Shatterpoint

4580 words

Episode 7: Shatterpoint Jae-min’s boots skidded on the cracked asphalt as he ducked behind the jagged edge of a collapsed wall, his chest heaving. The wail still clawed at the inside of his skull, a piercing echo that refused to die even as the blinding light from the breach dimmed to a sickly shimmer. He pressed a gloved hand against his earpiece, static hissing like a swarm of angry insects, and squinted through the haze. Whatever that structure was—towering, angular, and wrong in a way he couldn’t pin down—it loomed ahead, half-swallowed by the shifting fog of the breach zone. It didn’t belong here. Not in Seoul, not anywhere. “Seo-yeon, you seeing this?” His voice came out rough, scraping against the dryness of his throat. He coughed, tasting copper and dust. Her reply crackled through, sharp and clipped. “Yeah. I see it. What the hell is it? Looks like… I don’t know, a shard of something bigger. You think it’s part of the breach core?” “Core or not, it’s not supposed to be standing there.” He shifted, peering over the rubble. The air felt heavy, pressing down on his shoulders like a physical weight, and the faint hum vibrating through the ground made his teeth ache. “We need to get closer. If that thing’s anchoring the breach—” “Jae-min, hold up,”...