As Reginald stood atop a building, a troubling thought crept into his mind. Days had passed, yet it had only ever been day. Not once in the past week had night fallen.
But suddenly, darkness came—not across the sky, but around him alone. It wasn't natural. Something was wrong.
Before he could react, a hand reached through the void and yanked him in. The grip was impossibly strong—resistance was futile. He was gone.
Everything vanished. No sight. No sound. No scent. No taste. He couldn't even feel the familiar presence of his friends' mana. It was as if he no longer existed.
Then—impact. Harder than anything his body could process. His pain receptors didn't register it, yet somehow, he knew it hurt.
"Who the hell are you!?" he yelled, but his voice carried no weight. No sound, no echo. Just emptiness.
Another blow. He was flung into the air, then slammed into the ground. Then thrown—falling endlessly. And when he finally crashed, the thought struck him:
"Is this it? Is this how I die?"
But then, something different.
A crack.
Through the suffocating void, a rift appeared—revealing blue skies and soft, drifting clouds. Warmth. Safety. He reached for it—
And then, he was pulled free.
Reginald's eyes snapped open. Three figures stood before him.
The first—the one who had pulled him out—was Devan.
"Godslayer, are you okay? That thing took you. Your mana disappeared—we had to act fast."
Still dazed, Reginald's gaze shifted. The second figure, Miley, stood with her hand raised. Chains wrapped around something—something unnatural.
His eyes followed the chains' path, and his breath caught.
A figure, absent of all light. Not just darkness, but the very essence of blackness itself. Like a void carved onto reality, as if the purest black ink had been painted onto existence. A concept given form.
Then, it spoke—without movement, without expression.
"My name is Neveil."
The moment the name was uttered, the chains snapped. Neveil began to fade. And as he did, everything returned to normal. The world reset. The sky darkened properly. Time corrected itself.
Then, without warning, Miley was struck. She was sent flying, only for Devan to catch her.
A heavy silence followed. Then, footsteps.
From the shadows emerged a towering figure clad in armor, riding a massive horse. The weight of his presence crushed the air.
"You kids are meddling with concepts, I see," he rumbled.