📖Chapter 2 – The Sign in the Sky

The people of Delight Village gathered in the square, their eyes fixed on the heavens.

The strange light cutting through the clouds pulsed like a beating heart. Each throb lit up the valley and made the walls tremble.

Kai felt a chill crawl down his spine.

— I’ve never seen anything like this… he murmured.

An old priest stepped forward, his voice heavy with fear:

— This is no sign from the gods. It is a rift… a calling.

His words spread panic.

Men gripped their spears, mothers clutched their children, and the bells tolled louder. Yet nothing could prepare Delight Village for what came next.

From the blazing rift, something began to descend.

At first it looked like a falling star, but as it neared, the light shattered into fragments, like burning wings.

A body wrapped in flames crashed into the northern forest, shaking the ground.

Kai didn’t think.

While everyone else fled, he ran in the opposite direction. His heart burned with curiosity—yet also with something deeper: the sense that this fall was connected to him.

— Kai! — his father shouted, trying to hold him back. — Don’t go!

But it was too late. The boy had already passed through the village gates, the wind biting his face, his eyes locked on the glow among the trees.

When he reached the place, the forest was eerily silent.

In the center of the clearing, among scorched branches and shattered rocks, a figure slowly rose.

It was not human. Nor entirely divine.

The being lifted its face, and its golden eyes met Kai’s.

— At last… you. — the voice echoed like a chorus of a thousand souls.

Kai froze.

He didn’t know whether to run or stay. But one thing was certain: his life would never be the same again.