The Whispering Forest and the Hunters of Ruin
The sun had barely risen when Leo woke up with a heavy feeling in his chest. His room was quiet. Too quiet. The morning breeze entered through the window, but something felt… wrong. It was the same feeling he had experienced last night—the strange pull, the echo inside the forest, the glowing cracks on the trees.
He sat up and rubbed his face.
"Why does it feel like something is watching me… again?"
He stood up and stretched. His eyes then fell on the small framed photo on his table—the picture of him, Max, and Ella, their old smiles frozen in time.
But today… the picture wasn't normal.
A thin black line, like an ink stroke, was running across Ella's face. It wasn't there yesterday.
Leo stepped closer.
"What is this…?"
The ink moved.
His heart stopped.
It crawled across the photo like a living shadow, forming a tiny sigil—an unknown symbol that pulsed with faint dark light.
Right then, his room trembled. Not violently… but like reality itself was breathing.
A low hummmm filled the air.
The wall in front of Leo rippled like water.
Then it opened.
A dark gate formed—black vines crawling, glowing cracks spreading across the room. The same vines he saw in yesterday's forest, but larger, alive, and hungry. The gate stretched until it touched the ceiling, swallowing the sunlight.
Leo stepped back, shocked.
"What the—again?! What is happening to my life?"
The gate pulsed, and a cold whisper filled the room:
"He has been marked. Bring him."
Leo's skin crawled.
Someone—something—was calling him.
The gate widened, forming a swirling vortex that looked like a broken mirror of another world. The air smelled like metal and rain.
Max barged into the room through the door.
"BRO! Are you okay? The whole house—HOLY—WHAT IS THAT?!"
Leo pointed weakly.
"I don't know… it opened after I touched Ella's photo."
Max squinted at the gate.
"Wait… wait… someone is coming out!"
A hand appeared first—dark, slender, covered in glowing silver cracks. Then a tall figure stepped through the gate, wearing a torn cloak made of shadows and mist. His face was hidden behind a bone mask with three glowing dots.
Not human.
Not beast.
Something in between.
The masked being tilted its head slowly, looking directly at Leo.
Max whispered, trembling,
"Leo… don't move."
Leo swallowed.
"I-I think it's here for me."
The creature raised its hand.
The vines in the room tightened, and reality twisted.
Then it spoke:
"Fragmented soul… found."
Leo was stunned.
"What? Fragmented soul? What are you talking about?"
The masked figure stepped forward.
"You carry the scent of Nothingness. You are marked by the Unknown One. You must come with us."
Leo's breath caught.
The Unknown One?
Max grabbed Leo's arm.
"Bro, run. RUN!"
But before they could move, three more gates ripped open behind the creature. And from each gate, new masked beings stepped out—different shapes, different masks, but all glowing with the same eerie cracks.
One with a long blade arm.
One floating without legs.
One crawling on the ceiling like an animal.
Max panicked.
"WHY ARE THERE SO MANY?!"
The leader lifted its hand again.
"We are the Hunters of Ruin."
Leo blinked.
"The what?!"
"We erase the ones chosen by the Unknown God. You should not exist."
The vines shot forward, trying to wrap around Leo's arms and legs. Leo instinctively pulled back, but they were faster.
Max grabbed a chair and smashed the vines.
"NO! BACK OFF!"
The vines recoiled.
The masked beings paused.
The leader whispered:
"The friend fights. He is irrelevant. Take the marked one."
Leo's anger flared.
"DON'T TOUCH MAX!"
Light burst around Leo's body—white, raw, untrained energy. The vines instantly burned away. The masked hunters stepped back, surprised.
Max stared wide-eyed.
"Leo… your eyes… they turned silver."
Leo felt his heartbeat racing, his blood boiling. Power surged from his core, something he never felt before.
The leader tilted his head again.
"Your awakening has begun."
Leo clenched his fists.
"I'm not going anywhere with you."
The Hunters moved—fast, silent, deadly.
Leo grabbed Max and jumped back as the blade-armed hunter slashed the floor, splitting it open. The crawling hunter leaped from the ceiling, and Leo dodged, crashing into the wall.
Max yelled,
"Leo! They're trying to kill you!"
"No," Leo breathed, "they're trying to capture me."
The room shook, cracks spreading across the air as if the world couldn't handle their presence.
Leo focused, trying to recreate the strange power he felt a moment ago. His hand glowed faintly—silver dust floating around his fingers.
He didn't know how, but his body moved on instinct.
He thrust his hand forward.
A wave of silver energy blasted out.
The Hunters slammed into the wall.
Max stared in shock.
"BRO WHAT WAS THAT?!"
Leo blinked.
"I—I don't know…"
But before they could escape, the leader stood up, calm, unaffected.
"Enough. We were warned not to kill you, but it seems you are more trouble than expected."
The sigil on Ella's photo suddenly glowed.
The leader whispered:
"Bring him to the Broken Realm. He must not meet the Absolute Path."
Leo froze.
Absolute Path?
Broken Realm?
Who was controlling them?
The leader stepped forward and placed its hand on the gate.
The gate expanded, swallowing half of Leo's room.
Leo grabbed Max's hand.
"Max… if we stay, we die."
Max nodded.
"So what do we do?!"
Leo took a breath.
"…We jump."
Both of them leaped into the gate—
—AND THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN.
Colors twisted. Sounds reversed. Their bodies felt weightless, pulled in every direction at once.
A new world appeared below, exploding in colors and shadows.
Max screamed,
"LEO WE ARE FALLING!!"
Leo shouted back,
"I KNOW!!"
They crashed into a strange soft ground that felt like grass made of glowing dust.
They rolled until they stopped.
Leo groaned,
"…Max… are you alive?"
"No… yes… I think… I broke my everything…"
Leo pulled Max up.
They finally looked around.
The sky was cracked like broken glass.
Trees floated in the air.
Mountains stood upside down.
And rivers flowed upward into the sky.
A place beyond logic.
Leo whispered:
"…Where are we?"
A voice answered from behind them,
"Welcome, marked one… to the Broken Realm."
Leo and Max turned around—
—and saw a girl with silver hair and black eyes, holding a glowing book.
She smirked.
"My name is Lyra. I'm the last survivor here. And you two just stepped into a war."