CHAPTER 186: GATES

’Unbelievable. If they could see what I see, they’d be halfway to the next district already.’

The system chimed softly.

[Entity Signature: Clarifying]

[Type: Aberrant – Class Designation: "Hollow Fiend"]

[Projected Combat Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★]

Merlin’s jaw tightened. Ten stars. Not the highest thing he’d ever fought, but nasty enough that letting it loose in a city block would be suicide.

He stayed still for another minute, tracking the distortion. The shimmer had grown, warping the brickwork behind it like heat haze.

[Gate Distortion Intensity: 39%]

[Time Remaining: 00:31:04]

He adjusted his cloak, then crossed the street. A vendor shouted something about "freshest peaches this side of the river" but Merlin didn’t slow. The less attention on him, the better.

The alley nearest the epicenter smelled like wet stone and dust. He ducked inside, letting the shadows swallow him.

[Observer – Present within 100m radius]

[Line of Sight: Unknown]

’Figures. He’s probably here too.’

Merlin didn’t look up, didn’t give him the satisfaction, but he felt it. That same calm pressure, like someone leaning a coin against the back of his neck. The white-haired man never needed to announce himself.

’If he’s watching, he’s either bored... or waiting to see if I screw this up.’

The hum in the air deepened, turning metallic, almost like the vibration of a blade in its sheath. The shimmer pulsed once, a heartbeat of wrongness, then stilled again.

[Warning: Gate Instability – Surge Detected]

[Adjusted Breach Time: 00:17:52]

’So much for thirty minutes.’

He pulled the short blade from its sheath across his back, not his main weapon, but faster to draw if the thing came through quick. The system threw up another string of probabilities in his periphery.

[Projected Civilian Casualties Without Intervention: 5,814]

’Not today.’

A soft scuff of leather on stone to his right, Merlin pivoted, blade angled low.

It was a boy. Couldn’t have been more than ten. Ragged shirt, big eyes, holding a half-eaten piece of bread like it was gold. He froze when he saw Merlin.

"You shouldn’t be here," Merlin said.

The boy hesitated, glanced at the shimmer like he could almost see it, then bolted.

Merlin let out a breath. ’Good. One less body to clean up.’

The air pressure dropped a fraction, subtle, but enough to make his ears pop. The shimmer bulged outward, a ripple of lightless color.

[Gate Distortion Intensity: 57%]

[Time Remaining: 00:10:43]

Somewhere above him, a faint tap echoed. The kind of sound boots make when shifting weight on a ledge. He didn’t look up.

’If you’re going to jump in, now’s the time.’

No reply. Just that steady, invisible presence. Watching.

Merlin rolled his shoulders, adjusted his stance. The cobblestones beneath his boots felt warmer than they should have.

The shimmer twisted. A hairline crack appeared in the air itself, black, jagged, branching in slow motion.

[Gate Breach: 9%]

[Entity Containment Threshold: 0%]

Merlin’s grip tightened. His system whispered more probabilities, but he ignored them.

The crack widened. Something on the other side moved. Not light, something darker than the gap itself, pulling the edges inward as it forced its way through.

A long, clawed hand emerged first, fingers too thin, bending in unnatural angles.

’Great. Hands first. Always a crowd-pleaser.’

The claws scraped the edges of the gate with a sound like glass grinding on stone. A second hand followed, then a sliver of its head, featureless except for the jagged slit where a mouth should be.

[Gate Breach: 32%]

Merlin shifted his weight forward. ’Come on, you ugly bastard.’

The creature lunged the rest of the way through with a shriek that hit somewhere between metal tearing and an animal scream. Its body was long and angular, its limbs moving too fast, like frames were missing between motions.

He sidestepped the first swipe, blade flashing in an upward cut that split its forearm. Black ichor sprayed across the alley wall, sizzling where it touched brick.

[Entity Damage: 4%]

[Status: Hostile – Aggressive Engagement Mode Active]

’Four percent? Guess we’re doing this the hard way.’

The fiend twisted, swiping with its other hand. Merlin ducked, slammed his boot into its knee, and drove the blade into its side. The thing shrieked again, backhanding him into the wall hard enough to crack stone.

Pain flashed through his ribs. He pushed off the wall before the next strike landed, slipping under its arm and slashing at the tendons in its leg.

[Entity Damage: 9%]

’Better.’

The fiend crouched low, then launched itself upward, straight to the rooftops.

[Tracking: Lost Visual Contact]

Merlin looked up just in time to see it vanish over the edge.

’Of course.’

He sprinted out of the alley, scanning the rooftops. The shimmer at the epicenter was collapsing inward now that the fiend was through, the edges folding like paper until there was nothing left.

[Gate Sealed]

’One down. Now I just have to find—’

Movement to the north, three rooftops away, the fiend tearing through a chimney like it was paper. Merlin took off, boots pounding the cobblestones.

The market was chaos now, vendors scrambling to pack their goods, shoppers running without knowing why. The fiend dropped down into the crowd, scattering people like leaves.

Merlin closed the distance, shouldering past a man hauling a crate. He caught the fiend’s arm mid-swing, twisting hard enough to hear the joint pop.

It screamed and spun, raking claws across his chest plate. Sparks spat from the impact. Merlin’s short blade slid under its jaw and up through the neck.

[Entity Damage: 46%]

’Still not enough.’

It threw itself backward, ripping the blade from his hand. Merlin rolled with the motion, drawing his main sword in the same movement.

The fiend lunged.

Steel met claw in a burst of sparks, the impact driving Merlin’s boots into the stone. He shoved forward, twisting his blade to break the lock, then stepped in and drove the sword deep into its torso.

[Entity Damage: 81%]

The fiend’s movements turned erratic—less calculated, more desperate. It slashed wildly, catching his shoulder, cutting through cloak and into flesh. Merlin ignored the sting, pressing in until his blade punched through its back.

It staggered.

[Entity Damage: 100%]

[Target Neutralized]

The fiend collapsed in on itself, dissolving into a smear of black smoke that the wind carried away like it was never there.

The market was dead silent now, dozens of eyes locked on him. None of them had seen the gate. None of them would understand what they’d just witnessed.

Merlin sheathed his sword without a word, scanning the rooftops.

The white-haired man was gone.

’Figures.’

The system pinged.

[Mission Complete – Collateral Damage: Minimal]

[Civilian Casualties Prevented: 5,812]

Merlin adjusted his cloak and turned toward home.

—

Merlin moved through the streets, ignoring the stares. His cloak’s hem dragged a faint smear of soot from the market into the next block before the wind stripped it clean.

’Another gate... and that’s twice in two weeks. Something’s pushing these through faster.’

The system didn’t respond. It never did when he wanted answers.

Instead, the faint chime came again.

[Warning – New Gate Formation Detected]

[Location: Eastern Residential Sector]

[Time Remaining: 00:59:41]

He stopped mid-step.

’...You’ve got to be kidding me.’

Two in one day.

The system’s voice was as flat as ever.

[Gate Class: Aberrant]

[Entity Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★★]

Twelve stars. Higher than the Hollow Fiend.

’And here I was thinking I might actually get to sleep tonight.’

Nathan’s voice carried faintly from down the street, he was still in the training yard where they’d been sparring earlier. Probably wondering why Merlin had vanished mid-round.

Merlin adjusted his grip on his sword. The weight felt heavier now, not from fatigue but from knowing this next one wouldn’t be as simple.

He glanced once at the rooftops.

’If he’s out there... he knows about this too.’

The system flashed another prompt.

[Recommendation: Reinforcements – Strongly Advised]

’Not happening.’

And without another thought, he changed course toward the eastern sector, boots silent against the cobblestone.

—

The streets here were quieter. Not empty, just subdued, families pulling shutters closed, a lone cat darting under a cart.

[Gate Distortion Intensity: 6%]

’Still early. Good.’

He cut through a side alley, the smell of cooking oil and damp rope lingering from whatever vendor had been here earlier. His boots barely made a sound against the uneven stone.

The system kept feeding him numbers in the corner of his vision, the slow creep of the distortion like watching a storm build at the horizon.

[Projected Casualties Without Intervention: 12,894]

’Twelve thousand...’

His stomach tightened. The Hollow Fiend had been bad enough, but this—this was going to leave nothing but ash if he let it roam.

The distortion shimmered ahead, wedged between two abandoned tenements. Unlike the earlier gate, this one pulsed slowly, as if it was breathing.

And the pressure coming off it was wrong.

Not sharp, not hostile, not yet, but heavy, like the air was made of wet cloth.

[Gate Breach Acceleration: High]

[Time Remaining: 00:38:27]

"Too fast again," Merlin muttered under his breath.

The gate twisted once, a ripple of black and gray like oil on water. Then the sound hit, low, rumbling, almost a growl, but deeper, resonating in the stone.

’Twelve stars. This is going to hurt.’

He drew his main sword immediately. No warm-up this time. No test cuts. Just steady breathing and the rhythm of his heartbeat in his ears.

The gate split. Not like a crack, more like it was peeled open from the inside.

And the thing that stepped through made the Hollow Fiend look almost tame.

It was massive, easily the height of a two-story building even while hunched. Its skin looked like scorched bone, fissures glowing faintly red. Four arms hung too low, claws dragging on the ground with a sound like knives across slate.

Its head... wasn’t right. No eyes. Just a jagged vertical maw that stretched from crown to chest.

The system didn’t bother hiding the number.

[Entity Combat Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★★]

It turned toward him immediately. Not because it could see him—because it could feel him.

’Perfect.’

It moved first, faster than something that size should be able to. Merlin rolled sideways, the claws smashing into the cobblestones where he’d been a heartbeat before. Stone shards cut into his cheek as he came up, sword angled low.

The blade bit into its forearm on the counter-swing, barely a scratch.

[Entity Damage: 1%]

’...Great.’

The monster lunged again, two upper arms swiping wide while the lower pair came straight for his chest. Merlin ducked under the first, twisting between the second and third, but the fourth clipped his side and sent him spinning into a wall hard enough to rattle his teeth.

Pain flared through his ribs.

[Minor Fracture Detected]

[Adrenal Response: Active]

’No kidding.’

He pushed off, using the rebound to launch himself forward, driving the sword into its torso. The glow inside its fissures flared bright, then a clawed hand wrapped around his midsection and slammed him into the ground.

The breath punched out of him. His sword skidded across the cobblestone, out of reach.

The maw split wider, that deep rumble turning into something closer to a laugh.

Merlin’s vision blurred. The system kept throwing numbers at him, percentages dropping fast.

[Entity Damage: 3%]

[Civilian Evacuation Rate: 0.8%]

[Projected Civilian Casualties: 12,880]

’...I can’t stop it.’

The admission burned worse than his ribs.