Chapter 4: The Fold Reborn
The rain had stopped, but the city never felt colder.
Somewhere in the east, dawn burned faint orange through the mist — a hesitant promise of warmth that never reached the streets below.
Beneath the old Nexatek crater, Malik Toxen drifted between moments.
Not in time. Not in space. In something between — the fold.
Fragments of voices swirled around him. Nyah's laughter. Aisha's hum. His mother's calm whisper: Keep moving.
He opened his eyes to see the world twisting — strands of blue light connecting every direction. Manhattan hung suspended, infinite reflections of itself spinning like glass shards in zero gravity.
Malik reached out, and space obeyed.
A ripple spread, smooth and effortless. His body no longer resisted gravity — it commanded it. Every molecule around him hummed like an obedient instrument.
For the first time since the explosion, he didn't feel broken.
He felt awake.
Then came the whisper — soft, mechanical, deep.
> "Subject T-0… stabilization complete."
Malik's eyes snapped open. The blue light dimmed. He stood once more in the ruins of the lab — now rebuilt, frozen mid-explosion, as though time itself feared him.
"Who's there?" he demanded.
A silhouette appeared — tall, cloaked, motionless, the same figure from the observation deck. Its voice shimmered like feedback.
> "You were supposed to die, Malik. But the Rift chose you instead."
The ground fractured. Light bled from his fingertips. "And who are you supposed to be?"
> "The beginning," the figure said. "And the end of your kind."
Malik stepped forward, every movement bending the air. "Then I guess this is where my kind begins."
The figure tilted its head, almost amused. "We'll see, Riftwalker."
Then the shadow dissolved into a tear in reality — vanishing, leaving only the echo of its words and the faint hum of destabilized space.
Malik stood alone, rain beginning again. He looked up toward the distant skyline. He could feel something calling — pulling him toward the heart of the city.
He drew in a long breath. The air trembled.
> "Time to find out what kind of monster I've become."
He stepped forward, and the world folded around him — light flashing, space bending — as King Toxic took his first true step into the city.
End of Prologue