In an alley in Altus Forge, among trash bags, foul puddles, and rats, lay a small dog, black as jet. It didn't move, showed no signs of life. Flies settled on its back.
Then, something fell from the sky nearby, in the middle of the main street that the alley opened onto. The impact shook the ground. The rats fled into the pipes, the flies scattered, but the little dog remained lying there.
It wasn't until a few seconds later that it lifted its head and opened its eyes. They were sad, dark eyes, reflecting a soul on the verge of extinction.
Maybe because it hadn't seen something so bright in a long time, maybe because something in the violet light emanating from the crater called to it, the dog tried to drag itself toward it.
It could only use its front legs; the hind ones were inert. It emitted squeals of pain with every meter it advanced, dragging its mangy body over the cold, hard cobblestones. Still, it continued, perhaps believing that in that warm light there would be something to eat.
***
"Evan, get up!"
It was Riushi. He was running like an athlete, his sword still sheathed in one hand. He knelt beside his friend and placed his hands on Evan's shoulders.
Evan opened his eyes. His friend was there, but he radiated a faint, constant light, as if he carried the sun beneath his skin. Wait, since when was that normal? Suddenly, Evan noticed his own body was responding, the pain had subsided and he could move.
"Riushi? What are you doing here?" Evan asked, alarmed. He didn't want to drag him into this nightmare.
"I found Michu at the academy exit. It was hard to understand what she wanted… I'm sorry, I'm late," Riushi apologized, his voice full of urgency.
"No… Riushi… I'm sorry for getting you into this," Evan said with pity in his voice and a pained expression, then remembered what was happening.
"But Riushi! The Spiral… the Spiral God is here!"
Evan sat up and looked around. The grass around him seemed normal, but beyond, twisted forms and spiral patterns swirled at the edges of the plaza, as if observing. Then he fixed his gaze on his friend. Riushi shone with a subtle aura. He wore a polished steel breastplate over his uniform and held a closed knight's helm under his arm.
"Riushi… is that really you?" Evan asked, remembering that on moonless nights, caution was never excessive.
"It's me. Believe me, please. Things have happened with the Church… I'm now a friend of the fire, besides… I'll tell you when this is over," Riushi affirmed, and his firm gaze conveyed calm to Evan.
Evan nodded. Then he saw his arm was normal, with bones that didn't bend, and although he was intrigued by how his friend seemed to repel the power of this dark god, he preferred to focus on what was most important.
"So, what do we do, Riushi? Do we hide?"
"No. We'd only delay some inevitable encounter. We must get away from the coast. We need to reach the Armored Castle; it's the only place that will give us shelter," Riushi explained with unshakable confidence.
"But… I saw a comet fall near there. That's why I stayed here."
"I know. But don't worry. I'll protect you."
Riushi helped Evan to his feet. The two friends began to jog forward toward the streets to the west, heading deeper into The Gardens district. As they walked, Evan saw how everything around them—railings, lampposts, even the stones—slowly twisted into perfect spirals. He then remembered the moon's words.
Before heading completely in, Evan looked back toward the waterfront. A monstrous wave erupted several meters above the sea wall, and the water, as it fell, didn't splash but flowed, forming impossible shapes: spirals, yes, but also figures like chaotic roots and vines that expanded through the air, staying on this side of the waterfront. Evan felt a sharp relief at moving away from there.
"Hey, Riushi… I… I have a clue that might help us. The wind whispered it to me," said Evan, lowering his voice.
Riushi nodded, ready to listen, though with a hint of skepticism.
"'Do not gaze upon the violet color. Do not turn to look at the shadow. Do not seek what you left behind.' That's what it told me."
Riushi thought for a moment.
"I understand. Thank you. That will be useful," Riushi responded.
"But… how do you mean the wind told you? Have you gained its attention?" he asked afterward, as the spirals seemed to fade the deeper they went into the streets surrounded by stone houses, allowing them to relax only a little.
Evan felt guilty for the lie, but it was simpler than explaining the truth about the moon goddess paying attention to a boy like him.
"Yeah… well, I didn't do anything to deserve it. But believe me, it's a real warning."
"Alright. I believe you," Riushi said with a brief smile.
After several blocks, a strange noise began to permeate everything: creaks, dull thuds, the sound of wood and stone being subjected to a terrible force. They looked at the sky and froze.
The cosmic clouds among the astral bodies, the stars, the entire night sky was spinning in a colossal spiral. As if that weren't enough, the houses in the distance seemed to rise, and the entire city curved upward, forming the walls of a gigantic cylinder of which they seemed to be the center. The known world had become a nightmare whirlwind.
Evan noticed that the colossal columns of Intis were nowhere.
"May the sun protect us," Riushi said, stunned.
After swallowing hard, Riushi urged Evan to keep moving even if reality no longer seemed to make sense; the Armored Castle was still there, attached to the whirlwind wall made of the city.
After running for several more blocks, they were finally only about three blocks from the castle entrance when they stopped dead.
In front of them, on a path ascending in an unnatural curve, a silhouette appeared.
It was a small dog, jet black. It stood on its hind legs, like a human child, staring at them without blinking. Its eyes shone with an unnatural violet. And then, to top it off, it spoke.
"Be…because no one helps me… because no one sees me… be…because they throw stones… it hurts… it hurts so much…"
The voice was broken and high-pitched, a mix of a frightened child and a dying old man.
The hairs on Evan's neck stood on end. Even more so when the moon's words came to his mind: "Do not gaze upon the violet color."
Quickly, Evan stopped fixing his gaze on the dog's unsettling eyes. His heart sank, but as he tried to shift his attention to every part of his body, he noticed nothing out of the ordinary.
"Riushi, don't look at its eyes!"
Riushi nodded without speaking, focusing his eyes on the animal's shadow.
"Evan, hide. I'll see what I can do. If the wind whispers something new to you, let me know," Riushi ordered in a low, firm tone, without taking his eyes off the creature.
Evan wanted to protest, but he knew his limits. He clenched his fists in frustration.
"Alright," he murmured, backing away, hiding behind a large tree planted on the sidewalk. The violet eyes followed him for an instant, but returned to fixate on Riushi.
"I'm hungry… hungry…" the little dog whimpered with a cold voice.
Something moved under its skin. It took a step forward, then another, with horribly human coordination.
It was then that Riushi prepared himself. With a serene and deliberate motion, he put on the steel helmet. The cold metal closed over his face, leaving only a horizontal slit from which his eyes, now shadowed, watched intently. Then, he drew his longsword. The sound of steel scraping the scabbard was a lethal whisper in the charged air.
Immediately afterward, he did something that impressed Evan. With the palm of his bare left hand, he ran it along the blade from top to bottom, leaving blood all over the edge. His blood on the blade began to burn, a living fire sprang from the sword's blade.
They were orange and reddish flames, intense and furious, that instantly enveloped the steel of the sword. The metal glowed red-hot, illuminating the street with an infernal, searing radiance. Riushi adopted a guard stance, the flaming sword pointing forward.
The dog, now moving with unnatural speed, closed the distance in a couple of lurching steps and leaped for Riushi's throat.
Riushi didn't flinch. He stepped forward to meet it, and with a horizontal slash of the burning sword, he cut through the air and the small body in a single motion. The two halves of the dog fell to the ground with a wet thud, lifeless.
Riushi stood still, breathing hard through the helmet, his gaze fixed on the remains with deep pity. But the compassion lasted only an instant.
Something began to emerge from the severed torso. Riushi stepped back. An amalgamation of twisted limbs sprouted from the flesh: feathered, dirty owl wings, twin dog heads that barked silently, enormous pulsating violet eyes with small white wings emerging from them, and black arms, human-like but with seven fingers on their slender hands. They all joined a central, robust avian torso. And from what remained of the original snout, the voice emerged again, now a lament:
"Why do they hurt me?… Why do they ignore me?… I want help… It hurts… Where is mommy?… I just… want to see mommy…"
Riushi closed his eyes for a second. A grave sigh came from the helmet. When he opened them, only icy determination remained. He charged the abomination.
The fight was a dance of destruction. Riushi moved with superhuman grace and ferocity. Every strike of his flaming sword left marks on the pavement and severed parts of the creature, which writhed and regenerated. A violet eye was sliced away, another sprouted. A black arm flew through the air, and two more emerged. Riushi was a whirlwind of steel and fire, but the creature, fueled by infinite despair, did not yield.
Evan, hidden, could barely follow the fight. He tried not to look, but he had to in order to know when to go help his friend, whom he had no intention of letting die.
But then, as he stole a glance at only the silhouette of Riushi, his gaze involuntarily drifted to one of the creature's violet eyes.
When his gaze settled on one of those violet eyes, a sharp pain drilled into his temple, and visions of dying stars and landscapes impossible in his world invaded his mind.
"Do not gaze upon the violet color," Evan screamed at himself in his head.
In another, more careful glance, he saw how a blow from a black arm impacted Riushi's shoulder, making him stagger. The creature wasn't invincible, but its capacity for regeneration and the pain from the blows he couldn't dodge were exhausting even the radiant warrior.
Evan tightened his fist around the hilt of his short sword, knowing he had to do more than just hide.