On February 24th, 2025, the world ended.
Not with a warning. Not with a chance to fight.
In one moment, humanity ruled the Earth. In the next, it belonged to the darkness.
It all happened suddenly. In one instant, everyone was going about their business, and in the next, the darkness creatures descended.
Chaos broke loose.
Different armies launched into action, but it didn’t matter. Tanks were torn apart, bullets and missiles had no effect on the creatures.
The darkness spread fast across the world, wiping out every resistance in minutes. The people were clueless as to what the creatures were and how to deal with their supernatural abilities.
Governments fell. Leaders were silenced. Fortresses crumbled as if made of sand.
To humanity, it was the end.
However, this all changed when a single man fought back. A lone survivor who managed to kill one of the darkness creatures.
As its body fell and dissipated, it released a strange energy into the air. This energy, Vita, spread like a mist, mixing into the atmosphere. At first, nothing seemed different.
But soon, the human survivors began to feel it coursing through them, reshaping their very beings.
Humanity began to mutate, evolving in ways they never imagined possible.
They miraculously gained abilities that enabled them to fight back. The war that followed was brutal, a blood-soaked struggle where humanity was slowly losing ground.
Cities turned to battlegrounds, and once again, hope was almost gone. As the people began accepting the inevitable, something miraculous happened.
The man who had killed the first creature sacrificed himself. Using some power, he created a colossal dome that encompassed a third of the planet, shielding the survivors from the creatures.
Inside, the darkness army could not reach. And the survivors found shelter, a place to rebuild and restore the natural order. But no defense was ever perfect.
Exactly 395 years have passed since that day. From the ashes, a new society had formed.
And now, Malakai Von Sanguine, the ninth-born of the Sanguine family’s new generation of direct descendants, lay still on a king-sized bed, unmoving.
Outwardly, he appeared calm and peaceful, but within, the battle raging was anything but.
Malakai had a nightmare.
It was a dark night. Cold. The moon was high in the sky, and yet, none of its light seemed to reach the forest.
The silence was suffocating, broken only by the crackling of leaves and the cold wind cutting through the trees.
Malakai felt an intense chill, his small body shivering as he clung tightly to a figure moving faster than he had ever thought possible.
In his seven-year-old mind, the world was a blur. The hair of the figure holding him whipped past him, its whiteness seemingly like a beacon in this dark night.
He could feel her grip tight around him, and he could feel the rapid beat of her heart against his.
She was scared. And it made him scared.
Malakai’s gaze drifted over her shoulder, and his heart skipped a beat.
Just behind them, a massive dark cloud poured through the forest, devouring everything in its path, heading toward them with intense speed.
Malakai’s heart pounded, his fear growing with each passing second.
The woman holding him seemed to sense it as she felt his tiny hands clench tighter on her body, and in an instant, her speed surged, a white streak cutting through the dark forest.
Finally, they ran into an open space. Malakai’s eyes darted around, widening at the scene before him.
Scattered all around the ground were splatters of blood and gore, their sight making his insides twist.
His shivering grew more intense, and the woman quickly brushed her hand over his head, attempting to calm him down.
The woman’s eyes darted around, and she quickly approached and knelt beside a shattered carriage.
She lifted a small compartment from the wreckage, opening it. With her hands trembling slightly, she placed Malakai inside.
Their eyes met.
Her face was beautiful, and her hair was whiter than snow. Her eyes were an intense white, and despite the current terrible situation, the warmth in them as she gazed at Malakai was palpable.
She took a breath before speaking. “Malakai…”
Malakai’s lips trembled. He didn’t like her look. “M-Mom?”
A soft smile appeared on her face.
“I’m going to do something now, and it’s going to make living the rest of your life… difficult.”
“I won’t ask you to understand, Malakai. And I won’t ask you to forgive me.” Her hand reached out, cupping his cheek. “You can hate me for this.”
“M-Mom?”
The woman’s gaze softened, and she brushed a stray hair from his face.
“But no mother… no mother can watch her son die.” Her voice broke. “You must live, Malakai. Do you understand? You must live.”
“Mom? What’s going on? Where’s Dad?” Malakai repeated, tears streaming down his cheeks. He could feel how scared his mother was, and it made his heart pound. He could instinctively tell what was happening.
He tried to say more. He tried to tell her he didn’t understand, that he didn’t want her to go, but his words were blocked by the fear that wracked his body.
Suddenly, his mother’s hand gently touched his forehead, and her eyes glowed with a soft light.
Malakai felt a strange warmth seeping into him, and then… something within him shattered. In an instant, he became utterly weak and exhausted.
“I love you, Kai,” she whispered as tears streaked down her face. “Always.”
She leaned down and gave him a gentle kiss on his forehead. Malakai barely had time to comprehend the events before she closed the compartment, sealing him inside.
Malakai tried to call for her. He tried to move, but his body felt heavy, paralyzed.
In the next second, he heard her voice faintly through the compartment, and then, the sound of cracking earth, the rumble of shifting ground as he was tossed into the earth. Buried.
Malakai counted ten seconds. After that, the sound of battle suddenly erupted above him. Explosions that shook the ground, tremors that rattled his bones.
He could hear her fighting. He could hear the roar of something devilish. He could feel the earth quake with each impact. This time, he counted thirty-nine seconds.
And then… silence.
He lay there in the dark. Weak. Useless. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t help.
All he could do was hide.
And he hated it.