Chapter 9: Pitch Black
Leon crouched behind a pillar, watching the chaos unfold. Gunfire echoed through the infested marsh, sparks flying as bullets ricocheted off stone pillars and stone walls.
His eyes locked onto a man pinned behind a collapsed piece of rubble—wearing a worn, brown detective's coat, his figure hunched and breathing heavy. The relentless barrage of bullets was aimed squarely at him.The sound of bullets bullets bouncing of pillars and gunpowder burst echoed everywhere.
Leon's grip tightened around the cold metal of the pistol he had retrieved earlier. He had a choice to make.
Use the gun... or reveal his power.
Either option would ignite a chain of consequences he wasn't ready to face.
"Why should I save him? "Leon thought bitterly, his jaw clenched.
But silence gave him no answer.
Saving the man could become a double-edged sword. He didn't know who these people were, what their motives might be, or what saving the man would cost him. One wrong move, and he'd be marked.
The man behind cover was running out of time. His golden-bronze revolver clicked empty, its chamber dry. With trembling arms, he let it fall to the floor beside him.
His breath fogged in the cold air—shallow, weakening. Death was crawling up his spine.
Across the hall, the enemies in uniform advanced. Each bore a chilling emblem: a black V stitched onto their jackets. From among them, a woman stepped forward—her voice like shards of ice:
"Stop."
Her words echoed with authority.
"You know, Detective. it's quite unfortunate" she continuedwith a smile on her face , her tone laced with contempt, "you and your backward-minded friends were always a nuisance. Every time someone is on the verge of achieving something great, you lot come crawling in like children—just to ruin it."
Her hair Side-swept curl long enough to reach her shoulder framed a face carved from frost, and her pale eyes mirrored the coldness of her voice. She came to a halt, staring down at the dying man.
Her words were slow with a smile and hidden malice "A man who sole life spent on tarnishing others dream why don't you go and die ....but yes, Don't take this as advice. You're pretty much dead already, Detective... or should I say—Master"
Leon's eyes narrowed when he heard this
"What "leon thought
She spoke without blinking her stare was emotionless as if looking a dead man.
"And don't think that just because I was your student... I'd show mercy. Don't expect it."
Her voice wasn't angry. It was calm. Cold. The kind that made your blood still.
The barrel of her gun rose and stopped an inch from the detective's forehead.
The man didn't move.
He smiled. A tired, weathered smile then it started to slowly turn into a grin.
"I wouldn't expect anything else. ""And f**k you "
The detective spat on the ground " you think death scares me ."he scoffed and said while a grin bloomed in his face "think b!*ch "
Leon's breath caught smiling respecting the man's courage .
His fingers curled around the pistol hidden beneath his coat. His legs shifted forward, barely perceptible. One more step and he'd be seen.
One more second and someone would die but that man was not afraid of death.
Leon's instincts screamed.his fingers tightening around the pistol "
He had made choices like this before—too many times.
Save one.
Lose ten.
Reveal himself.
Or stay a ghost.
His mind was already weighing the cost.
But then—
It happened.
No warning. No sound. No tremor in the air.
The sky...
ceased.
Not shattered. Not torn.
It simply vanished.
The yellowish sky with its swirling clouds—gone.
And in its place—
nothing.
A canvas of pitch black stretched endlessly above them.
Not a single star. Not a single sun.
Just an infinite void.
As if someone had erased the heavens.
Yet the world below remained.
Leon could still see the trees.
The dust clinging to his boots.
The pillar at his back.
The blue-haired woman.
The detective kneeling in front of her.
Everything was visible. Everything was unchanged.
Except the sky.
And that was the problem.
His heart began to race. Not from adrenaline. Not from combat.
But from something else.
Something ancient.
Something he thought he'd buried fifty years ago.
Fear.
"No... this isn't possible."
He had faced monsters. Gods.
He had survived wars, betrayals, extinction.
But this—
This wasn't something you could fight.
There was no enemy.
No logic.
No pattern.
No sound.
Only a silence that pressed against your lungs.
Only a sky that whispered: You are small
The woman laughed—not mockingly looking at the sky, but with pride like it was about time something happened.
"I guess your death can wait, Detective. You should witness the plan unfold."
Her voice carried with it the certainty of someone who had already won.
Above them, something began to shift in the blackened void.
A moon appeared—no, not Earth's.
It was unfamiliar. Alien.
Encircled by glowing, jagged rings like shards of light frozen in orbit.
And it was close.
Too close.
Leon stared, his pulse hammering in his ears and skull.
It hovered roughly 200,000 kilometers above—
Yet it felt like he could reach out and touch it.
"This can't be real..."
Beside the woman, the man in the detective's coat—calm even moments before—was now frozen.
His face drained of color.
His hands trembled.
His breath was gone.
Then—
It arrived.
A shadow passed behind the moon.
No, not a shadow—
A shape.
A presence.
A being.
Larger than the moon.
Its body unfathomable.
Its form... incomplete, like a concept not yet fully written into reality.
Its mouth opened slowly—
jagged, uneven teeth visible from space.
No eyes.
Only layers of cracked, folded stone-like skin—shifting and grinding like tectonic plates.
And it watched.
Or something else watched through it.
The moon, once terrifying, now seemed like a child's toy.
A ping-pong ball orbiting near the lips of a god.
Leon's body refused to move.
Every instinct screamed to run, to hide, to vanish.
But his legs were numb.
His fingers grew cold, still on the pistol, had turned pale.
"What... is that...?"
A whisper.
Not from the sky.
Not from the woman.
But from within his coat.
A warm pulse.
Leon looked down.
His father's journal—
Buried deep in his inner coat—
was glowing.
A dull golden light flickered from the worn leather edges.
Almost like it had been waiting.
Like it recognized the being above....
[To be continued.....}