“I still see it.

The night the sky tore open and the stars fell like fire.

No warnings. No signs.

Just destruction, cities burning, the ground splitting, everything we knew turned to ash.

And when it was over… the fragments remained.

Not just stone. They glowed. They pulsed.

Power no one understood, but everyone wanted.

Nations fought for it. Scientists tried to control it.

And then the Church came.

They worshipped the fragments… and the fragments answered.

The Church rose, and the world fell into fear.

Some who touched the fragments changed.

Heroes, monsters… depending on who told the story.

And so the wars began.

I wonder if that night was really the end, or just the beginning…”

—————————

The forest was burning behind them.

Two children ran through the frozen woods, feet crashing over roots, eyes wide with terror.

Ash rained from the trees. Smoke clung to their lungs.

Somewhere behind, men were shouting.

Guns were cocked.

Boots pounded the earth.

Raiga: “Liara, don’t stop!”

He was panting hard. His voice cracked.

Liara was crying—loud, raw.

Her small hands trembled as she tried to keep up.

Liara: “They… they killed mama… they—”

Raiga: “Just run!”

They were only children, nine and seven.

But in that moment, they had already lost everything.

Gunfire exploded behind them.

A bullet split the bark near Liara’s face. She screamed.

Raiga: “Faster!”

Then it happened.

Liara tripped over a stone hidden under the snow.

She fell hard, face-first into the mud.

Raiga: “Liara!”

He turned back, heart hammering.

He knelt to pull her up.

Too late.

A soldier grabbed Raiga from behind.

Kicked him straight in the gut.

CRACK.

He flew back like a doll, smashed into a tree.

Couldn’t breathe.

Blood filled his throat. 

Soldier: “Get the girl!”

Liara screamed.

Another soldier grabbed her by the hair, dragged her across the snow.

She kicked and punched, screaming Raiga’s name.

Liara: “RAIGA! RAIGAAA!”

Raiga tried to get up.

A boot slammed into his ribs.

Again.

And again.

His head hit the ground. He couldn’t feel his body. Just the screams. Just the cold.

Raiga: “Let her go…”

No one heard.

Raiga: “Let her go…”

The soldier hit Liara across the face.

Hard.

Her eyes rolled back. Her body went limp. Blood dripped from her mouth onto the snow.

Raiga didn’t blink.

He stared at her blood on her face. At the piece of her hair caught in his fingers. And everything inside him broke.

The fear disappeared.

The screaming stopped.

The cold vanished.

His pupils faded.

His breath slowed.

His body stopped shaking.

And then—

Everything began.

The air collapsed around him.

The snow lifted, then dropped like shattered glass.

A sound, not a scream—something deeper—ripped through the trees.

And then silence.

⸻

The village burned in the distance. Smoke curled into the grey sky.

The Delpharis forces were gone. Wiped out.

Not by the villagers. Not by the Dominion.

By something else.

Figures moved through the smoke.

Black tactical armor.

No mercy. No words.

Helmets mirrored the firelight.

Their movements were clean. Precise.

One of them raised his fist. The squad halted.

Behind them, charred bodies of Delpharis units littered the broken road.

Their camp had been torn apart like paper.

The soldiers moved like ghosts.

Silent. Controlled. Absolute.

Young Commander: “Sweep the area. Search for survivors. Disarm the prisoners.”

They obeyed, without hesitation. 

Some villagers were still breathing.

Others not.

The wounded Delpharis soldiers were dragged into the snow.

Stripped of weapons.

Bound.

Young commander: “How many of them?”

Soldier: “All of them, commander…”

Then—

A pulse. Faint. Unnatural.

A flicker of blue light in the trees… like breath in the cold.

A tall figure turned toward it.

No helmet. Bright red hair. Eyes sharp. Maybe twenty years old.

He stared into the forest.

Young Commander: “That way.”

He and two others moved fast.

Branches cracked underfoot.

The deeper they went, the more the air changed.

Heavier. Colder. Wrong.

Then—

a clearing.

And at the center, six Delpharis soldiers.

Torn apart.

Some in pieces. Some without faces.

Blood frozen mid-spray across the trees.

And in the middle of it all, a boy. No older than nine.

Kneeling in the snow.

Holding a little girl in his arms.

Silent. Still. Covered in blood.

The younger soldier behind gagged.

Soldier: “What the hell… happened here…”

The red-haired commander didn’t move.

He stared at the boy.

At his eyes.

At the pattern in the snow.

Like something had bloomed and died there at once.

He had never seen anything like it.

Raiga looked up at him.

Eyes dead. Full of tears.

The commander didn’t raise his weapon.

He walked forward. Knelt.

Extended a hand.

Young Commander: “It’s over.”

Raiga flinched.

Young Commander: “You’re safe now. I promise.”

Raiga stared at the hand.

Didn’t understand.

But he took it.

Darkness closed in… And the snow kept falling, trying to hide what no snow ever could.