The air was still. Not a single leaf rustled.
Lex stood alone in the middle of a ruined wasteland, his boots pressed deep into cracked, barren earth. Above him, the sky churned with thick, storm-black clouds, swirling as if some ancient anger was waking up. Cyan lightning slashed across the heavens—violent, endless, alive.
His heart hammered in his chest. Sweat prickled on his forehead. He blinked, unsure if this was a nightmare or reality.
He didn't know how he got here. Just moments ago, he'd been somewhere else entirely—he was just in his bed going for sleep. But now… now that warmth was gone, replaced by an icy dread that filled the world to its edges.
"Where am I?" Lex whispered, his breath shaking.
His voice echoed through the wasteland—no answer, only emptiness.
The ground beneath him trembled. A deep boom rolled out from above, as if the sky itself were splitting apart. Shadows twisted, sharp and hungry, and Lex felt a memory flickering inside him: a warning, something he should never have forgotten.
Suddenly, the sky cracked open—a jagged, blinding tear of white light—and from its heart, it came.
A colossal silhouette, impossibly vast, drifted down from the clouds. Lex's body locked. The creature—no, the monster—hung between the heavens and the broken earth, its outlines flickering in the pulsing lightning. Crimson eyes burned through darkness like two bleeding suns, seething with hate. Lex couldn't see its full form, but he didn't need details. He could feel its presence pushing into his chest, into his mind.
This was death—absolute and ancient. A hunger that erased everything.
Lex tried to move, but his legs were rooted. Sweat dripped from his chin, soaking his shirt. His hands refused to obey, fingers curled tight against his palms. He was staring into an abyss, and for the first time in his life, he understood true terror.
The monster raised one arm—long, segmented, made of shadow and bone. A roar burst from its throat, echoing across the wilderness.
Lex screamed—a raw, desperate sound, lost in thunder.
And then—
Nothing.
Darkness surged, swallowing everything. Lex gasped, his lungs seizing. For a heartbeat, he hung between worlds.
Suddenly, he awoke with a violent jerk.