Zyon was still frozen after his Master's words. 'I can't just stand around doing nothing. I must find my friends and at least warn them.'
After regaining some strength back in his legs, the boy moved quickly through the village, weaving between villagers carrying tables, lanterns, and crates of food. The scent of grilled meat filled the air while warm laughter echoed through the streets.
Everyone seemed excited.
Near one of the larger fires, Rommel sat on a wooden bench with a plate balanced on his knee. In front of him rested the head of a large crocodile-like beast, its teeth still visible between half-open jaws. Rommel tore into a skewer of meat before burying it beneath an alarming amount of salt.
Immediately, Rommel's smile faded when he looked up at his friend Zyon, who was approaching him. "Zyon?" Rommel frowned. "You look like you just saw a Level 8 Ethereal."
Zyon glanced around before lowering his voice. "Rommel... I think something bad is going to happen tonight."
The skewer stopped halfway, and with his mouth full, Rommel spoke. "What do you mean?"
"I think we need to leave, Rommel," Zyon said with worry in his voice.
For a moment, Rommel simply stared at him. "Leave?" He nearly choked. "Leave and go where?"
His eyes drifted toward the barrier surrounding the village. "Out there?" He pointed toward the dark desert beyond. "The desert would kill us before morning. If the heat doesn't get us, an Ethereal will."
Zyon's shoulders sagged slightly, lost for words since Rommel was right.
Seeing that, Rommel's expression softened. "Hey." He nudged him with the skewer. "Come on. Nothing ever happens here."
Rommel gestured toward the village.
Children were running through the streets.
People laughed around the fires.
"See?" Rommel said. "Everything's fine."
Zyon managed a small nod, but the knot in his chest didn't agree.
After leaving Rommel behind, Zyon hurried through the crowd and then spotted his friends a bit further away. "Lorry! Caro!" he yelled out loud.
Several villagers looked over.
Lorenzo and Caroline also turned around immediately.
Both looked surprised.
Zyon rarely shouted.
By the time he reached them, he was breathing hard.
"What's wrong?" they asked together.
Zyon spent the next few minutes explaining everything.
The black figures. The conversation with Hound. The way Hound disappeared, and now Victor was also missing.
As he spoke, Lorenzo's grin slowly disappeared.
Caroline repeatedly glanced around the village square. "They really aren't here."
Lorenzo followed her gaze.
Neither Hound nor Victor could be seen anywhere.
The three friends exchanged uneasy looks.
About twenty minutes later, the feast was in full swing.
The mood of the village couldn't have been more different from the knot growing in Zyon's chest.
Fires crackled across the square while families gathered around long tables piled high with food. After eating, the light show began. The celebration instantly grew louder.
A woman raised her hand and a stream of sapphire blue sparks shot into the sky before exploding into glowing flowers above the village. Nearby, another villager launched spirals of golden light that twisted across the night like miniature galaxies.
Children pointed upward.
Adults cheered.
Soon the sky was overflowing with color.
Crimson phoenixes soared overhead.
Silver comets streaked across the darkness.
Emerald stars burst above the river and reflected beautifully across the water.
For a brief moment, it felt as though the desert itself had come alive.
The village glowed beneath the display.
Beautiful and peaceful.
The village and its people were completely unaware of what was happening far beyond the village barrier.
Beneath a moonless sky, Master Frederick Hound and Victor stood back-to-back atop a lonely dune.
The wind hissed across the sand.
Neither man spoke.
Ahead of them, the two dark figures waited.
Motionless.
Watching.
Even from a distance, something about them felt wrong. Their ragged wrappings shifted like the material itself was alive, while darkness seemed to cling to their forms like living mist.
One of the creatures tilted its head.
A low, wet sound escaped from the void where its face should have been. "No need to turn them," it hissed to its partner. "They're strong. Just kill them instead."
Victor, hearing this, moved first.
Light erupted around him as glowing arrows materialized against his bowstring.
-THWIP!
-THWIP!
-THWIP!
Three arrows ripped through the darkness.
The first slammed into a creature's chest.
The second followed a heartbeat later.
The third grazed the other.
Light exploded across the desert.
For the first time, the creatures moved.
Hound was already beside Victor.
"-FLASHBANG!"
A blinding pulse lit up the dunes, followed by a deafening soundwave.
The creatures recoiled from this move, and smoke curled from their wrappings.
"Push them back!" Victor shouted.
Arrow after arrow streaked through the night while Hound supported him from behind. Healing light closed small cuts before they could slow him down, and at the same time Hound cast light-lances that pinned down the nasty shadow tendrils to the sand.
For a brief moment...
They had the advantage.
Then night answered.
The darkness around the creatures thickened, and their forms grew larger.
Victor's next arrow slowed halfway through the air. Its light dimmed.
One creature raised a hand. A tendril of pure darkness shot forward and wrapped around Victor's leg.
Frost-like pain surged through his body. 'I can't die here, I have to protect the village.'
Victor wouldn't surrender to the pain and kept fighting. "I'm not letting you near the village!" he yelled.
The desert exploded with light again.
A volley of arrows erupted around him, detonating across the battlefield.
One creature staggered backward.
Its wrappings burned away, exposing glimpses of blackened flesh beneath.
Then the second creature vanished.
Hound's eyes widened. "Victor!"
But it was too late.
The creature erupted from the shadows behind him.
Victor spun around, but then a claw punched through Victor's shoulder.
Blood sprayed across the sand.
Victor roared and slammed his forehead forward into the enemy. Light exploded from the impact, which made the creature stumble.
Darkness started spreading across Victor's chest like living veins.
His light was slowly diminishing.
"Nooo..." Hound screamed and unleashed a beam of light so bright it turned night into day.
The desert shook.
A deep wound burned across one creature's torso.
For a moment... Hope returned.
Then everything fell apart.
The wounded creature raised both hands.
A vortex of liquid shadows swallowed Victor whole.
His light flickered violently inside.
Then vanished.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Crunch.
The sound of bones breaking echoed across the empty desert.
When the darkness dispersed, Victor's body fell lifeless into the sand.
His shattered bow landed beside him.
Hound froze.
For a single heartbeat, grief became rage.
Light erupted around him as he charged.
His fist collided with one creature's chest and cracked the darkness surrounding it.
The other attacker answered with a punch to Hound's ribs.
Bone shattered.
The world spun.
A second blow launched Hound across the dunes.
He crashed through the sand and struggled back to his feet.
The creatures advanced slowly.
Almost casually, as if enjoying themselves.
Back at the feast, nobody noticed what was going on.
Laughter still filled the village square.
The light show continued to burst overhead while children and grownups alike watched in awe.
Rommel eventually climbed onto the flat roof of the school, carrying enough food for three people. Lorenzo immediately stole half of it.
"Hey, you little rat, this is supposed to be for all of us," Rommel said with his fist pointing at Lorenzo.
"Finders keepers," Lorenzo said with a mischievous smile.
"Lorry, I'd have to lose it first for you to find it." While speaking, Rommel felt stupid indulging Lorenzo's humor.
The argument continued while the boys stretched out beneath the stars.
For the first time all evening, Zyon almost relaxed.
Almost.
Then someone screamed.
The sound cut through the village.
Everything stopped.
Lorenzo sat upright first, wondering. "What was that?"
Another scream followed.
Then another.
The boys rushed to the edge of the roof.
Roughly five hundred meters away, flashes of light erupted beyond the village. Not the light show. Real light combat.
Below them, panic spread.
Bodies dropped lifeless to the ground with no visible attackers, as if struck down by invisible blades. One moment a woman was laughing, the next she crumpled mid-step. A man carrying a tray of food fell forward, plates shattering around him.
Children started crying.
Someone shouted for help.
Rommel stared in horror. "What's killing them?"
Zyon couldn't answer.
He saw no attackers, only bodies falling.
One after another.
"We have to help!" Lorenzo shouted.
Nobody moved.
Their bodies refused.
Fear rooted them in place.
Then the temperature dropped.
The air froze, and the hair on Zyon's neck stood up.
Slowly, he turned around.
Three meters away, two figures stood on the roof.
The same ones Zyon saw in the morning.
Up close they looked even worse.
Far worse.
Where their faces should have been was nothing but an endless, yawning void, a bottomless pit of pure darkness that seemed to suck in all light around it.
No eyes, no mouth, yet Zyon could feel them staring, an ancient, ravenous hunger pressing down on his soul. Thin, needle-like tendrils of shadow constantly leaked from the void, twitching and tasting the air like the tongues of starving predators.
For a moment, the attackers didn't move.
Watching their prey.
One of the creatures tilted its faceless head with a sickening crack of bones, and a low, wet gurgling sound escaped the void, almost like mocking laughter mixed with the dying gasps of a hundred voices. "We found him."
The second nodded. "We must inform the masters."
They suddenly moved.
Zyon barely had time to react.
His arms crossed instinctively as darkness rushed toward him.
He braced for impact, but it never came.
Warm blood splashed across his face. Long black hair drifted through the air, grazing Zyon's face. When he opened his eyes, two familiar figures stood between him and the attackers.
Sisy Nila stood between them.
A black arm protruded from her stomach.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Sisy turned her head as far as she could.
Her eyes found Zyon's.
"You must live..." Blood slipped past her lips. "...my boy..."
The creature ripped its arm free. Sisy collapsed to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Rommel, being the other figure that stepped in, screamed as darkness immediately wrapped around him.
His massive frame disappeared beneath writhing black tendrils.
Zyon spun and called out to his friend. "Lorenzo!"
His friend still hadn't moved.
Frozen.
The creatures attacked again.
Then—
-FLASHBANGGG!
Light consumed everything, and a piercing ring filled Zyon's ears.
Zyon felt hands grab him.
He was carried at high speed.
When his vision finally started returning, he realized someone had thrown him across their shoulder. "Master Hound," Zyon murmured.
Blood covered the older man's clothes.
Yet he kept running.
The village rapidly shrank behind them.
Six hundred meters.
Seven hundred.
Then the ground began to shake violently.
Zyon looked back, and his breath stopped. As Hound was running, he couldn't witness what was happening behind him at that moment.
A massive sandstorm spiraled around the village.
The earth split open, and the sand beneath it turned into quicksand.
Homes.
People.
Everything.
The oasis disappeared into a gigantic whirlpool of sand.
As his fading vision darkened, one final shape emerged from the abyss below.
A colossal black serpent.
Its eyes glowed crimson-red in the darkness.
Then everything went black.