The moon hung high in the sky, suspended like a silver lamp above the vast forest of the kingdom. Its light, cold yet powerful, fell between the branches, slipping through the leaves as if they were the stained glass of a natural cathedral. The rays fractured into irregular lines, dancing across the ground covered in roots and damp earth. It was as if the entire forest were preparing a solemn welcome—for a certain person… or perhaps for a certain moment of destiny.
The night wind whispered through the treetops, moving the branches with a slow, harmonious rhythm, almost musical. The air smelled of wet wood, of wild life, of danger… but also of rebirth. The nocturnal creatures kept silent, a silence so deep it felt like a pact between the forest and the night: nothing was to interrupt what was about to unfold.
In that setting, beneath a sky so vast it seemed to swallow the world, there were three beings.
Three forms of life, so different from one another, yet bound in that instant by an invisible thread of fate. Two of them were human—Earthlings torn from their native world—while the third was something else, a spirit, an entity wrapped in darkness that breathed hatred.
On the ground, supported by trembling hands, was Jay Baker. And though his body was there, his inner life was shattered.
Since arriving in this other world, only a few days had passed. Not even a full week. Perhaps six days. But for Jay, it had been years. Years of fear, blood, death, exhaustion, hunger, loss… He had seen people die, felt death brush against his neck, had run, screamed, fought, and cried more than in his entire life on Earth.
And still, nothing had prepared him for what stood before his eyes.
Jay, seated on the ground in an almost defensive posture, breathed as if he had just escaped a nightmare too real. His chest rose and fell violently; his pupils were dilated from shock, from recent horror, from disbelief. His fingers still trembled, as if they could still feel the vibration of the spiritual jaguar's roar that had saved him moments earlier.
But before him… Before him was something that erased everything else.
A man. A human. An Earthling. A face he had seen a thousand times, a silhouette he knew better than his own, a presence tattooed into his memory since childhood.
Jay looked at him as if he were a mirage, an impossible dream, a fantasy appearing at the very moment his heart needed it most.
That man, that Earthling, looked at him with a smile that said "I'm here." A smile that was not wide, nor exaggerated, nor effusive. It was simple. Small. But heavy with silent pride, with the recognition Jay had sought almost all his life on Earth. A smile that said that even if the world fell apart, he was there.
Jay felt a strange warmth in his eyes. A tear escaped without permission.
"D… Daru…" Jay gasped, his voice shattering like glass. "Is it you?"
The man smiled a little more, tilting his head with a calmness that contrasted with all the chaos around them.
"Well, what do you see?" he replied with soft sarcasm, so natural it felt as though only two days had passed since they last met. "Did you eat mushrooms or something?"
It was his voice. Exactly as Jay remembered it. Similar to his own, but calmer, firmer, more assured. A voice made to lead without trying.
Jay let out a strangled laugh, broken, a mix of relief and despair. A laugh that could only mean one thing: he had carried too much alone, for far too long.
Yet Jay clenched his teeth, refusing to let all his emotion spill out at once. He didn't want his brother—yes, his older brother—to see him so destroyed.
With a trembling voice but a sincere smile, Jay said:
"I've been looking for you, you damn idiot…"
His words hung in the air for a second. A second that could have lasted a lifetime for Jay.
But then—
The moment was shattered by the third presence in the forest.
That other form of life.
The shadow.
This creature had no face, no clothing, no defined shape. It was a humanoid mass wrapped in a foul black mist, a living miasma that seemed to writhe with every breath of the forest. Its body was silhouette, smoke, solid darkness, and its eyes—if they could be called that—were two hollow whites emitting a cold light, a light that seemed to stare directly into the soul.
It was not only repulsive. It was unnatural. It was as if darkness itself had decided to take form.
Daru turned slowly toward the figure, the moon illuminating the edge of his coat, highlighting each movement with tense elegance. The wind shifted a strand of his hair aside, leaving his expression sharp, serious.
He fixed his gaze on the shadow. No fear. No doubt. No surprise. Only resolve.
"At last, I've found you," he said in a deep, clear voice, so firm that even the wind seemed to stop. "Bastard."
The entire forest seemed to hold its breath at those words.
And so, beneath the brightest moon of the week, the destinies of the three beings became entwined.
Daru's voice cut through the silence like a knife.
"Stay back. Now."
It wasn't a shout. It wasn't a desperate command. It was something worse: a firm, decisive tone, as if he had already accepted something Jay could not yet understand.
Jay blinked. He didn't understand a thing.
His brother. His older brother—though only by two months—was standing there, in that strange forest, in a world that wasn't Earth. It was impossible. Too convenient. Too perfect to be coincidence.
Why in that place? Why at that exact moment, when Jay was on the brink of death? Why precisely when all hope was gone?
It was as if someone… or something… had deliberately pulled the strings of fate.
Jay felt his heart pounding against his chest. He didn't know if it was from fear, confusion, or relief.
Daru. His older brother. The one who had vanished in Caracas without leaving a single clue. The one who walked out of the house one day and never came back. The one who left a hole in the family that never healed.
That same Daru was here. In another world. Breathing the same air as him. Looking at him with that strange mix of calm, strength, and weariness he had always carried.
"Why…?" Jay whispered. But he didn't even know what he was asking.
Why was he here? Why now? Why in front of that shadow? Why did he know what to do? Why did he act as if he had lived all this before?
There were no answers. Only a storm raging in his chest.
The shadow moved slowly, as if the air itself grew heavier around it. That being—that thing—reeked of death, of emptiness, of something that should not exist.
Jay swallowed hard. His legs trembled.
What did the shadow want? Why was it interested in them? Why had it appeared right after Daru saved him?
Jay knew nothing. It was like being trapped in a giant puzzle where all the pieces were black.
Should he obey his brother? Should he run? Should he stay and fight at his side? Should he trust him… or fear him?
He was his brother… but now also a stranger. A man who had survived alone, in who knows what circumstances, in who knows what kind of hell.
Jay tried to move. His hands pressed against the damp ground. His body trembled.
His legs wouldn't respond.
Was it fear of the shadow? Or fear of the truth?
Perhaps both.
His breathing was uneven. As if every gulp of air was a desperate attempt not to collapse. His mind was a labyrinth of broken, confused, painful thoughts.
It all felt like a cruel joke. A bad trick of fate. A mockery of the gods.
After everything he had endured— monsters, hunger, death, blood… now he had to process the reappearance of his missing brother?
Jay swallowed hard and clenched his teeth. He forced himself to stand. His legs faltered at first, like wet paper. But he managed to rise, staggering, gasping.
He stepped back a few paces, breathing as if he had run for miles.
And still, as he retreated, his gaze never left his brother's back.
As if he feared that, if he blinked, Daru would vanish again.
Just like that time in Caracas.
Jay let himself fall against the trunk of the tree, as if his back were desperately searching for something solid to cling to. The tree was cold, rough, ancient… and yet, it felt more stable than his own legs. For a moment he leaned all his strength against it, breathing fast, panting, as if every breath were a battle against the chaos raging inside him.
Then, little by little, the tension gave way, and his body slid down the bark until he was seated on the damp earth. The ground was cold, but that cold kept him conscious. Alert. Awake. And yet, none of it pulled him out of the storm inside his mind.
He never stopped looking at Daru. Not a single blink. Not a single glance away. It was as if he feared that, if he looked aside for even a second, his brother would vanish forever once more.
His brother.
His older brother… older by barely two months, but older nonetheless. Two months that had always weighed like two years. Two months that had turned him into a pillar, a reference, a beacon.
And that beacon was here. In the middle of an unknown forest. In a foreign world.
Jay clenched his teeth.
What was happening? What was all of this? It made no sense… no logic at all.
Had he too been brought here by the same butterfly-rift? That luminous, silent entity that had taken Jay away. Had that strange being also extended its hand—or its wings—toward Daru? Or perhaps… Daru had arrived before? Or after? And why? For what purpose?
The questions didn't stop. They multiplied like echoes inside his mind, pounding against the walls of his consciousness until he felt dizzy.
And what did he mean by "at last I've found you"? Who was he searching for? The shadow? Jay? Someone else?
Nothing fit. It was an incomplete puzzle, with broken pieces, where the images refused to align.
Jay's expression grew more tense, more weary, more burdened with that kind of confusion that doesn't just live in the mind, but also in the chest… in the stomach… in the bones. It was an emotional fatigue heavier than the physical.
But even in the middle of that storm, there was one simple truth: he had to return to Nekotina. He had to go back to her. He had to explain… or warn… or ask for help… Something. Anything. It was the only thing that made sense in all this madness.
And yet… his brother was here. Alive. Real. Ready to face something Jay couldn't even comprehend.
It was his duty to help him. But it was also his duty not to die.
An impossible balance.
Then, in the middle of all that inner conflict, Jay made a decision. A very simple, but very important one:
Observe. Watch. Understand who Daru was now.
"Let's see who you are now… Daru Eicker…" he whispered in his mind, as if it were a vow.
The moon filtered through the branches with a strange softness, almost maternal, as if it embraced the entire forest and bathed it in silver light that looked like stardust. The clearing was illuminated right at its center, like a stage prepared by divine hands. There, in full view, stood two figures:
A shadow. And Daru Eicker.
The wind began to blow. First softly, then stronger, as if the entire forest were ringing an invisible bell to announce the beginning of a battle. A silent "ding," deep, resonating in the soul.
The shadow moved first. It extended its hands slowly, like a monster savoring the chance to display its deformity. Its fingers seemed to stretch longer than normal, as if made of liquid smoke. And then it laughed.
A laugh difficult to describe. It was like listening to a damaged VHS tape, with distorted, torn, irregular sound. Like an old television with interference. A sound that should not exist… a noise that belonged to no living being.
That laugh was horrifying. It was filthy. It was a stain in the air. A vibration that contaminated the atmosphere with heaviness, with a strange fatigue that seeped into the skin and made the muscles tense on their own.
Jay felt a shiver run down his spine. The shadow was repulsive. Not because of its form, but because of its essence. It was a presence that forced the body to react, as if warning: "This should not exist."
But Daru… Daru was not normal either.
From his feet, a dark mist began to rise. It wasn't thick, nor damp, nor cold. It was like a living shadow, but without the malice emanating from the creature before him. Nor was it good. It didn't transmit peace. It was… neutral. As if he himself were the border between light and darkness.
The mist surrounded him, mingled with the wind, and seemed to obey him. As if it were part of him.
The wind kept blowing, stronger and stronger. It moved Daru's coat from side to side, making it wave like a black flag. At his waist hung two katas, one on each side. Their handles were as dark as coal, but under the moon they gleamed with a discreet, elegant edge.
Daru leaned forward. It wasn't a traditional combat stance. It wasn't something learned in a dojo. It was natural. Instinctive. Like the posture of a predator who had spent too many years hunting in silence.
It was experience. Pure experience.
"At last I've found you… bastard…" Daru murmured, his voice low, firm, charged with a conviction that made the skin crawl.
Jay swallowed hard. That phrase… That tone… The way he said it…
This wasn't the first time Daru had seen that thing. It wasn't a chance encounter.
The two black auras clashed in the middle of the clearing. One was unnatural, corrupt, heavy. The other was firm, controlled, silent. It was like witnessing "evil against evil"… But one of those evils had the shape of a hero.
Daru's red eyes gleamed like pure blood under the moon. A sharp, intense gaze, locked on its target. Jay felt he was watching a hunter staring at his prey. A hunter who hadn't forgotten. A hunter who would not forgive.
The shadow, for its part, showed nothing. No emotions, no intentions, no humanity. Only two hollow whites shining like dead lanterns.
And its laugh. That disgusting, distorted laugh. A laugh that seemed to mock. To celebrate. Or perhaps… to welcome.
As if the shadow had been waiting for this exact moment.