The sound that followed the explosion wasn't fire.
It was silence.
Not the peaceful kind, but the heavy, suffocating kind. The kind that presses against your ears like water. Time itself seemed to pause, just to acknowledge what had happened.
Diego was falling.
No… he was being pulled.
His shirt collar choked him, the wind howled past, and behind him—his apartment, the only place he had left in the world—was gone. Flames. Smoke. Shattered glass.
His heart couldn't keep up.
His brain couldn't understand.
But the boy was calm. Still holding him. Still glowing faintly violet in the darkness.
"Are you okay?"
The boy asked it like it was nothing.
Diego didn't answer.
He couldn't.
They landed with a hard thud on a nearby rooftop. Diego stumbled, nearly collapsing from the shock. The strange boy gently lowered him to the ground.
And then—he moved.
Without a word, the boy raised one hand, and reached into the air.
The space in front of him ripped open like torn paper—a shimmering slit in reality, glowing faintly around the edges. It was like he had cut open the sky itself.
From inside, he pulled out a long, gleaming sword. Elegant. Silver. Powerful.
He gripped it tightly, gave Diego one last amused smile, and said:
"wait here, i won't take long."
Before Diego could even blink, the boy turned—
—and leapt from the rooftop.
Diego staggered to the edge, gasping, barely steady on his feet. He peered down—
And saw something he would never forget.
The creatures had emerged.
Not like the grotesque ones he'd seen before. These were… bigger. Stranger. They had human torsos and the lower bodies of horses—twisted centaurs from a nightmare. Thick black horns spiraled from their skulls. Their eyes were pools of shadow.
Each held a long spear glowing faintly black.
But the strange boy was among them.
Dancing. Fighting. Smiling.
His sword pierced one of the creatures straight through the chest—
And its body evaporated into black smoke.
The others roared.
He laughed.
His golden hair, streaked with soft pink, swirled around his face. His blue eyes lit up with wild joy. It was like a game to him. Like he had done this a thousand times before.
Diego pulled his hair back from his face, panting. His thoughts raced. His breath was uneven.
What is happening? What are these things? What is he?
Then—
Hoofbeats.
Behind him.
Slow. Heavy. Coming closer.
He turned.
Another one.
But this one… was different.
Its horns were golden.
Its body was broader, more monstrous, its presence heavier. Its eyes burned with fury. Its aura was so thick it felt like sludge in the air.
Diego fell to the ground, eyes wide in terror.
The creature approached slowly, its face unreadable—anger, or something far worse.
"I've finally found you."
It spoke in a guttural, foreign language.
And somehow… Diego understood every word.
Its voice echoed unnaturally, deeper than anything he'd ever heard. The sky seemed to vibrate with it.
He couldn't reply. His body was paralyzed.
But his instinct to survive wasn't.
He stood.
He ran.
And without thinking, he jumped.
Off the rooftop. Into open air.
He shut his eyes, ready to die—
But just before he hit the ground, space itself tore open beneath him—
A rift.
It swallowed him whole.
Then disappeared.