Chapter – The Sky That Shattered
The forest was dead silent.
Even the wind refused to move.
Only the sound of Night's paws padding softly against the charred soil echoed through the gloom. His silver-black fur rippled as he turned toward the humans trailing behind — Kael, Liora, Anand, and Garix (Peru). His crimson eyes glimmered faintly like twin lanterns in the mist.
"They're coming," Night growled, low and grim. "We have no time. Run — toward the northern ridge. Beyond it lies a rift the monsters cannot cross."
Kael's eyes widened. "Wait— what do you mean cannot cross?"
Night's tail flicked. "The old spirits sealed that valley long ago. It rejects anything born from the Abyss. But to reach it…" He turned his gaze toward the trembling trees. "…you'll have to pass through their nest."
The ground quivered beneath them — a deep, slow vibration, like something enormous stirring under the earth.
Liora swallowed hard. "Then how do we make it through?"
Night's fangs gleamed faintly. "We'll pretend to be one of them I will run with you to guide the rest will pretend to be on there side . Keep low. Don't draw your weapons unless you must."
They began to move, the group melting into the smoke-filled darkness. The air was thick with ash and the stench of rot. The once-green forest had become a graveyard of blackened trunks and bones.
For a brief moment, silence returned. Then came a distant shriek — sharp enough to pierce bone.
Anand froze. His pupils thinned. "Damn it," he muttered. "They've already found us."
From the mist ahead, dozens of glowing red eyes ignited — one pair, then five, then twenty. The monsters had arrived — twisted creatures with limbs that bent wrong and mouths that opened sideways.
Kael unsheathed his twin daggers. "So what?" he smirked, trying to mask his fear. "We fight—"
"—You forget who I am," Anand interrupted, his voice dark and steady.
He stepped forward, lifting his hand as his eyes turned obsidian black. The earth beneath him pulsed once, then cracked open.
"From the hollow of death, rise," he whispered.
A cold wind erupted outward. Black smoke poured from the cracks like liquid shadow, coiling around his body before taking shape — towering figures of skeletal armor, their eyes burning violet.
Four shadows, each holding a curved scythe, emerged beside him.
Kael blinked. "You… were saving that for later?"
Anand smirked faintly. "Later just arrived."
The monsters lunged, shrieking.
The first wave of creatures clashed with the necromantic phantoms, metal and claw ringing in the chaos. The shadows moved like extensions of Anand's will — slicing through flesh, dissolving into smoke, and reforming behind their targets.
"Go!" Anand shouted. "They'll buy us time!"
Night didn't wait. "You heard him!" he barked, dashing forward.
Kael grabbed Liora's arm. "Come on!"
Garix developed shadow wings and spread his scaled wings — — shielding them from a burst of acid spit.
They ran, dodging collapsing trees and burning debris. The night glowed red with fire and blood. The sound of Anand's shadows tearing through the horde echoed behind them like war drums.
"Left!" Night snarled. "Follow the riverbed!"
They slid down a slope slick with ash. Kael's foot slipped, but Liora caught his hand before he fell into the stream of glowing magma that cut through the earth.
He exhaled shakily. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it," she said, though her voice trembled.
Behind them, Anand's control began to waver — each summon dimming as the monster horde grew thicker. For every beast that fell, two more appeared. Their screeches rattled the forest.
One of the shadows exploded in a burst of purple mist.
Anand grimaced. "Tch… not enough energy."
Kael shouted over his shoulder, "Then stop playing hero and run!"
Anand gave a rare grin. "You really think I'll die before finishing my next spell?"
He slammed his palms together. Dark runes spiraled across his arms, glowing brighter and brighter until they burned through his sleeves. The ground trembled violently.
"Gate of the Forgotten!"
An enormous skeletal hand erupted from the soil, grabbing a cluster of monsters and crushing them to dust. The entire battlefield turned into a writhing field of corpses.
Kael, Liora, and Garix glanced back only once — to see Anand standing in the middle of that nightmare, surrounded by his own summoned army, before sprinting after Night.
The deeper they ran, the stranger the world became. The air shimmered like glass; gravity seemed to pull in different directions. Night's fur bristled.
"Stay close," he said. "The boundary is near."
Suddenly, Garix stopped mid-flight. His eyes went wide.
"Above us," he whispered.
They all looked up.
The stars were gone.
In their place was a crack — a thin, bright line tearing across the heavens. It widened silently, like glass fracturing under pressure. The air hummed, then roared. Even Night lowered his head and growled.
Kael's voice trembled. "What is that…?"
Anand, catching up and panting, whispered, "Something wrong. The rift shouldn't—"
The sky exploded.
Light flooded the forest — not sunlight, but an inverted glow, black and crimson, as though the world itself had inverted. From the gash in the heavens, something began to descend.
Not a meteor.
Not a god.
A presence.
The firestorm stilled. The monsters froze mid-snarl, dropping to their knees as if their bodies refused to move before what came next.
A figure stepped through the rift — tall, lean, human-shaped, but wrong in every possible way. His skin was pale as bone, veins glowing faintly red beneath. His hair, pure white, cascaded down to his shoulders, moving even though there was no wind. Around his head floated seven black horns forming a broken halo.
A crown of darkness — seven jagged blades circling his skull.
The mark of the Seventh Hell.
His eyes opened — no pupils, just swirling crimson sigils. The air around him twisted; the trees nearest to him turned to dust. He smiled slightly, almost kindly.
"Ah," the figure murmured, his voice soft but echoing in every direction. "The mortal realm still remembers how to tremble."
Kael felt his knees weaken. "What… is that?"
Night stepped forward, fangs bared, fur bristling with raw energy. "One of the Seven Hells," he growled. "Rank Seven… the Demon of Silence."
The demon tilted his head. "Names. Such fragile things." He raised his hand, and the air screamed — literally screamed — as space around it shattered into floating shards.
Liora clutched her ears. "Make it stop—!"
Garix gritted his teeth. "We can't fight that!"
Anand's shadows evaporated instantly under the demon's aura. "He's not supposed to be here," he muttered. "The seals—"
"They're breaking," Night said quietly.
The demon began to descend slowly, the sky closing behind him like a bleeding wound. Every step he took cracked the ground, spreading spiderwebs of molten light through the soil. The monsters that had been chasing them now knelt, their bodies trembling violently.
"Devotion," he said softly, looking down at them. "Even beasts know their master."
Then his gaze turned toward Kael and the others. His crimson sigils pulsed.
"But you…" He smiled wider. "…you are interesting."
The world grew heavier. Air turned to stone. Liora couldn't breathe; Kael could barely lift his daggers. Anand's necrotic aura flickered and died.
Night took a single step forward, standing between the humans and the demon.
"Run," he said without looking back.
Kael shook his head. "We can't leave you—"
"RUN!" Night roared, his voice shaking the valley.
He lunged — a blur of shadows and lightning — slamming into the demon before anyone could react. The impact lit the forest with black and red energy. The shockwave tore trees from their roots and threw Kael and the others off their feet.
"Night!" Liora screamed.
They saw only flashes — Night's claws colliding with a wall of darkness, sparks of silver light, the demon smiling even as he blocked every blow with one hand.
Then came silence.
Night's body hit the ground, unmoving, shadows flickering out like dying embers.
The demon brushed invisible dust off his shoulder. "A fine specimen," he said calmly. "Pity."
Kael's vision blurred with rage and disbelief. "You monster—"
The demon's eyes snapped toward him, and the world turned red.
Before he could blink, Night's shadow wrapped around Kael, dragging him backward into the forest. The others followed — pulled by unseen tendrils of darkness that carried them away from the battlefield. The last thing they saw was the demon raising his hand, the broken halo above his head glowing brighter.
"The hunt begins," he whispered.
And the forest shattered under his will.
To be continued…