The sun was saying its goodbye,
coloring the sky with oranges and purples over the peaks of the mountains that guarded the Valley of Sereno.
Kaelen and Lígia still remained by the stream,
now in a comfortable silence, watching the first stars that dotted the firmament.
Lígia's basket, nearly finished, rested at her side.
The cool evening air carried with it the smell of smoke from the chimneys
and the comforting aroma of dinner cooking in the homes.
"We should go back," said Lígia, standing up with a sigh.
"My grandmother will be worried if I don't arrive before night fully falls.
You know how she is with the stories of the forest."
Her tone was light,
but a fleeting shadow crossed her golden eyes,
an echo of the old superstitions whispered by the elders about creatures that roamed in the dark.
Kaelen nodded, helping her up.
"Yes. Master Elías was expecting me too."
The mention of the wise old man reminded him of the promise of a new scroll with strange symbols,
a mystery that awaited him.
Lígia smiled at him,
a gesture that lightened Kaelen's heart.
They began walking back,
their steps echoing softly on the familiar path.
---
That's when they heard it.
It wasn't the familiar howl of a wolf, nor the roar of a distant storm.
It was a guttural roar, deep and primal,
that made the ground beneath their feet tremble.
A sound that cut through the valley's tranquility like a hot blade.
Immediately after came a thunderous crash,
as if an entire mountain had collapsed.
The echo bounced off the hillsides,
drowning out the everyday sounds.
The atmosphere changed in an instant.
The air, once soft and fragrant,
became dense, filled with an acrid smell of sulfur
and something else…
something rancid and metallic that Kaelen couldn't identify.
The children's laughter ceased.
The lights from the houses, which moments before had seemed warm invitations,
now looked like vulnerable and fragile points of light in a growing darkness.
"What was that?" whispered Lígia.
Her voice trembled.
Her golden eyes, once full of joy,
were now dilated with fear.
She clung to Kaelen's arm,
her fingers gripping it tightly.
Kaelen had no answer.
His mind, accustomed to logic and peace, couldn't process the magnitude of that sound.
But his instinct screamed: run.
"I don't know. But we have to get to the others! Now!"
---
They took off running down the path,
Kaelen's heart pounding furiously against his ribs.
As they advanced, a second crash struck, closer,
accompanied by a deafening crack of wood and stone,
and a scream.
A human scream,
laden with pain and unimaginable terror,
that was abruptly cut off.
They reached the edge of the village,
and the scene that met Kaelen's amethyst eyes
was one that would forever burn into his retina and soul.
The wooden defenses surrounding Sereno,
built with such effort by generations,
weren't just broken; they were pulverized.
A gigantic gap opened in the wall,
where once there had been a solid oak gate.
The air was full of dust, smoke,
and the unmistakable stench of blood.
---
And there they were.
In the breach of the wall,
taller than any man,
with bodies of tense muscle and skin in shades of red and blue,
stood the Oni.
Their twisted horns glowed faintly in the dying light,
and their eyes, like burning embers,
locked onto the terrified villagers.
They wielded disproportionate weapons:
spiked maces that crushed skulls in a single blow,
and axes that sliced a man in half with one swing.
Their guttural roars, now so close,
weren't of war, but of sadistic pleasure.
Kaelen saw one lift a farmer by the neck,
his thin body hanging limp,
before throwing him against a house with casual force.
---
And among the Oni,
moving with terrifying grace,
were the Vampires.
Kaelen saw them.
Their figures, deceptively human,
slipped through the chaos, faster than the eye.
One of them, with a cold and perfect smile,
approached a woman trying to flee.
In a blink, she was in his arms.
His fangs gleamed for an instant before sinking into her neck.
There was no scream; only a silenced gasp.
Panic spread like wildfire.
Blood ran across the ground, mixing with dust and tears.
---
Lígia let out a choked sob,
her golden eyes fixed on the horror.
"No… it can't be," she murmured,
trying to back away,
her legs like jelly.
"Lígia, we have to run! Through the forest!"
Kaelen pulled her, his voice barely a strangled whisper.
There was no time for reason,
only for the instinct to flee.
But fear, like an icy hand, paralyzed him for a moment longer.
His home, his sanctuary,
was becoming a slaughterhouse.
Images of Master Elías and his own parents flashed in his mind,
desperation growing.
---
Then, an Oni turned.
Its gaze, full of malice, landed on them.
It was a massive creature, with gnarled horns
and a smile that revealed teeth sharp as daggers.
It raised its mace, aiming at them.
Kaelen didn't think; he reacted.
"This way! Down the river path, behind the houses!"
Kaelen shouted, pulling Lígia with all his strength,
his amethyst eyes locked on the Oni now advancing toward them.
They ran, dodging debris and bodies,
the villagers' screams and the Oni's roars
becoming a hellish cacophony.
---
They managed to reach the back of the houses,
seeking the relative cover of narrow alleys leading to the forest.
The stench of smoke and death grew stronger.
Kaelen didn't look back.
He didn't dare.
But the sounds...
the dying moans,
the cruel laughter of the Vampires,
the echo of the Oni's maces striking...
were etched into his mind.
---
Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of them, emerging from a shadow.
It was Master Elías.
His midnight-blue hair was disheveled,
and his pearl-gray eyes, which had always radiated calm,
were now wide with horror and anguish.
He held a rusty sword in his hand,
a useless weapon for his scholarly hands.
His pale skin stood out under the faint light.
"Master Elías!" Kaelen exclaimed,
a flicker of hope, as brief as a firefly, igniting in his chest.
But hope vanished as quickly as it came.
---
Behind Master Elías,
sliding from the shadows of the alley,
emerged a translucent figure.
It was a Shadow, formless and twisted,
that seemed to absorb what little light remained around it.
It loomed over the old man, and in an instant, enveloped him.
Master Elías let out a scream
that wasn't of physical pain,
but of indescribable mental agony.
His pearl-gray eyes opened wide, empty,
filled with a cosmic terror that made Kaelen tremble to the bone.
The old man began to babble, meaningless words,
before his body collapsed to the ground,
an empty shell, his eyes still open and fixed on nothing.
The Shadow, satisfied, dissipated like mist.
---
Kaelen froze.
The horror of seeing Master Elías,
his beacon of wisdom and kindness,
consumed by such visceral darkness,
was a blow that cracked his soul.
Lígia let out a scream,
her voice breaking with terror at seeing the mentor fall.
A nearby Oni, attracted by the cry, turned its head
and its ember eyes landed on them.
With a hunting roar, it began to move.
"Lígia, run! Run! Don't look back!"
Kaelen shouted, pushing her with all his strength toward the narrow path that led to the trees.
He couldn't move.
His feet were planted to the ground,
his eyes fixed on Master Elías's lifeless body,
and the Oni's looming silhouette.
---
Lígia, terrified, began to run,
her sobs drowned by the beast's roar and the surrounding chaos.
But the Oni was too fast.
With a couple of massive strides, it closed the distance.
It raised its enormous mace, which whistled through the air.
Kaelen closed his eyes,
preparing for the final blow.
But it wasn't him who received it.
---
A piercing, agonizing scream—
the most painful Kaelen had ever heard—resounded.
It was Lígia's voice.
He opened his eyes just in time to see the Oni's mace,
not striking his body, but Lígia's,
who had tried to shield or protect him.
The blow launched her through the air like a rag doll,
crashing her into the wall of a house.
Her fiery red hair spread out like a macabre halo around her head.
Her golden eyes,
the sun that lit Kaelen's world,
remained fixed on him,
filled with a mix of love, pain, and final agony.
A thin line of blood escaped her lips.
"LÍGIA!" Kaelen's scream was a guttural sound, more beast than man.
A pain so immense he couldn't contain it.
He ran to her, falling to his knees at her side.
Her once vibrant skin was now pale,
her eyes beginning to lose their light.
---
The Oni, pleased with his strike, let out a mocking laugh.
Another approached,
and a Vampire stalked from the shadows.
Kaelen lifted his head,
his amethyst eyes now full of unhinged fury and pain,
fixing on the creatures that had destroyed his world.
A raw and savage power began to stir within him,
but it wasn't the magic of Master Elías's books—
it was something darker, fed by despair.
---
The voices began.
Hundreds of them, whispering, screaming, laughing.
The voices of the dead villagers,
the laughter of the monsters,
Lígia's voice calling him.
His own mind was tearing apart.
A second Oni approached,
its shadow falling over Kaelen and Lígia.
Kaelen looked at his friend's agonizing face.
He knew there was no hope.
Not for her.
Not for him.
But the instinct for survival, brutal and merciless, took over.
With a tremor that ran through his entire body, Kaelen stood.
His eyes, no longer only amethyst,
but stained with a dark and deranged shadow,
searched for an escape path.
There was a small opening at the back of the house,
where only a child—or a desperate man—could pass.
---
He looked at Lígia one last time,
her golden eyes pleading.
Kaelen clenched his fists,
his heart shattering into a thousand pieces.
He couldn't help her.
He could only survive.
With a painful growl, Kaelen slipped through the opening,
crawling among the rubble,
as he heard the final blow.
The sound of the Oni's mace striking again,
followed by a silence more terrifying than any scream.
The silence of Lígia's death.
Kaelen didn't look back.
He couldn't.
There was nothing to save.
Only terror, guilt,
and the seed of madness beginning to sprout in his soul.
He ran into the darkness of the forest,
leaving behind the flames and the bodies of his home and his loved ones.
Leaving behind the last trace of his innocence.
The Valley of Sereno had fallen.
And with it, Kaelen's sanity had begun its inevitable descent.