet.
The land around him resembled a valley mid-creation. Jagged stone spires rose at uneven angles. Patches of dead grass clung to soil that hadn't decided whether it wanted to be fertile yet. In the distance, something moved—too large to be wind, too deliberate to be chance.
He swallowed.
"Alright," he said quietly. "Trial. Fine. What's the rule?"
As if summoned, more text appeared.
OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE LOCAL CORRECTION EVENT
TIME LIMIT: UNDEFINED
ASSISTANCE: NONE
Kael stared. "That's not an objective. That's a sentence."
The ground beneath his feet shuddered.
A low sound rolled across the valley—not a roar, but a grinding pressure, like stone dragged across stone. Kael turned toward it just as the earth ahead of him began to rise.
No—unfold.
A mass pulled itself up from beneath the surface, shedding rock and soil as it emerged. Limbs took shape where there had been none. A torso followed, broad and uneven, as if assembled without care for symmetry.
A creature stood before him, easily twice his height.
Its body looked carved from the same stone as the valley, but cracked with glowing seams of dull orange light. Where its face should have been was a smooth surface, unbroken except for a single vertical fissure that slowly opened.
Kael's mouth went dry.
"That's… new," he said.
The fissure widened.
Sound poured out—not a voice, but a distortion, like the world failing to render a concept properly.
Text overlaid the creature.
CORRECTION ENTITY — TYPE I
FUNCTION: ELIMINATE NON-COMPATIBLE VARIABLE
Kael took a step back.
"Hold on," he said quickly. "We don't know I'm non-compatible yet."
The entity moved.
It didn't charge. It advanced, each step warping the ground beneath it, stone flattening and reforming as its weight passed. The pressure in the air increased with every pace.
Kael's mind raced. He had no weapon. No armor. No idea what the rules were.
Run.
He turned and sprinted.
The terrain resisted him, as if the ground itself disapproved of his direction. His boots slipped on loose stone. Behind him, the grinding sound grew louder.
Too close.
Kael risked a glance over his shoulder.
The entity raised one massive arm.
The air screamed.
A shockwave tore through the space between them, slamming into Kael's back and throwing him forward. He hit the ground hard, skidding across stone, skin tearing, breath knocked out again.
He rolled onto his side, coughing, vision swimming.
DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: MINOR
ADAPTATION OPPORTUNITY: PRESENT
Kael laughed weakly through the pain. "You have a strange idea of opportunity."
The ground shook again as the entity closed in.
Kael pushed himself up, shaking, blood on his hands, eyes locked on the thing that had been sent to erase him.
"If surviving is the test," he said hoarsely, "then you picked the wrong way to motivate me."
The creature lifted its arm for another strike.
And something inside Kael shifted.