The Survivor's Burden
The house was broken.
The old kitchen lay beneath twisted beams. The living room wall had no roof. Two of the bedrooms had vanished with the Earth's expansion. But in that dark, suffocating corner where they sheltered… the Chicana family was reunited.
Danilo sat with his parents and children on a cracked piece of floor. The blood of others still stained the walls. The smell of death lingered in the air. But among them, there was human warmth, woven from tears and silence.
His mother caressed his face, as if she couldn't believe he was truly there.
— "You're alive…" — she whispered. — "You came…"
His father, usually stern, kept his face wet and his eyes downcast.
— "I thought… I'd never see you again."
Kaela rested her head on her grandmother's shoulder. Leandro watched with tired but alive eyes. Miro dozed off, overcome by exhaustion and bone-deep pain.
Danilo was silent, but his silence was heavy. He stared at the sword planted in the ground beside him. The Sealing Sword.
🗡️ A Sword That Shouldn't Exist
His mother looked at the black, irregular, almost pulsing blade. She frowned, as if something didn't belong.
— "Is that… real?" — "Danilo… where did you buy that? Not even the street vendors sell things like this…"
His father leaned forward slightly.
— "Son… since when are blades like that sold so casually? That looks… like something from a museum. Or a war."
Danilo took a deep breath. Gripped the sword's hilt. The blade reacted with a cold, shadowy glow.
— "It's… not from this world."
— "What do you mean, boy?" — his father narrowed his eyes. — "Where exactly did you get it?"
— "From a monster's corpse."
The room went silent.
His mother let out a nervous laugh.
— "Son, are you okay? A monster...? Where from? You… you sto—?"
Danilo didn't let her finish.
— "He appeared inside my house. Tore space like paper. Four meters tall. Black body. Suffocating energy. Said he was the Monarch of Darkness. And even as he died, he tried to touch my kids…"
He paused.
— "I killed him."
⚔️ The Death of the Monarch
His parents stared at him. Leandro lowered his head. Kaela hugged herself. Miro woke up and stayed silent, listening.
— "He was already injured. A sword… this sword… stuck in his back. He was dying. But still too strong."
Danilo looked at the blade, as if he could still feel the black blood on it.
— "I pulled the sword out. And I struck him. Until he fell. Until he stopped breathing."
His mother had her hand over her mouth. His father couldn't take his eyes off the blade.
Danilo continued, emotionless:
— "When he died, I received something. I can't explain it. A voice… a system… something rewarded me. I got this sword, a flame sealed in my chest, a dark lineage… and something called the Patriarch's Seal."
— "Son… that sounds like madness."
— "It does. But it's real. More real than anything we've ever lived."
📊 The System and the New World
Danilo stood up. Pointed to the sky — now dark, but still torn by red cracks.
— "This world changed. Grew. Twisted. Gravity increased. Time stretched. The sky… shattered."
— "I saw neighbors dead, orphaned children, shattered homes and streets stretching like deserts. Everything… was redone. Like someone took Earth and reshaped it in rage."
— "And at the end of the chaos… a voice echoed in everyone's mind. It said the 'first disaster' was over. And then… the monsters, the maddened animals, the insects… they left. As if obeying an invisible command."
His father stood, breathing with difficulty.
— "I heard that voice. It… sliced through my head like a knife."
His mother nodded, crying.
— "We thought we were going to die. We saw people we knew torn like paper… others went mad. There was an old man… who saw both sons die. Then he took his own life. I saw it."
Kaela wept. Leandro clenched his eyes shut. Miro curled up beside his grandmother.
Danilo took a deep breath.
— "This new world… is a proving ground. An arena. A game where death is the only certainty."
🌍 The Silence Before the Second Disaster
They all stayed silent for long minutes.
His father sat again. His mother wiped tears from Kaela's face. Danilo looked up at the twisted sky.
— "There's a countdown… inside my head."
— "Me too!" — Miro said. — "It's ticking… like a digital clock…"
— "One month." — Danilo confirmed. — "That's how long until the next disaster."
— "And what happens until then?" — his father asked.
Danilo looked at the sword.
— "We survive. We evolve. We learn. Or we're erased."
🔚 Closing
That end of day — which wasn't really "end of day" anymore, because time now followed a different logic — the family was reunited amid ruins.
But alive.
Danilo sat at the doorway, sword resting on his knees. His gaze fixed on the sky.
And deep within his soul… he knew:
"Surviving is no longer enough."
"Now… it's time to fight. And conquer the chaos."