The air was thick with tension as Sam's team slowly made their way through the ruins of the Rift. The landscape had shifted from a once vibrant cityscape to a broken wasteland of shifting shadows and fractured reality. Every step felt like a warning, every breath a challenge to the remnants of the abyss that still clung to the world.
Sam's heart pounded in his chest, but it wasn't just from the exhaustion of the battle. There was something else—a strange pull, a whisper in his mind that he couldn't shake. It wasn't coming from his team. It wasn't even from the Rift.
It was coming from deeper within.
"Something's wrong," Valencia muttered, her sharp eyes scanning the surroundings. She had grown quieter over the past few days, a distant look in her gaze that never quite left. Even Rael, who had always been the more carefree of the group, was on edge.
"What do you mean?" Sam asked, his voice low.
"It's too quiet," she replied. "We've fought through worse, but this... this feels different. Like we're walking right into the jaws of something much bigger."
Rael grunted, adjusting his stance. "Whatever it is, I don't like the sound of it."
The shadows around them flickered, almost like they were alive, stretching and recoiling as if to warn them of an impending threat. But Sam's eyes, locked ahead, could barely see beyond the shifting mist.
They had crossed into a new section of the Rift—a place where even the laws of nature seemed to break down entirely. Buildings leaned at impossible angles, and the once-familiar skyline had been twisted into abstract forms. The ground itself seemed to pulse, as though the very earth beneath their feet had a heartbeat of its own.
The figure they had seen earlier—the one in the distance—was now a memory. They had lost sight of it, but Sam couldn't shake the feeling that it had been watching them. Waiting.
"What now?" Rael asked, his voice tense.
"We move," Sam replied, his eyes flickering to the darkened path ahead. "We have to keep pushing forward."
Just as they started to move again, the ground beneath them shook—a low rumble that set the air humming with danger. Sam's heart skipped a beat, his senses heightened. He could feel it. The Rift wasn't just distorting reality—it was alive.
The whispers grew louder, no longer distant voices but pressing, insistent commands in his mind. Words in a language he didn't understand—but the meaning was clear.
Come closer.
Without warning, the ground split open, a massive fissure stretching across their path. The shadows within writhed and curled, coiling around each other like serpents. And from within the abyss, something ancient stirred.
"Stay back!" Valencia shouted, her arms raised as she summoned a protective shield. But even as she did, the ground beneath them seemed to pull the shield apart, distorting her power.
The air crackled with energy, and from the depths of the fissure, a creature emerged. It was unlike any Rift Beast they had encountered before—its body was composed of shifting, blackened flesh and pulsing veins of dark energy. Its many eyes glowed with an eerie light, its presence emanating a suffocating weight that made Sam's chest tighten.
It spoke, its voice not heard but felt—an oppressive force that rattled the bones.
"You are the ones who disturbed the Abyss."
Sam clenched his fists, his Vein flaring to life as the energy of his summons surged inside him. The power of Lapu-Lapu, Bonifacio, Rizal, Gabriela, and Kudarat roared within him, but the creature in front of him only seemed to laugh—its voice like the grinding of stone.
"You think yourselves heroes?" it hissed, a massive tendril of shadow extending toward them. "You have no idea what you've unleashed."
Without hesitation, Sam surged forward, his feet crackling with fire and wind as he launched himself at the creature. The chains of darkness whipped toward him, but he was faster now, his powers honed by the battles he'd fought. Fire exploded from his hands, smashing into the creature's form.
But the beast wasn't fazed. It absorbed the energy, its body swelling as the Rift fed it. The ground beneath them cracked further, and the darkness around them deepened. The creature's many eyes glowed brighter as it tilted its head, watching Sam with an almost mocking expression.
"You are nothing more than a child playing with the forces of destruction," it taunted. "This is the fate of all who dare to meddle with the Abyss."
Sam's body tensed, his mind racing. This creature wasn't just a force of darkness. It was the embodiment of the Rift itself—the true heart of the Abyss.
And it was trying to break him.
But he wouldn't let it.
With a roar, Sam called upon his ancestors' power in full force, channeling the full breadth of his Resonance. The flames of Lapu-Lapu's Sunfire Vein roared to life, swirling into a massive pillar of light. The storm winds of Bonifacio's Storm Vein whipped around him, charging his attack with raw force.
"Resonance Link: Final Judgment!"
The blast of energy surged forward, striking the creature square in its chest. The ground trembled as the blast exploded, the shockwave blasting apart the fissures around them. The beast screeched, its form distorting under the pressure, but it wasn't enough.
The creature's final words echoed in Sam's mind, colder than ice.
"You cannot escape the Abyss. It will consume you all."