The night didn't feel like night anymore.
The sky above Starfall Village stretched wider than Y͟u͟n͟ had ever seen it, almost like it was breathing in slow heavy pulses. Even the wind carried a strange rhythm, brushing past his ears like soone whispering a song he should've rembered but sohow forgot. His chest felt tight, buzzing, almost aching like sothing inside him wanted out, but he wasn't sure if he was ready to let it.
Shen Yu stood beside him on the hill overlooking the village, his face pale under the starlight. He kept glancing upward, hand on the hilt of a blade Yun had never seen him draw before.
"You felt it again, didn't you?" Shen Yu asked.
Yun swallowed. "Yeah. Like sothing is… pushing at . Or calling . It's weird. I don't know how to explain it."
"You don't have to," Shen Yu muttered, jaw tensing. "It's getting stronger each ti. Faster than I thought."
Below them, candles flickered in the houses. Life went on in small, nervous breaths villagers pretending everything was normal even though every one of them felt the tremors last night. Chickens still ran around, dogs barked too much, babies cried for no reason. But the air, the sky… none of it was normal anymore.
Yun hugged his arms to his chest, suddenly cold. "What… what's happening to , Shen Yu? Just tell straight this ti. Don't wrap it in riddles."
Shen Yu hesitated.
And Yun hated that more than any monster.
Finally Shen Yu sighed, rubbing his forehead like the truth physically hurt him.
"Your bloodline is waking too quickly," he said softly. "Sothing out there is forcing the process. Sothing ancient. And dangerous. I think it's searching for you."
Yun froze. His heart thumped too loud. "Searching for ? Why? I don't even— I'm not even anything yet."
"That's exactly why," Shen Yu said. "You are not grown. Not defended. Not hidden enough. The mont your bloodline settles… your presence will echo through the Cosmos. And not everything out there wishes you well."
He pointed upward.
And Yun followed his gaze.
The Stars Shifted. Actually Shifted.
Constellations moved like they were rearranging themselves. One star dimd. Another brightened—no, flared. A faint voice pressed against Yun's mind, not words, just… emotion. Urgency. Distance. Pain. Pride. Sadness.
He stumbled back, clutching his head. "Ah—! I… I heard sothing—felt soone—"
Shen Yu grabbed his arm. "Careful! Don't open your mind too far! You'll attract—"
The sky broke.
Not literally, but Yun felt sothing crack across the heavens like a hairline fracture. A ripple tore through the constellations. And through that ripple, Yun saw—
Sowhere in the Vast Cosmos
A battlefield forged out of broken galaxies. Stars—entire suns—used as torches for titanic warriors. A monstrous entity with chains made of blackened nebulae was dragging itself through the void. Three Celestial Empires clashed in the distance, their armies slamming into each other like storms made of light.
And in the middle of that chaos…
A woman with hair like silver fla—Yun's mother—stood wounded, holding up a collapsing barrier of starlight.
Her voice reached him through the crack.
"…Yun… stay hidden…"
Yun's heart nearly stopped.
He didn't know how he knew she was talking to him, but he knew it as surely as he knew his own breath.
Before he could speak back, a second voice thundered across the cosmos, deeper, furious, terrifying.
"DO NOT REVEAL YOURSELF, MY SON!"
His father.
Yun staggered, gasping. Shen Yu grabbed him by both shoulders.
"What did you see? Yun—YUN—look at !"
"I saw them," Yun choked. "My parents. They're fighting sothing… sothing massive— and they told — they told to stay hidden—"
Shen Yu's face drained of all color. "They talked to you? Directly? Through the cosmos?"
"I didn't— I didn't an to answer— I just— the crack— the noise—"
Shen Yu cursed under his breath, sothing Yun had never heard him do before.
"That ans the barrier weakening is worse than I feared. They shouldn't be able to reach you from that distance. Not unless…"
A low sound rumbled across the sky.
Not thunder.
Roaring.
Sothing roaring beyond the stars.
Yun shivered so violently his teeth clacked. "Shen Yu… what was that?"
Shen Yu didn't answer imdiately. His eyes were fixed on the heavens, his expression shifting from fear… to anger… to pure determination.
"That," he said quietly, "is the one enemy your parents feared most. The one they abandoned their thrones to hide you from."
Yun's stomach dropped. "Why—why ?"
Shen Yu looked at him with a mix of pity and awe.
"Because, Yun… your bloodline isn't just powerful. It is forbidden."
Yun's breath hitched. "Forbidden? What does that even an—"
But he didn't get to finish.
The crack in the sky pulsed—bright, loud, like a tear ripping wider.
And Yun's entire body lit up, veins glowing like silver rivers, eyes shimring with stardust. Not painful this ti. Just overwhelming. Like he was too small to hold what was inside him.
"Shen Yu…" Yun whispered, voice trembling. "I think… I think sothing in just— woke up again."
Shen Yu stepped back, eyes widening. "Not again… not this soon…"
Yun reached out blindly, grabbing the front of Shen Yu's robe.
"Help ," he whispered. "I don't wanna lose myself."
And the sky split open again.
Just a little.
Just enough for sothing ancient to look through.
And Yun felt its gaze land on him.
User Comments
0 comments from readers