They had just started to feel safe.
Biji was meditating on a cliff. Tiny was arguing with a 6-year-old about knives. Yukie was asleep in a hammock made of stolen prayer flags.
The villagers still didn't trust them — but they weren't throwing spears anymore.
Then it happened.
---
The sky opened.
A soundless rift split the clouds — no thunder, no warning — just a black streak of light, curving downward like a sword from space.
Everyone stopped.
Heads tilted upward.
Even the wind froze.
And then…
Impact.
A single, massive meteor crashed into the heart of the mountain.
It didn't crack.
It ripped.
The world around them bent.
Heat tore across the soil.
The ground screamed.
Stone exploded upward.
Flames swallowed air.
Villagers ran. Children wailed.
The island — once silent and hidden — was gone in seconds.
---
When Biji opened her eyes, everything was burning.
---
She coughed.
Blood in her throat.
Her left arm was pinned under debris. Her clothes were scorched. She saw nothing but smoke — and silence.
She forced herself up.
Through ash, she saw Tiny, barely breathing, his jacket torn, trying to lift a boulder off Yukie, who was still asleep somehow.
> "You awake?" he croaked, voice raw.
"No," Yukie muttered. "Go away."
Biji crawled toward them.
Together, they limped through blackened ruins — not a village anymore. Just rubble.
Nothing left but three broken survivors.
---
> "What the hell is happening?" Tiny whispered, eyes wide.
No one answered.
Not the wind.
Not the sky.
Not the ground, which still vibrated like it was waiting.
Yukie sat up slowly, brushing ash from her hair.
> "That… wasn't a normal meteor."
Biji didn't speak.
She was staring at something in the crater's core.
A metal shard. Still glowing.
Not rock.
Not debris.
Not even a weapon.
It pulsed like a heart.
Like something had sent it.
From beyond the Veil.
From above belief.
From a place Arcane forgot existed.
---
They had survived A BIG CRAB.
They had survived spears, sea, and secrets.
But this?
This was different.
This wasn't survival.
This was targeting.
---