The sky was not supposed to break.
Kael Virent stood in the middle of the market street, a basket of bread still warm in his hands, when the world above him split apart.
At first, it was only a sound.
A low, trembling groan—deep and unnatural—like the heavens themselves were straining under an unseen weight.
The crowd stopped what they were doing.
Confusion spread through the streets like a ripple—people turning, staring upward, unsure of what they were seeing.
"…What is that?" someone whispered.
No one answered.
Kael looked up with confuse.
A single crack stretched across the sky—thin, jagged, wrong.
It spread.
Slowly at first—then faster—branching outward like veins of light tearing through the blue expanse above.
The air grew heavy.
Sunlight twisted, bleeding gold through the fractures, as if the sky itself was being forced open from the other side.
The market did not understand what it was seeing.
For a single, fragile heartbeat, no one moved.
People simply stared upward—caught between confusion and denial, as if their minds refused to accept what their eyes so clearly saw.
As if the sky… could not possibly be breaking.
Then the sound came.
A deep, shuddering crack.
Not thunder.
Not a storm.
But something vast… breaking—like glass under impossible strain.
Kael felt it before he truly heard it.
It ran through his bones, a vibration that made his chest tighten and his breath catch.
Then the pressure followed, it something descended from above, pressing down on the world like an unseen hand.
The bread in his basket slipped from his fingers and hit the ground unnoticed.
The crack widened, the sky peeled apart, light spilled through from the inside of crack sky, not sunlight, not natural brilliance.
It was gold—too pure, too sharp, too alive—pouring through the fractures like the heavens were bleeding radiance into the world below.
People began to scream, for this was the first time they had ever experienced something like this—something far worse than war.
"W-What is that?!"
"Run!"
"Get inside—GET INSIDE!"
But no one moved fast enough, and people scattered across the streets in blind panic, colliding into one another as fear took hold.
The first fragment fell.
A shard of light the size of a building tore free from the broken sky and descended without mercy.
BOOM!
It struck the central district, unleashing a shockwave that tore through the streets, sending up massive clouds of dust and hurling debris in every direction.
One moment, the buildings stood tall.
BOOM!
The next—a massive burst of light tore through them. In only seconds, there was nothing left behind.
No fire. No debris. Only an empty scar where reality had been—a massive crater carved into the earth.
Kael was shocked, his heart racing as his mind struggled to process what he was seeing. He thought it was just his imagination—but then someone slammed into him.
"Hey! Run! Run!"
Kael snapped back to reality. This wasn't an illusion.
This was real.
Then he remembered his mother.
Panic surged through him as he turned and ran, pushing through the chaos as fast as he could, his breath ragged and uneven.
"Mother..."
The sky cracked again, but this time, it wasn't just one.
Countless fractures spread across the heavens—stretching beyond the city, beyond the country… reaching across entire continents.
The ground trembled beneath his feet as Kael ran, each step unsteady as the world itself seemed to collapse around him.
People shoved past him, screaming and crying—some falling, never getting back up.
A child reached out, calling for help, his mother trapped beneath a mass of debris, unmoving… emotionless.
Kael looked at him as people rushed past, their faces filled with desperation and chaos, each one thinking only of their own survival.
He couldn't leave the child like this.
But the choice tore at him—his mother… or this child. His chest tightened as his conscience refused to let him walk away.
In the end, he chose.
He ran toward the child and grabbed him, pulling him away from the debris.
The child clung to him, small hands gripping his clothes as his body trembled uncontrollably.
"P-Please… my mom…"
Kael's jaw tightened, he didn't look back.
"I'm sorry…" he muttered under his breath, forcing himself forward as the ground trembled violently beneath them.
Another crack split the sky—but this time it was closer, directly above them.
A blinding light tore through the air.
"Move!"
Kael turned sharply, barely managing to throw himself aside as a pillar of golden light crashed down where he had stood only moments before.
BOOM!
The ground exploded where it struck, stone and dust erupting into the air.
Kael shielded the child in his arms, rolling across the broken street as heat washed over them.
Then he saw a group of people gathering at the entrance of a subway station. He ran toward it with everything he had left.
People poured into the subway entrance, pushing and shouting as desperation took over.
Kael forced his way forward, holding the child tightly against his chest as he fought through the crowd.
Behind them, another golden light pierced the sky.
BOOM!
The ground trembled again.
A deafening roar followed as something struck the streets not far behind them, collapsing entire sections of the city in an instant.
Screams echoed through the tunnels.
"Go! Go down!" someone shouted.
Kael didn't hesitate. He rushed into the entrance, dragging the child with him as the world above continued to fall apart.
The moment they crossed the threshold, the noise changed.
The open chaos of the streets became a suffocating echo—screams bouncing off concrete walls, footsteps pounding in uneven rhythm as people surged deeper into the tunnels.
The air was thick, hot, and hard to breathe, packed with too many people, their bodies pressing together in the confined space.
Kael tightened his hold on the child, pushing forward as the crowd funneled down the stairs.
Someone slipped ahead, dragged down by the sheer weight of bodies behind them.
They didn't get back up.
"Keep moving!" a voice shouted from somewhere below.
The lights flickered—
Then steadied, dim and weak, barely holding.
Kael's chest heaved as he reached the bottom, his legs threatening to give out. He leaned briefly against the wall, shielding the child as people rushed past in a blur.
He noticed a woman taking care of two children.
Kael forced himself to stand, even as his legs threatened to give out. He walked toward the woman, each step unsteady.
"Uhm… miss, can you take care of this child?" he asked, his voice strained. "His mother… she's trapped under a large piece of debris. I need to find my own."
The woman looked up, her eyes wide and unfocused, as if she hadn't fully processed what was happening.
For a moment, she said nothing.
Then she nodded, quickly pulling the child into her arms and holding him close alongside the others.
"I'll take care of him," she said, her voice trembling but firm. "Go… find your mother."
The child clung to Kael for a second longer, small fingers tightening around his sleeve.
"D-Don't go…"
Kael's chest tightened. He gently pried the child's hand away.
"You'll be okay," he said softly, though he wasn't sure if it was a promise—or a lie.
The woman pulled the child closer, shielding him as the crowd surged around them.
"Thank you," Kael said softly to the woman.
Then he stepped back, turning toward the crowded tunnel. He pushed himself forward again, forcing his way through the mass of people as he tried to reach the upper exit of the subway.
But it wasn't easy to get to the surface. So many people were still pouring down the stairs, making movement almost impossible.
The crowd pressed harder against him, turning movement into struggle.
Kael gritted his teeth, forcing his way upward step by step as exhaustion weighed down his limbs.
Above them, the faint tremor of another impact echoed through the ground.
The tremor grew stronger.
Dust drifted from the ceiling of the tunnel as distant vibrations rolled through the underground like a warning heartbeat.
Someone screamed from above.
BOOM!
Then another impact hit—closer this time—sending a sharp shock through the structure.
The lights flickered violently, plunging the tunnel into uneven shadows as panic surged again through the crowd.
Kael stopped for a split second, his breath caught in his throat.
The child's weight reminded him he couldn't afford to hesitate.
He tightened his grip and pushed forward again, forcing himself through the shifting mass of people as the tunnel groaned overhead.
He finally managed to reach an exit.
Kael stumbled out of the crowd and dropped to one knee, completely exhausted, his breath coming in heavy, uneven gasps.
His lungs burned as he struggled to steady himself, the chaos of the tunnel still echoing behind him.
He saw complete destruction around him—buildings burning, cars scattered everywhere, and countless craters tearing through the streets.
Kael forced himself to stand, staring at the ruined world in silence.
Then he started walking, heading toward home.
But he stopped.
Above him, a fighter jet roared through the sky, passing overhead at incredible speed.
Then he felt something was wrong.
The "sun" above him didn't feel like a sun at all—it was something else, a presence so bright it distorted the sky itself.
Before he could fully understand it, a surge of blinding light shot downward, targeting the entrance of the subway tunnels.
Kael reacted on instinct, throwing himself aside just in time.
BOOM!
The explosion followed a split second later, shaking the entire area as shockwaves tore through the ground and silence briefly swallowed everything.
He immediately stood up and looked toward the subway entrance.
His face went pale, fear tightening his expression.
Where the entrance had been, there was now only a massive crater—scorched earth and broken stone stretching out in every direction.
No one had survived.