Anthony was lost in the merciful oblivion of sleep. The day's chaotic flight had pushed his mana and his mind to their breaking points, and his body, broken and raw, had finally given in. He had formed a new barrier, a sphere of swirling energy that hummed with a low, protective frequency, and collapsed within its sanctuary.
A presence. He felt it before he heard it—a cold, ancient weight settling over the forest. The air grew still, the nocturnal sounds of the wilderness silenced as if by a great, unseen hand. He stirred, his mind, still half-asleep, screaming a warning he couldn't yet comprehend.
Then, a sound.
A casual swish of an arm, a motion as simple as swatting a fly.
And a roar. A violent, earsplitting supersonic boom that ripped through the night, a sound unlike anything he had ever known. The barrier, meant to withstand a meteor strike, tore apart like wet paper, shattering into a million shimmering shards of pure, solid energy that rained down on the forest floor.
Anthony was awake instantly, his hand flying to his dagger, his body tensed and ready. He scrambled to his feet, eyes wide, breath catching in his throat. Standing before him, in the space where his barrier had been, were two figures. One was a towering skeleton of bone rot and energy, his body a silent scream of malevolent power, the other was Utan.
The White Demon turned its head towards him, the void where its eyes should be seeming to fixate directly on Anthony's soul. A single, raspy whisper, a voice of dried-up bone and ancient malice, scraped against Anthony's eardrums.
"I remember you..."
Anthony's throat went dry. The words were a physical blow, a reminder of the chasm of fear and chaos he had just fled. He stood frozen, unable to move, unable to speak. The White Demon stepped closer, its presence suffocating.
"Impressive barrier you had there, child of man... Even if a meteor struck it, it would have withstood it without a single bit of it gone."
Utan, ever pragmatic, spoke from behind the White Demon's silent, menacing form. "Master, do you know him?"
Anthony shook his head, a desperate, rapid motion. "No. No. No. No," he whimpered, the words barely audible, his lungs still burning from his flight and his body weak from the ordeal. His mind reeled with a single, terrified thought: How? How had they found him?
The White Demon simply turned away, its form a black silhouette against the distant stars. "You have to get used to us. Raq, keep moving."
"Understood," Utan replied, her voice cold and even.
Without another word, the two of them moved past Anthony, their forms dissolving into the darkness as they went far away.
Anthony stood alone in the wreckage of his barrier, the cold night air a sharp contrast to the terror that still gripped him. He was not a fool. He knew what had just happened. They hadn't come to kill him; they had come to find him, to remind him. They had left him with a chilling warning, a promise of things to come. The thought left him in a state of fear and confusion.
He spent the rest of the night staring into the darkness, his mind a whirlwind of fragmented thoughts and a terror so profound it bordered on numbness.
Meanwhile, in the woods, a young woman named Riley trudged through the undergrowth, her clothes torn and her body exhausted. She was eighteen, a student of magic, but books and theory were useless out here. The tremor that had rocked the Holy Empire had shattered not only the sacred orb but also her sense of security. The city was a cage now, and the wilderness, for all its dangers, felt like the only path to freedom.
She walked for another seventy minutes before she saw a flickering light in the distance—the last remnants of Anthony's shattered barrier, shards of pure, solid energy. Her heart hammered in her chest, a mix of fear and hope. She stumbled towards them, finding a young man standing beside a pile of blankets, staring at the ruins of what must have been a powerful spell.
"Hello?" she called out, her voice a small, wavering sound in the vast silence.
Anthony jumped, startled. He turned to face her, his eyes wide and wild. "Who. Are. You? What. Are. You. Doing. In. Here?" he demanded, his voice hoarse, each word punctuated by a gasp for air.
Riley, despite her fear, managed a small, social smile. "Hi, my name is Riley. I used to study magic. I'm out here trying to get out of there... It's not safe in there, is it?"
Anthony simply stared at her, his expression unreadable, his mind still a chaotic mix of fear and confusion. After a long, uncomfortable silence, she asked, "Can I stay here with you?"
Anthony looked at her for a long moment, a flicker of something almost human in his eyes.
"...Okay."
She stayed with him for the night, huddled by a makeshift campfire. As darkness descended, Anthony stood up and, without a word, began to craft a new barrier. The air around him began to glow. He chanted, his voice low and guttural, but the words were not of a known language.
"О, закриляща земята, защити светлината от злото."
Riley's eyes widened. She had read about such magic, but had never seen anything so powerful and elegant. The barrier formed a perfect dome of soft, white light, a stark contrast to the black-and-blue energy of his previous barrier. She was amazed.
"Wow! Who taught you that?" she asked, her voice filled with wonder.
Anthony looked at her, his face a mask of exhaustion and guarded pain. He was a living lie, and he had to keep up the pretense.
"...I made it myself."
"That's nice," she replied, a faint, polite smile on her face, but her eyes, wise beyond her years, seemed to see past his words.
As they settled in for the night, Anthony went hunting, a predatory instinct driving him into the darkness. Riley, left alone, couldn't help but be curious. She watched him go, then turned to his backpack. Her hand reached out, drawn to the strange, jagged line that seemed to be growing on the side of it, but she quickly pulled back, the feeling of it a bit disgusting.
When Anthony returned, he lit a fire and began to cook a small rabbit he had caught. The smell of the food was comforting, a simple, human act in a world gone mad.
Far away, the White Demon approached the human kingdom, not with the intention of immediate annihilation, but with a new, terrifying intent.