Chapter Text
Reader pov
No one knew exactly what had conducted to the creation of the ten interdimensional portals, or why they had all opened on a dimension filled with an insect-like sentient species that could be best summed up as invasive.
But most people assumed pressured scientists and ego-fueled politicians had been involved in that catastrophe.
A few years later, it did not really matter anymore.
What mattered was that the planet was in a constant state of defensive war because nothing mankind attempted to do was succeeding to close the portals and even sending nuclear warheads, and later biological bombs, had been useless. The only thing that had worked had been discovered, as often in human history, by complete accident.
Spiritual energy.
It turned out opening incomprehensible interdimensional portals had allowed more than just invasive giant insects to attack the planet, it had also brought some new type of radiations that had in turn allowed a small number of humans to manifest a power able to rival with the enemy's weapons and number.
It had also made some animals evolve into sentient creatures able to take humanoid shapes, some of them even developping the ability to soothe humans and stabilizing their spiritual energy.
And thus humanity adapted once more, as it always had.
Four hundred years later, when the number of humans able to manipulate spiritual energy was mostly stabilised around a thousand of individuals in the world, you were doing your shift as Sentinel in the area of the portal on your continent, and feeling your spiritual core get dangerously close to disruption. Not that it was anything new, since your spiritual core had been particularly unstable ever since you had gone through your full awakening at seventeen years old.
That was the exact way the doctors had described it after you almost blew off the entire academy.
Powerful, but unstable.
Then they had solved the problem by assigning you an A-rank Shifter to keep your core stable, and that had been it.
At the beginning, it had been great. Kidd was terribly handsome in the temperamental way, and even if he never smiled and his laugh was always mocking, even if he refused hugs or affection, he stabilised your spiritual energy and his bright red fox ears and tail were beautiful. After living together for years, you had accepted he simply was not one for kindness and your companionship was a good one.
But at the moment, you were fighting off a dozen of aliens on your own and Kidd was nowhere to be seen despite it being his primary mission to stay near you in case you needed his soothing powers or assistance in fighting.
Then you noticed something purple near the portal and instantly identified it as a Spiritual Energy Interferer, one of the most dangerous devices the aliens had created since the beginning of the war.
"SEI at the portal !" you shouted in your coms.
"You idiot, that's only an F-grade bomb," the haughty voice of Shalria huffed back, and you spotted her already preparing a spiritual beam of her own a dozen meters away from you. "Watch and learn how a real Sentinel deals with bugs."
Your eyes widened in shock and fear at her ego-fueled stupidity.
Shalria was from a family of Sentinels, one of the descendants of the first original users of spiritual energy, and she had never forgiven you for surpassing her own awakening when you were at the academy. Even if your awakening had come at the price of an unstable core, she only saw the fact that you were theoretically more powerful than her, and she had used every ounce of influence from her family to crush your career ever since.
Hence why you were still only a C-rank Sentinel despite your current fortress Commander pushing for your promotion every year.
"SHALRIA NO !" you yelled.
Too late.
She sent her attack straight into the Spiritual Energy Interferer while it was building its power, and the result was instantaneous. The explosion shook the entire perimeter you had been doing your shift in, and the destroyed city lost a good deal of its remaining walls and building in it.
Your reinforced Sentinel suit absorbed most of the physical shock, but you still felt it deeply in your bones, and more importantly, your core failed to withstand the insane charge of spiritual energy mixed with radiation conceived to unbalance a Sentinel's core.
As you laid on the ground and rubbles scratched the skin of your face left unprotected after your protective mask had broken, you realised your coms had fried as well.
"Kidd," you called weakly, "Kidd !"
Thankfully, your Shifter appeared in your sight, his white uniform contrasting with his red hair and tail making him easier to find than most, and even as you panted and felt your core get ever closer to destroy you from the inside, you managed to smile.
"Save me," you begged him. "Please."
The fox that had been your companion for years looked at you with a scowl, but at the moment, pain was starting to wreck you and you would endure his foul temper as long as he stabilised you.
"Oh no, my core !" Shalria shouted dramatically away from you. "I need a Shifter right now !"
Kidd's head snapped to her, and he sent you a smug smirk before turning around to walk to her and start using his powers on Shalria as he took her in his arms and carried her away from the portal.
Your companion Shifter left you on the ground, your unstable spiritual core about to kill you, without a look back.
You were not sure if the first thing to break was your body or your heart at this betrayal.
Before you lost consciousness for good, you thought you saw another flash of red above you, but the face it belonged to was not quite the one you were used to, and the power you felt flooding your body to stabilise you was not quite the one you were used to either
But you did not get to ask for your saviour's name before everything turned black.