CHAPTER 47: DESYNCHRONIZED

[System Alert]

[Zone Status: High Instability]

[Mana Toxicity: Rising]

[Warning: Reality integrity at 68%]

The world outside was breaking down. Trees grew sideways out of cliffs, clouds moved in reverse, and the sun hung in the sky with a jagged tear running through its center like a dead pixel on a screen. Thorne’s failed upload had corrupted the local physics engine, turning Namibia into a glitchy mess.

"Checkpoint ahead," Tayo warned, looking at the laptop screen wired into the truck’s dashboard. "Five miles out, looks like the NDF set up a hard perimeter."

"Military?" Rin asked.

"And Association," Tayo tapped the screen. "I’m picking up Hunter signal codes, heavy hitters, they’re trying to contain the spillover from the north."

"Indra," Rin realized. "Leo destroyed that dungeon in Angola and pushed south, they’re trying to catch him at the border."

"If they catch him, they kill him," Joy said. "Or Thorne grabs him."

"We’re punching through," Rin said.

"We’re in a stolen delivery truck," Nyx pointed out. "Not a tank."

"It’s a heavy truck," Rin corrected, pressing the gas. "And we have you."

The checkpoint appeared on the horizon, a fortress of concrete barriers, razor wire, and automated mana turrets blocking the entire highway. Behind the barricades stood three armored personnel carriers and a squad of Hunters wearing the Association’s distinct black tactical gear.

A drone buzzed overhead, flashing red lights.

"Unidentified vehicle," a voice boomed over a loudspeaker, amplified by magic. "Halt immediately or be fired upon."

Rin didn’t hit the brakes.

"Nyx, shield," Rin ordered.

Nyx sighed but climbed out the passenger window, climbing onto the roof of the moving cab. She braced her feet against the luggage rack, raising both hands.

Gravity distorted around the truck, forming a dense bubble of pressure.

The turrets fired.

Bolts of blue mana slammed into Nyx’s gravity field, bending around the truck and dissipating into the sand.

"They’re switching to kinetic!" Nyx yelled down. "I can’t stop fifty caliber rounds forever!"

The APCs opened fire, heavy machine guns tearing up the asphalt in front of them.

"Joy, scramble them!" Rin shouted.

Joy leaned out the back window, her eyes flashing pink. She didn’t target the soldiers individually, she targeted the area, projecting a massive wave of sudden, irrational panic.

The firing line faltered. Soldiers flinched, looking around for threats that weren’t there, their aim going wide.

Rin aimed the truck at the center of the concrete barricade.

"Brace!"

He didn’t just ram it. He cheated.

Seconds before impact, Rin pulsed his gray energy, extending a wedge of pure void in front of the truck’s bumper.

The void hit the concrete.

The barrier disintegrated into dust instantly, the truck smashing through the cloud without losing momentum.

They were through the first line.

"Hunter team engaging!" Tayo shouted.

Three figures leaped from the side of the road. One was a speedster, blurring toward the tires with a combat knife. Another was a pyrokinetic, winding up a fireball.

"I got the fast one," Nyx yelled from the roof.

She slapped the metal roof of the cab.

Gravity spiked.

The speedster slammed face-first into the pavement as his own weight multiplied by ten, skidding to a halt as the truck roared past.

The pyrokinetic threw the fireball.

Rin yanked the wheel hard left, the truck tipping on two wheels. The fireball scorched the side of the container, melting the paint, but missed the fuel tank.

"Tayo, sound cannon!"

Tayo stuck his good arm out the window, aiming his emitter at the third Hunter who was trying to create an earth wall.

BOOM.

The sonic blast shattered the forming wall and knocked the Hunter backward into a ditch.

They cleared the checkpoint, the truck fishtailing on the loose gravel before gripping the road again.

"We’re clear!" Joy shouted, pulling herself back inside.

"Not quite," Nyx dropped back into the passenger seat, looking pale. "We have a tail."

Rin checked the mirror.

One of the APCs had turned around and was pursuing, its engine roaring. And hovering above it was a figure wreathed in lightning.

"B-rank minimum," Rin assessed. "Probably specialized in pursuit."

The figure raised a hand, and a bolt of lightning arced toward the truck.

It hit the rear axle.

The truck shuddered, tires exploding, metal screaming as the rim ground into the asphalt.

"We’re losing mobility!" Rin fought the wheel, keeping them from flipping.

"Pull over," Nyx said. "We fight."

"No time," Rin gritted his teeth. "If we stop, the rest of the garrison catches up."

He looked at his hand. The gray energy was buzzing, agitated.

"Joy, take the wheel."

"What?"

"Take the wheel!"

Joy scrambled over the console, grabbing the steering wheel as Rin kicked his door open.

"What are you doing?" Tayo yelled.

Rin climbed out onto the running board, the wind tearing at his clothes. He looked back at the pursuing APC and the flying Hunter.

[System Analysis: Pursuit Vehicle Speed: 90mph]

[Target: Lightning Caster]

[Mana: 12%]

[Gray Energy: Unstable]

’Good enough.’

Rin gathered the energy. He didn’t shape it into a blade or a beam. He shaped it into a hook.

He leaped.

He cleared the gap between the truck and the APC, soaring through the air. The lightning caster saw him coming and fired a bolt.

Rin swatted the lightning aside with his gray-wreathed hand, the energy simply deleting the electricity upon contact.

He landed on the hood of the APC.

The driver stared at him through the reinforced windshield, eyes wide.

Rin slammed his fist onto the hood.

Pulse.

The engine block vanished.

The APC’s front end collapsed as its structural integrity failed, the vehicle nosediving into the asphalt, flipping end over end.

Rin jumped before the crash, launching himself toward the flying Hunter.

The Hunter panicked, trying to gain altitude, but Rin was already there.

He didn’t kill him. He grabbed the Hunter’s ankle and pulsed a tiny amount of gray energy, disrupting the man’s mana flow.

The flight spell failed.

The Hunter dropped like a stone, crashing into a sand dune.

Rin landed in a roll, sliding to a stop on the highway.

The APC was a wreck behind him. The Hunter was down.

Ahead, the stolen truck was slowing down, grinding on its rims.

Rin sprinted, catching up as Joy brought it to a screeching halt.

"You’re insane," Joy said as Rin climbed back in. "You just jumped onto a moving APC."

"It was in the way," Rin said, breathless. "Tires?"

"Shredded," Nyx said. "We’re walking from here."

They grabbed their gear and abandoned the truck, moving off the road into the rocky terrain of the border zone.

The sun was setting, painting the glitching sky in hues of violent orange and static noise.

"Look," Tayo pointed north.

In the distance, smoke was rising. A lot of smoke.

And above the smoke, the sky was darker, a swirling cloud of black mana that looked like a bruise on the world.

"Indra," Rin said.

"He’s close," Nyx agreed, checking her gravity sensors. "I can feel the mass distortion. He’s heavy."

"How far?"

"Ten miles, maybe less."

Rin checked his quest log.

[Quest: The Wild Card]

[Proximity to Target: 9 miles]

[Target Status: Evolving]

[Time Remaining: Critical]

"He’s evolving," Rin said. "Eating that dungeon pushed him over the edge."

"Into what?" Joy asked.

"Into something we might not be able to talk down," Rin adjusted his gear. "We move fast. If the Association gets there first, they’ll bomb the whole area. If Thorne gets there, he’ll capture him."

"And if we get there?" Tayo asked.

Rin looked at the black cloud on the horizon.

"We beat him until he remembers who he is."

They marched into the night, the desert shifting around them, reality thinning with every step north. The glitch was getting worse here, rocks floating in mid-air, patches of sand burning with cold fire.

They were walking into the center of the storm.

And Rin was ready to break whatever he had to break to get his brother back.