The sky was burning in bright orange colour. Smoke and flames were the only thing visible.
And then, a deafening sound echoed in the air, it was the roar of a Void Beast.
Homes that one day used to hum in laughter were crackling in the flames of destruction.
The ground was covered with blood and torn bodies torn apart.
"Markkk!" Elowen screamed while clutching her infant to her chest.
Her breath was coming in ragged bursts as she tried to stumble through all the wreckage while reaching for her husband.
The night was jet-black, but the fire that burned showed the fragments of horror that had taken place, their neighbors, half-consumed lying dead on the bloody ground.
"Go! Run, Elowen! Don't look back!" Mark shouted, sword trembling in hand.
But she hesitated. The creature before him was not a simple beast made of flesh, it was a dark creatures with hollow eyes and six legs, a void beast.
And then, came the awful sound. It wasn't a roar, it was a wet, sucking noise that completely silenced Elowen.
"Noooooo!" Elowen's scream tore through the night as the Void Beast devoured Mark whole. No blood. No trace. He was simply erased.
Asterion whimpered in her arms, tiny and frightened, while Elowen, she ran.
Her legs started to burn, her lungs screaming for air, but stopping meant death, for her and her son.
The same beast turned around who now has consumed Mark completely without leaving a trace and ran towards them, sliding across the ground with inhuman speed.
"Not my son," she whispered in sobs and fear.
But before it could attack them, a flash of streak appeared.
A blinding surge above the beast's head, a figure descending faster than thought.
A single strike cleaved through the shadow, splitting it into nothingness.
But Elowen didn't stop to thank whoever was the one who saved her.
Because there were more Void beasts here and there and she couldn't risk the survival of her child.
She turned around and ran until her legs failed her, until the gates of the temporary village fortress came into sight.
"Please… let us through!" she gasped.
The guards didn't ask questions. They simply opened the gates, and let her enter.
When she woke up, the village no longer existed anymore. It was erased from the planet.
Of the hundreds who used to live there, only a handful had survived.
They were later transported to Eriandel, a border city that was fortified with awakeners.
Clearly, the people in power didn't care about the ants but they still had to keep their image so they let the dozen or so survivors settle there.
Two days had passed in the grief and silence. Elowen, for her child, found work in the weaving quarter and learned how to sew.
Her fingers started to get calluses but she still held on and stitched clothes till dawn, whispering lullabies to her child she kept beside her all the time.
She often used to say-
"Your father was brave, he faced the dark so you could see the light."
And with each tear she wept, each coin she earned, she stitched a fragile world for her growing so, a world which was built with resilience and love.
Twelve years passed by.
The streets of Eriandel thrived under the watch of glowing towers.
Children played in parks, people moved through the streets and life was bustling in the city but for how long?
No one could answer.
Asterion stood at the edge of the academy plaza, sunlight spilling across his face.
He was sixteen now, tall and sharp-eyed, he carried himself with quiet maturity. A little above average in looks but not handsome.
His hands showed the faint callouses of labor, result of years spent helping his mother and practicing as much as he could with his weapon - a glaive.
His eyes, a clear black, reflected both kindness and calculation.
He was known at his school for his insatiable hunger he had for knowledge.
While others boasted about awakeners and battle techniques, Asterion spent nights immersed in books that covered history, runic theory, monster biology, even stories.
When someone asked why, he simply replied
"Information, is power. The kind no can take away from you."
Elowen, who was now in her late thirties, often watched him study in the small room they shared.
Despite the pain that had shaped her life, she smiled, proud and fearful all at once.
He had earned a scholarship to Stellar Academy, the most prestigious institution in the city, home to future awakeners, alchemists, and even scholars.
For Elowen, it was both a promise and a reminder.
She had lost one loved one to the dark; she feared losing another.
Still, she said nothing. She simply placed her hand on his shoulder and whispered,
"Then go, Asterion. Learn everything you can. Just promise me… you'll always come back."
"Yes mother, I will." That was all he could say after seeing the look of worry in her eyes.
Asterion has now completed his mandatory schooling and was waiting for his first day at the academy.
The day of departure arrived. The streets glowed with evening light as school students said their farewells to each other.
Asterion walked home through quiet alleys, thinking of the meal his mother must be preparing for him.
Then suddenly, the air shifted.
The world distorted, colors bending, gravity twisting.
He froze, his instincts whispering warnings.
"What… is this?"
A strange pull tugged not at his body but his soul.
He glimpsed at the distortion happening around him, beyond the ripples stood Void Creatures, massive and ancient.
He understood what was happening in the instant he saw them and clenched his fists.
"I will come back alive," he whispered to himself, steadying his heart.
The world suddenly shattered but not in violence, but in silence and light.
Yes. He had awakened at sixteen, far earlier than any commoner generally did. None knew why, but it still happened.
Something vast observed him.
Neither male or female, but resonant and endless, told him something.
"Child of Fate… you have been chosen."
That being was nothing but simply a will, it was the will of the Void.
Asterion couldn't answer, but his heart was likely giving its own answer by thumping loudly.
"The knowledge you seek lies beyond the veil. Will you reach for it, knowing it may consume you?"
His thoughts formed into words, steady and clear: If it helps me protect the one who gave me life, then yes. I will reach for it.
And now, far away, in an unseen place, the awakening had begun.
Back in Eriandel, the wind shifted. Elowen paused at her window, with a needle in hand.
She felt her heart tightening for some reason.
When she looked toward the horizon, the sky which was covered in orange-red hues of the sunset, she felt as if the world itself was trying to convey something.
"Come back safely, my son," she whispered, to herself.
And somewhere beyond the galaxy, Asterion's journey, the one born of loss, knowledge, and survival had only just begun.