THE SUN AND THE FALSE EMPTINESS

The wind rushed across the meadow, lifting the tall grass like green waves. For an instant, after Noelia and Saitras disappeared, he felt that calm had returned. But it was an empty, lonely calm. He dropped into the grass, feeling the breeze on his face, a temporary relief to the whirlwind of his mind.

He closed his eyes, and a fleeting image, an echo of another time, flickered behind his eyelids.

He was in an alley, in the rain, with his school uniform soaked through. He was younger. Three larger shadows had cornered him. Fear was an icy knot in his stomach. Just as the leader of the group raised his fist, a figure appeared out of nowhere, stepping in the way. He didn't remember his face, just the back of a black jacket and a shout of "ENOUGH!". He didn't know why he did it, why he defended a stranger. But he did remember the feeling he left him with: a pleasant warmth, the strange, forgotten sensation of not being completely alone.

He opened his eyes. The pleasant feeling was gone, leaving only the loneliness of the Pit. He remembered that Ikel had been sent flying far away. If he was left alone, he was easy prey. He got to his feet and went in the direction in which he had disappeared.

It didn't take him long to get there. To be honest, he thought he had been sent farther away. He found it embedded in the branch of a giant tree. For a moment he was worried. He wasn't moving, he wasn't making a sound. Was he dead? For an instant, Asimil almost cried.

That's when he heard a snoring sound. It turned out to be Ikel... He was sleeping. The tree began to shake and he fell with a thud.

— Ikel? you gave me such a fright, what were you supposed to be doing there asleep? — he asked him, between surprised and relieved. 

— Exploring... and watching! — he grunted, shaking off the leaves. — Although... well, I did fall asleep for a while, too. —

He smiled, but his gesture suddenly froze. Asimil noticed it too: the wind had changed. The air smelled different, like iron and ash.

The strange cold crept through the grass, and the sunlight began to shiver. He looked up and froze. The sky was devouring itself. Chunks of blue were being ripped away, leaving black cracks that glowed with a gray flash. Clouds were breaking apart into pixelated fragments.

— Ikel... This... is... part of the event, right? — He shook his head, his face pale. This was not normal.

"No...not again."  The words sprang into Asimil's mind without permission, an animal instinct recognizing an ancient predator. The air turned poison in his lungs. His heart unleashed a panicked drum against his chest, and the image of the sky shattering in front of him was overlaid with a memory that was not his, but belonged to him: the cosmic rumble of a reality shattering, the echoing screams of friends whose faces he could not see, the sense of utter loss. It was a scar on his soul, and the scene in front of him was rubbing salt into that forgotten wound.

A black sphere floated above them, beating like a sick heart. The presenter's voice, now filled with panic, echoed from the sky.

— This is not part of the event! All players, evacuate the open areas! Quickly, run to the center! —

— Come on, Asimil... we have to get there — said Ikel, pulling his arm.

They ran at full speed. The meadow was transforming. Puddles of corrupted darkness gushed from the ground, wilting the grass with a metallic smell. Stones in their path fragmented into distorted cubes. — This can't be real... — Asimil muttered, panting.

At that moment they heard a scream. A player in front of them stumbled and fell into one of the puddles. When he got up, his body was corroded, stained black. A viscous liquid was dripping from his veins. He tried to scream, but all that came out of his mouth was an unnatural silence.

— What... what happened to him? — he whispered, paralyzed.

The player fell, but did not disappear. His body... glitched. It fell apart just like a shadow from his dream... in his vision. This was not a mistake. It was an erasure. An annihilation of the soul. From the liquid that remained rose a corrosive vapor.

— Asimil, move! — Ikel shouted, tugging at his shirt as the steam approached. — This... this is not a normal thing —

His heart was beating a mile a minute. For the first time in the tournament, he felt real fear. They didn't know what they were racing against, or if they would survive. And then he understood: what had fallen upon them was not part of any test... it was true chaos, and for some reason, his soul felt the terror of living it for the second time.