When the sky gives no light of its own, the moon reflects what little it can, as though taking its place in illuminating the darkness.
In a forest that was neither dense nor barren, resembling the landscapes of Flores yet stretching across Europe.
No one spoke.
The three young men stood still, their bodies ready for whatever might come next.
They stared at the tree trunk they had just cut down.
Or, more precisely, they stared at what the fallen trunk had crushed.
Two wolves.
They were large enough to make anyone think twice before approaching them, yet somehow, neither seemed capable of doing anything but lie motionless beneath the fallen trunk.
Their breathing could no longer be heard. The bruises on their heads were no longer visible, although their vision was still somewhat unclear—the sky itself was dark.
Icam and Alif exchanged glances.
Neither looked particularly cheerful, as though this bizarre coincidence had somehow handed them an unexpected victory.
After exchanging glances, they turned their attention back to the unfortunate wolves.
Iyas smiled with satisfaction, like a ruthless hunter who had finally captured his prey. He then joined Icam and Alif to celebrate his accomplishment.
"Hey, Lip! Icam!" Iyas called out. "We won!"
He sounded as ferocious as a ruthless hunter who had just hunted down the last rhinoceros on Earth.
Icam waved him off and pushed Iyas away.
"Don't get so close!" he shouted.
Iyas was pushed back slightly. His ferocious smile disappeared.
"Why?"
"You might fall," Icam replied jokingly.
After saying that, Icam burst into laughter like a demon king who had just conquered the world and humiliated the hero beneath his feet.
Alif approached the wolves more closely than his friends did.
He made his way toward the fallen tree, using the trunk for support.
Eventually, he reached the wolves, now dead and silent.
He examined them carefully—not only to make sure that the wolves had truly breathed their last, but also to determine whether what they had been fighting all this time were actually wolves... or something else entirely.
After observing them for a while, Alif seemed to notice something strange.
He turned around and gestured for his friends to come over and take a look.
Iyas and Icam turned toward him, raising their eyebrows.
Their footsteps approached the source of Alif's discovery, their cheerful mood slowly fading away.
Alif turned his entire body around and looked innocently at Iyas and Icam.
He pointed.
Blood.
Except...
It didn't look like blood.
It was black.
If a liquid came out of a creature's body when it lost its life, what else could it be besides red blood?
Icam looked up.
Iyas froze, then covered his mouth.
Icam instinctively asked,
"What is it—"
"Whoa! Its blood is black!"
Iyas suddenly interrupted.
He covered his mouth with both hands, as though trying to hide his own stupidity.
Icam crouched down, resting his arm beneath his chin while repeatedly tapping it with his fingers.
He looked as though he were carefully examining the scene like an expert.
"Black blood? Is it low on hemoglobin?" he muttered curiously.
"Maybe it's black because it's dark," Alif added.
Iyas approached them and interrupted the conversation.
"Or maybe it's actually a robot. That's why the liquid coming out is black. Oil."
Icam raised his middle finger in front of his mouth.
"Shhhh!" he hissed. "What if a superpower finds out?"
"Just say you don't know. Problem solved," Alif casually replied.
Icam turned around.
His gaze fell upon the hole beneath the tree.
He raised his right hand to the level of his mouth.
"Hey, whoever's still hiding under the tree, just come out," he called.
Iyas narrowed his eyes, staring at the hole as well.
Alif continued examining the wolves, crouching down before eventually standing up again.
"The sound of that tree falling was pretty loud. The villagers should know we're here by now," Iyas remarked.
Behind Iyas, Alif still looked confused by what he had witnessed.
He kept looking around, crouching down.
Then standing up.
Then crouching again.
He looked to the right.
Then to the left.
Eventually, his gaze returned to the unfortunate wolves.
Suddenly—
Black smoke began to seep from the wolves' bodies.
Like the last traces of smoke from something being burned.
For a moment, Alif caught a strange smell.
He instinctively closed his eyes instead of covering his nose.
If he couldn't see it, then he wouldn't know there was smoke coming out.
And if he didn't know there was smoke...
Then his nose wouldn't know either.
That was apparently his train of thought.
Icam remained firmly in place, continuing to call for the little pawns to come out.
Then a foul smell drifted through the air.
Something between burning and decomposition.
Icam and Iyas smelled the strange odor.
They immediately turned toward the wolves.
Iyas's mouth fell open.
Icam stumbled backward until his butt hit the ground.
How could they not be shocked?
The two strange wolves that had previously been covered in thick black fur...
The fur was gone.
Not only the fur.
Their flesh was gone as well.
Icam stood up and approached the wolves even more closely.
Iyas did the same.
Iyas looked at Alif and raised an eyebrow.
"You left them alone for two seconds and they already ate each other!"
"I didn't eat them. They ate themselves," Alif calmly corrected him, pointing at the two wolf corpses.
Hearing such an absurd answer, Icam and Iyas exchanged glances.
"How did they eat themselves?" Iyas asked in confusion. "It's nighttime. How could they even see what they were doing?"
"It's nighttime?" Icam repeated, puzzled. "That doesn't make sense as a factor."
"Then what caused it?" Iyas asked, stretching out the final word.
Icam raised his hands.
"I don't know! The wolves are already dead," he snapped.
He lowered both hands, crossed his arms, and continued,
"Which means we can't ask them!"
Hearing that, Iyas suddenly slammed his fist against the fallen tree trunk for no apparent reason.
He glared sharply at Icam, saying nothing but somehow managing to look intimidating.
"Yeah, but we should probably run first," Alif suddenly cut in.
For no apparent reason, he puckered his lips toward his friends.
The two of them looked at Alif.
Once again, they had no idea what he meant.
"Run from who?" Icam asked.
Alif raised his right hand and pointed upward with his index finger.
"Animal protection officers."
"So you're saying you didn't eat them?" Iyas asked.
"No!"
Alif answered instantly while casually combing through his hair with the back of his hand.
"So these wolves decompose really quickly," Icam remarked, scratching his nose.
Without warning, a little girl appeared behind the three of them.
"O sweet moon, give me a small portion of your light in this darkness," she murmured.
The trio awkwardly turned around.
"Let me borrow your light once again."
"Luminus," she whispered.
Light.
A fairly bright light, almost like a modern light bulb.
Dim, yet still miraculous.
It emerged from the palm of her hand.
"WHAT!?"
Icam's sudden shout startled even the children.
He couldn't believe what he had just seen, both hands reaching up toward his hair.
"What's wrong with this guy?" Josh asked, bewildered.
His expression resembled that of a child who had just discovered that Santa Claus wasn't real.
Alif covered his eyes with his arm.
"What is this, some kind of bright light? It's so loud!"
He sounded annoyed, completely unaware that his sentence made absolutely no sense.
The glowing orb floated through the air, high enough to be seen by everyone.
It illuminated the surrounding area, allowing everyone within its radius to see.
It also attracted the attention of the villagers who were on their way there.
Dave Firmis, who had been terrified this entire time, suddenly began to cry.
Tears rolled down his cheeks.
His nose began running as well.
He was crying out of relief.
"Hhhhaaa! We're saved! Shreeck!"
Dave sobbed, sniffling so hard that his nose ran even more.
Wenry began crying too.
His legs suddenly became restless before he calmly sat down.
Caught up in the moment, Dave tried to hug Wenry.
But Wenry's crying immediately stopped.
He responded by pushing Dave away with an annoyed expression.
"Pandang muke boleh cakap lah je nih!" Iyas casually blurted out.
Krrreng! Shreeck!
The sound of metal came from the other side of the fallen tree—the children's left, and the trio's right.
Not a robot.
Not a cyborg.
But something wearing armor, standing tall with a war hammer strapped to its back.
The metal plates shifted against one another with every movement of its body.
A man.
Fully armored.
The increasingly loud clanking of metal footsteps caught everyone's attention.
The children turned toward the source.
Even the trio did the same.
"HAHH!!?"
Icam screamed loudly.
Alif bit his fingers, trembling.
The children panicked once again.
Seeing the children's despair, Iyas decided to comfort them for a moment.
He began saying random things until the children became even more confused.
The heavy armored footsteps stopped.
A ferocious, confident smile appeared on his face.
His skin was dark.
His ears were pointed.
The sight of him caused Dave and Wenry to fall backward in terror.
The trio, however, remained completely relaxed.
Iyas looked at the two children who had dramatically fallen over and gave them a skeptical look.
"You guys are really racist toward other people. Just because his skin is dark."
Unlike Wenry and Dave, Josh looked somewhat uneasy.
His face turned sour as he stared at the figure.
"That's... a demon race!" Josh revealed, pausing between his words as he pointed at the supposedly demonic figure.
Iyas immediately turned toward Josh.
"That's pretty racist for a kid. Dark skin and suddenly he's a demon?"
Josh's uneasiness faded slightly.
He stared at Iyas with a completely blank expression.
"Bro, seriously?"
BOOM!
They all turned toward the source of the sound.
A folding war hammer had deliberately been slammed into the earth.
"Alright, alright!" the man said cheerfully. "Time for some attention!"
He pointed toward his own face.
"Listen up, weak humans!"
"Remember this face!"
"My name is Falbe Halday!"
"The last name you'll ever hear!"
Josh and Sahrelia immediately stepped backward after hearing his introduction.
The trio, however, simply stood there in silence.
They didn't understand what the man was trying to accomplish.
"What's the point? I won't remember it," Alif said, looking down.
Iyas:
"Who?"
"Are we having an introduction session or something?" Icam asked dismissively. "Is he unemployed?"
To Be Continued!
WHOA! Dark skin? Pointed ears?
Carrying a war hammer?
Slamming it into the ground?
And then suddenly introducing himself like it's the first day of school?
What exactly are they looking at?
Who is standing before them?
What is he going to do to them?
Why are the children so terrified of him?
Is he the nightmare of every child who refuses to go home even after sunset?
Stay TUNED!