Seducing the Guideverse With My System — Raising an Anomaly [BL]

Inside the purple Rift

Meanwhile, the Hunter team had walked a certain distance into the dungeon by now. The landscape was unlike anything they would’ve expected.

Ancient buildings stood taller than most skyscrapers, wrecked and crumbling due to thousands of years of wear and tear. These buildings were dotted on land with ash-tarred floors.

The sky was a deep crimson, the sun above burning like an unforgiving ball of fire.

"These buildings suggest the beasts here could be intelligent," the leader of the team, a female S-Rank, spun to the others. "Be on the lookout."

"But ma’am," one of the others spoke out. "These buildings seem... old. If truly there are any intelligent life forms here, why would they live in these?"

"I bet there was some kind of war or apocalyptic event that killed them off." A guy said with a light chuckle.

No one laughed, making him look away awkwardly.

"We just have to keep looking," The leader pulled out a device just then. It was like a compass, except instead of navigation, it showed a radar-style map stretching for over a kilometre around her.

The green dots at the centre were she and the team. If any beast with aether was within its scanning range it would pick it up and point them toward its direction.

They pressed on, boots crunching over the ash-tarred ground that seemed to swallow every footstep in an unnatural hush.

The air grew thicker, laced with a faint metallic tang that clung to the back of the throat. No howls, no growls, no distant roars—only the creak of ancient structures leaning like tired sentinels under that blood-red sky.

After another half-kilometre, the leader slowed, her sharp eyes narrowing at a strange phenomenon ahead.

A cluster of floating runes hovered a ruined plaza, pulsing with faint violet light. They twisted slowly, forming incomplete symbols that dissolved into sparks before fully forming.

The ground beneath them shimmered like heat haze, but when one of the hunters tossed a small pebble into the effect, it simply vanished without sound or ripple.

"Some kind of residual magic?" A stocky A-Rank with calloused hands muttered. "This doesn’t feel like a standard Rift. There aren’t any nests or tracks. Just... ruins everywhere you look."

The leader’s grip tightened on her device.

The radar remained stubbornly empty beyond their own group. "Keep moving. If this is an abandoned zone, we clear it and report back. But stay sharp. Something’s off."

A female hunter voiced what they were all thinking. "Ma’am, are we even in a proper dungeon? These buildings look like they belonged to a civilisation. Not monster territory. It’s too quiet."

Yet none responded.

Tension coiled tighter as they advanced past the floating runes, which flickered once before going dark entirely. The crimson sun seemed to dip lower, casting elongated shadows that stretched unnaturally across the ash.

Then it happened.

A sharp whistle cut the air.

The first arrow struck without warning—thudding into the shoulder of an A-Rank hunter with brutal precision, spinning him around with a cry of pain.

Another followed instantly, grazing the leader’s thigh and drawing a hot line of blood. Panic erupted as more shafts rained down from the skeletal remains of a nearby tower.

"Ambush!" Someone screamed.

One hunter dropped dead before he could even raise his weapon—a single arrow punching clean through his eye socket and out the back of his skull with a sickening wet crack.

He crumpled like a puppet with cut strings, blood pooling dark on the ash.

Chaos swallowed the team. Shouts overlapped, weapons half-drawn as arrows continued to zip in from hidden angles.

The stocky Hunter reacted first, slamming his palms to the ground. "Shields up!"

The tarred earth erupted in response.

Massive walls of compacted soil and stone burst upward in a jagged semicircle, forming crude but solid barriers that blocked the next volley with heavy thunks. Dust and debris showered down as the walls held, trembling under the impacts.

Panting, the survivors pressed against the makeshift fortifications, hearts hammering. The leader peered through a narrow gap in the earth wall, her face grim.

That was when they saw them.

Figures emerged from the ruins—tall humanoid beings with pointed ears and skin like polished moonlight.

Elves.

Clad in weathered leather and cloaks that blended with the crumbling stone, they pulled out fresh arrows and readied them against elegantly curved bows.

Their eyes glowed with an alien hostility, faces etched with cold determination rather than bestial rage.

One of them, a female with silver hair braided with bone beads, gestured sharply and another rain of arrows tested the earth shields.

"Those are no beasts," the leader whispered, gritting her teeth due to the stinging pain in her leg. "This Rift just got a hell of a lot more complicated."

★★★★★

"What do you mean the Rift turned purple?" The Guild master in charge of the Hunter team that entered the Rift exclaimed when he arrived at the scene.

Gabriel had just given him the report of what happened, also explaining how he couldn’t even use his spatial manipulation to force the Rift to unblock entry.

Not without risking making things worse.

"I’m as confused as you are," Gabriel huffed, placing a hand on his jaw.

More armoured vehicles had surrounded the scene, with some teams of Hunters on standby in case this turned into a dungeon break.

"Could this be another Echo Rift situation?" The Guild master panicked. "R–Right here? Should we alert the Federation?"

Gabriel shook his head. "This is unlike the Echo Rift," he brought his eyes back to the purple Rift. Studying it once again. "The Echo Rift sucked in aether energy. In the form of the slain beasts that came out of it plus some attacks made by Hunters."

"This one acts differently. Not to mention its refusal to allow entry."

He squinted, tapping a finger on his chin.

And here he was thinking this was going to be another boring raid.

This could be the beginning of an entirely new Rift phenomenon. If Valentine were here he’d probably tease him for being such a ’nerd’ about this.

"But I think we should alert the Federation," Gabriel nodded. "The Hunters have been in there for nearly an hour now. I fear they might’ve encountered something dangerous or perhaps aren’t even aware of the situation out here."

Gabriel lingered by the Rift for a moment longer after the Guild master hurried off. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was staring back.

The purple surface continued swirling in eerie silence, casting an unnatural glow over the surrounding snow. Military personnel kept a respectable distance now, whispers rippling between them as they stole anxious glances toward the anomaly.

Gabriel took slow steps toward it again.

"Hunter Gabriel?" One of the officers called cautiously. "Shouldn’t we wait until the Federation—"

He silenced the man with a slight wave.

His iridescent eyes never left the Rift as he drew closer. Until he stood barely two feet before the shimmering surface.

His brows slowly knitted together.

Something wasn’t right.

He narrowed his eyes, forcing himself to ignore every surrounding distraction.

Then he saw it.

The surface wasn’t merely fluctuating. It expanded ever so slightly. Then contracted.

Repeatedly like lungs drawing breath.

Or...

Gabriel unconsciously held his own breath. "A heartbeat?"

The observation sent an unpleasant chill crawling beneath his skin. He remained perfectly still for another minute, watching the pattern repeat itself.

Each pulse was so subtle that anyone glancing at it normally would’ve dismissed it as ordinary Rift instability.

But Gabriel manipulated space itself.

His perception bordered on absurdity. He noticed tiny distortions no ordinary Esper ever could.

"No." He slowly stepped backwards. "Something’s moving."

Whether the Rift itself was alive or whether something inside was causing those rhythmic distortions... He couldn’t tell.

He cast the phenomenon one final lingering look before pulling his phone from his pocket.

"We’re definitely escalating this." His thumb hovered over the Federation President’s contact before pressing the call button.

Whatever this phenomenon was... It was already exceeding Canada’s authority.

★★★★★

Inside the purple Rift...

Silence settled over an abandoned building the team had ran into.

Only ragged breathing echoed through the place as the surviving Hunters leaned against broken pillars and shattered walls, desperately catching their breath.

No more arrows followed.

"Did they retreat?" Someone whispered.

"I don’t know." The female leader winced as she tightened a strip of cloth around the wound in her thigh, fresh blood soaking through almost immediately. "Nobody lowers their guard."

The others nodded.

One Hunter hurried toward their fallen teammate, kneeling beside the body with a grim expression. "Poor bastard..."

Another sighed heavily. "We should at least take him back to Earth."

Together, they dragged the corpse deeper into the ruined structure, navigating the hall until they rested it against a cracked stone wall, away from the entrances.

Nobody wanted to leave him lying outside. Not after dying like that.

The room fell quiet once more.

One Hunter peeked carefully through a collapsed window. "They really are gone."

"Maybe they finally realised we’re not worth the trouble."

"I somehow doubt that." The leader slowly pushed herself upright. "We’ll wait another minute. Then we’ll—"

She stopped.

Her eyes drifted toward the wall.

"Where’s Mason’s body?"

Confused, several heads turned. The bloodstains remained on the pillar and floor. The arrow remained.

Even the marks where they’d dragged him across the dusty floor remained perfectly visible.

But the body itself... Was gone.

Every face drained of colour.

"Tell me," one Hunter whispered shakily, "that one of you moved him."

The stocky Esper swallowed hard. "I thought one of you did."

Another Hunter slowly backed away from the empty spot, every instinct screaming at him. "We were all watching the doors. Nobody came inside. Right?"

The leader’s heartbeat pounded violently against her ribs as her grip tightened around her weapon.

"If nobody entered..." Her voice came out barely above a whisper. "...then where did the body go?"

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