The sky started to dim and the haze that Yuhe was used to was beginning to form. He knew his time with his family was running thin. He knew he was no longer in a dream. He knew he had to do something. But much like every other nightmare he experienced, he simply couldn't do anything.
As the fog was approaching quickly, he contemplated his choices. Either stay, or run. It was that simple, if he stayed, he would most definitely die a slow and painful death. He didn't know to or from what, but he just knew. If he ran, -with or even without his parents- he would survive and live another day. But he stayed, like an idiot. And felt a new type of energy enter his body, not a cold, fear induced chill that would immobilize him. Nor was it a flood of hot, final stand type of energy that would lead him to victory. It was something else, something much more devious and maniacal than any human should experience. As he looked at the deep blood red swirling portal of certain doom and destruction manifest infront of him. He felt true fear for the first time in his life, he felt completely powerless, he looked at his mother, she seemed to be replaced by a horrible husk of her former self, all life and joy drained from her now pale face. He looked his father, the rock of the family, quite a stoic man and a person you can depend on for a load of topics, who was now on his knees with his hands on his face covering his eyes.
Yuhe isn't someone to back down from something simply because he is to lazy to act, -quite the opposite actually- so once he experienced this nightmare for the first time around 2 years ago, he didn't know what to do. The first time around he sat idle as he watched a terrifying blood shot veiny eye come out of that very portal infront of him. Early on during the first few repeats of the same nightmare, he tried to help his parents. He really did. But he failed everytime, no matter how far they ran they were caught by some unfortunate forgotten terror of the world. In such a big population of people you'd assume they would have a lot of options but when you put a human against a wall they rarely try to ever break it down. Nowadays, Yuhe just watched his parents with a happy but fleeting gaze. Knowing they would die very shortly, followed by him dying of course. Nothing changed anyways, why try to delay the inevitable.
***
Yuhe woke up with a jump and a painful feeling in his stomach, this was the usual after the big nightmares. Not only had he not eaten for the past 24 hours, he also just had another nightmare where he watched his happy family get torn to shreds by an eldrict abomination. Followed by a rumble in his stomach he got up and thought about his favorite foods. While lost in thought he seemed to not see his favorite group of delinquents walking toward him on the dark and forgotten road.
"Heyyy, it's our favorite little man" said the leader of the trashy pack of thugs.
"I'll make this quick, give us anything that might be worth more than your life and you'll be free from the usual ass kicking. I'm feeling generous tonight." The thug said with a horrid smile forming on his lips.
"You know who I am, should i give you a pebble on the side of the road and say that's worth more than my life? Or should I just throw it at your big nose you freak." Yuhe was not a smart man, while he couldn't avoid getting his ass kicked. He could avoid pissing off the very people that would kick his ass -the thug even felt generous today- and maybe dodge the worst of it all.
"... Down on the ground you little shit, by the time I count to 3 you better be down on the ground and not protecting anything with your scrawny hands." The thug was no longer feeling generous it seemed.
"This idiot, Naoren was probably gonna only let him off with a couple bruises. Now he's gonna have to get his face caved in and beg for his life" one of his 2 lackeys said with a clearly fake woeful expression
Before the leader could even count to 1, Yuhe was already moving at max speed. He felt the air breeze by his thin,scrawny body and a sudden feeling envirgorate him. Now this was the fight or flight sense he wanted to feel so dreadfully in his nightmares. He didn't know how it worked but it was definitely helpful. He never ran this fast in his life, of course he ran so fast because his life was on the line. But still, it felt nice to know he was improving in some aspects of his life.
Of course he only got around 2 blocks away from the scene before his friends caught up with him.
Grabbing him by his ripped and used collar for what felt like the 900th time by the thugs wasnt a new feeling but, for some reason, he felt like the world was going to do something for him, a fateful encounter that would change his whole life for the better was about to happen, his life was going to be fixed and all his problems would be solved or begin to unfold with what was about to happen!
That didn't happen, obviously. His life wasnt a story that someone would read about. Right?
Hope was a very sharp blade, but also a hammer. It could easily be cut down but also built up with the same ease. Hope is the reason why people don't quit the second they hit a speed bump, and while Yuhe suffered a lot in his life meeting many speed bumps. He simply held firmly onto the belief that one day, maybe tomorrow, maybe the last second before he died, his hopes would be fulfilled. He never faltered or had ever even wavered his hope. It was a major part of him at this point. One of the few things that he can hold close to him for forever.
So, while getting mercilessly beaten for what seemed like 1000th time in his life. He thought about and prayed for something or someone to help him out. Maybe the world felt pity, or he simply got lucky. But the world responded.
At first it was a simple red dot in the corner of Yuhe's eyes, he thought that a drop of his blood somehow ended up on eyes -it wouldn't have been the first time- but then the dot turned into a hole around 2 feet in radius, then a tear, and then it seemed to be twisting reality around it. Bending the fabric of whoever made the world to its unstoppable will. By the time it was the size of a cube the gangsters stopped beating on him. Staring into the red void that seemed impossible to hold off, the void never stopped increasing. It seemed like it would never end, maybe the mysterious void hoped to consume the world and be the strongest existence. But just as Yuhe was finishing that was exact thought, the void stopped increasing. It was the size of a simple door. One that anyone would use to enter a home or ramen restaurant. It didn't have a handle or anything extraordinary, it was just a deep red door that seemed to house infinity on the other side, and while Yuhe and the 3 gangsters were staring at it. A hand seemed to manifest itself from nothing.
The hand was a cruel sight for the 4 mortals to see without having any prior experience to seeing a demon before. The gray lifeless grotesque hand, was moving, slowly but deceptively slow. The air felt warm, as if the portal was not only eating the cold greedily but also pushing its own demonic warmth out. Yuhe felt the energy drain from his body as he saw the rest of the figure leave the portal. It was a demonoid, a being classified by the government as the third most dangerous being to ever meet. Second only to the Gods and truely Unknown. There was no known way to escape a demon unless it was defeated, but only the world's strongest cohorts of people can fend off the infants who are untrained and don't understand their own powers. This one however, seemed to be an especially seasoned one. Standing at over 7 feet tall, with 2 horns protruding from the sides of its face right above where a humans ear would be, it had a wide mouth and Yuhe assumed that if it smiled it would show its many fangs and sharp teeth. It didn't have many other facial features other than it's joyfilled eyes, like it had been wandering the underworld for many years before finding the portal to the defenseless human planet. It's body was extremely gaunt and malnourished, but it's power couldn't be measured. It was simply a demigod. No other way to describe it.
The Demon walked out of the portal as time seemed to slow down for the young man who had believed today would be different. He was now regretting that hopeful pray...
But even though he was regretting his hope, Yuhe never faltered. Never wavered. He still hoped for something great to happen to him. Even face to face with a deadly demon he knew something would happen, something great.
Yuhe sat there, watched as the demon looked at him, the gangsters, and the rest of the desolate surrounding area. And simply walked by them all. Ignoring the weak humans and staring into the east with resolute eyes. Safe to say the 4 mortals were dumbfounded and begun to stare at what ever the demon was looking at but didn't have nearly good enough eyesight to find out what it is that captured to demon so greatly.
Then a magical beam of yellow light hit the demons gaunt and exposed ribs with a force that would leave a hole on the moon. The demon couldn't even react to it, let alone the 4 humans near it. The beams radius was around a centimeter. It was like a bullet, if Yuhe knew what a bullet was. They were long replaced by highly powerful rune weapons many years ago.
The demon staggered and readied himself, still staring into the dark horizon to the east. Or was it dark? The once bleak and dark world seemed to be glowing? It was dim, but Yuhe definitely noticed that it seemed to be perfect replica of the Sun appearing on the horizon, then it happened. In a fusion of grey and yellow light the demons gaunt body was slammed into the wall behind them. He broke past it immediately and disappeared into nothing with the light. Yuhe didn't know what happened, but could swear that he saw a being made of what seemed like the purest light he had ever seen. Many times more powerful than the simple lanterns or even rune powered artificial sun's in the major cities he would see on TV. He saw a true being of pure light that had taken the demonic body away from them.
The gangsters and Yuhe had no clue what just happened. Awkwardly they separated from Yuhe without saying anything and before leaving whispered quietly as to hopefully not awaken another portal "M-Make sure to have something to offer me next time". Yuhe didn't respond before they turned the corner of the street and left.
Yuhe inched over and sat the curb, bruised beaten and bleeding. Completely dumbfounded as how his life ended up in the situation it was in right now.
He didn't even hear the helicopter appearing in the sky beyond him. Or even respond to the multiple people examining the scene where the portal opened and the wall that was destroyed. Holding complicated and expensive equipment the scientists worked around him as Yuhe sat on the curb. It was quite a funny sight, not even the small police force dispatched with the scientists touched him. The only thing that broke him of this trance was when a women in a white coat asked him if he was ok. He simply nodded her away and then went right back to staring at the wall. The women then shook him to break his trance, annoyed he went "What do you want! I'm ok I just need a few moments to catch my breath! You know what would be even better? If you left and never came back! This town has needed help for who knows how long and we get nothing from you dirty government people!"
The lady raised an eyebrow and responded with her professional media trained voice "uhm, I asked you what happened, not if your ok. Which your obviously not." That's when he realized the women wasn't wearing all white and a medical coat. She was wearing green and had a certain gold oak leaf on her uniform that informed him he was being very disrespectful to someone who could remove him from the world with no problems. He quickly stood up and apologized and then gave her the general run down of events. Leaving out the demon and ball of light and deciding to replace it with a typical weak -atleast according to the normal population- wolf like creature that was beaten by the 3 gangsters and him before the gangsters ran away to chase it more.
Yuhe wasn't exactly a good storyteller or good at making up stories so the pretty Major really didn't know what had happened but she still wore a smile and told him to follow her so she could get an even better explanation later.
Atleast that's why he hoped she asked him to accompany her back on the helicopter. For all he knew she might be silencing him for either lying to a government official or to keep him quiet about what he could've seen in the portal. Because to be frank. His story sucked.