The room was a tomb of stillness. Curtains drawn, shadows clinging to every corner, moonlight falling in faint silver streaks across the wooden floor like blood spilled in slow motion.
Stone—wearing Grayson's perfect skin, flawless in its human sheen—lay sprawled on the bed, every muscle a darkened ridge sculpted by relentless effort and cold precision. Shirtless. Black pants the only armor against the chill. The air itself seemed to shrink away from him, as if even the walls feared the weight of his presence.
His eyes cracked open. Cold. Exhausted. A predator who had not slept, whose body remembered hunger but whose mind remembered only calculation. Sleep was a lie he could not afford.
He exhaled.... eyes now locked to the ceiling. Thoughts gnawed at him, sharp, persistent...some questions he couldn't answer.
He remembered the day after the entrance exams. Right after Alora had picked him up. That presence—the one that slammed into his chest like a tidal wave, overwhelming, alien, alive.
Why there ?, Inside a school? Unless…, it was like something waiting... Something not human..or demonic,then what ?…. And why… what did it want?
The phone vibrated. A pulse against the silence, a heartbeat of reality intruding. He reached lazily.
"Michele."
An old friend?.. A name. A life once touched and now distant.
He sighed...
He let it ring and Dropped it,he didn't care.
Stone rose. Walked to the bathroom. Fingers brushed the tiles. A tactile search, deliberate, almost ritualistic. Stopped. A click. A faint mechanical sigh as the wall obeyed.
Stone pressed. The tile shifted. Sliding. Hidden door yawning into darkness.
He stepped inside. Darkness exploded into light. Lights hummed on, revealing a sanctuary. A shrine to obsession. A battlefield of his own making.
Weights lined the corner, iron and sweat baked into the metal. Sandbags swung, memories of fists and fury. Weapon racks gleamed, edges sharp enough to tear reality. Cracks marred the walls—traces of relentless training. Marks where flesh met stone, where blood met determination.
He walked to the center. Sat. Cross-legged. Eyes shut as Breaths slowed.
Meditation...and memory.
The only thing Death had ever told him and he took seriously. Those words still burnt at his mind like acid and fire:
He remembered the form he always took...a black cat with fur that ate the light around....those crimson eyes that seemed to tear through souls with effortless precision.
"Oh, by the way… you have powers. But you need to…what's it called...draw them out...yeah thats it....
"This world hides strength and abilities... If you face someone with both, you'll die. That I assure you....
He stretched his limbs..
"Anyway, I need to pay a visit to some really old friends… hope they throw me a welcome party."
The words faded like a voice succumbing to death....
That was a few weeks back...and since then he hasn't appeared again...
Stone's fists clenched. The memory burned his hands, his chest, his skull.
The dream of Life and Death. Their fight. It was not just strength...there was something more. Something primal, supernatural,it was reality-bending. Powers that rewrote the rules existence....unexplainable.
Watching it was like a video game?except this was Reality, hard and biting....the weak died earlier than the strong ,but whoever could harness these supernatural abilities… held a god's trump card.
The Hunters…forged seals… Death's own hand in the weave…inhuman strength and hidden abilities, it could be a real threat to me...And Life… if she couldn't die… Then where? Where is she now?,Sealed...Did the Gods rebuilt the world after their fight ?… Does that also explain the powers today?and the Demons bleeding into humanity?
Stone's breath caught. His chest trembled.
And me… connected to Death. If the angels found out and came after me… could I stop them? No. I'd be shredded.....they'd show no mercy. No hesitation and Death ,what will he do with me after I'm done with my revenge...kill me...
I can't let that happen,I must become stronger,enough to face even hi___
He paused,the thought fighting Death,was a clear definition of impossible....
Questions collided. Answers fled. Sigh. Flush. Push. Not now.
Now—find the buried power. Feel it in my bones. In my blood. In the marrow. Draw it out or fall. Hunters won't be the only ones after me. I will be prey unless I become apex.
Impossible. The word screamed across his skull. Iron, fire, gravity.
Red aura flared around him. Twisted. Pulsed. Thick, heavy, alive. Stone breathed, heart calm but everything around him screamed. Every shadow, every particle of air charged.
He was alone. And he was growing.
**********
A few hours back...
Library doors of Varnguard Acdemy shut like a coffin lid. Soft. Deadly. She emerged—glasses on the bridge, books clutched, exhaustion draping her shoulders like a ragged cloak. Yawned. Step. Echo. Silence.
Then—whispers.
Her name. Stretching. Warping. Wrong.
Pulse accelerated. Breath caught. She hurried. Faster. Closer.
The whispers became claws, scraping the floor, the walls, her mind. She broke into a run.
Then nothing. Foot caught. Fall. Books scattered. Glasses skittered. Vision shattered.
Hands scrambled, searching. Cold. Solid. Not glass. Foot. Lifeless.
Drip.
Drool.
Growl. Low. Hungry.
Heart froze.
Above, crimson eyes burned. Towering. Maw yawning, vast and hungry.
No scream. Throat constricted. Voice stolen. She was Mute.
A hand—massive, iron, unyielding—wrapped her neck and Lifted. Weightless yet impossible. Legs flailed. Tears streaked. She stared death in its eyes.
And then—air rushed to her lungs as she droped to the floor.
Shapes blurred. Another. Smaller. Faster. Deadly. Precision incarnate. Overwhelmed the giant. Bones snapped. Flesh tore. Soundless agony. Throat shredded. Silence became terror.
The larger fell. Luminous void of death.
Then she felt something slightly cold touch her finger,her glasses—her salvation—slid into her palms. She snapped them on.
And there—imprinted on her mind—clear as carved marble.
A figure of what looked like a man,clad in black and face Masked. Holding the corpse. Dark flesh and carved muscles twisted in impossible angles as its tongue lollied...
Crimson eyes pierced the Mongolian mask as it glanced at her....and those few seconds...were going change her life...
And it vanished,Shadows twisted as Red aura roared and dissolved into nothingness.
She stood. Frozen. Terror cementing her feet. Muscles locked. Eyes wide. Mind screaming.
The silence afterward… worse than whispers.... she had survived because something else decided she had to...but what was it...that interrupted her fate....what lurked behind that mask...she didn't know,but she she'd never forget it...whatever it was.
Only her heartbeat Hammered.... Louder and Louder as the hallway drowned in silence...