#38

Geo'rgge sat perplexed; ever since his child faced Zobi, something seemed off. The encampment had not been as joyous and welcoming as it once was. Whenever she walked, people seemed to move away from her, but surely they would not show such disrespect.

Re'itt sat at the water's edge, her feet immersed in the cool embrace of the river.

"~They hate me. I shouldn't have hurt Uncle Zobi like that. I should've just let him win.~"

She slammed her hand on the ground in frustration, and as she did, the water rose—no, it surged. The entire river itself lifted 15 feet into the air, and with it, the creatures within. The riverbed emptied and dried before her, leaving her stunned, before crashing back into its bed with a force that echoed her own turmoil.

Standing up, Re'itt took off running to find her mother and father. If she had waited just two more minutes, she would've seen it.

A rip in the fabric of space appeared on the other side of the river, slowly spreading upward and downward as a darkened hand, black as night, reached through.

On the other side, a second hand emerged, a mix of blood-red and jet-black like the first. As the hands vanished, creatures began to appear—beings larger than the largest mountain tops, standing tall and imposing, surveying the land.

The first creature, its body shrouded in a darkness so dense that it seemed to swallow the very light around it, bore a towering figure with obsidian-like skin. Its eyes, glimmering orbs of deepest abyss, seemed to pierce through the very fabric of reality. Adorned with armor forged from the shadows themselves, it wielded a sword as dark as the void, a weapon of unfathomable power that exuded an aura of dread and despair.

Its companion, the second creature, was a grotesque fusion of crimson and ebony, its form pulsating with an otherworldly energy. Its blood-red veins writhed beneath its skin, contrasting sharply with the inky blackness that surrounded it. With each step, the ground quaked beneath its immense weight, and its eyes, twin orbs of crimson fire, blazed with an insatiable hunger for destruction.

+"Mother, I cannot feel her. Brother, where is mother?"+

The voice was a shrill, beyond anything mortal ears could perceive, belonging to the first creature that had appeared. Its body was black as night, a mighty sword as dark as itself resting over its shoulder.

+"We will find her, brother. We will find Mother."+

The moment the voice spoke, anything within five miles of its sound died a horrific and gruesome death, bodies exploding from within.

The Children of the Void, the Lost, had finally found their way to the realm of mortals. And with their arrival, darkness descended upon the land, casting a shadow that would soon engulf all.