Anomaly of Fate
Chapter 73: Stonefall

Chapter 73: Stonefall

A low, thunderous roar rolled across the sky, deep and resonant, like the earth itself had groaned in warning. It sent a tremor through the air, rattling the wooden frame of the carriage.

Velren and Nico both snapped their heads upward, scanning the sky.

But there was nothing.

No shadow cutting through the clouds. No winged beast descending upon them. Only the vast expanse of blue, broken by wisps of drifting white.

The horses stirred restlessly, ears flicking back as if sensing something their riders could not. Nico’s grip tightened on the reins. Then, with a sharp motion, he cracked the leather strap against the horses’ backs.

"Hyah!"

The animals lurched forward, breaking into a hurried gallop as the carriage jolted beneath them. Velren barely caught himself before he was thrown off balance.

"Nico—"

"Don’t talk! Just look up!" Nico barked, his usual easygoing tone was gone.

Velren frowned but obeyed, his gaze sweeping the heavens. Still, there was nothing. No looming figure, no monstrous presence descending upon them. Just the wind curling through the mountain pass, whispering through jagged cliffs and craggy outcroppings.

"...Look for what, exactly?"

Nico didn’t take his eyes off the road, but his voice came out firm and sure.

"A wyvern."

Velren inhaled sharply.

A wyvern.

Unlike dragons, which bore four limbs and two wings, wyverns only had two hind legs, and their forelimbs were fused into massive, leathery wings. This made them faster in the air, but clumsier on land. They lacked the ancient intelligence of true dragons, but what they lacked in wisdom, they made up for in ferocity.

Where a dragon could unleash breath of fire, frost, or lightning, wyverns relied on raw speed, talons, and venomous stingers at the tips of their tails. Their attacks were brutal, more akin to a raptor descending upon prey rather than the calculated destruction of a dragon.

And unlike dragons, wyverns were relentless hunters.

If one had set its sights on them... it wouldn’t stop until one of them was dead.

Velren exhaled slowly. His fingers twitched over the hilt of his katana as an unsettling thought crept into his mind.

’Did I caused this?’

No—surely not. That would be absurd.

But even as he tried to dismiss the thought, it lingered, refusing to fade.

Coincidence? Maybe. A cruel twist of fate? Perhaps.

Or was it something more? Something unseen, something beyond his control—a force, a world that toyed with him simply because it could?

He clenched his jaw, brushing the thought aside. Whatever the truth was, it wouldn’t change the fact that something was out there, and it was watching them.

BZZZT

[System Alert: H1gh-l3v3l 3ntiti3s 3ngag3d. H0st saf3ty c0mpromis3d.]

’This again?!’

A sharp click echoed from his boot as he adjusted his footing, muscles coiled like a spring ready to snap. His instincts screamed at him—something was coming.

Then, he saw it.

Pebbles tumbling down the mountainside.

A small thing, insignificant in the grand scheme, yet it sent a shiver down his spine.

Then another.

And another.

Velren’s grip tightened on the hilt of his katana, his eyes snapping upward toward the sheer rock face towering beside them. A deep, guttural rumble trembled through the air, reverberating from the cliffs like a beast stirring from slumber.

He didn’t wait.

With a swift motion, Velren pushed off the front seat of the carriage, landing atop its roof in a single fluid leap. The frame creaked beneath his weight, but he barely noticed. His eyes were already locked onto the jagged cliffs above, scanning for the source of the tremor.

Below him, Nico cursed.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Just focus ahead!" Velren shot back, his voice firm.

And then—the mountain roared.

A deafening CRACK split the air as massive boulders tore free from the cliffside, dislodged by the unseen force that had shaken the pass. Dust and debris rained down as an avalanche of stone thundered toward them, the largest of the rocks easily capable of flattening the carriage in a single instant.

"Shit!"

Velren’s body moved on instinct.

His right hand shot forward, fingers curling as an invisible force twisted reality itself.

The air in front of him rippled and collapsed as a blackened maw of nothingness yawned open—a void barely visible to the naked eye, yet its presence sent a cold shock through the world.

Gravemaw.

A heartbeat later, the largest boulder, a slab of stone nearly the size of the carriage itself, plummeted straight into the distortion—

—and vanished.

The weight of the falling mass was devoured instantly, consumed by the semi-null space. But it wasn’t gone. Not truly.

Because a second later—

THUD.

—the same boulder reappeared.

Not in front of them. Not crushing their path.

But behind the moving carriage, dropping harmlessly in the exact position where Velren had opened the maw.

The thunderous impact of the displaced boulder settling behind them barely had time to fade before another hail of stone rained down from above.

Velren remained calmed atop the carriage, he locked his gaze onto the cascading debris. His hands moved in precise, fluid motions, opening rifts of semi-null space that swallowed each oncoming projectile before they could crush the carriage below.

A chunk of rock the size of a horse shot toward them—He twisted his wrist—Gravemaw expanded.Gone.

Another followed. Then another.

Velren gritted his teeth, adjusting his stance as he reached out once more, willing the void to consume every last piece of the avalanche before it reached them.

The relentless downpour of stone threatened to bury them whole—

Until—

"KID! LOOK AHEAD!"

Nico’s urgent yell cut through the chaos, causing Velren’s eyes to snapped forward.

’Fuck...’

Further down the winding pass, where the road carved a path between the towering cliffs, something immense loomed in the distance.

A boulder—no, a monstrous slab of stone—rested directly in their path, blocking the road entirely. The fact that they could see it from this distance meant only one thing:

It was massive.

A boulder so gargantuan that it dwarfed the carriage, the horses, even the surrounding cliffside itself. Deep cracks ran along its weathered surface, and faint clouds of dust still trailed from where it had detached from the mountain, as if the world itself had thrown this obstacle in their way.

Velren clicked his tongue.

"Don’t stop!" he barked to Nico.

With all his might, he leaped from the carriage, launching himself forward like a bolt of lightning.

Wind howled past his ears as he surged ahead, legs pounding against the rocky ground. The boulder, once distant, grew closer and closer, its impossible size looming over him like a fallen titan.

By the time he reached it, he felt small—a mere speck before the colossal wall of stone that blocked the entire width of the pass.

Could he use Gravemaw on this?

Velren had never tested its limits before. He had devoured countless objects, displacing them with ease—but something of this sheer magnitude?

’Shit, no time to think!’

With a sharp inhale, Velren slammed both palms against the boulder’s surface.

His Ka surged.

At first—nothing.

Then—

The stone trembled.

Faint distortions rippled across its surface, like heatwaves bending reality itself. Small fractures of space crumbled away, revealing glimpses of the void beneath. But it wasn’t enough.

Velren could feel the resistance—the sheer density of the boulder fighting back against his Gravemaw. It was unlike anything he had devoured before. Where smaller objects vanished instantly, this behemoth refused to be swallowed so easily.

The air crackled around him as the space where his hands met the stone twisted. A pulse of Ka rippled outward, distorting the very fabric of reality as dark, swallowing void began to eat into the rock.

But it was slow.

Too slow.

His heartbeat thundered in his ears. The carriage was still charging toward him, hooves pounding against the earth. He had only seconds before Nico would be forced to stop—before they’d be trapped here, sitting ducks for whatever else lurked in these mountains.

Velren clenched his teeth, his muscles tensing as he shoved more of himself into Gravemaw

More Ka

The edges of the colossal stone began to warp, pieces breaking off and vanishing into the growing rift. Veins of darkness spread like cracks across its rugged surface, but it still resisted, still clung to the world as if defying his will.

Velren’s lungs burned, and his Ka was draining fast.

"Damn it... Come on!"

The black maw of nothingness flickered, its insatiable hunger was faltering.

Velren’s fingers curled against the boulder. He refused to stop now.

If a small opening wasn’t enough, then he’d rip open a gate.

With a sharp breath, he spread his arms wider—forcing his Ka to expand the rift. The space around him shuddered violently, the semi-null void yawning wider, stretching beyond its usual limit.

And then—

A crack split the air.

Like a deep, sickening groan, the massive boulder lurched. The force holding it to reality buckled.

Velren felt it give way.

His vision blurred as the entire monolithic mass began to collapse inward, its structure tearing apart piece by piece as the void consumed it. Jagged edges of stone folded into themselves, vanishing into the unfathomable darkness until—

BOOM.

With a final roar, the entire boulder was gone. Not broken. Not shattered.

Erased.

An eerie silence followed, save for the faint, residual distortion in the air—ripples of space snapping back into place like an aftershock.

Velren immediately staggered back.

His body screamed in protest, every muscle tight from exertion, and his Ka was dangerously low.

But he had done it, the road was clear.

Soon after, a sharp whistle cut through the lingering tension.

Velren turned just in time to see the carriage barreling past him, with Nico gawking as they sped through where the boulder once stood.

He barely had time to process the moment before it happened.

Another thunderous roar echoed through the mountains, followed by a looming shadow that stretched over them.