The recording flickered to life, showing the lab in its once pristine condition. White walls, humming electronics, that breath of life that was absent from the room I now floated through.

  Roughly a dozen scientists rushed around, doing last minute checks on their equipment.

  It didn’t take much to identify them with the bodies floating around the rift. Though a few were missing. They must have made it out in time.

  “Places, everyone! The exec’s will be here any minute.” One of the more important scientists called out to his fellows as he fidgeted with his lab coat.

  Moments later, a large group of men and women were led through the glass doors and around the upper circle.

  “Welcome, ladies and gentlemen!” the lead Drakanian scientist addressed the small crowd after they finished filing into the room. “I am Dr. Fallon, I will be leading today’s demonstration.”

  Dr. Fallon? Why would he be leading the demonstration? Shouldn’t the head of team 6 be in charge?

  It seemed some of the exec’s shared my confusion, as one of them—a tall, blue skinned humanoid with long silver hair—stepped forward to voice his concerns.

  “I was under the impression that this event was being led by Dr. Theodor Ordon himself.” The man hissed, irritation clear in his voice. “Care to explain why that is no longer the case?”

  Dr. Fallon winced slightly at the exec’s tone, but quickly answered; “My apologies, Mr. Nargon. Unfortunately, Dr. Theodor had to leave early this morning due to reasons I am unable to discuss. But rest assured, I am more than capable of leading in his stead.”

  Another Ordon. I would have to ask Valerie if she knew who any of these people were—or are, if any of them actually made it out alive.

  If this ‘Theodor’ wasn’t at the facility when it all went down, and is still alive somewhere, I might be able to find him and see what he knows of the rifts and if there is any connection to my reincarnation.

  He might have even known what was going to happen, and left to avoid the chaos that would soon unfold.

  The exec, Mr. Nargon, scoffed in irritation, but let the matter slide.

  Dr. Fallon cleared his throat before continuing; “Now, I am sure you are all aware of what rifts are, so I shall spare you the lecture and instead, move on to what we have created.”

  The Doctor nodded at one of his fellows, who punched something into a terminal, bringing up a hologram in front of Dr. Fallon that showed an image of a blue, stable rift… and a red, unstable one next to it.

  “Through years of work, we have managed to replicate something that, until now, the Admin and her agency has held a monopoly over for millennia. On the left, you will see a standard rift. And on the right, is our very own creation. An artificial rift.”

  The crowd of exec’s leaned in excitedly, whispers beginning to circulate between them.

  “Is that even possible?” An elven woman spoke up through the din. “And even if it was, wouldn’t the Agency prevent its use?”

  “I think you are missing the point, Madam Elanza.” Dr. Fallon smiled. “The entire point of creating our own rifts is to break the hold they have over us.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Madam Elanza hesitated at his words, obviously unsure of how to respond.

  “But I am sure you all have your doubts that creating our own rifts is impossible.” Dr. Fallon continued. “So, we have prepared this very room to create one as proof.”

  One of the scientists near the central console flipped a large, red switch, sending a pulse of energy into the central tube.

  In a bright flash of red light, a glowing crimson rift tore its way into reality, shaking unsteadily before settling into a low, dangerous hum.

  “As you can see,” Dr. Fallon raised his voice to be heard over the shocked gasps, “The artificial rift is perfectly stable and functioning as intended. This particular variant has maintained stability for over thirty-seven consecutive hours, nearly twice as long as its organic counterparts. All with minimal fluctuations.”

  A sudden movement drew my attention to one of the scientists at the outer ring of computers. He was fidgeting and starting to type into his terminal. I would have missed it if it wasn’t for my enhanced vision.

  “These rifts open to completely untapped realms, allowing us to mine for resources without having to rely on temporary rifts, or chancing upon the even rarer permanent ones. This will allow all of us to streamline the industrial process—”

  The red rift pulsed with energy, cutting Dr. Fallon off mid speech and causing everyone to shiver as a ripple of force rolled through the room.

  “Sir!” the scientist who was fidgeting earlier called out. “We’re getting strange readings. I need you to come take a look at this.”

  Dr. Fallon frowned in irritation, but stepped up to the man, looking over his shoulder at the screen.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Minor mana displacement, perfectly within acceptable parameters.” Dr. Fallon waved his hand dismissively before turning to the scientist again. “Turn mana flow down by thirteen percent and continue monitoring.”

  Instead of dimming like I expected, the rift’s surface began to churn.

  The terminal began emitting a sharp warning tone.

  “Energy spike detected, sir!” The scientist called out in panic, frantically pressing his fingers into the keypad in front of him. “It’s exceeding projected thresholds!”

  “Impossible! Where is it drawing power from…?” Dr. Fallon’s eyes widened as he came to a realization. “Cut the power! Now!”

  The man in the center immediately slammed the red switch down into its off position, but the rift continued to destabilize.

  The air distorted as the rift suddenly convulsed, emitting a slowly growing whine.

  “Get everyone out, now!”

  Dr. Fallon’s orders came too late, as the rift pulsed, letting out an intense gravitational wave that slammed into everyone present.

  The exec’s were thrown through the glass door, scientists were blasted into walls and consoles, instruments and clipboards became deadly shrapnel as they were catapulted throughout the lab and into flesh.

  The room was filled with warning bells and alarms as the rift itself trembled.

  A long, twisting mass covered in eyes pressed against the rift, peering through the boundary.

  One of its many eyes locked onto me through the hologram… and I felt an overwhelming sense of dread fill me.

  A seam split along the creature’s center, revealing a long, curved line of teeth that twisted into a sinister smile.

  It could see me.

  [WARNING!]

  [Demonic Presence Detected]

  [Threat Level: %?????????????&??????????????????????????#???????????????*????

  […]

  [Error]

  [Error]

  [Error]

  I pulled back from the screen in shock as my nanites started glitching out in front of my eyes, ready to flee from whatever abomination they managed to summon…

  But instead of climbing through the rift as I feared, the creature retreated back into whatever realm it came from, leaving the rift and the destruction it caused in its wake.

  My eyes shot upwards at the same rift still glowing there five years later. A wound in reality itself. Waiting for something just as wrong as that creature to crawl through it.

  I needed to leave.

  I didn’t even care about finding anything incriminating anymore, I just wanted to get out. I didn’t know if that thing was still hanging around, but I wasn’t about to test my luck.

  I didn’t know why the creature had chosen to leave instead of break through the rift, but it didn’t. And that was far more worrying.

  I quickly pulled myself out of the room and back towards the stairs that would hopefully lead me back out to the surface.

  I was in way over my head.

  That shadow demon I fought earlier, must have a came from the same place as that other creature. If more demons could get through corrupted rifts, that meant the Ordon Corporation was putting the entire world at risk by opening them.

  I needed to find out just how deep this conspiracy was.

  And now, I had a lead.

  Theodor Ordon.