Crunch.

  Renny's gaze floated lazily to his feet.

  He'd stepped on a window pane.

  That wasn't there before.

  Was it?

  It was hard to tell.

  His Heartlight was almost depleted, his headache, hallucinations and disorientation were at its worst.

  The glass splintered inside his skin.

  The pain trickled in slowly, worming its way into his skin.

  Then it spiked.

  He fell to his knees.

  He gingerly plucked out whatever shards he could.

  Blood pooled out.

  Breathe.

  He exhaled heavily.

  Had to stop the bleeding.

  Coil tightly.

  The chains gripped the sole of his leg tight, acting as a tourniquet.

  Support my weight when walking.

  The chains turned into a cast, allowing Renny to walk without his foot touching the ground.

  Maybe limp was a better word.

  He looked around.

  The initially rather plain desert-like Void terrain had changed.

  Ruins of a building scattered around him.

  Ah... so it wasn't there before.

  His thoughts cleared briefly.

  Was it the pain? Or something else.

  He didn't know how or why, but he really needed that.

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  Then he heard it.

  An indescribable noise that grated on one's ears.

  A screech?

  He glanced over.

  A huge dark creature the size of an aeroplane lumbered in the distance.

  It bore long elephant-like trunks all over its body, a long body with centipede-like legs moved unusually fast for its size.

  A rhinocerous horn sat on its fly-like head.

  A Void Crawler.

  He dragged himself behind a building ruin.

  Those were really bad news.

  He remembered what they taught at the Academy.

  If you see one — run.

  Like Shadows, they originate from the Void.

  Something about there were only 5 recorded appearances.

  Only the top 5 ranked Divers are permitted to fight one on their own.

  It skittered around the ruins.

  Then it stopped.

  Then there was a spark at the tip of its horn.

  Cracks emerged in the space before the horn.

  They did not spread outward. They pulled inward.

  Space fractured, then crumbled, revealing the Surface on the other side.

  A Door.

  Doors are usually created by Void Crawlers or, even worse, Void Heralds.

  Renny had read about it, but never actually seen it being made in person before.

  They formed at the ground level of the Void like a physical fissure in thin air.

  GDA could close them. If they did, the Void-side Door jumped to the sky. Same coordinates, but no longer accessible Void-side.

  Renny leaned with his back against the building ruin.

  So that's why they existed.

  The ruins… they weren’t debris. Each Door took a piece of the Surface, twisted it, and left this hell behind.

  Twisted constructs reconstructed in the likeness of the original during Terrain Shifts.

  The Void Crawler suddenly stopped moving.

  Its trunks were sniffing the air.

  Then it moved straight towards Renny.

  Renny coiled the chains tighter.

  Fuck.

  That thing was fast.

  Renny couldn't run very well now, with his right leg in a cast.

  And he could only set 3 simple conditions in the chains at once, each consuming Heartlight to set.

  Every condition would cost him. He had no room for mistakes.

  The Void Crawler edged closer, sniffing the air with its trunks.

  50 metres.

  He'd to somehow get to the Door that was behind the Crawler.

  Maybe if he used a distraction?

  45 metres.

  He looked around him.

  Debris. Nothing he could use.

  40 metres.

  It was speeding up.

  How did the Crawler sniff him out?

  Was it him or was it his Heartlight.

  He pushed Heartlight into the chains.

  Conceal Heartlight.

  Silence footsteps.

  The Crawler stopped.

  It sniffed the air again.

  Renny exhaled.

  Then suddenly, "Hack—cough—khh—"

  Blood splattered across the floor.

  His Heartlight sputtered, thin and unstable, like a dying flame.

  35 metres.

  It must've heard him.

  He slowly moved around the collapsed building he was hiding behind, readying himself.

  As soon as it came close enough and peeked around the building, he was sprinting for the Door.

  Did he have enough Heartlight?

  Should he conserve every bit of it?

  No, he had to take the chance.

  His headache exploded.

  He caught a figure waving at him from a distance, 2 fingers missing from its hand.

  Huh?

  Is that real?

  5 metres.

  A trunk brushed against the side of the building.

  When did it get so close!?

  Move!

  Renny dashed around the other side of the building, avoiding the Crawler.

  His footsteps made no sound, but every step hurt him.

  It was less like a dash and more like a panicked hobble.

  He gained some distance.

  The waving man distracted him.

  He looked again.

  It was gone.

  A hallucination?

  As he hobbled past the massive Crawler, its trunks were still sniffing the air.

  It was coiling around the building he was at 5 seconds ago, trunks sucking the building surface.

  Crackeds spread as the building's integrity

  It hadn't noticed him yet.

  The building crumpled with a deafening crunch of stone and snapping steel.

  He was 40 metres from the Door.

  He could make it.

  30 metres.

  The Crawler was still inspecting the crushed concrete, as if it knew it was supposed to find something.

  20 metres.

  10 metres.

  Almost there.

  Renny coughed. Again.

  Blood splattered out.

  More blood this time. Too much.

  More importantly, it made a sound.

  The Crawler snapped its head towards Renny.

  It locked eyes on Renny and let out a monstrous undescribable screech.

  Fuck!

  The Crawler skittered towards Renny at insane speed.

  It was 30 metres, no—

  25 metres?

  20 metres.

  Renny sprinted into high gear, each step heavier, more piercing.

  He gritted his teeth.

  6 metres to the Door. Crawler 15 metres from him.

  The Crawler was gaining distance fast.

  3 metres. 8 metres.

  1 metre. 3 metres.

  He hurled himself into the Door —

  the Void Crawler’s trunk slamming down where he had been a heartbeat ago.