The wind was harsh, but the sky didn't seem to care.
Above jagged cliffs shaped like broken spears, clouds dragged themselves across the pale sun — if it could still be called that — casting long, reaching shadows across the twisted trees below.
Rei stood alone atop a weathered ridge. His clothes were torn, skin bruised but unbroken, his boots dusty from travel.
He exhaled sharply, eyes scanning the landscape. The wilderness was strange — trees with bark like cracked obsidian, and grass that shimmered faintly, like silver beneath dust.
> "Where... is the city?"
His voice wasn't confused — just irritated.
"All this walking, not one damn road…"
He sighed and turned to descend the slope—
And then came a scream.
Sharp. Real.
Desperate.
> "HELP!!"
A figure burst through the brush below, stumbling, almost flying out of the thorns. She hit the dirt and rolled, gasping. A girl — barely his age, though not human. Her skin was pale, and short, blackened horns jutted from her head like scorched ivory, twisted and sharp.
She scrambled to her feet. Her knees were scraped, her clothes torn.
Behind her—
> CRASH.
Something tore through the woods like a hammer through glass.
A beast.
It moved low and wide, a monster clad in bone-like armor and coiled muscle, eyes glowing deep crimson. Its breath was loud, gurgling — a constant sound of hunger sharpened by instinct.
It didn't slow.
Rei didn't move.
His body didn't shift. No stance. No preparation. Only one step forward.
> A breath.
A tilt of his head.
And then—
He kicked.
---
The sound was unnatural.
Not a roar. Not a struggle.
Just a crack —
Like the sky itself split.
And then silence.
The beast didn't fall back.
It flew.
A blur. A dot. A forgotten thing launched into the heavens. Blood splashed through the air like dark rain, misting across the trees… and across the girl.
She froze.
Face wet, breath caught in her throat, she looked up at him.
> "What… what are you…?"
Her voice trembled.
"That thing… people die running from those…"
She took a slow step back.
> "And you killed it. Instantly…"
She looked at the trail of blood in the sky, then back at Rei, still calm.
> "That means you're… you're…"
But the sentence never came.
Because she didn't understand it herself.
Because nothing about him made sense.
Not the way he moved.
Not the way the air bent around him.
Not the way his face stayed calm — even kind — after something so brutal.
And Rei?
He just turned slightly, brow twitching.
> "You alright?"
The girl blinked, stunned.
He didn't wait for an answer.
---
The forest was silent now.
Too silent.
Behind them, the air had changed. Something distant stirred — a ripple, unseen, yet somehow felt. Like the earth remembering something it tried to forget.
Whatever Rei was...
The world had noticed.
---