"You call that an attack?" He laughed, his plank shield barely budging from Kael's strike.
He grinned wide at Kael. "You'll need way more than that to break my defense!"
Kael gripped his wooden stick tighter as he prepared to swing again, putting all his strength into it.
Thwack!
An acorn smacked him square in the forehead before his stick even connected.
"Fireball!" Torin shouted, waving his slingshot from behind the massive oak tree. "Got you! Hahahaha!"
"Ow!" Kael dropped his stick and rubbed his forehead, already staring at Torin. The sting was sharp but fading fast. "That actually hurts! Not fair!"
"All's fair in war!" Torin called out, already running and laughing as he circled the oak's thick trunk.
"Hey!" Kael chased after him.
They ran round the tree twice, dodging and weaving between its roots while Eren watched and shook his head.
Kael's fingers brushed Torin's shoulder, almost holding him, when his foot caught on one of the oak's gnarled roots.
He stumbled forward and hit the ground several paces from the tree.
The oak tree stood at the center of the village. Its branches spread wide, almost to shade half the cottages around it. The ground beneath was packed sand and grass, perfect for running.
Eren and Torin burst out laughing. Kael groaned and tried to pick himself up, pushing against the packed earth. His gaze drifted toward the village entrance.
A tiny speck of light hung in the air, far beyond the entrance. It looked small from this distance, barely visible against the darkening sky.
Eren and Torin turned their gaze toward the entrance.
BOOM!
The light became a blinding violet beam that tore through the village. The shockwave hit Kael like a giant's hand and threw him sideways.
He hit the ground hard. His shoulder took most of the impact and pain shot down his arm. The world spun. His ears rang so loud he couldn't hear anything else.
Smoke rose into the air. Dust swirled, lit up by sparks that floated like tiny fires.
Kael groaned and pushed himself up on shaking arms. His shoulder throbbed. His head felt heavy, while everything looked blurry.
"Eren?" His voice came out weak. "Torin?"
The air was thick with dust. Bits of burnt wood and ash fell around him, tapping against the ground. He crawled forward, trying to see through the haze.
Where his friends had been standing, there was only scorched sand. A wide line of destruction cut straight through the village. The oak tree had been vaporized, nothing left but a smoking crater where its roots had been.
Kael stared at the empty space still with blurry vision. There was nothing. Just smoke and ash and the terrible absence where his friends had stood moments before.
Something small and dark lay on the scorched sand a few feet away. He reached for it with trembling fingers.
It was Torin's slingshot, half-melted. The leather was gone, burnt away. Only the wooden part was left, black and still hot.
Kael picked it up, sobbing. "No," he whispered, his voice shaking. "No, no."
Doors burst open and villagers ran out of their homes, their eyes wide with fear and confusion.
"What was that?"
"Are we…under an attack?"
"Why would anyone want to attack us?"
The elders who had been sitting outside their homes stared at the destruction with pale faces. They saw everything, but their bodies remained frozen, unable to process what their eyes had witnessed.
Kael's mother was among those to rush out of their cottage and she saw him on the ground.
"Kael!"
She ran up to him, dropped to her knees and grabbed his shoulders. Her hands shook as they moved over his face and his arms, checking for injuries. Tears streaked down her cheeks.
"Are you hurt? Talk to me!"
He opened his mouth but no words came out. His fingers went slack and the slingshot fell to the ground.
The other villagers gathered outside in the evening air. The center of the village was gone. The oak tree vaporized. The cottage behind it, reduced to ash. That line of destruction stretched far into the distance where the evening darkness swallowed any trace of where it might end.
"What in the world could possibly—?"
The elder went quiet. His hand lifted, pointing toward the entrance. Something moved in the dim light beyond the entrance, still distant but getting closer.
They watched it get closer. As they made out more details, they felt a chill run down their spines.
It was tall, with limbs slightly too long for a human. It moved smoothly, like water flowing – unnatural and eerie. The air around it felt heavy, pressing down on them with menace.
The figure slowed to a stop just inside the village. Its tongue clicked against its teeth in a sharp, irritated rhythm.
"Why am I the one sent to exterminate these lesser beings?" it muttered.
Everyone froze. The air grew heavy. No one dared to move or speak. They only stared as it continued toward them, radiating unmistakable intent to kill.
Its presence alone pressed down on everyone where they stood. One by one, they dropped to their knees, forced down by an invisible weight they couldn't resist.
It stopped a few paces away and tilted its head to study them. Its eyes gleaming like polished obsidian.
"How awfully quiet you all are."
The villagers knelt, frozen in fear. Their breathing was fast and shallow, overwhelmed by the weight of its presence.
Its lips curved into a pleasant smile. "Well, this makes my job easier. I want you humans to know I personally hold no ill intention toward you. After all, you're not even worth my time as lesser beings. It's just that your deaths are merely… necessary."
Its gaze swept across the kneeling crowd with something close to boredom. Then it stopped. Its eyes locked on Kael.
He was trembling behind his mother.
Its smile widened. "A child," it said softly. "How unfortunate."
Kael's mother covered him with her body.
The demon chuckled at the sight. "Please, don't look at me like that. I truly am sorry about your friends, boy. But as compensation, I promise to send you to join them safely."
"Monster!"
The word came from an elderly woman kneeling near the front. Her voice shook, barely above a whisper, but in the terrible silence it carried clearly. The cruel words had gotten to her, and that forced the accusation from her lips.
The demon's smile didn't fade. If anything, it became wider.
"Monster," it repeated, as if tasting the word. "Yes. I suppose that's what you lessers would call me."
It reached into the folds of its dark clothes and pulled out an orb. The sphere was small, fitting easily in its palm, and it swirled with dark colors.
"Thank you for pissing me off," it said pleasantly, then raised the orb toward the elderly woman.
Glowing threads erupted from her body. Silver light pulled from her eyes, her nose, and her mouth—streaming toward the orb.
The woman's body convulsed as her life force was being sucked out of her. No room for her screams.
It happened slowly. The glowing thin threads stretched, becoming misty wisps that flowed into the swirling darkness of the orb. The colors inside grew brighter with each new addition.
Then the woman's convulsions weakened. Her eyes went empty. The last of the light left her body and she collapsed.
The demon sighed contentedly. "Now then. Shall we continue?"
It walked among the kneeling villagers with the orb held before it, and one by one, their life forces were drawn from bodies.
The process was a lot faster this time—they had no strength to resist. Their life forces flowed steadily into the orb, feeding it.
Kael watched, frozen in horror as everyone dropped dead. All of them, reduced to empty shells.
It now approached his mother.
She looked up, and for that moment, defiance and rage flickered in her eyes. Her life force now began pulling from her body.
Her hands clenched into fists. Her jaw tightened, and tears streamed down her cheeks. She struggled against the pull with everything she had. But it wasn't enough.
Her life force just kept being sucked out, streaming from her despite her resistance. In her last moment, she slowly turned her head, her blurry gaze finding Kael. Her lips moved, forming words he could barely hear.
"I…Love…You."
The last of her light flowed into the orb. Her body went limp, and toppled sideways to the ground.
Kael froze. The world had narrowed to his mother's empty eyes.
The demon's hand closed around his throat, yanking him to his feet. Its dominance pressed down on him, keeping him compliant as it lifted him past the bodies of everyone he had ever known.
"Why?" he muttered painfully. Tears streamed down his face, falling onto the burnt ground. "Why did you do this? We didn't do anything..."
The demon was stunned for a moment. Then it threw its head back and laughed.
"Do you know what's truly amusing?" It leaned closer to whisper, its breath cold against Kael's ear. "You thinking there needs to be a reason."
Black spots slowly spread across Kael's vision at those words. His lungs burned.
"Your village? Insignificant. You humans? Meaningless lesser beings whose names I never bothered to learn. Your extermination is merely a warning. A warning to the mortal world."
Kael struggled to break free, but over time, his struggle became weaker.
"This world needs to know that WE have returned," the demon stated, its voice seeming to come from very far away now. "And your meaningless deaths will be the first message to—"
The black spots merged together. Kael's vision tunneled and everything went dark. His hands fell limply to his sides. His eyes stayed open, but plainly dark.
The demon paused and sighed, looking down at the boy in its grip. "Already passed out?" It brought the orb closer to Kael, preparing to drain his life force. "Such fragile creatures. How disappointing."
Threads began to emerge from Kael's body, slowly pulled toward the orb. But then, the demon froze.
It felt something was off. The air became heavy—not just that—it was crushing. The temperature around it dropped, turning the demon's arrogant breath into a thick mist.
It stared at the boy intensely.
Kael's eyes were dull. But something was behind them. Something ancient.
Then, the flow reversed.
The demon's essence was now being pulled toward the boy's small frame.
"What—?"
The demon tried to recoil, but its hand was fused to Kael's throat. It wasn't the predator anymore.
A much greater entity had just awakened.