The wall exploded - stone and dust burst out, and lantern light scattered like mad fireflies.
I always taught myself to treasure and guard what I love. But what happens... When there's nothing left to protect?
I tilted my head back, staring at the endless expanse of clouds we called "sky", stretched on forever.
That everlasting blanket was always there to remind me how small and fleeting I really was. Familiar, yet ominous - as if it were warning me of something I wasn't ready to face.
For now, though, the feeling was distant, like a shadow at the edge of happiness that I wasn't ready to notice.
But then the shadow moved.
The far wall cracked.
I immediately stood up, startled.
Through the wound in the wall, something seeped. It didn't charge or stumble - it bled inward. Darkness thicker than night itself, dragging a heavy silence.
Laughter died in everyone's throats. The warmth of the bonfire faded... It felt miles away.
Every part of me begged me to run, but terror held me in place. Everything sounded muffled, like i was underwater.
My eyes clung to the moving darkness.
Nyxes.
Creatures of shadow and chaos, spoken of in whispers and forgotten prayers. Their bodies wavered around a ruined human shape, as if reality itself rejected them.
Eyes - if they were eyes - burned faintly inside the black, cold and hungry, watching a village no wall or light could save.
Sparks from the dying fire lifted, only to vanish after a split second. The Nyxes crept farther into the village, slow, deliberate.
My mind was too blurred, and i couldn't think straight. The once peaceful place I called "Home" dissolved into chaos, but I couldn't move, swallowed by fear, by terrified awe, by the certainty that this was no nightmare.
Men scrambled for weapons - rusted blades, hunting spears, even firewood torn from the flames.
Anything that could keep them safe.
Mothers pulled their children close, dragging them through the smoke and dust.
Panic twisted the familiar faces I had known all my life. Fear makes people into strangers, desperate and wild.
A Nyx crept forward. Every motion was measured, soundless, crushing.
A spear hurled at it seemed to land, to pierce - but it meant nothing. A torch thrust near its edge, flickered and died. Nothing could touch them. Nothing mattered.
But through the noise and terror, a good distance from me, two figures decided not to run.
My father's hand gripped the handle of his precious fishing spear, knuckles white, his body trembling but determined.
My mom stood beside him with a kitchen blade in her hand. They simply stepped forward, without hesitation, as if their bodies alone could suffice as a shield from the inevitable.
Father lunged first, thrusting his spear straight into the shifting darkness. For a heartbeat, I thought it worked!
The tip met resistance, piercing through. But then the darkness coiled around the shaft like smoke given form. With a sickening sound, the wood cracked.
A violent twist splintered it in hundreds, if not thousands of pieces, shards flying uselessly across the ground.
My father's eyes widened-not in fear, but in grim understanding - just as the damned creature's hand lashed out and wrapped around his throat.
His body was lifted upward, feet dangling, air choked from him as he clawed desperately at the strong, unnatural grip.
"Dad!!" The cry tore from me before I could think. My legs carried me forward, blind and reckless.
Beside him, my mother screamed his name. Her small blade flashed in the lantern light, cutting with wild, furious strikes.
Every slash tore through the dark mass, but it knit itself back together instantly, taunting her efforts.
"Let him go!" she roared, voice raw.
I stumbled closer through noise, fire, and choking black. Determination sparked in my chest.
I had to reach them. I had to help. No matter how weak, no matter how small, I had to do something.
My heart pounded as if it could burst me forward, faster and faster.
But my body betrayed me.
A crushing weight pressed down - heavier than my limbs, heavier than the earth itself.
I collapsed, hands sinking into cold soil as I tried to drag myself forward.
"Please, PLEASE, NOT THEM-"
For an instant the Nyx turned. That empty gaze found me, colder than winter water. Then the hand tightened. My father convulsed.
The small light in his eyes - warm and scolding, encouraging and stubborn, the light that held my world - went out. His body hung limp, a puppet with the strings cut.
But my mother didn't stop. Her blade rose again, trembling, defiant.
She stabbed and swung with all the strength she had, a cry of rage and grief tearing through the chaos. The Nyx answered with his sharp hand, striking faster than I could even see. It pierced her chest clean through, with a sound that wasn't human.
Her scream cut short.
The knife slipped from her hand, clattering to the ground. Stainless - as if it never even touched a Nyx.
Then she turned her head. The eyes, still burning with love even as the light faded, found me. Her lips moved. A whisper, faint, torn by blood and shadow, barely reached.
"...Raizen... Run..."
My breath hitched.
In that same moment, something whispered inside my skull - too close, too sharp, too cold to be human.
Found you.
The crushing weight doubled. My vision shook.
Then the Nyx turned towards me.
Its body froze - a shadow snagged in mid-motion.
It wasn't hunger I saw in those burning eyes.
It was recognition.
As if something inside me terrified it more than the dying village ever could - and whatever owned that whisper had finally noticed me.