The dream hit him like a storm.
A field of black, an endless expanse of darkness stretching in every direction. And in the distance, there was his mother — walking, walking away.
Fading away.
Kael tried to reach out, tried to call her name, but his voice was swallowed by the void. His feet moved, but he never got closer. His mother disappeared into the horizon, and then, there was his grandmother — walking in the same direction, towards that same distant, haunting figure.
Kael jolted awake, a sharp gasp tearing through the silence of the room. His chest rose and fell rapidly, as if he'd just sprinted miles, though he lay motionless. Cold air wrapped around him, but his skin was damp with sweat, clinging uncomfortably to his clothes.
For a moment, disoriented and breathing hard, he struggled to place himself. The shadows seemed too close, the quiet too thick.
And when the fog cleared, it hit him — he was home. Safe.
But something about the air felt wrong, as if it carried an invisible weight, pressing down on him. The familiar warmth of the room had shifted, replaced by an unsettling stillness.
Kael rubbed his eyes, trying to shake the feeling, then sat up, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. His throat was dry, aching for relief. He needed water. Anything to shake the unease that clung to him like a shadow.
Stumbling through the darkened house, Kael made his way to the kitchen, but the jug was empty. With a quiet sigh, he moved to the window, his hand reaching for the tap — then froze.
In the distance, just outside the house, he saw her. His grandmother. She was walking, slow but steady, heading towards the distant mountain trail that no one in the village dared to follow. The trail that led to The Temple of Zarae.
"Grandma?" Kael whispered, his voice shaky. His brain immediately scrambled to make sense of what he was seeing. This had to be a dream — some extension of the nightmare that had just woken him. It had to be.
But the cold breeze that slipped through the cracks in the window told him otherwise.
"No…" Kael muttered, his heart beginning to race again. He turned and bolted towards her bedroom, throwing open the door, but her bed was empty. Untouched.
His mind spun, desperation creeping into his chest. This wasn't happening. It couldn't be happening again. But when he heard the faint, chilling scream of his grandmother from outside, all doubts vanished.
He rushed outside, grabbing the first thing he could — a rusted iron rod by the door. And the moment he saw lights flickering on in the neighboring houses, faces appearing in doorways, eyes wide with concern, Kael knew — this was all real.
His neighbors spilled out onto the street, their confused murmurs filling the night air, but he couldn't stop. His heart pounded with fear, and the cold rush of realization hit him like a wave.
This wasn't a nightmare. This was happening.
"Grandma!" he shouted, running faster than he thought possible, his feet pounding against the ground, heart slamming in his chest as he called her name over and over.
But she didn't stop. She didn't even turn.
She was moving toward the temple, just like his mother had so many years ago. Just like his mother.
Tears blurred his vision as he pushed himself harder, the cold night air biting at his skin. His lungs burned, his legs screamed, but he didn't care. The only thought in his mind was the fear of losing her — the last person who had ever truly loved him. The last person he had loved with everything.
"No, no, no, please, please…" he whispered, over and over, as he saw her figure nearing the base of the temple stairs. She was so close. Too close.
"Grandma!" His voice cracked, hoarse and broken, as he finally reached the base of the temple stairs. He watched as she stopped, her back still turned to him, standing just before the first step.
"Why do you cry, Kael, when I've promised to be with you forever?" Her voice was soft, familiar — exactly as it always had been. But something about it chilled him to his core.
Kael's chest ached, his breath coming in ragged sobs. "Please," he begged. "Let's go home, Grandma. Please."
She turned to face him then, her eyes filled with warmth and love — the same expression she'd given him every day of his life. But her words shattered him. "But this is my home, Kael."
The sob that tore from his throat was broken, desperate. "Don't leave me, Grandma. I love you. Please. Let's go home."
He reached out, trying to grab hold of her, but she stepped back, smiling softly.
Before Kael could do anything, she turned and ran up the steps of the temple, moving faster than he'd ever seen her before.
"Grandma!" he cried, voice cracking under the weight of desperation. His feet moved before his mind could process it, pushing him into a sprint after her.
Just when he was about to reach the first stair, it hit him — an invisible force, like a wall made of pure will, powerful and unyielding. It slammed into him with such force that his body was thrown backward, crashing into the cold earth with a bone-jarring impact.
The air left his lungs in a painful whoosh, and for a moment, he lay there, stunned, trying to make sense of what had just happened. He struggled to his knees, gasping for breath, his heart pounding so hard it hurt.
The night air pressed down on him, thick and suffocating, as if the world itself was punishing him for daring to interfere.
He screamed, raw and agonized, the sound ripped from his very soul. "Why are you taking everything from me?!" His hands clawed at the dirt, pulling up tufts of grass and cold earth, as though he could somehow dig his way through this nightmare, as if he could force the world to give her back.
"What have I done?" His voice broke, echoing into the empty night, carried away by the wind, unacknowledged. "What have I done?"
Tears streamed down his face as the words poured out of him, every syllable dragged from the deepest recesses of his pain. He had been through this before — first his mother, now his grandmother. Everything was taken away from him, all that he had ever loved, leaving him to stumble through the wreckage of his shattered life.
His sobs came in waves, racking his body, spilling out every unspoken sorrow he had ever held. He curled into himself, hands gripping the earth, face pressed against the cold dirt. The world around him went still. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath, as if the universe itself had grown silent, watching.
And in that silence, Kael made himself a promise.
"I will destroy you," he murmured, his voice barely a whisper, but full of venom. It was not a threat, but a vow. A dark, unbreakable vow to whatever power was listening, whatever force had torn his family from him.
"I will destroy you."
He said it again, louder this time, as he pushed himself to his feet, his entire body trembling with rage and grief. His knuckles turned white as he tightened his grip on the iron rod. His mind spiraled, consumed by the raw, primal need for vengeance.
The temple loomed before him, an ancient monolith of stone and shadow, and in that moment, it became the focus of all his hatred.
"I will destroy you!" he shouted, his voice echoing off the cold stone walls as he took the first step forward. The temple was no longer just a distant silhouette against the night sky. It was the embodiment of his loss, of his suffering, of everything that had been ripped away from him.
And he was going to tear it down, piece by piece, until there was nothing left.
His footsteps pounded against the stone as he charged up the stairs, his breath ragged, eyes wild with fury. This time, nothing stopped him. Whatever had held him back before, whatever invisible force had knocked him down, was gone. He ran inside the temple, the dark, hollow space swallowing him whole.
At the center of it stood the statue of Garuthma and with all the hatred he held, he lifted the iron rod high above his head, his muscles straining with the effort, ready to strike.
But just as the rod began to descend, the ground beneath him trembled. A low, ominous rumble filled the air, as if the earth itself was growling in warning.
Kael faltered for a split second, but then clenched his teeth, tightening his grip. He didn't care. Nothing would stop him now.
The rumbling grew louder, the ground shaking beneath his feet, and before Kael could swing again, the shadows in the room shifted. Something was moving.
No.
Something was rising.
From behind the statue, emerging from the darkness, rose Garuthma herself.
Kael froze, his breath catching in his throat as the creature revealed itself.
The great bird was no longer mere stone, no longer a lifeless idol. It was alive, majestic and terrifying, its massive wings spreading wide as it stepped forward. Feathers glistened like burnished gold, catching the faint moonlight filtering through the temple's broken ceiling.
Its eyes, glowing with an ancient, piercing light, locked onto Kael, and in that moment, he felt the weight of its power.
The air around him seemed to shimmer, thick with energy. His heart hammered in his chest, and a cold, nauseating fear gripped him.
But the fear was quickly overtaken by something more — a blinding, burning rage. The pain twisted within him like a knife — not just the raw ache of seeing his grandmother pulled away from him, but the torment of every memory that had ever haunted him.
His mother's hollow eyes in those final days, the way she had slipped from his grasp as if fate itself had conspired against him. The endless nights where sleep never brought peace, only nightmares — images of her vanishing into the shadows, just like his grandmother now.
The helplessness, the suffocating guilt, the voices that whispered in his mind, telling him he wasn't strong enough, that he couldn't save the ones he loved.
All of it crashed over him like a tidal wave.
A scream tore from his throat — a guttural, primal sound that reverberated through the temple, echoing in the hollow space and swung it with every ounce of strength he had left.
But before the blow could land, there was a brilliant flash of light — so bright that it seared Kael's eyes, burning with an intensity that was beyond anything he had ever experienced. The force of it was like a wave, crashing over him, knocking him backward with an unimaginable strength.
He hit the ground hard, his head snapping back as darkness swallowed him whole.
For a long moment, there was nothing — just silence and soon, the void took him in.