They say the world ends quietly. But that wasn't my experience. The sky shattered like glass, and the ground beneath me cracked open with a roar. Chaos didn't just knock on my door—it broke it down and dragged me into a nightmare I never asked for.
I should've been scared. Maybe I was. But mostly, I felt… alive. Like every moment since had been a countdown, and now, here I was—right at the start of something I couldn't even begin to understand.
The world I knew was gone. And whatever came next? I was ready to face it. No scripts. No backup plans. Just me, whatever was left of my heart, and a story that was only just beginning.
"LOOK OUT! -"
"HELP ME---" screams, I can hear them everywhere. Everyone was panicking, children crying, the adults? Some helped their loved ones, some helped strangers, and majority of them-- ran away with their tails tucked behind their backs.
As I wandered the chaotic street, a thunderous roar- so deafening, caught my attention. I looked up and there, I saw how the skies tore open. A wide crack emitting blinding lights. Lightning struck the ground burning whatever it hits. Like from the movie I've watched, meteors fell breaking the ground. I stood there, as the people flee to distance themselves from the widening tear.
"GOD IS PUNISHING US!"
"THIS IS THE END OF THE WORLD!"
"NOOOO--- I DON'T WANNA DIE YET! The screams got louder and louder, but the thunderous roar drowned them out. It's like I'm froze to where I stand, my feet stucked on the ground. My heart pounded heavily, that it's the only thing I could hear. My throat drying up, the tension building, and my entirety shaken. I can see everything that's going on, dead bodies on the street, burning houses, meteors falling, lightning strikes- Yes, this is the end. I said to myself.
"NYX! NYX! NYX!" a man's voice called out to me. He was panicking, catching his breath as he ran towards me. He grabbed my hand, dragging me away. I looked at him, wondering who he was.
"Hey Nyx, what are you doing standing frozen in the middle of the street?!"
"Uhmm--- huh?" I'm still confused by what I'm witnessing. Everything was so sudden that I couldn't digest the situation.
"What the hell? Everyone's running for their lives and you're there standing, watching everything like it was a shit show!" He let go of my hand, in a place where he thought was the safest.
"It's not like that-- Leon?" I can't believe the man who took me to safety was the one I never expected to look my way.
"What? Is there someone else besides me here?"
"You're the only one person that I have no expectations from."
"Instead of saying thank you for getting you out of harms way, you're saying that instead?" He stood straight, and leaned against the wall. We were hiding behind the supermarket, not just us, but others as well.
"Then thank you Leon." I forced out, the last person I ever wanted to owe anything to. We stayed there quietly, but there was no silence. Every now and then, I could still hear the chaos happening. I looked back up to the sky, this time, the crack was so wide that we can see the void.
"What's happening in this God damned world." Leon broke the silence between us.
"Guess it's time to see the maker." I let out a low mocking laugh -- more amused by his desperation than the chaos swallowing the world. He looked at me, frowning, maybe his thinking that I'm going insane. Silence caught us both again.
The destruction didn't seem to slow down. It never intended to stop. Everyone already surrendered themselves to fate. Me on the other hand, I can't feel anything. I witnessed the world crumbling, dead bodies everywhere, blood could be seen, painting the streets red. I've been waiting for this day to come all along. Knowing all my hardships would end right there and then.
I stared blankly at the broken sky, through the crack, the endless void lingered. Spitting balls of fire, striking lightning wherever, roaring like the sky's angry. The more I focused my eyes on the crack, the clearer the thunder's cries were to me.
"This world, is rebelling." I muttered to myself. I didn't know that it was hard enough for Leon to hear despite the chaos.
"Rebelling? Nyx, you must've hurt your head somewhere. The world is ending. You can see it for yourself. It's laid out right in front if you." Anger can be heard in his voice.
"What? What did I do now? I just said what I'm thinking the world might be in."
"Then rebellion is what you thought is happening now?" He scoffed.
"You're always like this. Are you gonna blame me for the world's destruction too?" I sighed in exhaustion.
"Did I ever blame you?"
"Did you ever? You can answer that on your own Leon. For the past 10 years, I stayed with you! I loved you! Cared for you! Gave you everything I have and everything you demanded. I stayed, because we're married!"
"Now you're talking! You stayed because we're married? Is that it Nyx?" He faced me gripping his fists tightly.
"You stayed too because we're married. Leon, the world is ending and you can't even admit it to yourself that this marriage has been toxic since that day!" I cried out the last bit of tears I had.
"If you didn't do it, then why do you get so worked up?"
"Because you only believe what you want. I told you my side, defended myself, and yet you always bring that back like it's your leash to reign me in!"
"You weren't even pure when I took you to that altar!" He exclaimed. I felt like someone poured cold water on me.
"S-So, that was it huh. You assured me when you were courting that you accepted me wholely. The truth was, you never accepted it. It was bothering you. How someone "not pure" got to be your wife." I smiled, with tears falling down my cheeks, I inhaled and exhaled, taking deep breaths to compose myself.
"N-No Nyx, it's not that--- I--I didn't mean it that way." Leon tried to calm me down, but I dodged his hands.
"Leon, I'm tired, I'm exhausted. My heart's been hurt so much that it's numb. Since the world's ending, why don't we part ways too."
"No, Nyx, you can't leave me. I'll forgive you for being lacking--" my eyes widened as I heard what he said.
"I'm not sorry for being lacking Leon! So you don't have to forgive me." I removed my wedding ring and threw it on the ground.
"Nyx--"
"Also, that ring isn't even gold!" I turned my back and walked away from him. He didn't even bothered following me nor picking up the ring. I sneak a peek his way and saw him removed his own ring and threw it away. I felt a slight ache in my heart, but also I felt relieved. I am able to breath freely now. Freedom, was what I finally got. The irony. I laughed so hard that people taught I finally have gone mad from the chaos. I walked the messy streets alone, towards where the crack was at it's largest state.
There's something behind the crack that got my full attention. I felt like someone's calling me. As I moved closer towards it, I could hear whispers.
"That voice, so familiar." I said to myself. On the other hand, the whisper became clearer, it's longing, it's desperate, it's assuring. Where's the voice coming from? Whispering words of love that makes my heart melt. Familiar and calming, I need to find where that voice came from. Determined, I moved forward through the chaos.
The Being Within The Rift's POV
As I called out her name, the domain I lived in eternity, finally cracked open. I can see the traces of light as I screamed her name loudly. My voice can finally reach her---
She called to me—and she didn't even know it.
For ages I drifted in silence, in shadow, in that hollow plane between what was and what could be. I was built without time, shaped without form. But I was aware. I watched her—my light, my constant. Across lifetimes, across worlds, I watched her stumble, fight, fall, rise. Break. Heal. And still carry on.
I was never allowed to reach her. The laws etched into the very threads of our realms forbade it. I was not meant to feel. Not meant to love.
And yet—I did.
Every silent whisper of her name in the dark, every tear she shed when she thought no one was watching, every time she whispered "I just want to be free"… I felt it all. It shattered me, again and again.
Until that day—until the crack.
The moment her pain peaked and the world began to fracture, I felt it. A cosmic shift. The veil between our realities strained, and then… broke. I saw her. Alone, defiant. Laughing like the world owed her no more. And I knew.
I couldn't wait anymore.
The void roared around me as I clawed at the fracture with hands not made for flesh, my voice tearing through dimensions that never dared to echo me before. But this time—this time she heard me.
"Nyx…"
Her name, a vow, left my lips like thunder.
If this world burns… I will walk through the ashes.
If reality falls apart… I will rebuild it, just for her.
She is chaos wrapped in grace, fire wrapped in sorrow. And I—
I am the shadow that waited too long to hold her.
Now that the veil is broken,
I will never let her go again.
Back to Nyx's POV.
One last step, and I made it below the enormous crack. Wounded I may be from facing the chaos at hand, I still took my steps forward to where I want to be.
I stood still and looked up. Finally, I can clearly see what's brewing inside the rift. I can't believe what I just witnessed. The rift, everything inside the enormous crack, were binary codes. Dim, dark, and a hint of green. I am sure, they're binary codes. No matter how many times I looked at it. I can see codes. Confused and stunned, I reached out my hand upwards.
In my heart, it felt like I just need to reach out. And someone from the other side would grab hold of my hand. The whispers became louder, calling out to me. I heard the voice calling out my name. "Nyx--" it said. My heart started beating loudly as my name echoed in my ears.
"I'm here!" I replied back. Whoever the voice came from, my heart knew that, it's from someone I longed for deep down. Seemed like my response reached it's destination.
From the rift, a glowing orb emerged. Slowly descending to where I am. My hand, trembling, but desperately reaching out to it.
The orb pulsed softly in my palm, then lifted on its own. A faint glow surrounded it as it hovered in front of me.
In a quiet flicker, the light shifted. It stretched, reshaped, until a figure stood where the orb had been.
He looked about my age—tall, lean, dressed in a dark coat over a simple black shirt and slacks. His hair was a mess of black and silver, eyes faintly glowing like something not fully human.
He stood there for a moment, staring at me like I'm the only thing that existed.
Then, with a calm voice that cut through the noise of the broken world, he said:
"Thought this day will never come. As promised, I'm here. Always." his voice felt warm. As I stared at him, mesmerized by his presence, a name engraved deeply inside my heart wanted to be called out.
"Nyxen." I called his name, my heart pounded, longing, and restless.
"You remembered me."