No one agrees on when the world truly ended.
Some say it ended the night the sky turned red.
Others say it ended when humanity learned fear could walk, breathe, and kill.
But whatever the truth is—
That night changed everything.
Twenty years ago, on the outskirts of Tokyo, there was a village that barely existed on maps.
Karagumi Village.
Rice fields stretched beneath low mountains. Cicadas screamed into the humid summer night. Elderly men smoked quietly on wooden porches. Paper doors slid shut as families prepared for sleep.
Nothing ever happened there.
That was why no one noticed the moment reality cracked.
11:42 PM
The wind died.
Cicadas cut off mid-cry.
Then the sky ruptured.
Crimson light tore through the clouds like a fresh wound, washing the village in red. People stepped out of their homes, confused, shielding their eyes.
"What… is that?"
The ground trembled—not violently, but wrongly, as if something beneath the earth was waking after a long sleep.
Then it rose.
A shadow climbed over the mountains, large enough to erase the horizon.
Its body glowed like molten iron, veins of red light crawling beneath semi-translucent skin. Shapes shifted across its surface—eyes blinking open where eyes should not exist, mouths tearing open only to seal shut again.
Its limbs changed length as it moved, joints bending in impossible directions.
Every step it took felt like reality being rejected.
Houses vanished in its shadow.
Fields burned to ash in seconds.
The air itself boiled.
People screamed.
Panic
Bare feet slapped against dirt roads. Mothers grabbed children without knowing where to run. Fathers dragged the elderly from collapsing homes.
Some people froze.
Those people died first.
A single crimson limb swept through the village, erasing houses as if they were chalk drawings. Fire bloomed instantly. Screams ended under impossible weight.
Sirens wailed from distant towns—useless, too far away.
This wasn't an attack.
It was a nightmare.
Officer Mizuno Kaede arrived ten minutes later.
Ten minutes too late.
Her patrol car skidded to a stop as a shockwave shattered the windshield. She kicked the door open, flashlight trembling in her grip.
"This can't be real…"
She didn't wait for orders.
"Evacuate! Move now!" she shouted, dragging villagers from the streets as debris rained down around them.
A roar split the air so violently it burst windows half a block away. Mizuno hit the ground, ears ringing.
Monsters don't exist.
And yet—
A man staggered out of the smoke, clothes burning, clutching a limp child.
"There are kids still inside—" he gasped before collapsing.
Mizuno ran.
The daycare building was already half-collapsed.
Smoke choked the hallways. Fire ate through the ceiling. Mizuno shouted until her throat burned.
"Anyone inside!?"
A small voice answered.
She pulled a little girl from beneath fallen shelves, coughing violently.
"It's okay. You're safe."
The girl shook her head, crying.
"H–Help him! He won't wake up!"
Mizuno turned.
A boy lay amid the rubble.
Uninjured.
Asleep.
Outside, the Nightmare roared.
Her blood ran cold.
No.
No, no, no—
She grabbed the boy's shoulders.
"Wake up! Open your eyes!"
Nothing.
The crimson light outside intensified. The building groaned.
"Wake up!" she screamed.
His eyelids fluttered.
The moment his eyes opened—
The world stopped.
The colossal Nightmare froze mid-roar. Its body flickered, glitched, breaking apart into red fragments like shattered glass.
Then it vanished.
Silence crashed over the village.
Fires burned low. Sirens wailed distantly. Survivors stared at the empty sky in disbelief.
Mizuno dropped to her knees, shaking.
She stared at the boy in her arms and whispered:
"…It was you."
The boy didn't understand.
He only cried.
The world would name this incident later.
The First Nightmareisation Incident.
The Crimson Night.
At the time, humanity only understood one thing:
Nightmares could become real.
And the only way to stop them—
Was to wake the dreamer.
END OF CHAPTER 1