Veilstrum

The sky burned.

Flames bled through the heavens, as though the sun itself had been torn open. Rivers of fire fell like rain, scorching the earth and turning the land to smoldering ash. The wind howled—a dreadful, hollow wail—carrying with it the scent of smoke, blood, and despair.

Arkan stumbled forward, his legs weak, his breath ragged. The ground beneath him split apart, swallowing whole cities into its glowing depths. Towering buildings collapsed like crumpled paper. Streets where people once bustled with life now lay empty, jagged and broken. He could see them—bodies sprawled across the ruins—faces frozen mid-scream.

This was his home.

His hometown—the very place where he had spent his entire life. It had been a city filled with memories—laughter, love, faces of people he knew, his family, friends, mentors. Now, it was nothing but a graveyard of twisted metal and scorched earth. A place where every step he took seemed to crush the last remnants of his past.

"This… this can't be real…"

His voice trembled, barely louder than a whisper, lost beneath the roar of destruction. Around him, the air cracked with screams—high, sharp, and short-lived—snuffed out as shadows darker than night swept over the world.

Nullus.

A figure without form. A vast and twisting void blotting out the horizon. It stretched impossibly far, devouring light, sound, existence. Tendrils of nothingness reached out, turning everything they touched to dust, unraveling the fabric of reality itself.

Arkan fell to his knees, his chest heaving.

His eyes darted around wildly, searching for someone—anyone. But there was no one left. Only him, and the chaos. Tears streamed down his cheeks as the truth gnawed at the edges of his sanity. This wasn't a nightmare. This wasn't something he could wake from.

"Run."

The thought barely formed in his mind, but his body refused to move. His limbs felt like stone. His head pounded as terror rooted him to the spot.

He saw a young woman—her face familiar—standing a few feet away. She turned toward him, her mouth moving soundlessly. Before he could call out to her, a tendril swept across her. She dissolved in an instant, like sand scattered by the wind.

"NO!" Arkan screamed, his voice hoarse and desperate.

The tendril slithered toward him. He flinched, scrambling backward. His hands scraped against the rubble, blood staining his fingers, but he didn't care. A tremor wracked his body as he gasped for air.

"Why… why is this happening?!"

He gripped his head as memories—voices—flooded his mind. His family. Friends. Laughter. Smiles. Moments that once felt eternal now shattered like glass. All gone.

The ground shook again. Arkan's gaze shot upward. Nullus loomed closer now, its formless void stretching across the sky. A monstrous hum emanated from it—a deep, bone-rattling vibration that made his ears ring.

Arkan's body curled in on itself, as though trying to shield himself from the overwhelming weight of the void. But there was no escaping it. The despair—it seeped into him, coiling around his mind like chains, tightening, pulling him under.

His heart pounded in his chest. Thud. Thud. Thud.

"I don't want to die."

The thought slipped out before he could hold it back. He could feel it now—his fear—consuming him, dragging him deeper into darkness. His breaths quickened, growing shallow. Every sound blurred into a deafening hum.

He squeezed his eyes shut. "Someone… help me…"

The voice came, low and cold, from everywhere and nowhere.

"Help you? There is no one left."

Arkan's eyes shot open. The shadows stretched toward him, slow and deliberate. He could feel it—Nullus—looking at him, through him.

And for the first time, he understood.

There was nothing he could do.

Nothing.

As the tendrils reached him, as the void loomed closer, Arkan finally screamed.

A scream of anguish. A scream of helplessness. A scream that carried through the end of a world.

And then there was silence.

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