CHAPTER 5

The fire crackled weakly, casting long shadows across the makeshift camp. Around Zenith, most of the refugees slept soundly—what little sleep they could afford in a world like this. But he stayed awake, staring up at the broken sky.

The black crystal floated beside him in silence, its glow dim, as if conserving something deeper within. It never drifted far from him—not because it chose to stay, but because it had nowhere else to go.

Zenith hadn't been chosen.

He was simply the first to touch it.

He rolled onto his side, trying to shut it out, but the presence of the crystal throbbed near him—not in sound, but in sensation. A weightless hum beneath his skin. A whisper just beneath the noise of thought.

And then, without warning, the night collapsed.

The fire, the tents, the people—all of it blinked out, swallowed by darkness.

Zenith stood in a void so deep and quiet it pressed against his chest like water. He couldn't move. Couldn't speak. But something was moving around him. Time? Memory? No—it was older than either.

He felt himself being pulled through the ages, into something he did not belong to.

He saw a world before time. Endless shadow, vast and pure, untouched by division. And within it, a vast being pulsed with power: Chaos, the darkness before beginnings. Not a monster. Not evil. Merely the truth that existed before light knew itself.

Then the light came.

Brilliant and absolute, it tore through the dark like judgment. Chaos resisted, and the heavens shook with their war. From their clash, stars were flung across the nothingness. Worlds ignited, then crumbled. But Chaos lost.

The god of light cast him out, sealing him inside a mirror world—a twisted echo of Earth—and bound him with chains made from time and stars.

But Chaos, even in defeat, acted. As he fell, he tore fragments of himself free—seven black crystals, burning like omens. They scattered across the prison world, drifting through eras and broken lands, waiting… not for someone specific, but for anyone.

And Zenith had touched one first.

The vision shifted again.

Now he stood amid ruins not yet real. Cities in flames. The sky cracked and bleeding. From those cracks, creatures rained down—World Eaters, evolved, faster, smarter, consuming reality.

Above it all, two Earths hung in the sky—one dark, unfamiliar, pulsing with old power; the other bright, wounded, and proud.

They moved toward each other. Bound by fate. One had to survive.

And in the middle of that collision stood Zenith—older, surrounded by the seven crystals. He didn't look victorious. He looked tired. Worn down by what he had seen. Torn by the choice that only he could make.

The vision shattered.

Zenith jolted upright, gasping. Sweat soaked through his shirt. The crystal floated beside him like nothing had changed—but everything had.

Ires was beside him, wide-eyed. "You okay?" she asked. "You were twitching. Saying things in your sleep."

Zenith swallowed hard. "I saw… something. A memory. Not mine. Older than everything."

Ires tilted her head, cautious. "From the crystal?"

He nodded. "It didn't speak. It just… showed me things. The fall of Chaos. And what's coming next."

"What's coming?"

He looked her in the eyes. "A collision. Two Earths. One has to fall."

She blinked slowly, then sat beside him. "That crystal… it's not just power, is it?"

"No." He clenched his fists. "It's a window. A burden. And I wasn't chosen. I just touched it first."

Ires was quiet for a long time.

"So," she said finally, "what do we do now?"

Zenith looked at the crystal, gently spinning like a planet in orbit.

"We survive," he said. "And we find the others."

"The other crystals?"

He nodded.

"And if someone else touches them?"

He thought about that. "Then… we're not alone anymore. For better or worse."

The fire behind them was dying, but the darkness didn't feel so empty now. It felt full of things yet to awaken.

And somewhere deep in his mind, a whisper returned.

Two worlds cannot share the same sky.

So which one will you save, Zenith?

The camp smoldered. Flames danced against the broken remains of makeshift shelters, and the stench of blood lingered thick in the air. Survivors wept in the shadows, clutching each other. Zenith sat near the edge of it all, numb.

He clenched his fists, staring at the black crystal that hovered silently in front of him, reflecting the flicker of firelight like a watchful eye.

"I could have done more," he whispered.

The crystal pulsed faintly in reply.

He stood abruptly and walked away from the camp's perimeter, stopping beneath a broken tree.

"You were awake the whole time… weren't you?" Zenith muttered.

The air shifted.

A cold presence slithered into his mind like frost on glass. Chaos stirred — not as words, but as presence. As will.

I watched.

Zenith gritted his teeth. "And you did nothing."

It was not my concern.

"They were people!" he snapped. "Innocent! Children, families—this world is already cursed, and you just watched?"

Silence.

Zenith's hands trembled with rage. "You gave me this power, didn't you? Then let me use it! I won't just stand by and do nothing like you did when Ires almost—well u did do something then!"

The crystal dimmed.

You misunderstand, child, Chaos finally spoke, his voice curling like black smoke in Zenith's mind. I did not give you anything. You touched what was never yours. You are not my chosen. You are… a convenience. I owe you nothing.

Zenith fell to his knees.

"Please…" His voice broke. "I just… I want to protect the people I still have. That's all."

But Chaos was unmoved.

If you want strength, earn it yourself.

Suddenly—a scream tore through the air.

A small group of scouts who'd gone to search for survivors came running, shouting.

"Another wave! Smaller, but coming fast!"

Zenith turned in horror as three more portals split open like wounds, and World Eaters emerged—sleeker, sharper, faster. These were elite.

Ires was already in motion, sword drawn, moving to intercept them before they reached the broken perimeter.

Zenith stood, holding out his hand to the crystal.

"Please," he begged again. "Lend me your strength."

No.

The voice echoed cold and final.

Fine.

He didn't need Chaos.

Not now.

Zenith dashed forward, heart hammering, shadow-leaping past two stunned soldiers. He dropped beside Ires just as she blocked a vicious claw swipe. The World Eater knocked her off her feet, and another one lunged at her from behind.

Zenith caught it with his bare hands—struggling, barely holding its jaw from snapping shut.

He swung it into a boulder.

Two more came.

He dodged one, rolled beneath another, and stabbed one with a dagger — it barely flinched. These were stronger.

Without Chaos's power, he was too slow.

The second one pounced.

Its claws tore into his side — blood sprayed from Zenith's ribs, and he collapsed to his knees, gasping.

The beast lifted its claws, ready to finish him.

And then — the wind stopped.

Everything stopped.

A cold silence filled the clearing like a tide sucking the breath from the world.

The crystal, still floating, cracked with black lightning.

And then Zenith's eyes—turned pitch black.

The darkness didn't just surround him.

It consumed him.

A deep, ancient voice echoed from his lips — not his own.

"I grow tired of these interruptions."

The crystal burned with black fire, spinning faster, and Zenith's body moved like a shadow unbound. One second he was kneeling—next, he had appeared above the World Eater, plunging a blade made of pure void into its skull. It let out a high-pitched wail and died instantly.

He didn't stop.

He warped behind the second, caught its neck in one hand, and shattered it like glass.

The third tried to run — but the shadows themselves rose from the ground and devoured it in a coil of black tendrils.

Then it was over.

The refugees stood in stunned silence. The other soldiers backed away slowly. Ires stared at him, bloodied and wide-eyed.

Zenith stood, his chest rising and falling unnaturally slow — as if his heart had stopped for a moment.

His hands trembled. The dark aura receded. The crystal slowed its orbit.

And just like that…

Zenith collapsed.

Darkness took him.