The world didn't disappear in an instant.
At first, there were only signs.
A sky that was a little too white.
A light that was too bright.
Longer days… or perhaps just heavier ones.
People went on living.
They said it would pass.
Like everything else.
Then the sun changed.
No color.
Not really.
But it burned differently.
Its light pierced the skin.
Lingered longer.
As if it didn't want to leave anymore.
The crops began to die.
Not all of them.
Not all at once.
But enough to cause concern.
The leaves grew thick.
Hard.
Sometimes dark, almost black.
Other times… too green.
An abnormal green.
Alive.
Then came the heat.
Not the heat of summer.
A constant heat.
That never let up.
Not even at night.
The ground cracked.
The rivers receded.
The air itself seemed weary.
And then…
the earth responded.
At first, a rumbling.
Distant.
Like a storm that never came.
Then the ground began to shake.
Not enough to flee.
But enough to keep him awake.
The volcanoes didn't wake up.
They exploded.
The sky split open.
Columns of fire shot through the air.
The earth tore apart.
And the ash rose.
Again.
And again.
Until it covered the sky.
The fiery clouds did not disappear.
They remained.
Hanging.
Like a burning ceiling above the world.
The sunlight still shone through.
But distorted.
Red.
Dense
Alive.
The world was no longer cold.
Not where it should have been.
Not even where ice once reigned.
Everything… had warmed up.
The cities fell.
Not all at once.
But slowly.
Structures gave way.
Metal rusted.
Concrete cracked.
And something else began to grow.
Not normal plants.
Not the ones from before.
These ones adapted.
They absorbed.
Transformed.
They lived… in what the world rejected.
The animals changed too.
Not bigger.
Not stronger.
More efficient.
Faster.
More precise.
As if the world had decided to keep only what survived.
And the humans…
They held on.
For a while.
Then they began to disappear.
Far from all that, in a land already forgotten, a man was still digging.
Not to survive.
Out of habit.
His hands were worn.
His breath short.
But he kept going.
Because it was all he had left.
The ground beneath him was unstable.
Fragile.
He knew it.
But it didn't really matter anymore.
The earth gave way without warning.
A sharp crack.
A slide.
Then nothing.
There was no scream.
Not really.
Just a fall.
Short.
Brutal.
Then silence.
In the darkness, something remained.
Not a body.
Not really.
A sensation.
A fragment.
A trace.
Like a seed.
She wasn't thinking.
Not yet.
But she was feeling.
Faintly.
Slowly.
The world above continued to burn.
To change.
To mutate.
And she…
she was sinking.
Not in the earth.
In something deeper.
Then, one day—
or perhaps much later—
the light returned.
Not the light of the sun.
Another kind.
Softer.
Closer.
It pierced the darkness.
It called out.
And something answered.
A beat.
Then another.
A breath.
And in a world that was no longer what it had been…
Aran was born.