"Dusk and Stone"

Quietness filled the stone chamber. Rays of the setting sun still frozen clash against the walls of the floating room in the sky, casting long shadows as the five friends sat together, still processing everything they had just heard.

Jovino, leaned back in his stone chair, broke the silence with a question laced with frustration.

 “So… who the fuck is ‘It’?”

Shin’ō, still standing before the table, eyes narrowed slightly. “The Outer God. Probably,” he replied, voice calm as ever.

Helwin leaned forward, fingers steepled beneath his chin.

 “And the Messenger? What did it look like?”

Shin’ō turned his head slightly as if visualizing it all again.

“It had no face—just a skull. A ring of bones hovered above its head, glowing with some kind of energy. Its body was pale, thin, with long spines poking from its back. Its wings looked like they were carved out of bone and stretched like a bat’s. One arm was a blade. The other… bent in ways it shouldn’t.”

Bezkon, exhales. Taken a back he jokingly says.

 “Damn. Sounds like my sleep paralysis demon to be honest.”

Audaxor looked to Shin’ō, serious now. “How much power do you still have?”

“Not much,” Shin’ō admitted. “The seal was permanent—technically. I’ll need time and energy to break through it. Could take months. Years. Who knows.”

Jovino blinked slowly. “Then how did you stop time earlier?”

“It was a single-use spell,” Shin’ō said. “Came with the last of the unsealed energy. Now even that’s gone, locked away again.”

Helwin glanced around at the towering walls of the room, ornate yet cold.

 “This room is fire, though. Are we keeping it as a base?”

Shin’ō shook his head dissatisfied. 

“No. Once I resume time, it’ll fall apart like sand. This place only exists in the in-between.”

Bezkon stood and stretched his arms. “Then before that happens… we should watch the sunset. From the roof.”

Audaxor nodded. “Let’s go. But we’ll have to climb.”

Without hesitation, Bezkon hopped up onto the windowsill, fingers finding a grip along the stone edge of the roof. With a boost from Helwin and Audaxor, he hoisted himself up, grunting as he scrambled onto the ledge.

“Nice,” he called down, waving.

One by one, the others followed, helping each other up in a chaotic flurry of kicks, pulls, and close calls. Last was Helwin, who reached out to the hands extended from above, being yanked up with effort and an accidental kick to Bezkon’s ribs.

“Okay,” Helwin muttered, brushing dust off his coat. “We’re up.”

They sat in a neat line, side by side: Jovino, Audaxor, Shin’ō, Bezkon, and Helwin.

In silence, they watched the sky.

The horizon glowed orange and gold, the last rays of sunlight bathing the clouds beneath them in surreal warmth. Above them, a black moon hung still, untouched by time. A sharp, hairline crack had begun to split across its surface, delicate but glowing softly. From within it seeped a faint blue mist that shimmered as it drifted.

Shin’ō raised his hand and pointed.

“That,” he said, “is the portal I returned from. The path between worlds.”

They all looked, captivated. The gap glowed faintly with every breath the world took.

“If what the Messenger said is true, then this Balance... it’s going to shake the world,” Shin’ō added. “And hard.”

Helwin’s eyes stayed on the crack. “Balance means correcting the power difference, right? So… either people will gain powers, or things will come through.”

Audaxor folded his arms. “Likely both.”

Jovino turned to Shin’ō. “Can you still give us powers?”

Shin’ō nodded once. “Only the basics. Enough to light the fire. The rest is up to you.”

Bezkon leaned back, arms behind his head. “We need to get stronger. We trained while you were away, but... this feels like the real beginning.”

Then, unexpectedly, Bezkon turned and looked straight at us—the reader.

“You guys seeing this fire sunset?” he thought, breaking the fourth wall with a smirk.

Shin’ō looked at each of them, his gaze serious now.

“Say it,” he said. “What do you want? What kind of power?”

Jovino answered first. “Earth.”

Audaxor’s voice was quiet but firm. “Fire.”

Bezkon grinned. “Lightning.”

Helwin, after a pause, said, “Ice.”

Shin’ō held out his hands. “Then I’ll give it to you."

Far away—so far it couldn’t be seen by human eyes—something stirred.

A dark figure stood atop a distant mountain peak, watching them.

Waiting.