The Rift pulsed like a wounded animal. The sanctuary’s walls groaned under unseen pressure as a low, otherworldly hum seeped through the air—a vibration that made bones ache and light flicker.
Ethan stood at the gateway of the sanctuary, eyes narrowed into the mist.
They were here.
The Hollowbreed.
A new breed of nightmares.
Misty, still gripping her notebook, stepped behind her sister. “They don’t feel like the others…”
Andriane drew her sword, its Veilborn edge humming in anticipation. “That’s because they’re worse.”
From the shadows, they emerged.
Tall, gaunt figures with elongated limbs wrapped in tattered skin like stretched leather. Their faces were holes—literal voids, with no features—only spiraling maws that hissed with Abyssal breath.
Ten of them. No aura. No heat. Just silence and decay.
Serena’s eyes narrowed. “Hollowbreed. Made in the deepest pit of the Abyss—creatures born not to kill, but to break sanity.”
The lead creature stepped forward. It tilted its head at Ethan, the void in its face twitching unnaturally.
And then—they moved.
---
Shatterpoint
They didn’t attack—they shimmered. Blinking between positions. One second twenty feet away—the next, inches from Ethan’s side.
He barely reacted in time, slamming his gauntleted arm into the Hollowbreed’s chest and sending it flying. But the second lunged immediately, claws stretched for his neck.
Andriane intercepted, blade flashing. She sliced upward, severing one of the creature’s arms, but it didn’t scream. It didn’t bleed.
It simply grew another—longer and twitching.
“Damn it,” she hissed. “They don’t follow physical law.”
Ethan backed away, scanning the battlefield. They were blinking in and out of sight, out of sync with time itself.
That’s when the Sigil reacted.
His mark burned gold.
A vision struck him like lightning.
A battlefield frozen mid-chaos.
Blades caught in the air.
Screams silenced in their echo.
Ethan stood in the center—alone. But he could move.
Then—just as fast—it vanished.
---
Time Fracture: Unlocked
The Sigil whispered its name through his thoughts:
Time Fracture.
A controlled break from the flow of reality. A moment of stillness only he could act within.
Ethan exhaled sharply. “I have an idea.”
Andriane ducked as a Hollowbreed claw swiped at her shoulder. “Make it fast!”
Ethan surged forward—and activated it.
Time fractured.
The world slowed to a crawl. The Hollowbreed froze mid-leap. Serena, Andriane, Misty—all frozen in motion. But Ethan—he moved like flowing light.
He struck three Hollowbreed in a blur—first with his fist, then his chain, and finally his blade-form tether slashing across their chests. He grabbed the final one mid-motion and twisted its torso until it broke with a sickening crack.
Time snapped back.
And in the span of a second—four Hollowbreed collapsed into black mist.
The rest screamed.
---
Counteroffensive
Andriane caught the moment. “What the hell was that?”
“Later,” Ethan growled. “Fall in!”
The remaining Hollowbreed rushed in maddened formation, shrieking. Serena joined the battle, her twin curved daggers glowing with a light unseen before. Misty took shelter behind a stone wall, still drawing—but now, the sigils on her page began moving.
They shimmered.
And then, the shadows recoiled from her drawings.
Serena took note.
“She’s waking something up…”
Ethan cut down the second-to-last Hollowbreed with a savage whip-pull, slamming it into a boulder. The last one attempted to phase—
But Ethan stepped through a ripple in time and met it there.
He crushed its core with his bare hand.
Silence.
---
The Aftershock
The dust settled. The Rift dimmed.
Ethan leaned against the wall, panting. The Time Fracture had drained him, but the Sigil still pulsed with unread powers.
Serena walked to him, brows furrowed. “You broke time.”
“I bent it,” Ethan muttered. “It’s not permanent. Not yet.”
Misty slowly walked forward, her notebook pressed to her chest.
“Papa,” she said softly, “the drawings… I don’t think they’re mine.”
He knelt in front of her, brow knit. “What do you mean?”
“They come from the Rift,” she whispered. “And they show what’s next.”
Ethan glanced at her latest page.
A new sketch.
A colossal structure... with a gate shaped like a spiral eye.
And in front of it?
A shadow.
Not Veylis.
Aegir.
Ethan’s breath caught.
“Then that’s where we’re going.”
---
To be continued...
YOU ARE READING
when i sleep : The Nocturnal hunter (book 1)
Science FictionWhen Ethan Cross closes his eyes, the nightmare begins. He wakes up covered in blood-his own, or someone else's. His body is changing, instincts sharpening, something ancient stirring beneath his skin. Each night, he hunts. Each morning, he question...
