In one painful, unforgettable night when choas had risen in the land of Aderfel. Two unique children were born, far apart, yet bound by fate.
Creatures they had only ever heard of in legend now prowled the land. Their very forms were a mockery of nature, bodies twisted into grotesque shapes as though sculpted by madness itself. They slaughtered without mercy, leaving behind only ruin and silence. Their hulking frames towered over shattered homes, each one grotesquely unique, some crawling on too many limbs, others dragging bloated hides streaked with unnatural colors that shimmered faintly in the dark. No two were alike, yet all radiated the same alien dread. They were not beasts of this world but nightmares given flesh. Their skins bore crimson carapaces, glistening obsidian scales, and veins that pulsed with sickly greens and blues. Wherever they passed, the land itself warped, scarred into grotesque reflections of their monstrous forms.
Amid the chaos, a voice cried out to the panicked hoarse from shouting, lungs burning from smoke. "Run! Hurry to the caves!"
But many could not move, caught in the trance of horror their limbs failing them. Some clutched their children close and simply waited for death without even trying. Others stumbled forward desperately, eager to survive long enough to see the next sunrise. Yet even as they fled, the same question burned in every mind. Were the caves truly safe?
---
At the far edge of Elaria city stood a man with striking white-bluish hair, his blue eyes glowing faintly in the dark as his gaze swept across the desolate horizon, lingering over smoldering ruins and creeping shadows.
After a tense pause, he turned and beckoned to the two figures behind him. One was a young woman with dark hair brushing her shoulders, eyes the color of storm clouds against her pale skin, her belly swollen with child. The other was older, her red hair tied lazily behide her. They were his wife, Nyra, and his mother, Myrrin. As they stepped forward, both froze, eyes widening in shock.
Before them loomed a towering silhouette cloaked in mist. Its body was pure obsidian, swallowing light like a void. From the shadows, two eerie white eyes glowed, piercing and otherworldly. A veil of smoke‑like fabric drifted around it, thrumming with ancient silence. This was Sēndra, the Guardian of Sealed Knowledge.
Myrrin's voice rang out, sharp with panic. "Nyra! Look away! If you keep staring into its eyes, you'll lose every memory you have!" But Nyra couldn't hear her.
Thalor turned, staggering under the crushing weight of its presence. A single glance threatened to strip his mind away. He spun back toward Nyra, shouting with desperate urgency. "Nyra! You have to snap out of it!"
But Nyra's gaze remained fixed as she murmured dreamily, her words hollow. "What am I doing here? Where is my husband?"
A piercing cry suddenly escaped her lips. She doubled over as another wave of labor pain tore through her body. The trance shattered. She glanced around dazed. "Where are we?" she whispered stumbling to her feet.
"Thalor! She's been in labor for three hours, we can't wait any longer!" Myrrin clung to her daughter‑in‑law, her voice cracking with desperation.
A holographic screen flickered before Thalor. Bold letters flashed: Low stamina. Fast heartbeat.
'My stamina's weak'… he realized, the weight of the warning pressing down on him but still, he drew his sword and slashed but all it met was mist. Then claws erupted from the haze, wicked and glistening, striking for the pregnant woman.
Thalor froze.
But just then, a sudden roar of flames split the night. Then followed by blood sprayed in a crimson arc as a massive head, as large as a wagon front, crashed to the ground. From the smoking neck, a figure landed, cloaked in fury and fire.
He barked at Thalor, "What do you think you're doing standing there dazed while your wife is in labor, you idiot?" It was Varek Blackthorn, Thalor's sworn brother.
Another holographic screen flickered before Varek. He grimaced, his breath ragged.
'I'm low on stamina.'
He spat between ragged breaths, "My essence is nearly gone… you're lucky, at least you know where your wife is. I've got no clue where mine is." His gaze swept the chaos as he turned to the crowd, voice booming with command. "Everyone, get to the caves! Move! Hunter Kael where are the others?!"
But Kael never answered. A spear tore through his skull with brutal precision before anyone saw where it came from.
Varek cursed, rage burning in his chest. "Move your butt, dumb ass!" he growled at Thalor, frustration spilling over as he had no idea where his wife was and she too was pregnant.
Thalor gave a single nod, clutching Nyra in his arms as he whispered under his breath, "I owe you one, Varek."
---
Thalor veered into the woods as the city behind him burned in chaos. Strange creatures prowled through buildings etched with glowing runes. Fire licked across shattered stone, blood slicked the streets, bodies lay in heaps. With his blade ready, he plunged deeper into the forest, eyes darting between the trees.
"I see a cave up ahead," his mother called, her voice strained but steady.
"Go on, Mom I'm right behind you," he answered quickly.
But just as he turned, hot blood splashed across his back. He spun to find Nyra on her knees yet the blood wasn't hers. Before him was a towered a monstrous sight, his mother was being swallowed by a colossal crocodile‑lion hybrid, its jagged stone‑like hide pulsed with eerie green veins, and twisted ivory horns curled along its skull. The beast roared, a thunderous bellow that shook the trees.
Nyra sobbed, each breath ripped from her as waves of labor agony crashed through her body. Sweat drenched her skin, her face pale and drawn, yet her eyes still burned with the will to endure even as her strength bled away.
Thalor roared back, his voice clashing with the monster's thunder. In a blinding flash, his blade erupted with power as he slashed reducing the beast into shredded flesh. He barely had a moment to wonder how it had happened before more abominations surged from the darkness, glowing eyes fixing on him.
He shouted again and again, urging Nyra toward the cave but her limbs would not move. Her world had collapsed into pain and exhaustion. Grinding his teeth, Thalor bent to carry her again when icy hands clamped around his ankles. Shadows coiled up his legs like living chains, rooting him to the earth. 'A shadow trap.'
From the darkness, a woman appeared, swift as a blade drawn from its sheath. Her eyes burned with resolve as she seized Nyra, dragging her toward the cave. She was Elunara.
Nyra tried to push through the agony, but even the thought of lifting a finger felt impossible. Her body trembled, trapped between despair and a faint spark of hope.
"I… I can't push…" she sobbed, her voice breaking.
Inside the cavern, Elunara's voice snapped like thunder, echoing through the stone. "Then do you want to kill your child?!"
Her words struck like a whip, but Nyra only wept harder, choking on her sobs. "I can't… I have nothing left…"
Outside, the sky bled crimson, shadows writhed like living things. Thalor carved through the horde, his blade flashing again and again. Yet for every monster he felled, two more clawed their way forward. Each step grew heavier, as though the very earth sought to drag him into despair.
But then something shifted inside.
Nyra clenched her teeth, tears streaking down her face as she pushed not for herself, not for anyone else, but for the fragile life she carried. For the child she refused to lose.
And the world outside stopped. Every creature froze mid‑snarl. Ears twitched, claws hung motionless in the air. A silence fell so heavy it crushed the battlefield. One by one, the beasts stepped back, their eyes never leaving the cave as they retreated, sinking into shadows, into soil, swallowed by the trembling earth itself. They felt a presence of something far greater coming.
Inside the cavern, Nyra let out one last, soul‑rending scream, and then he was born. A child with hair of shimmering white‑blue strands, glistening like frost under moonlight. Eyes as clear and endless as the sky. He lay still in Elunara's trembling hands, not a cry, not even a sound. For one terrifying heartbeat, fear gripped them all because the silence was unbearable. He looked dead yet his chest rose faintly, a heartbeat pulsed within steady but silent.
Elunara's breath caught. "No… impossible…" She turned him over, again and again, desperately searching for life when a sudden pulse of light burst forth from his back. A mysterious mark etched into his skin like a seal of destiny glowed pulsing blue, then red, then gold, then black, then white. Each colour brighter than the one before until the cavern itself shone, shadows fleeing the light.
Elunara's eyes widened, her voice trembling with awe and dread. "This mark… it's the mark the Nine Pillars Binding Seal. This is the very seal that was used to bind away the cursed demon [ Vanik'shur Teluvahr ]"
Outside, the world had changed, the creatures were gone as if they had never been. Even the abominations that ravaged the city had begun to flee like rats before a storm, vanishing as if pursued by something far greater than death.
---
And in that very moment another child was being born, far across the city in a hospital laying in ruins, swallowed by devastation. Only half its walls stood, jagged and broken, while the roof had collapsed inward, exposing the sky above.
Amid the debris and dust, a nurse knelt beside a woman writhing on the cold, cracked floor.
The woman screamed that the baby wasn't coming, her voice raw with desperation. The nurse urged her to push, her own voice barely rising above the distant chaos. Outside, hunters clashed with monstrous creatures, steel meeting shadows in a war that had no end.
Amid all of it, the woman pushed, again and again, her body trembling with strain and agony. Her cries rose with the explosions in the distance. Then at last, the child came.
A newborn with soft light green hair, but as he entered the world, he cried. But his cry was no ordinary sound. It tore through the air like a rupture. The vibrations shook the dust from fractured beams, shattered the few remaining windowpanes, and echoed like thunder trapped in stone. The nurse staggered back, her ears ringing, eyes wide with disbelief.
The sound was too loud, too deep, too real.
Even the creatures beyond the broken hospital faltered. Their monstrous forms recoiled, sensing something they didn't understand. One by one, they began to retreat, uneasy.
The woman tried to hold the child, but the cry pierced her bones. The nurse could no longer hear her own thoughts. The infant's wail was raw like mourning, like something ancient had been awakened.
This child had not been born in silence.He had been born in sound, a sound that shook the world. And since that day, silence fell.
No one could explain it.
And this is how Fiel Ashenhive and his other half, Elyen Blackthorn were born.
The other half... he's yet to know.