Chapter 55: Dimensional Destabilization, The Sky Tears Open

The rainbow light grew wider, brighter, and clearer every hour. By noon, it was no longer just a strange glow. It looked like a deep wound in the sky, pulsing with unnatural colors.

Alvian watched from his apartment window. His high intelligence let him see the problem clearly. The ground under Vaeloria was cracking. Energy from the Aura Explosion had traveled through the old Undercity pipes. This created a weak spot in reality, and that weak spot was growing.

[Dimensional Stability: CRITICAL.]

[Stress point located: Ironclad Academy courtyard, sub-level coordinates confirmed.]

[Rift formation probability: 97.3%.]

[Estimated time to breach: 2 hours, 14 minutes.]

Martha was sleeping. Leo was drawing on the wall again. His new picture showed a black hole in the sky with stick figures falling inside.

Alvian stared at the picture.

Kids see things. Things that adults ignore.

Serah arrived at noon. She was awake all night looking at data on her device. She checked the energy from both the God Roll and the Aura Explosion. Her face was pale, and her hands were shaking. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

"The energy readings from last night," she said without greeting him. "I checked every database. None of them explain what happened. The closest match is a Rank 5 dimensional event, but the signal is wrong. It is not a normal Rift opening. It is something else."

"Something worse," Alvian said.

Serah looked at him. "You already know."

He pointed out the window. The light above the Academy was so bright that Serah could see it from kilometers away without special senses. It was a tall stripe of rainbow light that grew brighter every minute.

"That is the same energy I saw in the alley," she whispered. "The same energy from your wheel. It is not going away. It is getting stronger."

Alvian felt his Clearwater Talent vibrate in his bones. The energy leaking from the weak spot felt familiar. It felt like his own Talent, the System, and pure destruction.

The God Roll didn’t just give me power. It damaged space itself. The Aura Explosion was too much energy in one spot. The world cannot handle it.

[DING!]

[Dimensional Stability: BREACH IMMINENT.]

[Estimated time to Rift opening: 47 minutes.]

[Classification: Rank 5 Calamity Rift.]

[Recommendation: Evacuate the area.]

’Evacuate to where? The Academy is three kilometers away. If a Rank 5 Rift opens there, the explosion will cover half the city.’

At 2:47 PM, the sky tore open.

The sound came first. A low, heavy hum vibrated in everyone’s chest, followed by a sharp screeching noise like breaking glass. The sound blasted through the noise of the Undercity. Martha woke up. Leo dropped his charcoal. Serah grabbed the window frame to stay standing.

Then came the light.

A vertical tear in reality, twenty meters tall and ten meters wide, ripped open in the middle of Ironclad Academy’s main courtyard. The edges sparked with rainbow energy, the same light that had leaked from his broken roulette wheel. The tear pulsed as if it were breathing.

Alvian could see it clearly from the window. Three kilometers away, the Rift looked like a burning mark on the horizon. He calculated the size. Twenty meters tall. It could be seen from fifty kilometers away. The spatial shockwave from the opening would have knocked down anyone standing within a hundred meters.

[DING!]

[SYSTEM ALERT]

[Rank 5 Calamity Rift detected.]

[Location: Ironclad Academy, Main Courtyard.]

[Classification: Permanent dimensional breach. Will not self-seal.]

[Threat level: EXTREME.]

Rank 5. The same rank the Guild gave the Aura Explosion. This isn’t a normal Rift. Normal Rifts close on their own. This one is permanent.

His student badge buzzed. An emergency message cut through all channels.

"All available Awakened report to Ironclad Academy! Calamity-class event in progress! This is not a drill!"

The message repeated continuously. Alvian could hear it echoing from other badges in nearby rooms. The Undercity was learning about the disaster.

Through the window, he saw the first spatial beast come out of the Rift. Even three kilometers away, his high attributes let him see it clearly. It was a giant spider creature with a body made of dark energy crystals. It had eight legs that blurred as they moved through space, and jaws that could pass through solid matter.

A Rank 3 Voidcrawler.

It let out a screech that humans could barely hear. It charged at a group of students visible as tiny dots on the grounds. The students’ attacks passed right through its phased body without touching it.

It killed three students in three seconds before a teacher used a gravity Talent to pin it to the ground.

Then a second beast came out. Then a third. Then ten more. Then a hundred!

The Rift was spawning an army.

Rank 3 and Rank 4 spatial beasts poured out without stopping. Voidcrawlers. Phase-Stalkers. Rift-Hounds. The Academy’s automatic defense turrets came out from the courtyard walls to shoot at the Rift. But the turrets could not target the Rift itself. It was not a target or a machine. It was a hole in reality, and you cannot shoot a hole.

[DING!]

[Calamity Rift analysis complete.]

[Rift output: Rank 3-5 dimensional beasts, continuous wave generation.]

[Standard closing method: Destroy the Rift’s anchor creature to collapse the dimensional breach.]

[Note: No anchor creature detected yet. Rift is still building output.]

Alvian watched the Academy’s defenses fail. The magical defense crystals in the arena walls broke under the spatial pressure. The Academy’s shield generators broke down within minutes. Alarm sirens roared across the school, and the sound carried all the way to the Undercity.

His power had caused this. His God Roll had torn reality open, and now reality was bleeding monsters into his city.

This is my fault.

He did not feel useless guilt; he just accepted the fact. He had chased power to protect his family, but his energy had caused collateral damage. The Academy he went to, the students he trained with, the teachers who helped him, and Helen Croft, who had destroyed his file to protect him, all of them were in danger because of him.