Léon stopped abruptly.
His foot hovered for a brief moment above the ground, as if the world had suddenly frozen without warning. A violent shiver ran through his spine, from the nape of his neck down to the base of his back.
He brought a hand to his chest.
His heart was beating too slowly… then too fast.
Around him, nothing had changed. The wind was still blowing. The night was the same. Yet something had just been born.
Or rather… something had just awakened.
Léon closed his eyes.
And the vision imposed itself upon him.
He did not see a face. He did not see a precise place.
He saw a standing shadow, upright and motionless, in the middle of a night older than the world itself. A presence so dense it seemed to weigh upon reality. The shadow did not seek to move forward… it simply existed.
And that existence was heavy with meaning.
"Who are you…" Léon whispered, without realizing it.
At that instant, the shadow slightly turned its head.
Not toward him. But in his direction.
As if it knew.
A word then echoed in Léon's mind. Not a voice. Not a memory.
A name.
Kaël.
Léon gasped sharply, as if he had just surfaced after a long dive. His eyes opened wide, shaken.
"This is not an enemy…" he breathed. "Nor an ally either."
He slowly placed his hand against the ground.
"It is a point of balance."
Somewhere, very far away, beyond the borders of time and of choices already made, Kaël Noctifer had just entered the story.
And Léon knew it.
The world had just changed. Not with noise. Not with light.
But in the shadow.
The world froze.
The wind died.
The night lost its movement.
Even Léon's heartbeat seemed suspended between two pulses.
Then…
the scenery dissolved.
Léon found himself standing on a smooth, dark surface, like a mirror without reflection. Around him, only pale emptiness, crossed by luminous filaments stretching to infinity, like scars in time.
— You felt it too, said a voice behind him.
Léon turned.
Jason was there.
Motionless, arms crossed, his gaze graver than ever. Here, he seemed different—older, almost worn by things Léon had not yet experienced.
— That wasn't an ordinary vision, replied Léon.
— It wasn't even… a vision.
Jason nodded slowly.
— No.
— It was a resonance.
He took a few steps, and under his feet, the void rippled like water.
— Some existences are so heavy they bend time around them.
— When they awaken, they do not cry.
— They call.
Léon clenched his fists.
— I felt its presence.
— Not as a threat.
— Not as a promise either.
He lifted his eyes to Jason.
— Like… a necessity.
A silence.
Then Jason let out a slow, almost tired breath.
— In my future, he said,
— his name is no longer spoken.
— Not because it is forgotten…
— but because it disrupts the order of stories.
— Who is he? asked Léon.
Jason closed his eyes for a moment.
— Someone they tried to turn into a weapon.
— Someone who refused to choose between light and the abyss.
He reopened his eyes.
— Kaël Noctifer is what happens when the night learns to think.
Léon shivered.
— And why me?
— Why did I feel him?
Jason stepped closer, standing face to face with him.
— Because you too walk a fragile line, Léon.
— You are not meant to win all wars.
— You are meant to understand their cost.
The void around them vibrated gently.
— Kaël is a point of balance, Jason continued.
— And you…
— you are a point of convergence.
Léon took a deep breath.
— Then our paths will cross.
Jason gave a brief, joyless smile.
— They will.
— And when that moment comes…
— time will no longer protect us.
One heartbeat.
Then another.
The world exhaled.
The night returned.
The wind began to blow again.
Jason… he began, his voice trembling,
— Léon .... explain to me. Why… why did I feel Kaël as if… as if he existed here, now?
Jason remained silent for a moment, his gaze lost in the infinity of this timeless void. Then he spoke, slowly, weighing each word.
— Léon… what you felt is not a coincidence.
— Some presences, even far away in time or space, leave an imprint on the consciousness of others.
— Kaël is not just a man. He is a force… a point of rupture.
Léon frowned.
— Point of rupture…? he repeated, as if the words escaped his understanding.
— What does that mean?
Jason took a deep breath, and for the first time, his voice grew more human, more fragile:
— It means that his existence… influences everything around him. Even you, Léon.
— Even me?
— Yes. Even you. You walk the thread of time, on the edge of what he represents. If you don't understand yet, it's normal. But soon… you will see.
Léon shook his head, unable to contain the flood of questions.
— But why now? Why do I feel it now and not before? Why me?
— Because you are a witness, Jason replied.
— And because your role is not to fight him or follow blindly.
— Your role… is to understand.
A silence settled. Léon felt the weight of these words seep into his mind like a cold current.
— Understand… he repeated.
— Understand what exactly?
— Everything, Jason said in a low voice, almost a whisper.
— Understand what fear is. Understand what power is. Understand the solitude of those who must walk between light and darkness…
Léon looked at Jason, searching in his eyes for a truth he could not grasp.
— So… if Kaël is a force… I must prepare for… what?
— For a choice you cannot yet imagine, Jason replied.
— A choice that could change the world around you.
— And that could… change you.
Léon shivered. He now understood that what he had felt was not merely a vision: it was a warning, a call. An echo of the future, etched into his present.
— Jason… he murmured, almost in a whisper,
— how do I know what I must do?
Jason placed a hand on his shoulder, a rare gesture of closeness in their tense relationship.
— Léon, you will know when you feel time itself stop around Kaël.
— And when that moment comes…
— you will know that the collision of destinies has begun.
A cold light passed through the void around them, like a silent promise.
— Prepare yourself, Jason added,
— because once you meet him… there will be no turning back.
Léon nodded, breathless, aware that what he had thought was simple curiosity had just become an immense burden: understand Kaël's role before the world collapses.