CHAPTER 84: CHAPTER 83: THE TEARING OF REALITY

The journey to the Universal Hub was progressing smoothly. A tranquil rhythm had settled over the bridge of Aegis, a state of perfect harmony that was a testament to their shared existence. Elias was deep in a meditative state, his mind tirelessly researching theoretical power sources, a silent tempest of thought behind his placid expression. Kaelen, meanwhile, was engrossed in a particularly complex schematic for a new kind of energy dampener. Her fingers, fine-tuned by years of engineering and cultivation, moved with a practiced grace over the holographic controls. Lumie, the miniature dragon of swirling constellations and soft, cosmic light, was coiled peacefully on Kaelen’s shoulder, its weight a comforting pressure, its scales a subtle, beautiful shimmer.

Then came the alarm.

It wasn’t the guttural klaxon of a pirate attack this time, but a new, chilling tone—a high-pitched, harmonic shriek that seemed to vibrate in their very bones, bypassing their ears to resonate in their souls. The tactical display, usually filled with the smooth, flowing currents of hyperspace, began to flash with a new, terrifying red warning.

REALITY-LEVEL SPATIAL ANOMALY DETECTED.

"An impossible signature," Elias stated, his eyes snapping open. He was instantly at the main console, his fingers flying across the controls. The holographic hyperspace view flickered and tore, replaced by a sight that made even his stoic demeanor falter.

Instead of the usual swirling, colorful tunnel, a massive, jagged fissure had opened in the fabric of space itself. It was a wound in reality not in space in REALITY, a gaping maw of black and white chaos that seemed to be actively feeding on the laws of physics around it. It wasn’t a stable portal or a jump gate; it was a violent, primordial tear, a natural disaster on a cosmic scale. The sheer, incomprehensible size of it was enough to make one’s mind scream, a hole in the universe’s tapestry that defied all logic.

"An uncalculated variable," Elias murmured, his face tight with concentration. "A naturally occurring reality-level space rift. Its gravitational and dimensional pull is immense. I cannot compensate."

Kaelen was already at her own console, her hands working furiously. As the engineer who built Entropy Singularity Engine, she knew its limits better than anyone, and she felt the ship’s structure screaming under the impossible strain. "The power core is at its limit trying to stabilize us!" she yelled, her voice strained. "The stress on the hull is catastrophic. Elias, can you use the Law of Reality to seal it?"

Elias shook his head, his focus absolute. "I am only at forty percent comprehension. It’s not enough to mend a tear of this magnitude. My attempts to stabilize it would be a catastrophic failure. We are caught in its current."

The ship began to shudder violently, its grav-plates screaming as they fought a force beyond comprehension. The view of the rift grew, consuming their entire field of vision. It was a maelstrom of twisted light and shattered existence, and Aegis, the one of the most advanced ship in the cosmos, was a helpless toy being dragged into its depths. Lumie, a being of pure light and law, reacted with animalistic terror. It clinged to the back of Kaelen’s neck for dear life.

The final moments were a chaotic blur of sound and light. The ship was ripped apart, not with an explosion, but with a horrifying tearing

. Metal shrieked as it was unmade, energy conduits vaporized, and the very structure of the ship dissolved into a shower of light and debris. Elias and Kaelen felt a force beyond comprehension pull them from the bridge, a sensation of being stretched and compressed into an impossible singularity.

(RIP to the ship, don’t worry Kaelen will make a new one.)

Then, there was only darkness.

When Elias’s consciousness returned, it was not with a gentle awakening, but with a brutal, jarring thud. He felt the firm impact of ground beneath him and the cold, damp air of a forest on his face. Kaelen was beside him, her breathing shallow but steady. The first thing he noticed was the profound silence. No hum of Aegis’s engines, no distant chatter of cosmic radiation. Just the chirping of crickets and the rustling of leaves.

His powerful body, however, was still intact. His neutronium bones, his kinetic-energy-storing muscles, and his quantum-fiber tendons were all functional, a silent testament to the genius of his own engineering. He was not a fragile human; he was a walking fortress, a physical being of impossible strength. But when he tried to activate his cultivation, to call on his laws, he was met with a profound emptiness. A thick, invisible force pressed down on his mind, smothering his power, muting his Laws. He was a universe-level cultivator reduced to a common mortal in terms of energy, but his body was still a weapon.

A flicker of his mind, a sliver of his immense will, refused to be silenced. This was a challenge he had not anticipated, a variable he had not accounted for. His analytical mind, his very nature, demanded answers.

With a monumental act of pure will, a raw, painful expenditure of his fundamental existence, he forced his consciousness to break through the suppression. It was a terrible, agonizing sensation, like tearing his own soul in half. For a few brief seconds, the suffocating pressure eased. His Quantum Divine Sense, still limited, pulsed out with a fraction of its true power. He focused it on a single, impossible task: a diagnostic scan of this new universe.

He activated the Law of Information, brute-forcing it with the nascent understanding of the Law of Reality he had gained, a power that should have been completely suppressed. He wasn’t trying to learn everything; he was trying to understand the fundamental laws of this new universe. He was a scientist dropped into an alien world, and his first instinct was to scan the local laws.

In those few, painful seconds, his consciousness raced across a universe spanning a hundred million light-years. He saw a universe filled with planets, stars, and galaxies, all operating on a different set of laws. He saw civilizations, but not of technology. They were of the Martial Path, of people who cultivated their bodies and souls, of power born not from logic, but from Intent. He saw cities carved into mountains, cultivators leaping through the air, and energy flowing not from refined Qi, but from Martial Souls.

And just as quickly as it had begun, the scan ended. The universe’s suppression field slammed down on him with crushing force, and the pain was so immense that his consciousness almost shattered. He barely managed to hold onto it, but the last image in his mind’s eye was the sight of several powerful beings, beings in the Transcendence Realm, looking up at the sky in shock.

The Martial World Sovereign’s Hall

On a planet made of solidified starlight, within a hall carved from a single, cosmic jewel, a group of five beings sat in deep meditation. They were the Martial Sovereigns, the absolute peak of power in this pocket universe, cultivators who had transcended the ordinary and could touch the very laws of their world. Their collective power was enough to move galaxies, yet they were not gods. They were prisoners. For generations, they had known their universe was a sealed realm, a prison of sorts, and they had spent countless eons trying to find a way to break through the final barrier and ascend to the true, "normal" universe they knew existed outside their own.

Suddenly, all five of them jolted, their eyes snapping open in unison. A ripple, impossibly vast and profound, had just torn through the fabric of their sealed world. It was a consciousness that had scanned their entire universe in a single, silent instant, a consciousness that had manipulated the very fabric of their reality to do so.

"Did... did you feel that?" the first Sovereign, a man with a thunderous aura, asked, his voice a low rumble.

"I did," a serene-looking woman replied, her eyes wide with disbelief. "It was... a presence. A mind. For a few seconds, it touched every single point in our universe. It was an act of pure Law of Reality."

"But that’s impossible!" a third Sovereign, a fiery warrior, roared. "Our universe is sealed! No one can reach that level of Law comprehension here! We’ve all tried and failed for countless ages."

A fourth, a wizened old man with a long, white beard, closed his eyes, a look of profound hope on his ancient face. "Unless... unless they are not from here."

"A being from the outside?" the woman breathed, a sense of wonder in her voice. "But the rift was sealed ages ago. It is an impossible feat to pass through it."

The old man simply smiled, a tear of joy tracing a path down his cheek. "Perhaps. Or perhaps, one of our own has finally broken through the ultimate bottleneck. An unparalleled genius who has found a way to use the laws of our world to touch the laws of the outside. He may be the key we’ve been looking for." (AN: You are very wrong old man.)

The fiery warrior’s rage was replaced with a burning excitement. "Then we must find them! They are either a new savior or a new enemy! Either way, they have the key to our freedom!"

The old man shook his head. "No. The presence was... fleeting. It was like a desperate act, a single scream into the void before the world’s suppression field slammed back down. Whoever they are, they are likely just as trapped as we are now. We will watch. We will wait. The ripple they left in our world... it is a beacon. A sign that the chains can be broken."

A New Reality

Elias’s consciousness dimmed, but he held onto the information. The pain was receding, replaced by a cold, hard understanding of their predicament. They had found their way into a sealed universe, and in doing so, had lost nearly everything. But he wasn’t without resources. His mind, though suppressed in its power, was still the greatest weapon in the cosmos. He had his answers. He knew what they were up against.

He felt Kaelen stir beside him, and a new, more profound determination settled over his mind. Their ship was gone, their powers were gone, and they were in a world that fundamentally didn’t make sense to them. They were in this together.

He opened his eyes and looked at Kaelen, his gaze steady and unwavering. "We’re not home," he said, his voice quiet. "And this is a universe unlike anything we’ve ever seen. But... I have a plan."(No you don’t, even I the author don’t have a plan yet.)