Chapter 2
The distortion break split the night sky like lightning. Cracks of light across the horizon, tearing reality apart. From them spilled creatures not of this world—wolves with crystalline fangs, insectoid hulks crawling over rooftops, serpents of flame twisting through the air.
Sylhet dissolved into chaos. People screamed and ran, rickshaws toppled, stalls burst into fire.
Inside the Rahman shack, Haidar pulled his children close. "Stay down! Don't open the door!"
But then — disaster struck in the smallest way.
Farhan's cracked football rolled outside through a gap in the wall. The boy's eyes widened. Without thinking, he scrambled after it, little feet slapping against dirt.
"Farhan!" Zash cried, bolting upright.
"Zash, no!" Haidar lunged, but his son was already gone.
They found Farhan in the alley, frozen in place before a wolf-like beast. Its violet eyes burned like molten gemstones, saliva hissing where it struck the dirt, eating holes into the ground.
"Run!" Zash shouted, grabbing a rusted pipe and swinging. The blow bounced harmlessly. The beast turned, growling low, and lunged.
"Zash!" Haidar roared. He crashed forward, shoving his son aside. The beast slammed into him, throwing him down. Its fangs snapped at his shoulder as he struggled to hold it back with bleeding arms.
"No… Baba!" Zash screamed, tears streaming, his chest tight with despair. He staggered forward, pipe trembling. "Please… don't take him!"
The only thing the boy could hear was his heart beat.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
It took him a few seconds to realize what was going on.
The world had shut down.
No noise. No wind. No breath
The beast froze mid-lunge. Flames halted in the air. Even the dust hung unmoving.
A voice whispered in Zash's ear.
"You cry because you are powerless. Yet your soul howls to bend what is impossible."
Zash's head snapped to the side. To his right stood a figure cloaked in shadow, its face hidden behind a smooth, eyeless mask. In its hand gleamed a black spear, humming with power.
Zash's body trembled. His knees threatened to give way. He was terrified — utterly terrified.
This was no man. No Celestial he had ever heard of. It was a being that embodied the very definition of dominance. Something that defied time and space.
"You have potential," the being said, voice calm and ancient. "You being able to turn your head in my domain is proof enough. See ahead… twist what is certain into chance. The dice of fate are yours to scatter."
The spear's tip brushed Zash's chest. Light seared through him, threads of Time and Space racing through his veins.
"Take this gift. Will you become something humans learn to fear or look up too. The power is within you and you alone."
"Foucus on the wolf and trust your body."
The world lurched back into motion. The wolf lunged—but now Zash saw it first.
A flicker of the future burned in his mind: the beast's leap, its jaw's snap, the angle of its strike. He stepped aside before it even moved.
The rusted pipe swung, perfectly timed. It struck the beast's skull with all his weight. The creature collapsed in a cloud of violet dust.
Zash gasped, trembling. His chest still glowed faintly. He had seen the future—only seconds ahead, but enough. Enough to hit the beast with the perfect strike.
He looked up. More creatures poured from the rift, screeching, wings slicing the night. Zash raised his pipe, but his knees shook. He couldn't fight them all. Rather, he was scared.
The masked figure moved from the shadows.
It raised its spear, and with a single sweep, time itself fractured. The beasts froze mid-flight, shattered into violet fragments, and dissolved into dust. Every monster in the slums vanished in moments.
Silence fell.
Above the battlefield, the figure stood at the distortion's edge. Its voice was heavy with finality.
"Today, a distortion was given life. But so was something greater. Remember this, Zash Rahman: today, you were given life."
The rift sealed shut. The masked being vanished.
Zash collapsed to his knees, chest heaving. His father staggered to his feet, bloodied, eyes wide. Nadia clutched Farhan tightly, both trembling. Their mother whispered from the doorway, voice thin with awe:
"… my….son…"
Haidar's mouth opened, but he spoke gibberish. He stared at Zash as though seeing him for the first time, silent, stunned beyond comprehension. He couldn't believe what he had just witnessed from his little boy.
Then neighbors emerged from hiding, staring at the ruins. They whispered of monsters gone, of divine intervention, of some hidden Celestial who had passed unseen.
"They're gone…"
"The monsters are gone…"
"Who did this?"
"Was it… a Celestial?"
But no one noticed the boy kneeling in the dirt, clutching his aching chest, fighting to keep calm.
Only the Rahman family knew the truth.
Only they knew that something had just awakened.