13 Starry night

Yara opened her eyes and they filled with water, surprised she tried to take a deep breath, but her mouth filled with water, WHAT'S HAPPENING? She started to struggle and forced her eyes to open, greenish blue, she looked around quickly and only saw water.

"Hel # $% #%"

I NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE, Yara started swimming for what she thought was up, it's getting darker... I'm going deeper, WILL I DIE HERE? she turned and tried to swim in the other direction, What?... a city? Hahaha... I came to another world ^ - ^ I WILL...

"Ghuaagh"

Yara started to swim with all her strength towards the city, but she didn't last long, she started to feel a terrible pain in her chest, the spasms didn't let her move on. I don't accept it... I don't want to die like this... The last thing she saw was a large reptile swimming towards her, with its mouth open and rows of teeth showing.

*

*

Paulo looked at the spectrum, and noticed that the thing consisted of a viscous black substance, it was as if the darkness of the night stretched through the part lit by the fire and formed the being in front of them.

The being continued walking towards them without making a sound, the trail was getting longer and longer, alone he wasn't so threatening, but this was only the first, with each second more of them appeared and the darkness was gradually swallowing the bonfire light.

"Good heavens..."

It wasn't just the people around who were shaking and trying to stay as close as possible to the statue, if Paulo could climb the statue, he would be on top of it, he had already started to sweat cold, before he even clearly saw the first figure.

A crowd rose from the shadows, they were old, women and children, with each step they took the darkness increased. At one point, the first to come out of the shadows had reached 5 meters from the group and tried to get closer, but it was as if he had collided with an invisible wall. The monster gave up crossing normally, and started attacking the void, trying to destroy the barrier.

Hundreds of them now surrounded the group, the statue was medium size, from one end of the wing to the other was about 10 meters wide and 2 meters thick and as the number of residents was no more than 50, they all managed to squeeze around it.

Paulo started to breathe more calmly, seeing that they could not move beyond 5 meters, he looked at Ayla and said

"They won't be able to come closer than that, right?"

Paulo was about to continue asking, but decided to turn around, he looked at the statue and noticed a crystal almost going out, when the final crystal went out he noticed that the specters managed to get a step closer "they... they...".

Seeing that Paulo froze, his heart was beating very fast when he said "Do these crystals wear out so fast? has just got dark ".

"That one was already going out... but without the moonlight our spending increases a lot... and they know it..." said one of the residents with an expression of acceptance.

"Are they aware?"

"Why do they keep trying to destroy our barrier? They don't do that at the barrier that protects the city... ".

"Maybe their barrier is better than ours…."

Some of the residents were discussing the possibilities, they tried to think about why every 15 minutes a crystal went out. The minutes passed and became hours. The Shayāṭīn came closer and closer.

Now they were less than a meter away from the people, they were so many that they formed a wall of bodies, up close, Paulo noticed that not everyone had human appearance, some were distorted, others looked like animals, the one in front of him was a centaur about two meters tall.

The specter looked at him with an expressionless face, in silence the army of specters attacked the barrier, the only sound that Paulo heard was that of prayers and crying.

The image of the liquid moving to form the centaur was very disturbing, while the Shayāṭīn attacked the barrier incessantly, Paulo turned to Gaspar and said "when will the moon appear?"

"She should have appeared by now..." he said as he pointed at the cloudy sky.

The sky was overcast and Paulo couldn't see a sign of the moon, but he saw Shayāṭīn's army getting closer and closer.

The specters were already less than 10 cm from the people and as Paulo had been one of the last to arrive at the statue, he ended up getting so close to the barrier that he could see every single detail of the monsters and every movement that the Shayāṭīn made.

Am I really going to die here?... There must be something I can do... as he weighed the possibilities, Paulo started to feel a strange sensation, it was like he was starting to open his eyes.

He started to have guesses, about whether a given idea would work or not and a slight feeling that if he wanted he could influence the final result.

I must be going crazy… hunn? the crystals went out! "haaa..." Paulo threw himself back, just before he saw the centaur's arm cross the barrier.

Unconsciously, Paulo had used the ability he felt and just before grabbing him, the Shayāṭīn's arm was repelled out of the barrier. If he looked, Paulo would notice that the statue was lit again.

Paulo was so scared, that he didn't even notice the burning in his arm or the headbutt he gave in the guy behind him, if Paulo hadn't felt a chill in his belly and a terrible premonition, he wouldn't have jumped and probably would have been caught.

As he stood up, Paulo looked to the side and saw that many people weren't as lucky as him, they had already been caught before the statue returned to work and were thrown out of the barrier along with the specters, people were struggling and they screamed as the specters dragged them into their midst.

The Shayāṭīn immobilized them and the black substance began to cover them. My God… "Let's help them! how did we get them out… "no one moved to help, but when Paulo took a step forward, Gaspar stopped him.

"We can't do anything... if they touch you, there's no turning back... '' he said in a weak voice.

In less than 1 minute, nearly 20 people who were dragged out, stopped screaming and struggling, a few seconds later they got up and started attacking the barrier along with the other Shayāṭīn.

"What happened? Why did the barrier break? "

Looking at the statue Paulo saw some new cracks, Rayiys who was closer to it said "Without the moon, the wear and tear of the statue increases a lot and as we have few crystals...".

That feeling was real... if I hadn't jumped when I felt the tide turn I would have died... Paulo's arms were shaking a lot as he raised him to look at the tattoos, two of them were off, one inverted and the normal one, the other inverted was still dark. Do these tattoos have to do with my power? I feel like I can't use them right now... but it still has a dark invert, what does it mean, when they turn off? "HaAA..."

Paulo almost had a heart attack when he thought the barrier had failed again, but it had simply weakened and let the Shayāṭīn come even closer. They were so close that if Paul wanted to touch them, he just had to stick out his tongue.

The pressure and discomfort of facing the monsters was enormous, mainly because they knew that some of the monsters were ordinary people who were talking a few minutes ago.

The last thing Paul wanted was to be staring at the black goo that formed the Shayāṭīn, but he couldn't take a step back, because even though he lost many people, the statue's surroundings were crowded.

"And now? what do we do?.."

No one answered, the expression of the majority was one of sadness and fear. He looked around to make sure his friends had survived, Gaspar and Ayla were close to him and were fine, Baki was a little further away and Zahra was on the other side of the statue, as she arrived first or for some other reason she was much closer to the barrier than they are.

It's a good thing she's safe, but if the barrier shrinks or turns off again, me and most of the rest will die... what can I do? I don't really know how my power works and I think I can't use it right now... there are the crystals... Does anyone have more of them? hm? Paulo lifted the necklace from the tunic he was wearing to look at the translator, removing the golden inscriptions, they are exactly the same! Does it get loose or something? but I'm screwed if I run out of a translator.

Does anyone here have more crystals? I don't believe that they have already put them all. After waiting 10 min without anyone doing anything, Paulo looked in Rayiys' direction and saw that he was one of the only ones who didn't seem desperate, he was on top of the statue's base literally under its wings.

Shit... that was obvious... he'll probably only use more crystals when the Shayāṭīn arrive at his foot... will I have to use my crystal? and then? without one, how am I going to get another? But if I die with it around my neck it'll be stupid.

Paulo was already taking the necklace when he realized, just one wouldn't make a difference, maybe it would give us about 30 minutes and I don't even know how much load this has, Paulo looked at Rayiys and his henchmen, I will only survive if... I mean… we will only survive if they use their crystals, that would be the right thing to do, but how am I going to make them use the crystals?

Paulo sighed, maybe if I offer mine... he took off the necklace carefully so that no one could see it beforehand and using the sleeves of his tunic to hide the crystal, as he was far from the fire and also there were many people blocking the light, others wouldn't be able to see what he had in his hand and in fact, I don't see shit at all! How am I going to release this?

Using mostly the tact Paulo tried to release the crystal from the frame, but it was well attached to the metal structure and did not move.

The Shayāṭīn were too close for him to forget and work calmly, from time to time he raised his head to make sure the barrier was still there, Paulo also couldn't stop thinking about the possibility of breaking the translator, he noticed that the others were also discussing how to solve the problem.

After a few very tense minutes and even with the sweat on his hands getting in the way, he managed to release the crystal, I will put it back to see if it continues to work, the translator must have been built with the idea of ​​changing the crystal periodically, Hum... Paulo felt a shiver down his spine when the burning in his arm started, he looked at his arm and noticed that the last inverted clover had gone out, his heart almost stopped.

Without the translator, he had no idea what the others were talking about, but it was easy to notice that the discussion had become very heated, Paulo was trying to reassemble the necklace, but the nervousness and the fact that people started fighting got in the way.

Several people started to fight and push themselves to get closer to the statue, "Easy people I have...". They almost pushed Paulo out of the barrier, nobody wanted to be near it, they tried to pull those at the base of the statue and they struggled to stay on it, others started to climb the statue.

In the fight, people started to fall out of the barrier, others ended up with part of their body out and were dragged out by the Shayāṭīn. What do I do? I have a crystal, but no one will let me go near the statue... where are the others?

"Oh No!... Bakiii!...".