Isabella Solder
The house didn't feel like a house anymore.
The front door hung open at a weird angle, splinters scattered across the floor like someone had dropped a wooden plate and then kicked it for fun. The wind whistled through it, cold and sharp, rustling the curtains that Marissa always kept perfectly straight.
It was quiet, except for our breathing.
"The mimic did this," Marissa whispered, staring at the doorway as if it could come back through it.
I nodded, hugging my arms. "It… kinda ruined everything."
Marissa let out a shaky breath. "We can't stay here. It's not safe."
I didn't argue.
The moment the fight ended, I knew we couldn't spend another moment inside these walls. Not with the door broken wide open. Not with monsters wandering the streets.
We stepped outside into the red-moon night. The air felt heavier than before, like it was pressing down on us. Sounds echoed strangely — distant crashes, faint screaming, something metallic groaning far away.
I held Marissa's hand, helping her step over the broken threshold.
"We'll be okay," I told her.
I wasn't sure if I was saying it for her or for me.
We hurried along the street, sticking close to the walls. Everything looked different in red moonlight — more serious, like the entire city had lost its smile.
We were halfway down an alley when the ground… moved.
I froze.
Marissa gasped.
The cobblestones bulged, then cracked, then burst open — and something crawled out.
It was small, like a kid-sized creature. Its fingers were long and bent wrong, its eyes glowing green like moldy grapes.
"What is that?" I whispered.
The thing hissed at us.
Before I could blink, three more popped up around it, scrambling over each other like angry squirrels.
I didn't know their real names.
So the only thing that came out of my mouth was:
"Critters."
Marissa stared at me like I'd said a forbidden word. "Isabella, that's—"
But the critters weren't waiting for introductions.
One shot forward, claw-first.
I screamed — mostly because it jumped so fast — and threw out my hand.
My ether flared bright gold.
The light blasted straight from my palm, hit the critter right in its leafy chest, and sent it tumbling backward with a squeal.
"…Oh," I breathed. "That works."
The other critters hissed louder, offended.
A whole cluster of them rushed us at once.
Marissa clung to my sleeve, but she didn't run.
I stepped in front of her.
"Not cute anymore." I muttered
My hands glowed again — that warm, buzzing light that made the world sharpen — and I swept my arms forward.
A wide golden burst swept the critters like a wave, knocking them back into cracks and rubble. Two tried to get up, but another flash of light startled them, and they scurried away squealing.
The alley went quiet again.
Marissa stared at me like she'd never seen me before.
I rubbed my hands together, still glowing faintly. "They weren't… uh… that scary."
"Uhh… Isabella…" Marissa whispered
I hurried forward. "Come on! We should find help."
We moved through the streets quicker now — me watching shadows, Marissa gripping my wrist like it was the only thing keeping her standing. Everything around us felt alive and broken at the same time.
A building groaned and dropped a piece of wall. Somewhere far away, something screamed. The sky shook like thunder.
But I didn't feel scared.
Just cautious.
Just… determined.
We turned the next corner, and I nearly ran right into a group of people.
Not monsters.
Hunters.
About ten of them, weapons glowing faintly, armor dusted and cracked. They looked both tired and ready for a fight.
One of them spotted us and waved sharply. "Hold up! Civilians!"
We stopped.
The group moved in closer, forming a protective half-circle.
Then one of the hunters stepped forward — tall, broad, with a shaved head and a dark coat torn at the sleeve. His voice reached us before his smile did.
"Oh, perfect," he said. "Just who I was hoping not to find wandering around."
I blinked.
"Isabella, right?" he said, pointing at me. "The girl Dagian dragged in earlier today."
I felt my face warm. "Uh… yeah. Hi."
Rogan — I remembered now — looked exactly the same as before: dramatic, loud, and annoyingly confident.
He turned to Marissa.
"And Marissa," he said with a gentleness I didn't expect. "Dagian's mother. Terrible time to be outside, you know."
Marissa nodded shakily. "Our home was breached. We had no choice."
Rogan's expression hardened. "By what?"
"…A mimic."
He let out a long whistle. "Well. That's unpleasant."
Another hunter behind him muttered, "Everything tonight is unpleasant."
Marissa stepped forward hesitantly. "Have you seen Dagian? Please—anything."
Rogan's joking expression faded.
"Not recently," he said honestly. "Last report said he was fighting a Ravorn near the central district. Haven't heard from him since."
Marissa's breath caught in her throat.
I squeezed her hand.
"He's strong," Rogan continued. "Strongest idiot I know, actually. He'll be fine."
I tried to smile, but it felt small.
Rogan scanned the crumbling district, then looked at us again.
"Alright," he said, clapping his hands once. "This area's going to collapse soon. We're escorting you two to the safe-haven — reinforced shelter, outer ring district. Lots of guards. Zero roots. At least, we hope."
I nodded quickly.
Marissa whispered, "Thank you."
"Hey," Rogan said with a half-smile, "we take care of our own."
He motioned for his squad to form up.
"Let's move! Keep the two of them in the middle. No wandering, no heroics, and please — no root adoption attempts."
I flushed. "I wasn't going to adopt them!"
The entire group looked unconvinced.
**
We started walking.
Marissa leaned close to me and whispered, "You did call them cute…"
"They were cute," I whispered back.
A hunter overheard and nearly tripped over his own boots.
Rogan just sighed dramatically.
We moved deeper into the district, toward the safe-haven, toward whatever the night still planned to throw at us.
Rogan's squad surrounded us, a moving wall of metal boots, flickering weapons, and tired breathing.
The district around us didn't look like a place anymore. It looked like it was… unraveling.
The red moon made everything look bruised, like the whole world was one big scraped knee.
Marissa kept my hand squeezed in hers. I didn't mind. Her hand was shaking worse than before.
We turned another corner, stepping over cracked tiles—
—and the sky… dimmed.
Not like a cloud passing.
More like something enormous was stepping between us and the moon.
Rogan stopped mid-stride.
His squad froze instantly.
"What's happening?" I whispered.
Rogan lifted a hand for silence, staring past the rooftops. His eyes narrowed, and suddenly he looked older than he had five minutes ago.
A low rumble rolled through the ground, shaking dust from broken windows.
Marissa stumbled. I held her up.
Then the rumble grew into a shiver beneath our feet — like the pavement had a heartbeat.
Rogan said one word, under his breath:
"…no."
I followed his gaze.
Far away, in the direction of the pit, something huge was moving. At first it looked like a giant shadow, tall as the district gates, shifting and twitching like it wasn't done forming.
I blinked, thinking maybe my eyes were being weird.
They weren't.
The thing… changed.
The shadowy silhouette cracked. Strips of darkness peeled away like burnt cloth in the wind. Something solid glowed underneath it — black and red and molten, like stone with fire trapped inside.
Marissa sucked in a breath so sharp it hurt to hear.
One of Rogan's hunters whispered, "Is that… an apparition?"
"No," Rogan said. His voice sounded like gravel. "That's worse."
The last piece of shadow peeled off — and the creature stepped forward.
Not like a person. Not like anything that should exist.
Its body was tall enough to crush a building just by leaning. Spikes jutted around its head like a broken crown. Its chest had a hole, a perfect circle, swirling like someone had punched a void into it.
It didn't glow bright.
It was an empty void.
The air felt heavier.
My chest felt tight — not painful, just like I needed to breathe deeper.
"What is that?" I whispered.
Rogan didn't answer.
He looked afraid. Really afraid.
And that made me nervous for the first time tonight.
The creature raised its head — slowly, like it was still getting used to having a body.
Then it breathed in.
The air bent around it, like everything around the monster was being pulled toward the hole in its chest.
A moment later—
BOOM.
The shockwave hit the district like thunder.
Windows shattered three streets away. A building's roof caved in.
A flock of birds — or maybe not birds — scattered like black sand.
The hunters braced themselves.
Rogan grabbed both Marissa and me, pulling us toward the wall so we didn't fall.
I clutched the bricks with one hand and covered my ear with the other.
For a second everything was just wind and noise and dust.
When it stopped, the monster took a step — and the ground shook again.
"What is that thing!?" I yelled over the ringing in my ears.
Rogan's jaw flexed.
"That's The Imgrel."
One of the younger hunters flinched. "Those are supposed to be buried in the pit! They don't… they don't come topside!"
"This one did," Rogan said quietly.
Marissa grabbed his sleeve, her voice trembling. "Rogan… my son is out there."
Rogan put a hand over hers. "And he's smart enough to avoid that thing. Trust me."
I didn't know if he was trying to calm her or himself.
Another step.
Another quake.
The Imgrel turned slightly, and the hole in its chest pulsed like it was breathing in the moonlight.
Rogan cursed under his breath. "We need to move. Now."
"Is it coming this direction?" I asked.
"No," he said. "It doesn't have a direction. Those things don't think the way we do. They… drift."
He motioned for the squad to tighten formation.
"Stay in the middle," he ordered. "If the ground gives out, if anything pops out of the street again, if something screams at you — run toward us, not away."
Marissa nodded quickly.
I nodded too, though my stomach felt weird.
Not scared.
Just… aware.
The kind of feeling you get before a big storm, when the trees go quiet and you can feel the sky watching.
We started walking again — faster than before, almost a jog.
The Imgrel moved in the distance, each step like thunder.
I kept looking back.
I couldn't stop.
Something in me kept thinking about Dagian — somewhere out there in that same storm — and even though I tried not to imagine the worst…
…my chest tightened anyway.
Because even with all the noise and chaos and hunters around me…
The night suddenly felt too big.
And we were very, very small.
We kept moving.
Not slow. Not calm.
Fast enough that my legs started to burn, but not so fast the hunters yelled at me for tripping.
Rogan's squad stayed tight around us, every one of them watching rooftops, alleys, even the cracks in the ground like enemies could crawl out of anywhere.
And honestly?
They probably could.
We were halfway down another street when the ground jolted again — the kind of shake that isn't from footsteps, but from an entire neighborhood being crushed.
Marissa gasped and grabbed my arm.
I held her close as dust rolled down from a roof overhead.
Rogan looked over his shoulder. "Keep moving! Don't look back!"
But I did.
Just for a second.
The Imgrel — that massive, horrifying thing — was moving across the city like it didn't even notice it was stepping on people's homes. With every slow step, entire blocks folded in on themselves, flattening like dropped paper.
A house I recognized — the bakery — disappeared under its foot like it never existed. Just gone. Nothing left but a crater and smoke.
My stomach twisted.
"Isabella," Marissa whispered shakily, "don't look."
I tore my eyes away and kept going.
But the sound stayed behind us — walls falling, buildings cracking under their own weight, the heavy pulse of the Imgrel's movement shaking the entire district like an earthquake that refused to stop.
One of the younger hunters whispered, "How do you even fight something like that…?"
"You don't," Rogan said. "You survive while people above our pay grade figure it out."
A moment later, the Imgrel's chest glowed.
Not bright.
Not warm.
Dark.
Like a star imploding instead of shining.
Rogan noticed it instantly. "DOWN!"
He shoved Marissa and me against the wall as his squad hunkered low.
The glow tightened—
—then blasted outward in a sharp beam.
It wasn't like light.
It was like Erasure.
A straight line of darkness cut across the city, slicing through buildings like they were made of fog. Everything in the beam's path vanished. No explosion. No fire. No sound.
Just nothing where something used to be.
Marissa covered her mouth with both hands, eyes wide.
"Oh my God…" she whispered.
The beam carved a trench straight through the district — maybe miles long — taking homes, a whole market street, and the bridge that connected to the next sector.
Rogan peeked around the corner, swore quietly, then waved us forward.
"We need to hurry. That thing isn't staying still."
We moved again, faster.
The streets were getting worse the closer we got to the safe-haven — cracked stone, fallen lantern posts, abandoned carts, bits of shattered rooftops everywhere. The moonlight made everything look broken twice.
But the hunters didn't slow.
One of them, a woman with braided hair, pointed toward the sky. "Second glow!"
We all looked.
The Imgrel's chest pulsed again—dark rings forming around the hole like ripples in reverse.
It lifted one arm.
Then the beam fired sideways this time, sweeping across a cluster of old homes. The whole neighborhood lit up black for a heartbeat — then dissolved like paper in acid.
A wall of dust rolled toward us.
Rogan grabbed me and Marissa and pulled us behind a broken cart as the dust cloud washed over us.
I coughed, waving my hand in front of my face. "Is it— is it destroying everything on purpose?"
"No," Rogan said through gritted teeth. "That's the problem. It isn't doing anything on purpose."
Marissa's breathing quickened. "How are we supposed to— how can anyone stop that?"
Rogan didn't answer.
His eyes were tight and unfocused — like he was doing mental math he didn't want to share.
Another distant explosion echoed. More dust clouds bloomed like dying fireworks.
The city — the place I'd just started to learn — was disappearing before I even knew its streets.
I felt something tighten in my chest, but strangely… it wasn't fear.
It was anger.
Quiet, warm, small anger.
Like the spark that comes before a fire.
"Isabella," Marissa whispered, squeezing my hand, "stay close. Please."
"I'm not going anywhere," I said.
We crossed a ruined courtyard, then another alley, Rogan constantly checking corners and raising his hand for silence whenever the ground rumbled. More hunters joined our group as we moved — stragglers, injured ones, ones searching for their squads.
By the time we were nearing the east district wall, there were twenty of us.
And still… the Imgrel kept walking.
Slow. Heavy. Like the world bent around its footsteps.
It stepped onto a cluster of tall apartments in the distance — flattening them like sandcastles. The shockwave rattled loose stones and sent a few cracks spidering across the street beneath us.
Rogan cursed. "We'll need to go through Sector 8 instead of around it. That whole block just collapsed."
A hunter groaned. "That adds six minutes—"
"We don't have a choice," Rogan snapped.
We changed direction.
More dust clouds. More roars that made the air vibrate.
Marissa held onto me with both hands now.
And I held her right back.
Not because I was scared.
But because she was.
And because Dagian wasn't here.
But he was somewhere in this same world-ending mess, and that meant something inside me wouldn't let me crumble.
The safe haven was close — Rogan said it was only a few blocks away — but the city itself kept shifting under us. Whole streets were torn apart, roofs caved in, windows blown outward. Every time we turned a corner, something new was broken.
I'd never realized how loud silence could be. The kind of silence that comes after buildings collapse and screams fade too quickly.
Rogan's squad stayed tight around us. Their shoulders were tense, weapons drawn, eyes flicking in every direction like danger could fall from the sky.
And honestly?
It probably could.
The Imgrel wasn't walking fast.
But it didn't need to.
One step from it was like a mile for us. One footfall was enough to knock tiles loose, crack walls, or slam dust into the sky so thick it looked like smoke from a burning forest.
"Keep up," Rogan called back, his voice firm but strained. "Don't look behind you."
Of course, that made me want to look behind me.
I didn't.
Not yet.
But I could feel it. The way you can feel someone staring at you from across a crowded room.
This wasn't like the mimic. Or the critters.
This wasn't something we could run from and then fight later.
This was the kind of thing that didn't care that you were running.
A distant boom made me flinch.
Then another.
And another.
Each one heavier than the last.
Marissa's grip tightened on my wrist like she thought she'd float away if she let go.
I tried giving her a small, reassuring smile.
It probably came out crooked.
"Just a little further," I said, even if I didn't know that for sure.
Rogan pointed ahead. "There! Through the old lantern corridor — it's right past that."
His squad pushed forward, clearing rubble and guiding us through a broken archway. Lanterns dangled overhead, some shattered, some swinging, some burning with flickering redish light.
Then—
A tremor rolled so hard through the ground that several lanterns snapped off and shattered around us.
Marissa stumbled.
I caught her before she fell.
Rogan turned sharply. "Everyone stop—"
The sky went darker.
I didn't understand at first.
Then I realized…
It wasn't the sky.
It was a shadow.
A massive shadow.
Slowly stretching across rooftops and broken chimneys and cracked stone, like a huge hand reaching over the district.
My breath froze in my chest.
I finally turned around.
And—
There it was.
The Imgrel.
Not far.
Close.
Too close.
Its body towered over the district like some impossible statue carved out of the night. Its black, cracked surface glowed faintly with molten red. The spike-crown around its head shimmered like it was part metal, part bone, part something else.
One step.
BOOM.
An entire row of houses collapsed under its foot.
Two steps.
BOOM.
A street disappeared into a crater.
Three steps.
BOOM.
Rogan cursed and forced us forward. "Move! Move! MOVE!"
We ran again, but the ground shook with every step the monster took.
Dust rained down from ruined rooftops. Street lamps flickered and fell, bursting into sparks.
We turned another corner, climbing over stone and broken beams.
"Safe haven ahead!" a hunter screamed. "We're almost there!"
And I saw it.
A huge set of walls — reinforced, glowing faintly with shield barriers.
Dozens of civilians gathered behind them. Hunters standing guard with weapons shaking in their hands.
A warm glow pulsed from the barrier like a heartbeat.
Safe.
Somewhere safe.
My eyes burned with relief.
Until the Imgrel roared.
This wasn't the roar from earlier.
This was louder. Deeper.
Like the city itself was screaming.
A shockwave blasted overhead — wind so strong it almost knocked us over.
The Imgrel shifted its massive torso.
And then—
It turned.
Not randomly. Not drifting.
Directly toward the safe-haven.
A massive foot rose in the air.
Then—
BOOOOM.
It landed.
Crushing an entire neighborhood near the haven.
Screams erupted from behind the barrier. Civilians huddled behind the walls. Hunters shouted warnings.
Rogan grabbed Marissa and me, practically dragging us. "We're out of time! Go! GO!"
We sprinted the last stretch, debris flying, the ground buckling beneath us.
The Imgrel's chest began to glow.
Dark.
Dense.
Empty.
"We're not going to make it—" Marissa gasped.
"Yes we are!" I yelled back, even if my heart disagreed.
Rogan shoved us toward the entrance. "Get inside the barrier! NOW—"
The air changed.
It thinned. Then trembled. Then bent.
The Imgrel's chest collapsed inward like a forming black hole.
A beam gathered — not light, not heat, not fire.
A void.
A tear in the world.
It lifted its arm—
Aimed directly at the safe-haven—
And the sky darkened with the crushing pull of the forming blast—
When something small — impossibly small compared to the Imgrel —launched into the air.
A figure.
Fast. Sharp. Rising like a thrown knife into the red moon.
The first thing I saw was the coat — dark, tattered at the edge.
Then the hair — dark, whipping wildly in the wind.
Then the weapon — long, curved, a scythe glowing with a faint line of gold.
My breath caught so hard it hurt.
He swung the scythe.
A massive golden slash erupted from its arc — clean, bright, slicing through the darkness like morning sunlight breaking through a storm.
The line struck the Imgrel's chest—
And ripped through it.
A giant burst of molten cracks exploded across the creature's torso, the void flickering as if the monster itself had been shocked awake.
The Imgrel staggered backward, slamming into a row of structures and flattening them entirely.
Dust exploded upward.
The figure in the air began to fall.
My knees buckled as I watched him.
Dagian.
He twisted mid-fall, looking down toward the ground.
Toward us.
Toward me.
His eyes met mine across the impossible distance — through dust, through smoke, through chaos.
My vision blurred instantly.
Tears rolled without permission, warm and sudden.
He looked tired. He looked in pain. But he looked alive.
And that alone broke something open in my chest.
"Dagian…" I whispered, voice cracking.
His gaze softened — just a flicker.
He fell out of sight, swallowed by the rising dust cloud below.