Chapter 37 - Echoes of the Unraveled Sky

The night stretched endlessly, the sky above no longer resembling the one Kai Voss had known before the Moon's destruction. The shattered remains of Earth's celestial companion drifted in unstable orbits, forming a luminous ring that pulsed with an eerie glow. But something else was wrong, something deeper than the fractured sky. The air itself carried an unnatural weight, as if reality had grown thin, stretched too far by forces unseen.

Kai moved cautiously through the ruins of a once-great city, its skeletal remains jutting into the darkness like the broken ribs of a fallen titan. The streets, once teeming with life, were now graveyards of twisted metal and silent, crumbling towers. Fires still smoldered in the distance, casting flickering shadows that danced against the cracked pavement. Each step felt heavier than the last, as though the earth itself resisted his presence.

Beside him, Lena Ortega kept pace, her posture rigid, her breath measured. She had always been pragmatic, a scientist who once believed everything could be explained with logic. But as she clutched the fragment hanging from her neck, its faint pulse matching the rhythm of her heartbeat, he saw the doubt in her eyes.

"There's something wrong with the air," she murmured, her voice barely audible over the distant crackle of burning debris.

Kai nodded, feeling it too. It was more than just atmospheric pressure or the lingering effects of the apocalypse. It was a presence, a force pressing against them from all sides, like standing too close to the edge of an unseen abyss. The closer they moved toward the Impact Zone, the stronger it became.

The Impact Zone was where the largest lunar fragment had fallen months ago, carving a scar into the earth and rewriting the very laws of nature. It was the source of everything unnatural—the strange occurrences, the mutations, the fractures in time itself. And now, something was drawing them toward it.

Kai flexed his fingers, feeling the familiar hum of power beneath his skin. His ability, Temporal Shatter, had always been a double-edged sword, a gift that allowed him to bend time but at a cost he had yet to fully understand. The fractures he left behind were growing, splintering into something beyond his control. He could already see them in the air, faint distortions rippling like heatwaves.

"We're not alone," Lena whispered.

A shadow moved along the ruins ahead, just beyond the reach of the firelight. Kai stilled, his senses sharpening. He didn't need to activate his ability to know they were being watched.

Figures emerged from the darkness, their silhouettes barely human. Their bodies were wrapped in tattered cloaks, their eyes glowing faintly with the same eerie radiance as the fragments. Their movements were too smooth, too synchronized, as if guided by something beyond their own will.

Kai tensed. These were not ordinary survivors. They were Revenants—those who had been altered too much by the fragments, their humanity stripped away by something deeper than mutation.

One of them stepped forward, their voice carrying an unnatural resonance. "The Threshold is near."

Kai exchanged a glance with Lena, but neither spoke.

"The sky is unraveling," another Revenant said, tilting its head upward. "You feel it, don't you?"

Kai clenched his jaw. He had heard whispers of the Threshold before, glimpses of something vast and incomprehensible in fractured time loops he barely understood.

"What do you want?" he asked.

The leader of the group, a tall figure with hollowed eyes, reached into the folds of their robe and produced a fragment unlike any Kai had ever seen. It pulsed erratically, flickering between light and darkness, as if struggling to exist.

"This does not belong here," the Revenant said. "It is part of what was sealed beyond the sky."

A chill ran down Kai's spine. He had encountered countless fragments before, each with unique properties, but none had ever looked unstable like this.

"What happens if the seal breaks?" Lena asked.

The Revenant's expression did not change. "Then they will come."

A sound tore through the night—a howl, resonant and unnatural, vibrating through the air like a shockwave. It was followed by another. Then another. The Revenants turned toward the ruins beyond, their glowing eyes narrowing.

"They are already here."

The world trembled. A ripple passed through the air, distorting everything around them. The sky above cracked, and for a brief, horrifying moment, Kai saw something beyond it—something massive, shifting, waiting.

Then the first creature stepped through.

It moved like liquid shadow, its elongated form flickering between solid and intangible. Limbs stretched unnaturally, its face an empty void. But it wasn't just its appearance that sent a jolt of fear through Kai—it was its presence. It radiated something impossible, a void where time and space should exist but didn't.

Kai reacted instinctively, activating his ability. Time slowed to a near halt around him, the world grinding to a crawl. But the creature kept moving. Even in frozen time, it was unaffected.

Lena cried out as a second entity materialized behind her. She raised her fragment, its glow intensifying as she willed it into a barrier of light. The creature twisted, its form collapsing inward before reappearing an instant later, closer than before.

Kai released his hold on time, the sudden shift sending a sharp pain through his skull. He grabbed Lena's wrist and pulled her back just as the creature's elongated hand sliced through the air where she had stood. Reality itself fractured at the impact, shards of existence breaking away like splintered glass.

"We need to move!" Kai shouted.

The Revenants were already retreating, vanishing into the ruins like specters. Kai didn't trust them, but he had no time to question their motives.

Lena's breathing was ragged as she ran beside him. "What the hell are those things?"

Kai didn't know. But as he looked up at the fractured sky, he realized that whatever had been sealed within the Moon wasn't just stirring.

It was breaking through.