CHAPTER 4: The Fourth Fracture

The ambush came without warning.

We were gliding along the scalar current—weightless, seamless—when my instincts screamed. Like something ancient had just noticed me.

I froze.

Saaya noticed too. “What is it?”

Boom.

A shape slammed into me like a meteor. The shockwave shattered the air. The blow hit so hard, I lost focus—and dropped Saaya.

“Shit!”

I hurled out a hand, warping gravity beneath her. She slowed, floating mid-fall, suspended like glass on the edge of shatter.

I caught her.

Barely.

Then I looked up—and saw him.

Hovering in midair.

A man in black. Tight shirt and pants hugged sculpted muscle. A long cloak billowed behind him like it obeyed no wind but his own. But the mask—red, smooth, eyeless, mouthless—was what made my skin crawl.

“Who the hell are you?!”

No response.

He blurred forward, a human missile.

I threw up a scalar barrier.

He punched. Fast. Brutal. Each strike rang like a thunderclap.

The barrier cracked.

My eyes widened.

Symbols glowed on his gloves—etched directly into the knuckles.

Scalar disruptors?

Too late. The barrier shattered.

He broke through.

Fists slammed into my gut—one, two, three—then an uppercut lifted me skyward.

Even as I tumbled, I kept Saaya suspended. I couldn’t fight while holding her. I needed ground. Fast.

There—floating island ahead.

But the moment I looked—

He was already there.

Behind me.

His voice was low, mechanical. “You’re dead.”

An energy blast exploded from his palm.

I tanked it, barely keeping hold of my field. Saaya floated above. Safe.

Another blast hit from behind.

We spiraled off-course.

I slammed into the island—rock and dirt exploding beneath me.

Pain flared—but scalar armor dulled the worst of it.

I rose to one knee, breath ragged. “God—what the hell is your problem?!”

Saaya landed beside me, shaken but unharmed. “I’ve never seen him before!”

“Stay close,” I said, standing. “If he can't teleport, there might be a delay between jumps. Cooldown, maybe.”

I flexed my fingers. Cracked my neck.

He appeared again—floating near the edge of the island.

“You really ambushed me while I was holding someone?” I said, brushing dust from my coat. “That’s a new low.”

I rotated my arm slowly, scalar energy building around my fist.

“Don’t worry. I’ll teach you some manners, third-rate.”

Still silent.

The tension between us thickened—like gravity itself was waiting to snap.

Then the sky cracked.

A jagged rip tore through the clouds like reality itself was splitting.

The masked man’s head turned—just a fraction.

Now.

I coiled gravity around myself, slingshotting mass vectors inward. I vanished—blurring forward.

My fist met his chest.

Then again. And again.

I stacked force with each hit—amplifying gravity. Each strike landed like a comet.

“RRRAAAAGHH!”

He staggered, reeling.

I twisted his scalar equation—then hurled him down.

He cratered the island below.

Stone shattered. The impact rippled like a quake.

I dropped beside the smoking crater.

Saaya stared, wide-eyed. “Your powers… they evolved. Again.”

I didn’t respond. Still focused.

She touched my shoulder—light pulsed from her hand. The pain faded.

“Thanks,” I whispered.

We turned to the crater.

He lay broken—blood trailing from his cloak, the red mask cracked straight down the center.

Staring up.

Toward the tear in the sky.

Then—his finger twitched.

I raised my hand.

No hesitation.

No mercy.

Crushed him with gravity.

Silence.

The sky didn’t heal.

The crack remained—deep, jagged, bleeding light.

A wound in the world.

Then—I saw them.

Five silhouettes.

High above. Shrouded in mist and light. Watching.

The Five.

The gods who exiled me. Who feared me.

My fists clenched.

But what left my mouth wasn’t rage.

It was mockery.

“So. You’re still alive.”

I stepped forward, voice low, cold.

“Watching. Judging. Still hoping I’d die down here.”

Silence.

Then one of them moved.

Its gaze shifted—not to me, but to the broken man below.

A beam of light fired from its eye.

The masked man vanished.

No scream.

No resistance.

Just… gone.

“What the hell?!” I shouted. “Why erase him?!”

My voice rang through the broken sky.

“DO YOU STILL THINK THIS IS ORDER?!”

Laughter answered.

Cold. Cruel. Familiar.

“Heheheheh…”

One god leaned forward. His voice was ice cracking over flame.

“This is order. That one? A reject—plucked from the void. We gave him purpose. A bargain.”

His voice curled into venom.

“Kill you… and claim the sixth throne.”

My blood chilled.

“The sixth throne…?”

“Six seats,” he said. “Always have been. One remains empty.”

He chuckled.

“Don’t flatter yourself. That worm was never meant to win. But failure teaches. And every corpse brings us closer to completing the equation.”

Saaya stiffened behind me.

I stepped forward, voice sharp as a blade.

“Still hiding. Still playing king. Why not fight me yourselves?”

For a moment, silence.

Then—

“Because we are not fools,” another said. Cold. Calculated.

Their presence pressed down like inverted gravity.

“Your scalar growth is unpredictable. But informative.”

A third spoke—clinical, clean, like a scalpel.

“Every shift. Every fold. Every reaction. We recorded it. Combat reveals more than surveillance.”

“You used me?” I growled.

“As a test,” the voice replied. “His function was data. Yours, reaction.”

The fifth god stepped forward. One glowing eye pierced the rift—locked onto mine.

“And now that we understand your code, Sukara… deletion is only a matter of time.”

I stared back, unblinking.

Let them watch.

Let them calculate.

Because whatever they think they know—

I’ll rewrite it.

Again and again—

Until even gods can’t keep up.