Suddenly, William's head shot up. His red eyes glowed with madness and fear. "Aaarggh! I don't want to die!!" His scream tore through the calm night like the cry of a lost creature.
Frans and Radit jolted. "What the hell?!" Radit reached for his weapon, but instinct told him bullets were useless against something like this.
The blade touched skin. A thin line of blood appeared.
They pulled his arm back desperately, but the force dragging him forward was far stronger than muscle, or reason.
"His bone is completely gone!" Felicia shouted, veins straining under the pressure. Kaivan gritted his teeth, locked inside a nightmare he couldn't stop.
"William! Hold on!" Raphael yelled.
But the blade won.
With a sharp, ripping whisper, the knife slid into William's throat. His eyes widened. Blood burst from his mouth and neck, spreading like a river freed from its dam.
In his final breaths, William whispered, broken, fading:
"De… be… care… ful… they're… dan… ger… don't… in… volve… Eka…"
His head fell limp. His body stiffened, then collapsed with a heavy THUD.
Blood seeped into the grass, sinking into the soil in a silence more terrifying than his scream.
Kaivan, Raphael, and Felicia tore the knife from William's hand, but they were too late. Kaivan stared at the weapon without blinking, as if his mind refused to accept what had just happened.
A suffocating silence rolled across the night. The wind brushed through the grass, carrying the metallic scent of fresh blood. Frans swallowed hard. Radit dragged a shaking hand across his face, as if trying to wipe away a nightmare.
Then, something changed.
From William's torn pocket, an old book slipped out. Kaivan's eyes sharpened instantly. The Tome of Omnidream, the artifact William had held all along.
But before anyone could move, a shadow burst from the ground. Dark mist, like the grasp of living darkness, wrapped around the book. And in an instant, the Tome vanished into the void.
The wind shifted. Sharper. Colder. Wrong.
Felicia tightened her stance, eyes narrowing. Raphael lifted his weapon. And Kaivan felt the air itself change… as if something unseen was crawling beneath his skin.
A small crystal emerged from the spot where the Tome of Omnidream had vanished, its gentle glow cutting through the darkness of the night. It shimmered quietly, calm, yet holding secrets no one could name.
Under the somber crescent moon, lifeless bodies lay scattered across the field. The smell of blood and damp earth lingered in the cold air. At the center of it all, Kaivan stood motionless, lost in thought.
He stepped forward slowly, drawn toward the tiny crystal. Its pale light seemed to call to him. Beneath that soft glow, there was something like a whisper, silent, yet unmistakably present.
Carefully, he knelt down. His breath held. His fingers reached out. And the moment his skin brushed its surface,
"Kaivan?" Felicia's voice broke the stillness. She took a step toward him, tension radiating from her stance, as though ready to shield him from something unseen.
Kaivan tightened his hold on the crystal. A cold sting ran through his bones, but his eyes never left the gleaming shape resting in his palm. Something about it felt familiar, like it wasn't just an object.
He drew in a breath and rose to his feet. With a steady motion, he pulled the Tome of Omnicent from his bag. The old wooden cover gleamed faintly, its carved patterns shifting subtly as if responding to the crystal's presence. Kaivan traced the surface until he found a narrow slot, almost as though it had been crafted with this very crystal in mind.
"Maybe…" he murmured. Slowly, he pressed the crystal into the slot.
Silence followed. No reaction. No burst of light, no surge of power. Only a heavier, deeper stillness.
Kaivan exhaled, his fingers curling over the worn cover of the tome. "It's just me and my imagination," he whispered, half disappointed, half unsure.
Behind him, Radit spoke, calm, yet strained. "It's four in the morning."
Felicia's gaze drifted to the motionless bodies. Her voice was barely audible. "What about them? We can't just leave them here…"
Raphael, restless from the start, tightened his jacket and glanced around. "People go hiking here. If someone finds this mess before we're gone… it'll be a disaster. We should leave now."
Kaivan said nothing. His eyes moved from one exhausted face to another. The weight of their unspoken questions pressed on his shoulders. This wasn't just a choice, it was the direction their future would take.