Night fell, and darkness came as it always did.
Adam did not remember deciding to run.
He only remembered his feet striking grass, stone, and mud, breath tearing from his chest as the fog peeled away before him.
Each step grew heavier, the land itself dragging at his bones, as if there was no escape.
Trees blurred past him, lantern lights, shifting shadows, faceless shapes blending with the fog.
Someone shouted his name.
Hands reached for him from the fog.
"Adam—!"
He twisted sharply, slipping free. His shoulder slammed into someone as he tore past, but he did not look back.
The village rushed by in fragments.
Adam's lungs burned as if filled with ash, vision narrowing as each heartbeat slammed painfully against his chest.
He didn't stop.
His house rose out of the fog like an anchor.
Inside the forge was dark; coals were cold; tools were arranged with care, lined neatly along the walls, exactly where they should be.
Ganesh sat on his workbench after a long day, staring at the grim headline of the evening newspaper: SOUTHERN SETTLEMENT WIPED OUT BY BEAST TIDE.
Entire families gone, structures flattened to rubble. He sighed, rubbing his tired eyes, thankful the chaos was still miles away.
Suddenly, Adam crashed through the door with enough force to rattle the hinges.
"Baba!" Adam shouted.
Ganesh immediately rushed to him.
He saw Adam on the floor, mouth wide, gasping for air. Even though his face was covered, he could see Adam's frightened look.
"What happened, son?" Ganesh asked.
Adam staggered forward, hands trembling so badly he had to brace himself against the wall. "There was a scary man," he said, the words tumbling out unevenly. "In the sky. He stopped my kite. He was floating in the sky."
"That man didn't look like he was from here. His presence was so heavy that I couldn't breathe, so I ran."
Ganesh didn't move.
"He said his name was Cheon Ma-je."
The name struck the room like a dropped hammer.
For a single breath, the world seemed to pause.
Ganesh brought a cup of water from the kitchen and handed it to Adam. "Are you hurt, son?"
Adam shook his head. "No. He didn't touch me. But Baba, he was—"
He struggled, throat tightening. "Heavy. Like the air was bowing around him."
"And the moment I told him my name, he asked me to become his disciple."
Ganesh was shocked.
"I said no."
"Then, He started laughing like a maniac, so I ran."
Ganesh was relieved, but it vanished, buried beneath something colder. Sharper.
If that's who I think he is, he could have easily taken away, Adam.
First of all, how did he even enter Nepal? And why is he here?
Numerous questions began to pile up within Ganesh.
He got up and told Adam, "Stay here."
He turned toward the bedroom.
Angali was already awake.
She had heard Adam's voice. Had felt the wrongness before any explanation reached her ears. When she saw Ganesh's face, her hands began to tremble.
"You're going out," she said quietly.
"Yes."
"Can it be them?" she added.
"No, but I have to confirm something."
With a worried look."Dear, please don't go. It's too dangerous."
Ganesh replied, "I have to."
He knelt beside her bed, taking her hands with surprising gentleness. "Listen to me. Do not let Adam leave this house. You know what to do in case of emergency."
Her breath hitched. "Ganesh… please."
He leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers. "I won't take chances. Not anymore."
When he stood, he reached beneath his clothes.
The fabric shifted strangely, too smoothly, as if something beneath it moved independently. For a brief moment, something hard pressed against his ribs before vanishing again under cloth.
Adam noticed.
Didn't understand.
Said nothing.
Ganesh took a decoration from the wall. A sword hilt. Familiar. Balanced but incomplete.
"I'll be back before morning," he said.
Adam grabbed his sleeve. "Baba… Don't go."
Ganesh saw his son's worried look.
"Don't worry, I'll find out what he is here for."
"Trust your father." He patted Adam and stepped outside into the fog.
The night swallowed him whole.
***
Ganesh felt it the moment he crossed beyond the village boundary.
Something was not right.
There were rarely any wild animals in the forest.
[Saving energy-Limited scanning applied]
The alert flashed across his retinas. He didn't blink.
This is the worst timing possible, but I can't delay this.
Each step Ganesh took sank deeper than it should have, boots dragging through earth that clung. The air thickened, pressing against his lungs as heaviness pulled at his joints.
He slowed, forcing himself to breathe, forcing himself to focus.
Beneath his clothes, a hidden suit came alive, a low hum vibrated through his bones as thin lines of sensation traced along his ribs and spine. Data flickered across the inside of his vision, translucent.
The kind of technology that has never been seen in the whole country.
[No thermal anomalies.]
[No irregular signatures.]
Yet something was there.
[Life signal detected with dense energy.]
He followed the pull deeper into the forest.
Fog thinned gradually, replaced by jagged stone and exposed roots. The trees grew sparse, twisted, their trunks warped in ways that made
Ganesh uneasy.
Then he saw it.
A gaping cave yawned before him.
Ganesh crouched and pressed his hand against the cave walls.
There were huge claw marks.
His visor flickered.
[A Life signal with high Origin energy density detected within 500 meters.]
I can't get rid of this ominous feeling. What is that man doing so deep in the cave?
Cheon Ma-Je, never thought I would hear that name here.
Nevertheless, I have to find out what he's after.
Ganesh exhaled deeply.
Then slowly descended through the cave.
[One Life signal detected within 400 meters.]
[300 meters.]
[200 meters.]
[WARNING!]
[Multiple Life signals detected within 100 meters.]
The signal doubled, then tripled, and then exceeded the system's estimates.
The ground started shaking.
Ganesh looked ahead—
Shadows surged forward without edges or sound, their numbers climbing faster than his system could count.
What are these things?!
Ganesh quickly pulled out the hilt, pressing it tightly; a faint glow appeared at the tip, a seed of light. It grew. It stretched. It hummed a low note, and then the sharp blade was there, so bright it had no color, burning at temperatures the sun's own core could not match.
"Although I only came to talk, and I'm glad I came prepared."
Hundreds of glowing eyes stared in the dark, growling with hunger.
The first wave of those beasts rushed at him.
Ganesh didn't hesitate; he moved through it like a feather, the suit amplifying every strike, blade carving clean arcs through flesh and bone. Three down, three more left. He kicked one hard enough to break walls, pivoted, and took two more in a single swing of his blade. His breathing stayed controlled. His footing never broke.
He had fought worse.
The creatures kept coming, endless, their numbers climbing faster than he could clear them, but he was faster. Sharper. Every movement is efficient; nothing is wasted.
Then they stopped.
All of them, at once.
Not retreating.
Waiting.
Ganesh's breath slowed.
Why did they stop? I have to finish fast; this blade takes a lot of energy.
[WARNING! New signal detected! Location: Above]
Chills ran down his spine as he looked up.
Someone stood upside down on a ceiling above the cave floor, perfectly still, like a hunter watching his prey. The creatures below didn't move. None of them moved. They held formation around Ganesh like a net already closed.
A tall, masked figure in black, he possessed the brawn of a warrior and the lethal grace of an assassin. He had no weapons on him, as if he didn't need them.
The masked man said nothing at first.
Then, asked, "What is that light?"
His deep voice felt rough like a wild animal talking.
Ganesh raised the blade and asked, "Who are you?"
This guy is suspicious. Why is he here? And why are so many evolved beasts gathering so many of them in front of the village?
The figure tilted his head and ignored the question.
"That sword." A pause. "Where did you get something like that?"
Ganesh said nothing.
"That sword has the most concentration of prana I have ever seen."
"How can you wield that?"
The figure stepped off the ledge.
He didn't fall. He descended like he just took another normal step, clothes settling around him as his feet found the cave floor. A black mask obscured his face, but his gaze felt so ferocious that even Ganesh shook in fear as their eyes met.
[WARNING. WARNING. LOW ENERGY]
[Threat level: Unable to calculate]
[Ocular Augmentation System shutting down]
What? So fast?! That was a decade of stored Origin energy, used up in seconds...
As Ganesh's suit's energy was almost depleted, his eye lens stopped working. He couldn't use his enhanced sight and his lens against the enemy.
"Such an otherworldly weapon," the figure said, "They will love to see this."
He stepped closer.
"Where did you obtain th-" before the man could ask, Ganesh swung.
The masked man felt nothing, as if he were swinging through empty air.
"Such unique equipment, "The man said, as he simply stood behind Ganesh with the plasma sword in his hand.
The plasma in the sword retracts.
"Huh? What happened?" the man asked, "Does it only work in your hands?"
Ganesh roared and punched the man's face, his suit screaming with everything he had stored across years of recovery, its hum deepening into something that shook the cave walls.
The figure didn't move and kept on inspecting the sword hilt.
"This is too strange. You can't even use any prana."
"But, how are you able to punch this hard?"
Warnings still echoed through Ganesh's ears.
[Recharge required - Insufficient energy]
[Calculating…]
[Recommending emergency protocol: Omen mode]
It was too late to escape.
Ganesh murmured, voice low and steady, "I can't die here."
Ganesh took a deep breath.
Activate 'Omen mode!'
Power surged through the suit as he used every ounce of energy he had stored throughout the years. In a flash, the output of energy tripled. The hum deepened, vibrating through his bones, through the ground beneath his feet.
He stepped forward, casting one last glance toward the village before steeling his heart and dashing ahead.
The Shadowy figure grinned, "Fascinating! Show me more!"
The cave shook.
Then-
Silence.
The night stretched on.
Ganesh Thapa did not return.
***
Adam couldn't sleep.
He sat by the door with his knees drawn to his chest, back pressed against the cold wall, listening. Every sound outside made his breath catch. Every shift of fog, every whisper of wind brushing the walls tightened something deep in his chest.
Angali was lying in bed, fingers knotted into the blanket so tightly her knuckles had gone white. She said nothing. She didn't need to. Every glance she cast toward the door carried the same question she refused to speak.
When will he come back?
Hours passed in fragments. Adam lost count of them. Time blurred into long stretches of waiting, footsteps that turned out to be nothing, voices that faded before reaching the house.
Then dawn came.
Soft. Pale. Unforgiving.
And Ganesh did not.
By the time the fog began to thin, three men from the village had already gone to look.
The men returned empty-handed, with claw marks at the boundary, nothing more. Ganesh simply vanished and reported back to the Village's chief.
Doors opened slowly. People gathered in small knots, voices low, faces drawn.
Every adult was worried.
By noon, the square was full.
The Village Chief stood at the front, his shoulders heavy beneath his robe. His wife knelt beside Angali, arms wrapped around her, doing her best to reassure.
The chief hugged Adam. "Stay Strong, Adam."
Chief went outside where the villagers were gathered.
"Ganesh, the strongest man in our village, still hasn't returned."
"Do not go into those woods," the Chief said, his voice carrying despite its quiet tone. "Not after this. We will call the warriors from 'The Magar clan' for the search. That area is no longer safe for us common folks."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
Adam barely heard him.
His eyes were unfocused, fixed on the dirt at his feet as the same image replayed again and again in his mind.
A man in the sky.
Unmoved by the wind.
Holding a kite between two fingers.
It's not a monster, Adam thought numbly.
His hands curled into fists.
It's him.
That night, Adam couldn't breathe.
The house felt smaller, the walls pressing in. Every inhale felt shallow, unsatisfying, as if the air itself refused to reach his lungs. Guilt settled over him heavier than gravity ever had, pinning him in place.
Every thought led back to the same point.
If I hadn't flown the kite.
If I hadn't gone there.
Baba would still be with us.
At midnight, Adam stood. He couldn't take it anymore.
I have to save my dad before it's too late.
Suddenly, Angali spoke.
Adam froze, heart hammering.
He glanced in her room. Then he heard her. She whispered, barely audible, "Ganesh…"
The word trembled.
Angali had exhausted herself and passed out. She turned slightly in her sleep, her hand shaking as she tightly made a fist.
Adam saw the dried trails of tears, her face full of worry.
Something inside Adam twisted painfully.
"I'm sorry, mamu," he whispered, then he started preparing to leave.
Adam turned away before she could wake up.
Before he lost the nerve to leave.
He moved quietly, careful not to wake his mother.
The axe that lay on a corner. Too big. Too heavy. A tool he used to cut wood and a bunch of papers that he kept in his room.
He put papers in his pockets, tied the axe to his back, and rushed to the hills.
Don't worry mamu, I will bring him back, I promise.
Angali frowned faintly, as if she could feel Adam heading out, a mother's instinct.
The cold weight grounded him.
Adam ran.
The hill loomed ahead, fog curling around its peak like a memory that refused to fade. His legs burned as he climbed, breath tearing at his chest.
He arrived.
Where he met the stranger.
The wind was still.
"CHEON MA-JE!"
His voice cracked, echoing into the fog.
Again.
"CHEON MA-JE!"
The air shifted.
Not violently.
But slowly, pressure increased.
Subtle at first, like a hand closing slowly around the hill. Adam's ears rang. His knees bent slightly under the weight.
He raised the axe.
"How dare you!" The words tore out of him raw and unfiltered. "Give me my father back!"
The sky tore open.
It split as if the sky itself couldn't contain him.
Cheon Ma-Je stepped out of nothing.
Adam felt his presence before he truly saw him, a weight deeper than gravity, sharper than the fear itself. The man hovered effortlessly, robes dark as shadow, with royal purple accents that caught light and
shimmered.
He didn't hesitate.
As soon as Cheon Ma-Je stepped on the ground… Adam threw papers.
Dozens of sheets flew straight, each marked with a rough circle drawn in frantic strokes. They wrapped against Cheon Ma-Je's face, clinging to his eyes, his mouth, his nose. Stopping his breathing.
He rushed and leaped towards the man with his axe.
The axe came down with all his might.
As the axe came closer, it evaporated along with the papers.
They all ceased to exist.
Cheon Ma-Je glared, and Adam flung backward as if struck by an unseen force, his body skidding across the ground. Pain exploded through him, stealing his breath. He coughed, rolled, and struggled upright on shaking legs.
His body screamed at him with pain.
Something deeper pushed him forward. His vision dimmed. Darkness crept in at the edges.
But his arm still moved.
He grabbed a rock and charged again, blood slick on his fingers. The stone disintegrated mid-swing. His fist followed…
But he never reached him.
He got up again, but his body refused to move.
Cuts and bruises all across his body, yet he was still standing.
Adam raised his hand, then collapsed while standing.
Cheon Ma-Je noticed something.
He looked back, and he saw the whole sky shaking.
Cheon Ma-Je was shocked.
He caught Adam before he hit the ground.
Finally, something shifted in the man's expression.
"…Remarkable," he murmured.