Steel hit flesh.
A severed arm spun across the pier.
Saturo didn't even get to breathe before his lungs locked.
The clarity from earlier vanished. His chest seized so sharply he nearly dropped the sword.
The creature rushed him.
Claws slammed into his ribs.
He flew backward and skidded across the wood, gasping in short, broken pulls.
The monster loomed over him.
"Slow," it hissed. "Weak again."
Saturo scraped up one ugly inhale. It wasn't enough.
The creature lifted him by the front of his shirt—
A spear hit its side, knocking it off balance.
Villagers yelled from the pier's entrance, forming an unsteady line with nets, hooks, anything they could grab.
"Stay back!"
"Don't let it near the boys!"
The creature threw the spear aside and turned back toward Saturo.
It sprinted forward—
A blur smashed into it.
A girl landed between Saturo and the monster—barefoot, silent, eyes glowing faint pink. Her hair whipped behind her as she steadied herself.
She didn't look at Saturo.
Only at the creature.
"What… is she…?" someone whispered.
No answer.
The creature hissed.
"A… strange scent. Something about her is wrong."
The girl charged without hesitation.
Her kick cracked the monster's jaw sideways.
It slashed her arm—she didn't react.
Saturo forced himself up, grabbed the sword, and staggered toward them. His breath rattled in his throat.
The creature lunged at the girl.
Saturo dragged in one tight breath—just enough to step in and swing.
Steel cut the same damaged joint.
The creature's arm tore off completely.
It shrieked and dropped to one knee.
Saturo dropped too, chest spasming as his lungs simply refused to work.
The sky flickered.
The faint crack overhead pulsed once—just once—red light trembling at the edges.
The creature froze, head snapping upward.
"No… not yet."
Its voice trembled—not with fear of them, but of whatever waited beyond that crack.
It turned and bolted.
One leap—and it vanished into the sea.
Silence crushed the pier.
Villagers stared, horrified and speechless.
Saturo's vision darkened.
Hands grabbed him as his legs buckled.
"He's not breathing!"
"Get him inside!"
"Hurry!"
The world faded.
Saturo woke to voices.
"—don't let him move—"
"—something crushed his chest—"
"—that girl, what was she—?"
He blinked at the familiar clinic ceiling.
Wood. Herbs. Lantern smoke.
His breathing was shallow, uneven—but working.
He turned his head.
The boy who had fallen from the sky was in the next cot, bandaged and unconscious.
The fisherman sat nearby. "You're awake," he grunted.
Saturo swallowed. "Barely."
"You almost stopped breathing on us."
The man scratched his beard. "Again."
Saturo didn't argue.
The doctor approached, wiping sweat from his forehead.
"Your lungs took a heavy hit. Either that thing crushed you, or you pushed yourself far past what your body can handle."
Saturo didn't respond.
The fisherman leaned closer. "That creature went straight for you and the sky boy. Something about that boy doesn't seem right."
"No idea," Saturo said. "Ask it next time it shows up."
A humorless snort.
Outside, villagers argued loudly.
"Send a flare!"
"Call the Marines!"
"That girl—what if she comes back?!"
"And that stranger! He fell from nowhere!"
The doctor sighed. "They're terrified. They don't know what they saw."
Saturo didn't have an answer. He just knew he'd swung at something impossible and almost died for it.
He turned toward the boy on the next cot—the boy's eyes were wide open.
He looked at Saturo first.
"You're alive," he whispered.
"Barely," Saturo repeated.
The boy's gaze drifted to the ceiling, then the window.
His brows drew together.
"…It's still there."
"What?" Saturo asked.
"The… mark," the boy said quietly. "Where the sky cracked."
Saturo swallowed.
The boy met his eyes again.
"It didn't close completely."
Saturo didn't have a reply.
Outside, the villagers finally lit the signal flare.
Red burned across the sky.
Saturo listened to the whistle of the flare… and the rough scrape of his own breathing.
The crack in the sky wasn't gone.
And whatever had fallen through it—
was only the beginning.
AUTHOR'S NOTE — BONUS & EARLY ACCESS
This is my original work. Please support if you like, Suggestions are welcome
◇ I'll drop one bonus chapter for every 10 reviews(leave a review/comment!)
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.