phøêñîx

Barrier Fall

in a world smaller than ours, walled by stone and ruled by steel, fourteen kingdoms fought endlessly to stand above the rest. For centuries, their wars raged until two hundred years ago, when Blitz, a western nation, rose to dominance with a military unlike any the world had ever seen. By the year 1100, Blitz had crushed its rivals and ruled as the largest and most advanced nation alive. Peace followed, but uneasily. Whispers claimed Blitz’s soldiers wielded unnatural power, strength no mortal should possess. Power used to bend nations to their knees. Then came the vanishings. Villages gone overnight. Towns emptied of life. Survivors spoke of monsters crawling through the dark, of blood and shadows. Others blamed rival kingdoms. None knew the truth, only that war was coming. Far from the capital, deep in the forgotten forests at Blitz’s edge, lay a small village untouched by politics or power. There, two sixteen-year-old boys hid a secret of their own—unnatural strength. Monstrous strength. A power that should not exist. And soon, their world was about to burn.