Darkness.

  Not the comforting kind, the kind that wraps around you like a warm blanket. No, this was different.

  This was a pulling darkness, a shifting, twisting nothingness that coiled around me like a living thing, pressing in from all sides.

  I was weightless.

  The darkness wasn’t just around me, it was reaching, warping, trying to fold itself around me in a corrupted embrace. But the moment it touched me, it dissolved, scattering like mist in the wind.

  Yet, I could still feel it.

  It had no malice, no hunger. It wasn’t really trying to corrupt me. It simply was, as natural as the energy flowing through my being, yet its opposite in every way.

  Where my energy was golden, vibrant, brimming with warmth, the astral was dark and dormant, an abyss of waiting potential.

  I watched it fluctuate, shifting and curling, pressing forward and recoiling as if testing me, sensing me. Time felt distant here, a mere suggestion rather than a rule. But the darkness’s attempts grew more insistent, tendrils of void creeping closer, pressing against the edges of my awareness.

  At first, it was just a faint unease.

  Then it grew.

  A distant sense of fear, hollow and empty at first, like a whisper at the back of my mind. But it didn’t fade. It built, layer by layer, growing, twisting into something heavier, something suffocating.

  Until it became unbearable.

  Something inside me lurched.

  I remembered, I was in the middle of something.

  The thought struck me like a lightning bolt, a jolt of raw panic that broke something loose.

  And the moment I latched onto that thought, the darkness reacted.

  The nothingness around me rippled.

  And then, visions.

  They erupted into existence around me, impossible shapes and shifting colors, jagged fragments of reality that made no sense, twisting and shattering before I could even grasp them.

  Pain.

  That was the first thing I felt. Not a dull ache, not a distant throb, pain. Sharp, suffocating, all consuming. Every nerve in my body burned like I’d been flayed open and stitched back together with fire.

  I was moving.

  No, being dragged .

  My body scraped against rough asphalt, the jagged pavement tearing at my skin as I was dragged across the empty street. The sickening sound of wet, slithering flesh echoed through the night, mixing with the distant crackling of streetlights shorting out.

  I forced my eyes open.

  The world was a swirling blur of motion, tilting and shifting in nauseating patterns.

  Something was pulling me.

  I twisted, forcing my sluggish limbs to obey, ignoring the fiery protests in my ribs.

  A tentacle, thick, pulsing with unnatural veins, was wrapped around my leg, yanking me toward the looming shape behind me.

  The Zyrrithak.

  Its shifting form pulsed and warped, flickering between the monstrous tiger and the soulless sheep, the amalgamation of features blurring into something wrong.

  It was slower now, its wounds leaking thick black ichor onto the pavement, hissing where it touched. The damage I had inflicted earlier had left its mark.

  Not enough.

  Not nearly enough.

  The thing rumbled, a deep, gurgling sound, thick with anticipation. Its maw opened, rows of jagged teeth stretching into the void beyond comprehension.

  No. No. NO.

  I gathered what little energy I could still feel and focused.

  The golden force surged inside me, weak and flickering, but still there.

  I shaped it. Condensed it. Forced it into a point.

  And then, I kicked.

  The moment my foot slammed into the tentacle gripping me, the energy detonated.

  A violent shockwave ripped through the limb, severing it completely.

  The beast screeched, the sound wrong, vibrating in my skull like something was trying to unmake me from the inside.

  I didn’t wait.

  The second the grip around my leg loosened, I rolled, gritting my teeth as pain tore through my battered body. My hands hit the pavement, pushing myself up with a strength I barely had left.

  My vision swam, but I moved.

  I had to move.

  The Zyrrithak twisted, its form contorting as it reared back, wounded but angrier than before.

  I was already running.

  My body screamed, every muscle straining against the abuse, but I ignored it.

  I reached, not with my hands, but with something deeper.

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  I felt the tether.

  The golden connection between me and my real body.

  I pulled.

  Nothing.

  I pulled harder.

  Something pushed back.

  It was like trying to swim against a tide that was pulling me away, refusing to let me return.

  No. No, not now!

  The Zyrrithak let out another guttural roar, its form flickering with rage.

  Then it lunged.

  I twisted at the last second, barely avoiding the tentacle that slammed into the ground beside me, sending shards of broken pavement flying.

  I kept running.

  Faster.

  The city blurred around me, the streetlights flickering, the buildings warping at the edges.

  The air felt wrong, like it was cracking, splitting open at the seams.

  Small distortions shimmered along the walls, tiny fractures in reality itself, glimpses of something beyond.

  The Astral.

  It was bleeding through.

  I saw shadows slithering between the cracks, glimpses of twisted shapes watching, waiting.

  I pushed forward, forcing myself to ignore the creeping dread curling around my spine.

  I needed to get home.

  If I could just reach my apartment, maybe I could force myself back.

  Behind me, the Zyrrithak snarled and followed.

  It didn’t move like a normal creature, it flowed, its form flickering, shifting between structures, its tendrils pulling it forward at impossible speeds.

  It was gaining.

  I leaped, twisting mid air, planting my feet against the side of a building.

  For a split second, gravity tried to take me, then my boots caught.

  I ran straight up the wall, golden energy surging through my limbs.

  A tentacle lashed at me. I pushed off, flipping backward just as it crashed into the concrete, leaving a crater where I had been.

  I landed hard on a rooftop, barely keeping my balance.

  The monster snarled below.

  It coiled, its limbs wrapping around the building, pulling itself up.

  Shit.

  I ran.

  Leaping across rooftops, vaulting over vents and pipes, dodging tentacles that shot out, trying to ensnare me.

  Each second, I reached for the tether and each second, it resisted.

  The cityscape warped. Buildings shimmered between states of reality, some solid, some flickering, half swallowed by the encroaching Astral.

  My heart pounded.

  I was running out of time.

  I saw my apartment in the distance, so close.

  But the Zyrrithak was already moving, predicting my path, slithering through the structures, cutting me off.

  I had one chance.

  I pushed off the last rooftop, twisting mid air

  diving straight toward my open window.

  For a fraction of a second, I saw my body.

  Still. Lifeless.

  Waiting.

  I reached out

  A tentacle wrapped around my waist.

  My vision blurred as the force jerked me back, my spine twisting painfully.

  I screamed, raw and desperate.

  No.

  NO.

  I reached harder, pulled harder.

  The tether resisted then SNAPPED into place.

  I threw myself forward, twisting at an impossible angle, my entire form flickering, caught between worlds.

  For a moment, just a moment, I saw everything.

  The real world.

  The Astral.

  The bleeding fractures in between.

  then, Impact.

  I slammed into my body, the force ripping through me like a live wire.

  Pain.

  Cold.

  Then

  A single, gasping breath.

  I woke up.

  Cold, sharp, burning as it rushed into my lungs. My body jerked, spasming as reality slammed back into place.

  I was awake.

  I was back.

  I sucked in a breath then another, desperate, shaking. My body trembled, every muscle tight, locked in place.

  I had to move. I tried to sit up, pain. A sharp, electric jolt that tore through every inch of me, like my nerves were still on fire. My hands clawed at the sheets, muscles spasming as I struggled against the phantom agony coiling through my limbs.

  I gritted my teeth, forced my body to obey.

  I lifted my hands, staring at them, expecting something. Scars. Burns. Anything to explain the pain still crawling through my skin.

  Nothing, No bruises. No wounds.Physically, I was fine.

  Then why did it feel like I was still dying?

  My chest heaved, panic curling tight around my ribs. My breath came in short, ragged bursts, too fast, too shallow.

  Something was wrong. I squeezed my eyes shut, heart pounding, the weight of my own existence pressing down on me like I was still caught in the Astral’s grasp.

  I had been crushed, dragged, torn apart. My body remembered it. My nerves remembered it.

  And what if…What if I hadn’t come back right?

  What if I’d broken something?

  What if I was stuck like this?

  The panic spiked, spiraling, swallowing me whole.

  I couldn’t breathe.

  I forced my hands against my chest, pressing down like I could physically hold myself together.

  Breathe.

  I tried. The air was thick. Heavy. But slowly, so slowly, the weight began to lift.

  The pain didn’t fade, not immediately, but it… shifted. The sharp edges dulled. The fire turned to embers, burning beneath the surface but no longer consuming me.

  I took another breath, deeper this time.I wasn’t broken.I was still here and I could move.

  I pushed myself upright, the motion sluggish, weak. My head spun, my limbs ached, but the panic had ebbed, leaving behind only exhaustion.

  Water, I needed water.

  I dragged myself out of bed, my legs trembling beneath me as I stumbled toward the kitchen.

  The apartment was warm , grounding me in the present, reminding me that I was home.

  Not in that bleeding, fractured city. Home.

  I reached the sink, grabbed a glass with shaking hands, filled it with water, and drank.

  The first sip was ice against my throat, shocking, but I forced myself to take more. I hadn’t realized how dry my mouth was, how parched my body felt, like I’d been wandering a desert for days.

  The pain faded a little more. Not gone. But less.

  I leaned against the counter, gripping the edge until my knuckles turned white, steadying myself.

  I needed to clean up, I felt filthy.

  I pushed away from the counter, dragging my feet toward the bathroom. Every step was an effort, my body moving like it was wading through thick air, weighed down by exhaustion.

  The bathroom light was too bright, searing into my skull. I winced, blinking against it as I reached for the shower handle, twisting it all the way to cold.

  The pipes groaned. Water sputtered, then burst from the showerhead in an icy cascade.

  I stepped under it without hesitation.

  The first impact of the water was a shock, a burst of icy needles stabbing into my skin but I barely flinched.

  The cold should have hurt. It should have made me shiver, should have sent me retreating, but instead, it felt… almost numb.

  Like I was still caught between two states, one foot in reality, the other still lingering in the astral beyond.

  I tilted my head back, letting the freezing water soak through my hair, run down my face, over my shoulders. The temperature barely registered, but the sensation, the weight of the water, the realness of it, kept me here.

  I closed my eyes. Images flashed behind my eyelids.

  The Zyrrithak.

  Its shifting, warping form. The way it had chased me, relentless, pulling itself across reality as if the rules of existence meant nothing to it.

  And the city. The streets had been cracking, unraveling at the edges, thin fractures in reality itself.

  And I had seen what was beyond them.

  The Astral bleeding through, spreading.

  I opened my eyes, my breath coming faster, colder.

  The Earth, my home, was being invaded by the astral.

  I swallowed hard, gripping the slick, tiled walls.

  I hadn’t imagined it.I had seen it, the rips were real.

  And if they were growing—if the Astral was pushing through then Earth was becoming unanchored.

  A drifting leaf caught in an endless void, teetering on the edge of something vast, something hungry.

  I clenched my jaw. That couldn’t happen. I wouldn’t let it happen.

  I didn’t know how, not yet but I’d find a way. No matter what it took. No matter what it cost.

  I turned the shower off, shaking droplets from my hair, steam curling around me in ghostly tendrils.

  I felt… steadier.

  The exhaustion was still there, the weight of everything pressing against me, but beneath it, something had settled.

  A resolve.

  I stepped out of the shower, the cold air biting against my damp skin.I barely felt it.

  I had work to do.