Chapter 34: Homecoming
The moment Lucas crossed the Gateway’s threshold, the world shattered.
There was no sensation of stepping through a doorway. No smooth transition from one place to another.
Instead, reality seemed to tear apart around him....
The ground beneath his feet disappeared entirely, leaving him suspended inside a tunnel of fracturing light. Endless streams of blue energy spiraled around him, colliding against jagged cracks that spread across the corridor itself.
Every impact sent another ripple through the passage, accompanied by a deafening groan that sounded less like breaking stone and more like the world itself crying out in pain.
"Keep moving!" Mark shouted somewhere behind him, though even his voice sounded warped, stretched by the unstable space around them.
Lucas reached out blindly until his hand found Eleanor’s wrist.
"Gotcha!!"
She tightened her grip immediately.
The tunnel lurched violently....
The three of them were nearly thrown sideways as the entire corridor twisted as if it were alive. Beneath their feet, pieces of the flooring shattered into glowing fragments before being swallowed by an endless black void below.
Lucas refused to look down again. There was nothing beneath them.
Nothing except darkness that seemed to swallow even the light pouring from the collapsing Gateway.
Mark dug both feet into the unstable surface and caught Lucas before he was thrown over the edge.
"Watch it!"
Another crack echoed through the tunnel.
This one was louder.
Closer....
Lucas looked ahead.
The exit still floated in the distance like a tiny star.
Way too far away.
The corridor continued collapsing behind them.
Chunks of glowing stone peeled away from the walls before dissolving into countless streams of light. Every few seconds another section disappeared completely, erased from existence as though it had never been there.
The collapse was catching up....
"Hurry!" Eleanor yelled.
The three of them broke into another sprint despite every muscle in their bodies screaming in protest.
Leaping from one stone slab to another...
Several times Lucas felt gravity simply... stop working.
One moment the was running. The next he was floating several feet above the ground before crashing back down hard enough to drive the air from his lungs.
Distances stretched without warning.
Steps became impossible to judge.
The light ahead sometimes appeared only a few meters away before suddenly retreating hundreds more.
It was a nightmare....
Without warning, a wall of fractured energy burst across the passage.
"Down!"
Mark tackled both Lucas and Eleanor to the ground.
Where it passed, the wall simply ceased to exist.
Not broken.
Not destroyed.
Gone.
An entire section vanished into absolute nothingness.
Cold sweat ran down Lucas’s back.
If they’d been half a second slower, there wouldn’t even be bodies left.
Mark slowly pushed himself upright.
"Everyone alive."
"Barely." Lucas coughed.
"I’m good."
"Then move!"
The corridor groaned again. This time the sound seemed like it came from everywhere.
Fractures raced along every surface around them, glowing brighter with each passing second.
Lucas could actually see the collapse now. Reality itself was folding inward.
The tunnel wasn’t simply breaking.
It was closing.... Like a mouth.
"We’re not going to make it..." someone shouted from further behind.
Lucas glanced over his shoulder.
Dozens of survivors from the faction were still running behind them.
Some stumbled.... Some carried injured companions across their shoulders.
Others simply refused to leave anyone behind despite the impossible pace.
The collapsing tunnel swallowed the space behind them piece by piece and every second lost meant another section disappeared forever.
His chest tightened.
’Shit!’
Not after everything.
The system’s familiar glitching window flashed across his vision.
[Survival Probability: 38%]
Lucas’s heartbeat stopped.
Thirty eight.
Being this low barely offered survival as an option.
The familiar thought immediately surfaced.
Regression....
His fingers twitched instinctively. If they died here... If everyone disappeared inside this collapsing space, he could simply go back. Start again. Warn everyone and prevent all of this.
His breathing grew heavier....
Could he really...
No.
His eyes drifted toward Eleanor, still refusing to let go of his hand.
Mark remained behind both of them, shielding anyone who stumbled despite exhaustion creeping onto his face.
Behind them were over a hundred survivors. People who had fought beside them.
People who had trusted them.
People who were still alive.
Lucas clenched his jaw until it hurt.
"... tch...."
His voice was barely a whisper.
"I’m not doing that."
He wasn’t going to throw away everything they’d fought for because fear told him to.
Not this time at least...
If they escaped, they escaped together.
If they died, then he’d make sure they died running forward instead of giving up.
"Lucas!"
Eleanor’s voice snapped him back.
The floor ahead exploded and he leapt just before the section disappeared into darkness.
His boots landed hard on the remaining platform.
He didn’t look back, he simply kept running.
The light ahead finally began growing larger.
Not because it had moved but because they were finally getting closer.
"That’s the exit!"
Hope spread through the survivors like wildfire. People found strength they shouldn’t have possessed.
The entire column accelerated.
The collapsing tunnel seemed to notice and a deafening grain echoed throughout the Gateway.
The ceiling — or whatever it was, burst.
Massive shards raining downward.
Lucas ducked beneath one, Mark punched another aside with his gauntlets.
Eleanor summoned a wall of stone that lasted barely a second before the distorted space ripped it apart, but it bought enough time for several wounded fighters to pass safely.
"Hurry!"
The opening was beginning to shrink.
"Fuck..."
Lucas felt genuine panic claw at his chest.
The exit was closing.
It was actually closing.
They weren’t going to—
A blinding pulse erupted from somewhere behind them.
The collapsing tunnel lurched violently and instead of sealing immediately, the exit expanded one final time.
Just enough...
Lucas never knew why.
Maybe luck had finally chosen their side? Maybe something greater had intervened.
He didn’t know.... He only knew they had one chance.
"GO!"
Every remaining survivor threw themselves toward the light.
Lucas crossed first, Eleanor immediately after him.
Mark emerged a moment later.
**BOOM**
The final members of their faction stumbled through seconds before the Gateway folded inward with a thunderous boom.
The light vanished and silence followed.
***
.
.
.
.
.
Lucas hit solid ground and rolled several feet before finally stopping.
Grass....
Soft....
Real....
He lay there for several seconds simply breathing. Fresh air filled his lungs.
Cool wind brushed against his face.
No burning. No blood. No beasts.
Just.... Home.
Slowly, he opened his eyes.
Blue sky stretched overhead and clouds drifted peacefully above.
For a moment, he couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing.
It was too normal... Too quiet.
Someone nearby started laughing, Another person began crying. Lucas pushed himself upright.
The familiar field stretched before him.
The school buildings standing exactly where they’d always been.
It was the graduation grounds. The very place where everything had begun.
The memory struck him all at once. Talking with Mark then going to the rooftop to meet with Eleanor.
None of them had known that, within minutes, their entire world would cease to exist.
And yet... Here they were here again standing on the very same field.
Only now they were different people... People who had survived hell.
"We... we actually made it..."
One of the older guards fell to his knees.
Another survivor burst into tears.
Several people simply collapsed onto the grass, too exhausted to move another inch.
Then someone laughed.
Another joined.
Soon the entire field erupted into relieved cheers.
"We’re alive!"
"We made it back!"
"I can’t believe it!"
People cheered, hugged... others simply cried.
Lucas looked toward Eleanor.
Her hair was a complete mess and ash still covered parts of her face.
She looked like she might collapse at any second.. yet she was smiling.
A genuine smile, one he had always loved seeing
"You okay?" she asked.
Lucas let out a tired laugh.
"Still in one piece as you can see..."
Mark finally walked over before dropping heavily onto the grass beside them.
"I swear..." he muttered between breaths.
"If another giant flaming cat shows up..."
"I’m leaving."
Lucas and Eleanor laughed.
Even Mark couldn’t keep a straight face anymore.
For the first time in what felt like forever none of them were thinking about surviving.
They were simply happy to be alive....
However this celebration was only short-lived.
Before anyone could speak again, three familiar translucent windows appeared simultaneously.
One in front of Lucas.
One before Eleanor.
And one before Mark.
No one else reacted....
No one else seemed able to see them.
Lucas frowned.
"So... you two can see this too?"
Eleanor nodded slowly. "...Yeah."
Mark stared at the floating screen. "I’ve got one as well." Then he groaned. "Arrggh c’mon give up a break! We just came back from fighting a gian
t flaming cat!"
New letters slowly formed across all three windows.
[Congratulations.]
[The gods have noticed your exceptional performance.]
The text dissolved before new words appeared.
Lucas’ eyes widened. This wasn’t like what he had been seeing up until now...
[Based on your performance, you shall be given a Modifer.]
Lucas raised an eyebrow.
"Modifiers?"
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