A dreadful scream echoed thunderously inside of the street where Asaki lived, awaking almost everyone in one instant, and so Asaki himself.
Usually, he wouldn't mind any noise waking him up and would've just returned to sleep immediately, but...
'Am I dreaming, or was that really a scream ?'
Without even being aware of the reason, Asaki could feel his heart beating faster and faster, louder and louder.
A cold shiver ran down his whole body, while an unexpected wave of warmth invaded him at the same moment, causing him to sweat profusely.
It was as if his body was trying to alert him about a danger he didn't know, but his body did. In other terms, we could surely call this instinct.
Hesitantly, Asaki slowly rose from his bed and reached for the light immediately.
Looking for the source of the scream, he didn't even need to take some seconds to think about it.
And that's because another scream pierced the silence of the night, coming from outside.
'Wha.... What's happening ?!'
He was dying to run to his door and get outside, looking for the source of the scream.
But his body told him otherwise. Asaki couldn't move at all.
The only thing he could hear was his heart, pounding so loudly that it was starting to give him a headache.
Even if he couldn't detach his eyes from the windows and the door, Asaki grabbed his phone and tried to look the news.
But internet wasn't accessible, causing him to panic a bit more.
Trying to calm down his breath, Asaki couldn't rest for even a minute. An explosion made his entire house shake as the sudden and loud noise caused his ears to ring for a few moments.
Now kneeling on the ground, his ragged breath wouldn't calm, no matter how much time he spent there. With all of his limbs shaking, he decided to slowly approach the door. His movements were all shaky and slow, it was impossible to contain the sudden flow of emotions that was crossing him.
'Calm down Asaki, calm down... Why the heck am I shaking so much ?? '
His hand grabbed the cold and metallic handle, stopping it from shaking at the moment.
And then, he opened the door, thousands of scenarios of what was happening crossed his mind as the cold wind caressed his face.
The horizon of the street over the garden showed a view that he wouldn't ever have imagined seeing in his life.
The night sky, usually black, was covered by shades of red and orange on a large part of it. And that's because of the dozen and a dozen of buildings that were burning, rarely without burning cars and others vehicles near them.
All around him, Asaki could hear screams and strange explosions coming from everywhere.
But it wasn't even the worst part of it.
Asaki could barely breathe properly.
The air, the wind, the atmosphere, everything was mixed with smoke and death.
Hundreds of mountains made of smoke were reaching the territory of gods, as if trying to escape the hell flowing on earth. Not aware that they were parts of this hell.
Coughing a few times, Asaki rubbed one of his eyes and took a little step on his yard. His gaze not even able to move a bit.
"What the hell..."
Lost in his thoughts, he was frozen in place. He wasn't even thinking that this horrific vision was true, it was just impossible, against the laws of nature.
It's been 317 years since the last war which struck the continent of Vaulstrae, how could such a thing happens ??
And why ?
"Aaaah ! Please ! Hel-"
Without even having the time to turn to the source of the scream, Asaki heard another sound of impact added to all the screams and explosions already occurring.
The scent of death only grew stronger.
Asaki's throat and lungs were burning like crazy, and swallowing his saliva had become useless because of how dry they had become.
But Asaki didn't even notice
Because right now, something else appeared to be a biggest problem.
Right in front of him, hiding in the shadows, something moved.
Asaki didn't even see it, but he was already sure about one thing: this thing wasn't human at all
°°°
Without thinking twice about the situation, Asaki backed away.
... and that's what saved his life.
Closing its jaw where Asaki was standing a second ago, the creature's fangs luckily pierced nothing.
And now, Asaki could clearly see it.
The creature that was standing in front of him, if we could even dare to call this a child of nature, was defying all logic.
Its reptilian skin, as black as night, covered what seemed to be a sort of crocodile. Even though the face was closer to a mix between a dog and a crocodile than a mere crocodile.
Its two first arms were really tiny, the hands at the tip of them harboring large claws that could easily cut Asaki to pieces. At least as long as its body, it could literally walk using its arms and make its body float in the air like nothing.
What seemed to be its legs were, however, a lot more robust and muscular than the thin arms the creature had. It was easy to understand how it could move at such a speed now.
But the most disgusting feat of the creature was the dozens of tiny human legs and arms crawling everywhere on its belly and back. They looked like baby limbs, but were as gray as a corpse's.
Facing this sight gave Asaki such a violent nausea that he almost vomited at the moment; if his life weren't in danger, he would have surely thrown up
"..."
The monster faced him without making a noise, its tiny human limbs twisting like parasites trying to get out of the body.
'How could... What... What's this thing ?'
Asaki's breath became really heavy now, and as the boy's brain processed to find a way to survive, the creature attacked again.
This time, Asaki couldn't fully back away, costing him to get hit by the monster.
One of its disproportionate claw slashed Asaki's legs, the wound wasn't deep enough to tear apart his leg in two, but it stayed really painful.
The violence of the act made Asaki lose his balance, but he however managed to roll away and ran as fast as he could to his home.
"Aaaah... Aaaaah !"
He slammed the door behind him before falling to the ground again, reaching his wound with his two hands.
Blood was spilling like crazy from it, even though it wasn't a fatal one, Asaki never saw so much blood in his life.
"I'm gonna die, I'm really gonna die...."
In the middle of a panic attack, he thought his heart definitely stopped when he saw his door flying mere inches above his head, crashing in multiples pieces on the ground.
Where the door once existed was standing a new form, that of a 2 meters tall crocodile, with two long arms scratching the floor while its two powerful legs were causing the stairs to crack.
And from its jaw, what remained of a girl's leg was hanging as it was still alive.