Chapter 7: Into the Wild
The Emberlight Guild Hall towered above the rest of the district, a modern glass-and-steel structure humming with elemental energy. Inside, everything was alive with movement—hunters reporting missions, elemental arrays flickering, beast cores being catalogued by drones. Screens displayed live feeds from across the city and nearby wild zones. But today, the hall quieted briefly as a rare announcement echoed through the speakers.
"Congratulations to Jim Arden and Tory Vale—recipients of B-Rank licenses following the confirmed slaying of the Ant Queen in Zone 9."
The floor buzzed. Whispers rippled through the crowd.
"Those kids? B-Rank already?"
"No way. The Ant Queen's a mid-tier Lord-class beast. How did they even survive?"
Tory stood beside Jim, hood up, gaze fixed on the ground. He didn't like attention. Jim, on the other hand, nodded confidently, resting his hand on the ash spear slung across his back.
Keira smirked. "Not bad for a couple of orphans."
Rohn grinned. "Drinks on you two now."
They had officially registered their team with the guild. Name: Ashwing. Classification: Mixed Elemental Strike Unit. Rank: B.
Tory let the moment pass without comment. His System screen was already filling with alerts.
> [New Title Gained: Ant Queen Slayer] [Guild Mission Access Expanded: B-Rank and Below] [Reality Thread - Output Suppressed: 10% Max Until Core Stabilization]
---
Three Days Later - The Hunt Begins
"This area looks abandoned," Rohn muttered, sweeping his eyes across the dense treeline.
They had been dispatched to a Tier-4 wild zone near the coastal Riftwood expanse, just outside Emberlight's defense barrier. B-Rank teams were often sent here to clear beast populations that had grown too close to the city.
Jim squinted at the mission tablet. "Coordinates match. There should be a breach cave entrance nearby."
Keira pulled her blade free. "Something's off. No bird calls. No wind."
Tory moved silently through the brush, checking his readings. The System highlighted faint distortions nearby—spatial flickers, like something was tampering with the natural order.
> [System Alert: Reality Distortion Detected] [Warning: Time Ripple Field - Anomaly Active]
He paused. Time ripple?
He said nothing.
They reached a ravine wrapped in black vines, where a narrow fissure led into darkness.
"Looks like we found our cave," Jim said.
They entered in formation—Jim up front, Keira and Rohn flanking, and Tory bringing up the rear.
They never saw what triggered it.
---
The Collapse
It started with a pulse.
The cave walls shimmered.
Then cracked.
Reality twisted. Space folded. And suddenly, the ground gave way beneath Tory's feet.
"TORY!"
Jim reached, but too late. Tory fell through a ripple in the air, his body vanishing mid-scream. The others were thrown back as the tunnel sealed behind a burst of gravitational energy.
> [System Alert: Spatial Separation Triggered] [Timeline Dislocation: Active] [Estimated Displacement: Unknown Duration]
Tory slammed into darkness.
---
Somewhere Else
He woke on cracked stone beneath a blood-red sky. Mountains floated in the air. Rivers flowed upward. Time bent in unnatural curves.
> [Welcome to: Forgotten Echo Zone] [This dimension was severed from the world 130 years ago during a failed Genesis experiment.] [System Initialization Adjusted: Temporal Anchors Rebinding]
Tory groaned, slowly pushing himself to his feet.
Alone.
His armor was cracked. Weapons scattered. But the necklace—the ash-threaded core that had chosen him—was pulsing softly.
He had been separated from the others.
Lost.
But not powerless.
> [System Directive: Survive. Evolve. Reclaim Yourself.] [New Passive Trait: Time Resonance - Tier 1] [Element Acquired: Time (Hidden)]
His eyes widened slightly.
Time?
The thread within him twisted, absorbing the chaotic flow of the broken world. Time and space coiled around his Reality core, feeding it, accelerating its growth in ways the System hadn't predicted.
> [Reality Power Unlock Progress: 13%] [New Skill: Chrono Sight – Briefly see 2 seconds into the future. Cooldown: 60s]
Tory exhaled.
He wasn't going to die here.
He was going to master this place.
And come back changed.
---
Three Months Later
In the real world, it had only been days.
For Tory, it had been three months.
The Forgotten Echo Zone had tried to kill him every day.
Twisted beasts that warped between time flickers.
Storms that reversed gravity.
Nightmares from past and future selves.
But he survived.
He forged new armor from Chrono Crystal hides.
He reforged his spear with a stabilized Gravity Core and bound it with Time-thread runes.
And he unlocked the second gate of Reality.
> [Reality Thread Access: 21%] [Time Element: Tier 1 – Concealed] [New Ability: Temporal Shift - Short-term speed and perception acceleration] [Skill: Graviton Break – Crush target with condensed gravity orb]
The final test came when a mutated Echo Beast nearly ripped him apart. Tory had lost his right arm in the battle, only for the Reality Thread to reconstruct it from ash and time, stabilizing a bond between the three powers now flowing in him:
Space
Gravity
Time
But only he knew of Time.
Not even the System highlighted it openly.
> [System Alignment: Independent Directive] [Progress Monitored. Data Encrypted from External Viewers.]
When a rift opened again, and a tear in the Forgotten Zone reconnected to the main world, Tory didn't hesitate.
He walked through.
Cloaked in silence.
---
Back in Emberlight
Jim nearly collapsed when the scanners detected Tory near the guild gates.
Keira ran to him first.
"You... you're alive?"
He nodded once. His body was leaner, stronger. His eyes had changed—darker irises with silver flecks. His gear shimmered with faint runes no one could read.
Rohn muttered, "He looks... different."
Jim didn't ask what happened.
He just pulled Tory into a rough hug.
"Took you long enough, brother."
Tory smiled faintly.
But inside, the Time Thread pulsed.
Silently.
Underneath his eyes