The house shuddered, groaning under the weight of something ancient, something vast and terrifying. The ground cracked again, louder this time, a jagged line splitting the floor beneath their feet. The air itself seemed to warp, rippling with a force they could neither understand nor contain.
In the doorway, the Unseen emerged in full force. A living shadow, dark and unfathomable, its form swirling, twisting, and bending in a way that defied all logic. It was no longer a whisper of something forgotten. It was the embodiment of darkness, of ancient power, of things that should never have been awakened.
The first of them took a step into the room, and with it came a chill that seemed to freeze the very air. It moved without a sound, its form rippling, stretching, impossibly vast, until it filled the doorway and spilled into the room. Its presence was suffocating, pulling at the edges of reality itself.
The group froze. Mae's breath caught in her throat, her heart pounding as the room seemed to close in on her. The walls, the floor, everything seemed to bend under the weight of it. The Unseen didn't just exist in the room; it warped everything, made it impossible to grasp the world around her.
"Lucien…" Mae whispered. Lucien didn't answer immediately. His eyes locked onto the creature before them, narrowing as his mind raced. There was no fear in him, just cold, calculating knowledge of what was to come. His jaw clenched as he stepped forward, his voice steady, unwavering.
"They were never meant to awaken," he said, his words chilling in their finality. "But now they have. And they will not stop until they have claimed what they were promised." Ashar moved into position, his hand on his weapon, eyes focused on the Unseen, but the threat felt so beyond their ability to fight. Riven's wings twitched, his whole body on alert, but the air was too thick for him to make a move. The very presence of the Unseen suppressed their instincts, like a weight pressing down on them, stifling their thoughts.
Lucien stepped in front of Mae, his hand briefly brushing against her arm as he protected her instinctively. His voice, carried an edge of desperation. "We need to leave. Now. They're not just creatures, they are forces."
Before Mae could react, the Unseen shifted again. The shadow at the door seemed to fracture, splitting into multiple forms. More of them, flickering in and out of existence, their bodies stretched, malformed, and impossibly large. They filled the space with a horrifying presence, their faces-if they could even be called faces-shifting, empty, void-like.
Then, the whisper started. A low hum that vibrated in the air, in their bones. It wasn't a sound; they felt it in the depths of their very minds. Their thoughts clouded, their focus splintered, as the Unseen began to invade them, to drown them in the void of their presence.
A voice. No, many voices rose from the shadows, not spoken but projected, reaching into their minds like a disease. "You were not meant to witness this. You were not meant to survive this." Mae's breath caught in her throat as she fought to stay grounded, her vision blurring. The voices chilled her to the core, but the strength in Lucien's touch was the only thing that kept her from collapsing under the weight of it.
Suddenly, the ground beneath them cracked open again, a deep rumbling sound echoing through the house, and in that moment, everything shifted. The Unseen were no longer just shadows. They were real. And they were hungry.
The Unseen surged into the room, their presence flooding the space, suffocating the air with an unholy pressure. They moved as one, flickering in and out of reality, like shadows made flesh, stretching and distorting into grotesque shapes.
Before anyone could react, one of the Unseen lunged forward, its form flickering. Ashar was the first to strike, his blade cutting through the air in a fluid arc, but the Unseen's form seemed to bend around it, dissipating into nothingness before reappearing behind him.
A second Unseen reached for Riven, but he was ready, his plasma wings flaring out in a burst of energy, a blinding light that momentarily pushed the creature back. The shadow wavered and flickered, but it was far from done.
Kaine shouted from the corner, his voice strained, as he fired a bolt from his energy weapon. The shot hit, but the Unseen absorbed it; its form warped like liquid, consuming the energy and pushing back against him with an unseen force that knocked him off his feet. But the battle was far from even. The Unseen were everywhere, crawling through cracks in the walls, their darkness leaking into the room.
Mae backed into a corner, her heart pounding, her breath catching as she watched the chaos unfolding around her. Lucien was close, his hands glowing with dark energy, creating chains of light that snapped through the air, attempting to bind the Unseen, but they kept slipping through his control. "Lucien!" Mae gasped, her voice trembling. "What do we do?"
But before he could respond, a loud crash broke through the room, and Mae was yanked from the corner. One of the Unseen reached for her, its dark, amorphous limbs stretching, wrapping around her like tendrils of shadow. It had no face, no eyes. But it knew her. It felt her.
The pressure of its grip cut through her skin, but something happened. Something deep inside her stirred. A surge of power, hot and raw, exploded within her, breaking free with such force that the room seemed to snap in two.
Mae's power flared.
A scream of pure force ripped from her throat. The air around her shattered. The floor beneath her feet trembled violently as tendrils of reality itself twisted in response. The Unseen's hold on her faltered as a crack of bright, blinding light erupted from her body, throwing the creature backward with enough force to send it crashing into the far wall.
For a brief moment, everything stopped. The room fell into an unnatural silence.
Mae stood, her body glowing with an energy no one had ever seen before. Her power was no longer just chaotic. It was controlled. Directed. Focused. And it roared to life, an energy that consumed everything in its path.
The Unseen recoiled, retreating from her, their forms flickering, hesitating; they were afraid. Lucien's breath caught in his throat, his eyes wide as he looked at Mae, the raw power coursing through her. "Mae," he whispered, his voice thick.
The world around them seemed to bend as her power collided with the Unseen, disrupting their form, their very being. Her body, glowing with light, and for the first time, she wasn't afraid of what she could do.
A tendril of dark energy lashed out at her again and the entire room seemed to shake in response. With a crack, the energy was shattered, disintegrated in mid-air. The Unseen flinched, their forms twisting as if they couldn't comprehend the force they were facing.
Everyone stared, as Mae's power pulsed outward, radiating from her body like a beacon. It was overwhelming, too much to process. The Unseen were backing away. But this was only the beginning.
"Keep going, Mae," Lucien urged, his voice barely audible over the chaos. He reached out to her. Mae was no longer the frightened girl they had once known. She was something else now. Something far more dangerous.