Chapter 6 CHAPTER 6 — SEVEN SECONDS

“Ren! Lian! Get behind that broken train car right now!” I shouted, forcing the words out as the Calamity shadow kept pushing through the Gate. “Zhao Yun, new plan! I’m committing fully. Seven seconds window. No arguments, just follow my calls exactly!”

Ren twisted mid-air in the distorted gravity. “Seven seconds? Boss, you’ve never gone that deep before! What the hell are you seeing in there? That smile… it’s messing with your head, isn’t it?”

“No time for questions!” I snapped back, already reaching deeper into the Fate Thread. “Lian, push every ounce of calm you have at that thing. Ren, cover her and watch the left side. Move!”

Lian’s voice cracked with panic as she grabbed onto a railing. “Wei, please don’t do this! I can feel how much it’s costing you already. Your emotions are splitting. Part of you is calm, but another part is… excited. She’s excited. You can’t keep burning yourself like this!”

“I have to,” I growled, pushing the Thread window wide open. Seven full seconds of control. Golden threads exploded everywhere, thick ropes of possibility wrapping around the entire chamber. Reality itself started bending to my will. “Ren, duck low! Now! That tendril is coming straight for your chest!”

Ren dropped instantly, the massive whip-like limb cracking the concrete right above his head. “Holy shit! How did you know exactly where it would hit? I didn’t even see the damn thing move! Boss, this feels wrong. Like you’re playing god right now.”

“Because I am right now,” I said through gritted teeth. I yanked another set of threads hard. The inverted water slammed sideways like a tidal wave, smashing into the emerging Calamity and knocking several limbs off balance. Pain exploded up my spine instantly. My knees buckled. “Lian, talk to me. What’s it feeling? Keep feeding me reads!”

“It’s furious, Wei!” Lian cried out, clinging to Ren’s arm as gravity flickered again. “But underneath that rage there’s this… hunger. It wants you specifically. And something inside you is answering it. Your face… God, you already look older. The lines around your eyes, your skin… please stop!”

“Can’t stop now,” I replied, voice tight. I repositioned us with another pull. Ren’s body jerked as I forced him three steps to the right exactly when a new limb swept through. “Ren, swing at the joint I just opened! Hit it hard!”

Ren roared and brought his axe down with everything he had. Black ichor sprayed across his chest. “Fuck yes! That cut deep! How are you doing this, boss? It feels like the whole world is moving exactly where you want it. But you’re shaking. I can see your hands trembling from here!”

“It’s the cost,” I admitted, breath coming hard. My shoulders ached like I’d carried boulders for years. The skin on the back of my hands looked thinner, veins standing out more. Wrinkles forming at my knuckles. “Zhao Yun, give me the damage report. Don’t sugarcoat it.”

Zhao Yun’s voice came through strained. “Captain, biological markers jumped eight years in the first four seconds. Thread strain is critical. Your survival probability is holding at eighty-seven percent because of the adjustments, but your body is destabilizing fast. Muscle density dropping. Joint degradation accelerating. You need to end this now!”

“Eight years?” Lian gasped. “Wei, listen to him! You’re aging right in front of us. Your hair has gray in it that wasn’t there five minutes ago. We can still run. Please!”

Ren hacked at another tendril, breathing heavy. “She’s right, boss. This isn’t worth it if you come out looking like Commander Shen’s uncle. We’ve survived bad shit before without you killing yourself. Talk to us! What do you see when you look into that thing?”

“I see the end if I don’t push,” I said, forcing another rewrite. A falling steel beam changed direction mid-fall and crushed one of the Calamity’s limbs. The creature roared, the sound warping around us. “Lian, keep pushing calm. Ren, stay aggressive but listen to my calls. We’re surviving because I’m rewriting every bad outcome. Just trust me a little longer.”

“I trust you with my life,” Ren shouted back, “but I hate watching you pay this price! Your back is hunched. You’re moving slower between pulls. How many years has it taken already? Ten? Fifteen?”

“More,” I admitted, pain flaring in my chest. My vision blurred at the edges. Every tug felt like fire in my bones. The threads multiplied wildly, singing with power and cost. “But it’s working. Look, the Calamity is slowing down.”

The massive shadow form lunged forward suddenly, teeth and claws aimed straight at me. The terminal shook violently.

“Boss!” Ren yelled. “It’s coming! Full charge!”

I expanded the window again, pushing past safe limits. Time slowed even further. I saw every thread, every possibility. I dragged Lian behind cover with a pull that wasn’t entirely my own strength. Ren’s next strike landed perfectly because I forced the opening.

“You’re burning too hot!” Lian screamed. “I can feel her inside you, Wei. She’s helping but she wants to take more. Your emotions are tangled with hers. It’s scaring me!”

The Calamity roared again, pushing harder, half-formed and terrifying.

Then it stopped.

Completely.

Mid-lunge. Trembling. Fighting against something holding it back.

Ren lowered his axe slightly, panting. “What the… it just froze. One second it was about to rip us apart, next it’s like someone hit a switch. Boss, did you do that?”

Lian’s eyes widened as she looked at me. “No. It wasn’t just Wei. Something pushed back from inside him. Wei… your hand. It’s moving on its own.”

I felt it then.

I was no longer alone in my own body.

My right hand twitched without my command. Then it moved smoothly, pulling a Thread I hadn’t chosen. The Calamity shuddered and began sinking back into the Gate, forced down by an intervention that wasn’t fully mine.

My left hand rose slightly, fingers flexing in a pattern I didn’t initiate. The motion felt familiar. Warm. Like hers.

“Wei?” Ren asked, voice low and worried. “You still with us? Your eyes… they changed for a second.”

I tried to answer, but my mouth moved first, forming words I hadn’t decided to say.

Hands that felt like mine, but were not entirely mine, kept moving.