The sky over the Iron Sanctuary still bled violet and black, the Rift looming like an eye that refused to blink. Lightning arced across the clouds above, and down below, the battle raged like a hellish storm. Yet in the center of it all, the air shifted, and the world changed.
Because Ethan had crossed over.
It wasn't something he chose. When his blade clashed again with the original Beastmarked—his mirror self, his cursed reflection—a tear opened midair. And in that instant, Ethan was pulled through.
The world on the other side was not Earth.
It was silence.
Dead trees curved inward like reaching hands. The ground was bone white, cracked and pulsing with thin, dark veins. Shadows floated without form, whispering in forgotten tongues. The sky overhead was solid black—no stars, no moons, just a suffocating void.
Ethan landed hard, coughing, his sword clattering beside him.
"…Where am I?" he muttered.
"You've come home," said a voice behind him.
He turned—and there he was again.
The mirror-Ethan stood, not as an enemy in battle now, but calm, composed. His dark hair hung loose around his shoulders, and the mark on his chest pulsed like a second heart.
"This is the origin," the doppelgänger said. "Where the first Rift opened. Where the Beastmarked were born."
Ethan gritted his teeth, picking up his sword. "I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask to be dragged into your nightmare."
"But the mark did." The other Ethan stepped closer, eyes glowing cold blue. "And you listened. That moment you touched your father's blade, you woke up a truth that was always waiting."
"You're lying."
"I'm you. I can't lie to myself."
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Ethan's heart pounded. "If this is your home, why attack mine?"
"Because the boundary must break." His voice darkened. "You still don't understand what's coming. Earth is not protected—it's hidden. Behind layers of seals and lies. When the seals break, the true world returns. You call them beasts. They are the firstborn."
Ethan stepped back. "You mean to destroy us."
"No," the mirror-Ethan said, and his tone shifted—sadder now, bitter. "We mean to reclaim what was taken. I just did it first. But you... you were chosen to finish it."
"Then you chose the wrong guy."
Without warning, Ethan flung a surge of energy forward, aiming for the doppelgänger's heart. The blast lit up the sky—but his mirror self vanished like smoke.
And the whispers grew louder.
All around him, the shadows stirred. Figures began to form—twisted mockeries of beasts he'd slain. A lion with eyes in its chest. A hound stitched from bones. A serpent with limbs.
"You brought your fear here," the voice echoed. "Now you must face it."
Ethan raised his blade just in time as the lion charged.
---
Back in the real world, the Sanctuary reeled.
Zeila was holding the northern line with a mix of daggers and deadly runes, while Kael had taken command of a group of younger Hunters. But there was no mistaking it—Ethan's absence had changed the tide. Without him, the Rift-born seemed emboldened, as if they knew the mark's presence was gone.
Commander Veyra's voice rang out across the walls. "Hold the line! Do not fall back!"
"We're running out of silver rounds!" Kael shouted.
"We have fire, don't we?" Zeila grinned. "Burn them all."
Kael looked to the Rift, flickering like a broken wound in the sky. "Where the hell did he go, Ethan?"
---
In the Rift World, Ethan fought like a whirlwind.
The more he slashed, the more the beasts formed—spawned from his own mind, his memories, his regrets. He saw the face of his mother, twisted into a monster. He saw his father, screaming as the beasts tore him apart. He saw himself, standing among the ruins.
His blade faltered.
The mark pulsed, brighter than before.
And suddenly, he saw a new memory—not from his mind.
A ritual.
A circle of robed figures chanting around a black crystal. A blade held over a child. The mark burned into skin not with choice, but by force.
His origin.
His curse.
Ethan fell to his knees, screaming. The world rippled.
"You were made," the voice whispered again. "Forged by old sins. So tell me, Ethan… will you fight what you are?"
"No," he hissed, rising.
The mark exploded in light, and a new symbol formed along his forearm—one he hadn't seen before.
Not just cursed.
Not just Beastmarked.
But awakened.
With a roar, Ethan surged forward, the void bending to his power. The beasts fell back. The ground split. The sky cracked.
And he punched through the Rift.
In the Sanctuary, the sky above shattered in a flash of blue fire—and Ethan came crashing down in the courtyard, eyes glowing like a storm, sword burning with black flame.
The Hunters froze.
Kael whispered, "He's back…"
Zeila only smirked. "And about damn time."
Ethan stood slowly, breathing hard.
"They're coming," he said. "But now… so am I."
---