The first sign that something was wrong was the weather.
Sera noticed it while walking home.
The sky over Arkhangelsk had darkened unusually quickly, clouds gathering over the sea until the horizon disappeared behind a wall of gray.
The wind had been strong all afternoon, but now it came in sudden bursts that made people stop and look around.
Then the ground moved.
Not much.
Just enough for the windows of nearby buildings to tremble.
Sera stopped walking.
An earthquake.
She waited.
The movement ended almost as quickly as it had begun.
People around her reacted with the usual mixture of surprise and annoyance.
Someone checked their phone.
Another person laughed nervously.
Sera looked toward the sea.
Her instincts were quiet.
That bothered her.
She continued walking.
By the following morning, the news was everywhere.
The earthquake had been detected across a wide region.
There had been no major casualties, but several coastal areas had reported unusual waves and sudden changes in sea level.
Scientists were already discussing possible causes.
Sera read the article twice.
Then she put her phone away.
She had learned not to chase every strange thing.
But over the next few days, the reports became stranger.
A fishing vessel disappeared.
Several ships were forced to change course because of unusually violent waters.
A coastal monitoring station stopped transmitting for several hours.
Then came the storm.
It arrived without the warning people expected.
The sky darkened.
The wind intensified.
Thunder rolled across the coast.
And somewhere beyond the city, beneath the dark surface of the sea, something enormous moved.
Sera felt it.
This time, her instincts didn’t whisper.
They screamed.
Run.
She froze.
The sensation was unlike anything she had experienced before.
Not danger.
Not uncertainty.
Not one possible future among many.
Every possibility she could sense seemed to end badly.
Something was coming.
Sera turned and started moving.
She didn’t know where she was going.
She only knew she had to get away from the coast.
Then the sea erupted.
A shape rose from the water.
For a moment, Sera couldn’t understand what she was seeing.
It was enormous.
Not merely large.
Enormous.
Its body broke through the waves like a piece of the ocean itself had risen into the sky.
Water poured from its dark surface as thunder shook the air.
Something struck it from the side.
The impact created a wall of water.
The creature disappeared beneath the waves.
Then another shape emerged.
The second creature was different.
Its body was covered in strange layers of scales and hardened flesh, and around it the air seemed to distort with violent winds.
Lightning struck the sea nearby.
The two creatures faced each other.
Then they attacked.
Sera ran.
She didn’t look back.
She didn’t need to.
The sound was enough.
Thunder.
Water.
Something enormous striking something equally enormous.
The ground shook again.
Buildings trembled.
Windows shattered.
People screamed.
Sera pushed through the streets as quickly as she could.
Her thoughts were barely keeping up with what her instincts were telling her.
What are those things?
Why are they here?
Why can I feel them?
Then something inside her gave an answer.
Not words.
A sensation.
A warning so strong that her stomach twisted.
Too powerful.
She stopped.
Far behind her, something struck the coastline.
The resulting wave rolled through the city.
Sera ran again.
She had never run so hard in her life.
The battle lasted for hours.
Or perhaps minutes.
Time became difficult to measure.
Eventually, the storm weakened.
The thunder became distant.
The sea settled into something resembling normality.
Sera hid inside an abandoned building, breathing heavily.
She waited.
Nothing.
Slowly, she looked outside.
The streets were damaged.
Cars had been thrown against buildings.
Water covered the lower roads.
But the worst of the storm seemed to have passed.
Then she felt it.
Two enormous presences.
Both were fading.
Sera stared toward the coast.
She knew what that meant.
One of the creatures had died.
Then the second.
She should have stayed where she was.
Instead, she walked toward the sea.
She didn’t understand why.
Something inside her was pulling her forward.
When she finally reached the coastline, she saw them.
The bodies had been carried toward the shore.
Two enormous corpses lay among the broken rocks and wreckage.
The first creature’s body was covered in deep wounds.
Around it, the air still carried traces of thunder and violent spiritual pressure.
The second had suffered even worse injuries.
Sera stood several dozen meters away.
Her entire body was telling her to leave.
But beneath the fear was something else.
Recognition.
She could feel something inside those bodies.
Something far more powerful than anything she had encountered before.
Her breathing became unsteady.
She took one step forward.
Then another.
No.
Her instincts warned her.
Don’t.
She continued.
There was something inside those corpses.
Something that could change her.
Something that might kill her.
She reached the first body.
The moment she touched it, her mind exploded with sensations.
Storms.
Waves.
Lightning.
Destruction.
A strange feeling of authority over catastrophe.
Sera stumbled backward.
She looked at her hand.
Then at the corpse.
She understood almost nothing.
But she understood one thing.
There was power here.
A terrifying amount of power.
And somehow, she wanted it.
She reached toward the corpse again.
Then the ground shook.
Sera froze.
A low rumble rolled beneath her feet.
She looked toward the sea.
The water had begun to retreat.
Far too quickly.
Her face went pale.
“No.”
The horizon disappeared.
A wall of water was rising beyond it.
Sera stared.
Her instincts finally gave her an answer.
Not a possibility.
Not a warning.
A certainty.
You are going to die.
She looked at the two corpses.
Then at the approaching sea.
Something inside her broke.
She ran toward the first corpse.
She didn’t know what she was doing.
She didn’t know what the power inside it was.
She only knew she couldn’t let it disappear.
Her hands touched the dead creature.
The power entered her.
Pain exploded through her body.
She screamed.
Something ancient and violent poured into her spirituality.
Her vision blurred.
The second corpse suddenly felt different.
Something inside it responded.
Another force.
It moved toward her.
Sera tried to resist.
She couldn’t.
The two powers began to settle inside her.
Her mind fractured under the pressure.
She saw possibilities.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
Her death.
Her survival.
The city disappearing beneath the sea.
The city standing.
Her body breaking apart.
Her body changing.
Everything became one enormous blur.
Then she looked up.
The wave was almost here.
Sera couldn’t think anymore.
She couldn’t understand what was happening.
She couldn’t remember why she had come here.
There was only one thought left.
She clenched her teeth.
Her body shaking violently, she stared at the approaching wall of water.
“I don’t want to die.”