Then Ryzen cleared his throat. "So… Umatsume, right? You said you found me in the park? She nodded, stepping closer, cautious as though afraid he might bolt. "Yeah. The ground was scorched all around you.
Trees cracked, glass embedded in the soil… and then there was you. Lying right in the middle." Her lips pressed together, as though debating how much to say. "It was a miracle you were even breathing."
As Ryzen froze, the fragmented memory of that explosion burned at the edge of his mind. A crystal. A voice calling his name. Darkness swallowing everything.
His pulse quickened. "And… you didn't see anyone else?" "No." Her reply was too quick. "Just you." He read her, uneasy. Either she really didn't see what he saw… or she was hiding something. Umatsume broke the tension with a soft smile, though it didn't quite reach her eyes.
"But hey, you're alive. That's what matters, right?" She pulled a chair over and sat across from him, leaning forward slightly. "Ryzen… you really don't remember anything? Not even how the explosion started?"
He hesitated. His instinct screamed to tell her nothing. To bury the memory of the void, the whispering voice, the power-thirsty demon. But something in her eyes was an unspoken understanding that made him second-guess.
"…Not much," he muttered finally. "Just light. Heat. And then… nothing." he said.
Then Umatsume studied him, her lavender gaze sharp and unreadable. For a moment, Ryzen thought he saw something flicker behind her irises like a storm trapped in glass. Then, just as quickly, it was gone.
"Well," she said, pushing back from the chair, "You should rest. Then the flickering light above them cut out completely.
The room plunged into darkness.
And in that silence, Ryzen heard another voice.
Colder than the demon's voice in the void. His blood ran cold as his eyes shifted again. Umatsume turned toward the sound startled, as she screamed "What was that?!?" as her glowing eyes widened. Then suddenly, his chest tightened, and a wave of dread washed over him.
"What is this feeling…?", his eyes narrowing. "
This presence feels darker than the void." he muttered. As Umatsume also felt an evil presence coming from outside, noticing his change in expression she glanced out the window with a shocked expression on her face. "Ryzen… look!"
Then the room started to tremble as the shockwave passed, the lights flickering wildly. Distant sirens wailed, as civilians screamed and fled the area.
Ryzen expected shouting, running or something. Instead, the streets below were empty of people.
But cars were everywhere. Some were abandoned in the middle of the road, doors still open like their owners had fled in a hurry. Others crashed into light poles or sidewalks, alarms blaring uselessly into the night. Flickering traffic lights cast eerie glows over the ghostly scene.
Umatsume gripped the windowsill, as her lavender eyes narrowing. "That was no normal meteorite…" she murmured.
Then Umatsume says: "Something's wrong."
Ryzen's head pounded, a strange pressure closing in around him. That voice still echoed in his mind: "You need to stop him!" But who was that? And why? Ryzen clenched his fists. No way I'm staying put. He turned to Umatsume. "That crash it's near Kozuna's place. We need to go."
Umatsume hesitated and said:
"Are you sure? You're still…" Ryzen says "I'm fine." He wasn't, but that didn't matter to him at the moment. "Kozuna might be in trouble." Umatsume exhaled, then nodded. "Okay then, let's go!"
As they ran through the streets, the eerie silence pressed in around them. Rows of cars sat frozen in place, hazard lights blinking. Some had their engines still running, a low hum filling the air.
A distant car alarm wailed, then cut off abruptly.
Ryzen's pulse pounded. "Where is everyone…?" Umatsume shook her head. "I don't know. But this doesn't feel right."
A faint, sickly green glow pulsed in the distance. When they reached the crash site, Ryzen froze. The crater was massive, deep, smoldering, and cracked like the earth itself had been wounded.
But standing in the center was something even worse. A towering humanoid entity, cloaked in rippled dark glowing green armour, slowly rose from the crack in the ground. Then its head snapped in Ryzen and Umatsume's direction.
Two glowing red eyes locked onto them. Ryzen felt his stomach drop as fear ran through his body and said, "Umm…That's not a meteorite nor human." Then the entity sensed the crystal within him and took a step forward, and let out an otherworldly scream.
Ryzen's breath hitched as he said. "Crystorian!? So, the presence from earlier is coming from him." as his eyes altered, Umatsume said with a worried look on her face "I think it's after us?!"
Then Umatsume replies "Umm, I think it's after us!"
Then as she looks over at Ryzen as she gasps, she terrifyingly exclaims "W-What happened to your F-face?!".
Ryzen looked at a Umatsume with suddenly shifted eyes with a half human, half deformed extraterrestrial appearance.
Then he said "What are you talking about?" with a disoriented half human, half entity voice. Umatsume points and she said, "Y-Your hands!!!" as she took a step back and was terrified and trembling in fear. As he looked down at his hands, smoke bled from his hands as it crystalized up to his wrists.
Then Ryzen exclaims, "What is this, what's happening to me?!?"
Before they could question further, another high-pitched scream split the air as green energy erupted. Then the entity took a deep breath and unleashed a devastating green energy beam, tearing through the pavement towards them.
Ryzen shoved Umatsume aside as the blast obliterated the street, obliterating everything it touched, sending cars flying and flipping over from the shockwaves. Ryzen hit the ground hard, as his body screamed in protest.
The enemy was already attacking again, raising its arm for another blast.
He said to himself, "There's no time to think, just move!" but as he tried to run, he dashed swiftly out of the way. Then the entity acknowledgingly said, "You're a speedy one aren't you?!"
Then Ryzen replies, "Who are you and why are you attacking us?!?" Then the entity chuckled and said "I am Zaid, I sense the immense power of a crystorian coming from you, and it shall be mine to weld, you mortal!" as Zaid tilts his head slightly.
But before he could react, the entity appeared behind him as an attempt to drain his power. Suddenly, a ghostly shadow hand pulses and stops Zaid's attack as he gets repelled away from Ryzen.
A burst of white energy flared around him as turned around as he wall splats into a tree. Then Zaid fires another energy blast towards him.
Ryzen braces for impact as a white crystal energy shield formed from within the palm of his marked hand, blocking the blast.
Then Zaid gets up and says exaggeratedly "Nussance! So now the crystal is protecting you, what a pity." Ryzen stands motionless as if he was no longer himself as Ryzen says in a deep faint voice, "You're going to regret that!".
In an instant, a dreadful presence washes over Zaid as he said, "So, It finally awakens, so cold of you to just take over the way you did" as he smirks.
Its presence intensified, freezing him in his tracks as he exclaimed, "What is this… presence?!
It's so immense and dreadful as if I'm standing face to face with the devil himself." Then Ryzen appears behind Zaid, as his pupils shift from brown to pure white with crystalized diamond patterned eyes.
Landing a devastating blow, knocking Zaid across the pavement as he lets out a gut wrenching scream. The world shook as he snapped back into focus as his body struggled to keep up with his speed.
Umatsume says "Woah, how did you do that?!" as she looked terrified, as if she had seen Death himself within his shadow.
Then Ryzen appears behind Zaid, as his pupils shift from brown to pure white with crystalized diamond patterned eyes. Landing a devastating blow, knocking Zaid across the pavement as he lets out a gut wrenching scream.
The world shook as he snapped back into focus as his body struggled to keep up with his speed. Umatsume says "Woah, how did you do that?!" as she looked terrified, as if she had seen Death himself beside him.
Ryzen's hands trembled, faint trails of energy still smoking around his arms. His eyes flickered with that same eerie white glow as he looked down at them in disbelief.
"I… I don't know," he muttered, voice shaking. "It just happened." As Ryzen barely had time to process it. As if his abilities, speed, shield and strength were unlocking one after another.
Then Ryzen said determinely, "But just know that whatever happens...I will protect you!".
Zaid groaned in the distance, pushing himself up with blood dripping from his lip. The air around them pulsed, thick with tension.
Umatsume took a step back, her voice barely a whisper. "Ryzen… that wasn't normal. No human can move like that."
Then Zaid starts dashing towards him, as his energy starts crackling violently. Ryzen staggered as if his body was being controlled, while reality flickered around him.