Chapter Five: The Unseen Force

Isuze stood frozen, his eyes locked on the attackers as they advanced on the helpless man pinned against the wall. His heart pounded in his chest, a torrent of emotions rushing through him. But then—something strange happened. His body, as though on its own accord, took action.

Without thinking, his hands shot out toward the attackers. The air around him seemed to crackle, and a sudden surge of energy pulsed through his body. His mind raced with confusion, but his body moved with purpose. Something deep within him stirred—an unknown force responding to his call.

Isuze's hands began to glow faintly as the sky above seemed to tremble. The world around him slowed, and before he even fully understood what was happening, a beam of brilliant, blinding light shot down from the heavens. It was as if the very sky had answered his unspoken command. The beam slammed into the ground near the attackers, exploding with force and power.

The attackers were hurled back by the energy, crashing into the walls, their bodies limp from the shock. Isuze's hands trembled as the glow faded, and he stood in stunned silence, his chest rising and falling as if the world around him had paused.

"What... What was that?" he whispered, unable to process the scene unfolding before him. He hadn't consciously willed the beam, but it had come from the sky—its energy linked to his own. Was it him? Was that his doing?

He didn't know, but one thing was clear: whatever had just happened, it was beyond his understanding.

The injured man, still pinned to the wall, lifted his head slightly, dazed but alive. He caught Isuze's gaze, his expression unreadable. For a moment, there was a silence between them, one filled with the echoes of the chaotic energy that had just erupted.

"Are you okay?" Isuze asked, his voice shaky as he approached the man, feeling a strange sense of responsibility toward him.

The man's lips curled into a faint smile, though it was tinged with exhaustion. "I... I will be fine," he murmured, his eyes flicking over Isuze, studying him with an intensity that sent a shiver down Isuze's spine. "You... You're something special, aren't you?"

Before Isuze could respond, something unexplainable occurred. The air around the man seemed to shimmer, distorting like a heatwave rising from the pavement. Isuze blinked in confusion, and within the span of a heartbeat, the man vanished.

One moment, the man was there, barely clinging to consciousness, and the next... he was gone. No footsteps, no sound, just the faintest flicker of movement before he disappeared, as if he were never there at all.

Isuze's breath caught in his throat. "What the...?" he muttered, looking around the now-empty alley.

The attackers, still sprawled unconscious, didn't seem to have noticed the disappearance, but Isuze could barely focus on them. His mind raced. Did he just vanish? How? He tried to process the bizarre sequence of events, but it was all too much.

Then the distant wail of sirens cut through the air, growing louder by the second. Isuze's heart skipped a beat. The last thing he wanted was to get caught up with the police after what had just happened. Without thinking, he turned and began to run, his footsteps echoing off the walls of the narrow alley as he darted into the streets.

His mind was reeling with questions, none of which he had answers to. The beam of light, his strange powers, and now the sudden disappearance of the man—it all felt like a dream, yet the intensity of the situation told him otherwise.

He couldn't shake the feeling that he was now part of something much larger than he could comprehend. But one thing was clear: he didn't have the luxury of understanding it all right now. He needed to escape, to get to safety. The answers would have to wait.

As he ran through the city streets, he couldn't help but glance over his shoulder, half-expecting someone—or something—to follow him. But there was nothing. Only the hum of the city, indifferent to the chaos that had unfolded moments ago.

He slowed down after a while, breathless and on edge. His mind continued to churn with the events of the night. "What is happening to me?" Isuze whispered under his breath. "What the hell was that beam? Why did he disappear like that?"

The sound of sirens grew fainter as Isuze hurried through the winding streets, his thoughts a whirlwind of confusion. He had no idea what had just happened, but he could feel the weight of it pressing down on him. The beam from the sky. The sudden disappearance of the man. His own powers—if that's what they were. None of it made sense.

His heart raced, and the panic from the encounter still lingered. He turned a corner and saw his house in the distance, nestled among the rolling hills of the countryside just outside the city. The familiar sight brought him a sense of comfort, but it was fleeting. The events of the night had shaken him to his core, and he couldn't stop thinking about the man who had vanished before his eyes.

When Isuze reached his house, he rushed through the door, locking it behind him. He leaned against it for a moment, trying to catch his breath. The world outside felt like a distant memory, but the questions swirling in his mind wouldn't let him rest.

"How did I do that?" he murmured to himself. "What the hell happened back there?"

He dropped his bag on the floor and ran a hand through his hair, trying to ground himself. He needed to think, but the more he tried, the more his mind became tangled in knots. His thoughts kept returning to that moment—when the beam shot from the sky. The sheer power of it, and the way it had come to him without warning. It was like something inside him had awoken, something he didn't understand.

Isuze stumbled toward the couch, his legs feeling weak from the adrenaline. He sat down heavily, his hands trembling as he tried to make sense of everything. He felt… different. Not just from the powers he'd felt, but from something deeper—something shifting within him.

He glanced out the window, where the night sky stretched out, serene and calm. Was that where the beam had come from? He didn't know. But as he stared at the stars, a strange sense of connection stirred within him. He had no answers, no explanation—but the feeling that something greater was at play gnawed at him.

Then, his phone buzzed on the coffee table.