### **1**
The fog over Nimora hung heavier than before, thick with the whispers of lost souls. Adam and Zera moved slowly through the forest of black trees, their branches bending as if eavesdropping on their thoughts.
Zera walked beside him in silence, her breaths uneven—as if choking on an unspoken truth. Adam finally spoke:
*"You're sure the path is this way?"*
Her voice was a blade wrapped in velvet:
*"Not just the path… our fate, too."*
He stopped mid-step, studying her. Her eyes hid more than they revealed—but before he could question her, the **earth itself gasped**.
The ground trembled. A fissure split open ahead, pulsing with gray light like a wounded heart.
Zera's hands shook. *"This… isn't a natural rift. It's a sign. Someone's trying to cross from the other side… *without permission*."*
Adam edged closer. The light throbbed in sync with his own heartbeat—*calling him*.
Suddenly, **Laboubo** materialized, his wings flaring like hellfire.
*"Adam! Don't take another step! This tear doesn't belong to this time!"*
*"Who's trying to cross?"* Adam demanded.
Laboubo's fear was palpable:
*"I don't know. But if they succeed, there'll be no more Nimora… and no Earth either."*
---
### **2**
Then—**a scream**.
It sliced through the fog, a woman's voice frayed across layers of time. Not just a sound, but a vessel: carrying terror, pain, and memories *deliberately erased*.
Zera clutched her chest. *"Adam… that scream… it sounds like your *grandmother*."*
Ice flooded his veins. *How?* She was dead—*wasn't she?*
Laboubo's whisper was a nail in his spine:
*"There's something else. Something your grandmother's trying to tell you… but she's *trapped between worlds*."*
Adam looked skyward, then at Zera.
*"If she's stuck, I'll pull her back… or at least hear the scream no one else could."*
A new echo shuddered through the air—words etched into their minds from nowhere and everywhere:
> *"When the world won't listen… speak to the *other* one."*
---
### **Key Elements:**
1. **Mystery Amplified**: The grandmother's scream from beyond death reshapes Adam's understanding of her fate.
2. **Cosmic Horror**: The unauthorized "crossing" and time-defying rift escalate stakes (*Who or what is breaking through?*).
3. **Psychological Torment**: Zera's cryptic behavior hints at secrets she's withholding.
4. **Symbolism**: The recurring motif of *unheard voices* (Adam's, the grandmother's) mirrors the theme of buried truths.