The sky burned. Smoke coiled in thick plumes above the shattered walls of Veythgard, casting the city in a suffocating haze of blood and flame. Screams twisted through the air—distant, desperate, fading into the roar of destruction.
I ran. My heart pounded, my legs burned, but I didn't stop. My fingers clenched around the hilt of a rusted dagger, its edge dull, its handle slick with something warm. I didn't remember picking it up.
The streets were chaos—civilians scrambling over each other in a desperate bid to flee, soldiers locked in frantic battle, the ground littered with bodies. Fires raged unchecked, devouring the wooden structures and casting twisted shadows that danced wildly against the stone.
A scream rang out to my left—a woman, barely older than me, her hands clutching at a gaping wound in her stomach as she stumbled forward. Her eyes locked onto mine, wide with horror. She reached out.
I hesitated.
A shadow loomed in the smoke. A Draxian soldier, armor dark with soot and blood, his glaive dragging against the stone. His gaze locked onto mine.
He moved.
I turned and ran.
The blade whistled through the air. I barely managed to twist out of the way, feeling the rush of wind as the weapon passed inches from my back. I spun, the dagger in my grip useless against the length of his glaive. He advanced, steps slow, measured. A predator toying with prey.
My breath hitched. My muscles tensed, frozen between the instinct to fight or flee. The soldier tilted his head slightly, as if studying me. Then, he raised his weapon.
The blade fell—
The world cracked.
A soundless scream. A pulse of something wrong ripped through the air, bending the edges of my vision. The soldier froze mid-strike. His body jerked violently, his limbs twisting in ways they shouldn't. His head snapped back—too far, too fast.
I stumbled backward. My heartbeat roared in my ears. The space around the soldier shimmered, like heat waves distorting the air. His mouth moved, but no sound came out. Then, his fingers twitched—spasmed—as though something inside him was fighting for control.
And then, with a sickening crack, his body collapsed into itself.
A whisper slithered into my mind, cold as a breath against my ear.
What have you awakened?
I gasped, my vision swimming. The edges of my surroundings blurred, flickering between solid and something… else. The city. The sky. The flames. For a heartbeat, everything shifted.
I felt it. Something vast, watching.
Then, just as quickly as it had come, it was gone.
The soldier's corpse lay motionless at my feet, his glaive still clutched in lifeless fingers. I didn't understand.
I didn't want to.
I turned and ran.