Chapter Two: The Cursed Seed
Cain stared at his trembling hand, where that strange red light had been born. A faint heat rose from his skin, as if a foreign power pulsed beneath it, whispering words he couldn't understand.
"Run, boy!" shouted one of the soldiers, yanking his spear from the ground and charging toward the giant creature that had slipped through the crack in the wall.
But Cain didn't move.
In his eyes, everything seemed to slow down: the falling rocks, the screams, the billowing dust. He could hear only his heartbeat... and a faint voice inside him, echoing with every pulse:
"You are the chosen... You are the opening..."
The first creature lunged forward. It towered over ten meters tall, its skin black as coal, and its eyes burning like twin embers. It breathed as if the entire world couldn't supply enough air.
Cain stood alone, facing it.
Then he raised his hand.
Without thought, without understanding... a wave of red energy burst from his body. The ground trembled beneath his feet, and the air exploded outward, hurling the monster back like a leaf in a storm.
Everyone gasped.
Cain collapsed to his knees, gasping for air, feeling as if a part of him had been ripped away.
"You... you're not human..." muttered the old commander, who had witnessed it all.
Cain didn't answer — he barely understood what was happening himself. The only thing he knew... was that the world he thought he knew had shattered into pieces.
On the horizon, beyond the broken wall, more figures began to stir. Larger... and far more dangerous.
And the horns kept blowing, as if awakening something far deeper than mere monsters.
---
Elsewhere, far from the city, a man wearing a tattered gray cloak sat atop a hill, watching the destruction from afar.
He smiled and whispered:
"The harvest has begun... at last, the Seven Gates shall open."