Omens of Ruin

Life regained melody again for a time in Cassou.

But Jiro felt change swelling like storm clouds coiling upon distant peaks. Whispers reached his ears of strange phenomena beyond Cassou's walls.

With the Armory's awful secrets now bared, Jiro wondered what other shadowy forces stirred.

.....Ruka tried to shield him from darkness, urging Jiro to savour their hard-won days of peace.

...But fate and worry soon intervened.

A month had passed with no word from the nearby settlement of Valis.

....Scout teams sent to reestablish contact found only empty structures left intact but mysteriously abandoned.

Jiro knew this meant grave danger was afoot.

That very night, a commotion awoke Jiro before moonset.

Peering out his shutters, he saw a growing crowd gathered by firelight.

Ruka stood conferring with scouts who had arrived hastily.

"It was a slaughter... such savagery I cannot describe," one said, still wild-eyed from terror.

"We discovered only gnawed bones and bloody ruins where Tanner's Lodge once stood."

Jiro hurried to Ruka's side as similar accounts flowed in from across the region.

Remote enclaves had been brutally extinguished without warning.

It seemed some inhuman force was methodically massacring the frontier.

At the emergency Assembly the next day, fear and confusion reigned.

....Some faces appeared secretly relieved the bloodshed remained distant from Cassou.

..Others shouted for total lockdown and martial law.

When the fractious crowd finally silenced for wise Nina, she spoke solemnly:

"Dark forces are indeed waking, but let us not descend also into madness.

Together we must light candles against this encroaching night."

Her words steadied nerves raw from the unknown threat.

Jiro stood calmly with veterans who understood true courage. Their lives had prepared them for this hour.

Come what horrors, their souls were tinder awaiting a spark.

That night, Jiro sat alone watching the valley from Ruka's stargazing precipice.

Somewhere beneath those same constellations, their errant species' meddling had awoken drives beyond comprehension.

Jiro prayed human ingenuity might suffice again to quell the breach, butiral dread whispered of desperation yet to come.

At dawn, Jiro departed with the expeditionary force heading out on urgent reconnaissance.

....Ancient evils from elder depths must be seen to be conquered. He bid farewell to Ruka, each embracing the other as the air between souls who had weathered lifetimes together. No distance could sever such ties.

"Go safely, brother, and return with haste," Ruka urged. "Dark wings stir fell winds, but Cassou endures still untouched."

Jiro clasped his shoulder.

"By my life, we shall shield our valley from the violence that runs rampant beyond.

But I must see this rising curse that we may name it and tame it."

They parted in unspoken understanding.

...Some things lurked beyond courage's hundred hands to grasp and bind. To face the formless unknown demanded more than mortal mettle. But still, Jiro strode onward, his path appointed.

..........

Their voyage reached first the empty shell of Valis by evening. Jiro recognized close kin had made a den here through early post-fall nights.

Now only void and closure remained.

They discovered no bodies, no bones even, but also no artefact of the populace's flight.

....Scouts estimated several hundred had sheltered in Valis when contact ceased abruptly. Now nothing stirred but leaves through ghost streets.

Camping beneath the spindly watchtower that night, Jiro felt unseen eyes prowling the darkness surrounding their fire ring.

The scouts set double lookouts, unsure what intelligent dread this way came. Rest eluded all.

At times, Jiro's ears perhaps deceitfully perceived skittering encroachment through the otherwise unbroken night.

...But lenses revealed nothing upon the barren slopes.

Sleep's solace must remain deferred, with the morrow promising grimmer revelations still.

....

By week's second day surveying the broader frontier by air, their data painted an unmistakable pattern - some twisted force moved methodically from settlement to settlement leaving only voids in its wake.

Never had they glimpsed the actual assailants. Only antiseptic extinction, evacuated of all human residue.

What often remained were bits of strange fungal matter quickly collected by science teams for analysis back home.

Jiro knew Cassou's idyllic days were now numbered.

..This nameless terror would find their mountain refuge in time, summoned by human agony as sharks to familiar blood. But to face the reaper, Jiro must first uncover its face.

Blind courage alone availed little against entropy's tide.

....

Landing their gliders outside the death zone perimeter, Jiro led scouts inward on final reconnaissance.

All probes and drones had simply ceased transmitting upon crossing this border. Whatever lurked deeper inward did not welcome visitors.

They advanced on foot through regions once densely settled, expectation-heavy.

...But no horror awaited only unexpected...absence. Plants grew wild reclaiming country lanes and courtyards but no human structure endured.

Near dusk, the team arrived at Hot Springs Station, a bustling village in days memory.

Stunned to their core at the sight, they all halted and stared. No earthly force Jiro knew could have arranged such an expanse of meticulously spiralled fungal mounds covering the land.

In the failing light, Jiro beheld the intricate alien architecture and perceived the thought behind its making.

Somewhere unseen, an inhuman cunning intellect guided this violation in calculated silence. He ordered immediate retreat even as scout transports went mysteriously offline.

They were being rapidly encircled by an unseen noose.

Fleeing on foot now desperate for Cassou's obscured gates, Jiro radioed Ruka in staccato bursts through increasing static.

Whatever contagion had sprung from humanity's corrupt sciences must be contained at all costs.

Quarantine was their only hope if mercy allowed them time enough to barricade the doors.

....

Reaching open country beyond the hot zone, Jiro's crew respired relief.

But suddenly a terrible resonant keening shook the hills. Skyward burst oily tendrils coiling up from subterranean seeds long planted through human soil.

Then flashing down upon the brows of men strode shapes inferred from a nightmare.

....Jiro raised his carbine while mouthing a primal prayer against the fearsome interlopers probing for weakness amidst mortal flesh.

...Behind loomed totality's maw, and mercy's last calibrated weapons faltered.

Blinding terror reigned as men fled without faith that their steps had a purpose.

But Jiro rallied the remains urging retreat for Cassou's sake. By heaven's grace, these horrors nightmare into being and appeared not yet able to endure the pure light of the sun.

Perhaps in the alchemy of spirit and ingenuity, some antidote existed if refuge lasted until dawn.

Jiro's boots found wings as the haven gates shone salvation's beacon against engulfing darkness.

...He turned to verify no pursuer's twisted silhouette cresting the horizon nearer than hope allowed.

....My eyes strained for contorted life amidst the familiar trees and ridgelines loved since young.

Then blistering through twilight came a cry no earthly lungs ever voiced - a wail upwelling from gut unknown behind sounds mankind articulated.

....Jiro's heart wavered realizing what sprung anew from ancient trauma buried but never truly healed.

...Now titanic and twisted, the curse of creation's neglect rose turbid.

Refugees Spilling through the gates collapsed in hysteria, clawed hands bloodied from their frantic flight.

Jiro moved urgently to enforce quarantine while scouts related horrors scarcely coherent.

He rode the terror downflaring in his breast. But ordered action held against hysteria now teeming contagious as the nameless scourge pressed nearer.

Ruka clasped Jiro in desperate relief as if to verify friend, not a phantom. When solid arms returned the embrace, she wept, then steeled for the trial awaiting their outcome unpromised.

Jiro spoke firmly. "Now our faith faces the deepest reckoning.

But despair is what the abyss desires. Though dread night closes round, some stars yet glimmer to light our perseverance. This soil remains hallowed.

Our walls still stand."

With frightened hearts thus emboldened, frightened hearts turned to steady hands preparing refuge however frail against the sieging dark.

Invocation rose from those who stood where ancestors stood. They were yet guardians entrusted, whatever malice flanked beyond.

As shadows stretched skywards, Ruka and Jiro watched the valley fearing to witness unnatural mists flow against nature's tides to smother land and sky.

But light yet pierced enough to limn each treasured detail held close.

Jiro heard Cassou's song softly kindled as families took refuge in one another's arms behind shutters drawn firm.

He swelled with pride realizing their organic unity flexed sinew against despair.

Come to the morrow, destiny awaited armed masses resolved.

That long night, they kept vigilant watch sensing the unseen approach of a fell essence inimical to life's spirit.

But the people remained sturdy bastions woven by years defending dignity's fragile flame against decay's winds.

Faith yet burned purpose holding fast 'gainst the dread knocks sounding now oppressive at gentle civilization's door.