Zara's eyelids grew heavy, and the golden marketplace of her memories slowly dissolved into the mist.
Her breathing fell into the rhythm of a deep and heavy sleep.
Her body lying perfectly still in the embrace of the mattress.
She was oblivious to the growing chaos of the outside world, tucked away in a cocoon of silence.
But on the upper floor of the fortress, there was no silence—only a bone-chilling rustle.
Something was moving against the black stone walls. Beyond the glass of the sealed window.
Deep green creatures—resembling toxic vines or beaded ropes—were crawling upward.
Their skin was coarse, and the sticky nodes upon them cast a sinister glint in the dark.
They anchored themselves into the crevices of the stone, moving toward the roof as if trying to swallow the impenetrable fort whole.
Kelen's sharp eyes caught the movement. He raised his heavy rifle and aimed directly at the crawling shadows. Bang...!
The muzzle flash tore through the darkness for a split second.
A green creature crawling downward was ripped apart and fell onto the stone floor with a jolt. Splat!
The sound of its impact was like a clump of wet mud. But the others did not stop.
The thunder of the shots seemed to provoke them rather than scare them. Kelen pulled the trigger again. Bang... Bang!
Despite being hit, some of the creatures did not slow down.
Deep wounds had opened in their bodies, oozing a thick, green fluid, yet their pace remained unchanged.
Even wounded, they continued to ascend, driven by their sticky hides and soulless instincts.
Then, one of Kelen's precise shots buried itself into the midsection of a weaker-looking creature.
It writhed in mid-air, and the moment it hit the ground, its entire body ignited in a strange internal fire.
Within seconds, the mass of flesh turned into cold black ash, scattered across the floor by a sudden gust of wind.
A bead of sweat glistened on Kelen's forehead. His fingers tightened on the rifle.
These were no ordinary beasts; they were the 'invisible sentinels' of Vespera.
Who became even more terrifying when wounded. He loaded his next magazine—click-clack...—and looked toward the wall.
Where the number of green shadows was only increasing.
The sealed window on the upper floor of the fortress had now become the threshold of death.
Those green creatures, crawling like ropes upon the walls, had reached the very edge of the glass.
The friction of their sticky hides against the window produced a repulsive, low rustle—squelch... squelch...
Kelen slung his emptying rifle over his shoulder. The distance was now so small that steel was needed more than gunpowder.
He unsheathed 'Leopard's Claw' with a single, swift motion. Shhhring...!
The orange torchlight flickered like lightning along the blade's edge.
Kelen shattered a small section of the window with his elbow and thrust his sword through the narrow gap.
He rotated his wrist with the agility of a seasoned predator.
The gleaming edge sliced through the air and struck directly at the upper limbs of the massive creature.
That was about to seize the window frame. Squelch...!
A single strike of the sword severed the creature's coarse limbs from its body.
A thick, green fluid splattered like spray across the outer surface of the glass.
The creature lost its grip and plummeted from the high building into the infinite darkness below.
As it fell, a bone-chilling shriek tore through the silence of Vespera. "Chee-heee-eee...!"
The sound was not human. It was as sharp as metal grinding against metal, a poisonous sound meant to pierce eardrums.
The shriek hovered in the air, like a sharp needle stitching through the silence.
The sound continued to echo against the alleys and fortress walls for a long time.
A sound that signaled an approaching catastrophe. Kelen pulled his sword back.
The green, sticky residue still shimmering on the blade.
He peered through the crack in the window; the darkness below had grown even deeper.
But that piercing shriek still lingered as a haunting echo in his ears.
As Kelen pulled his arm back through the narrow slit of the window, his breath hitched.
Near his wrist, where the heavy chain was bound, the flesh had been torn open.
The venomous claws of that beast had left a jagged, gruesome wound.
From which a thick, dark-red blood was now oozing.
Kelen pressed his palm against the cold stone of the wall.
Outside the window, the army of crawling shadows showed no sign of receding.
He cast a fleeting glance at the wound on his wrist and then at the old clock mounted on the wall.
The hands moved with agonizing slowness. A long, black chasm of hours still lay between him and the dawn.
"They are unusually hungry tonight..." Kelen muttered, slinging his heavy rifle off his shoulder once more.
Click-clack! The sound of the magazine locking into place echoed through the hollow hall.
He took aim and began unleashed a barrage of fire—Bang! Bang! Bang!—but with every explosion.
His mind raced past these high stone walls toward that small house.
Zara's voice—"Take care of yourself"—was ringing in his ears louder than the roar of the gunfire.
Was she sleeping? Had those dark silhouettes found the windows of that house?
A soldier standing nearby placed a steadying hand on his commander's shoulder.
Kelen's body jerked with electric alertness, his fingers tightening instantly on the trigger.
"Commander... you seem lost," the soldier said in a low voice.
His eyes held a mixture of deep respect and worry.
"You should rest for a while. The redness in your eyes tells me you haven't slept at all."
Kelen jerked his neck, sending droplets of sweat flying onto the floor.
"I haven't slept... but I am fine. I cannot stop now."
"But Commander," the soldier urged again, "we can hold the line in your place."
"You just need to close your eyes for a few moments..."
"No!" Kelen's voice was as hard as clashing iron. "I am fine. You don't need to worry so much."
Kelen shook his injured hand, pushing the pain into the back of his mind.
And turned back toward the blood-soaked battlefield.
Amidst the thunder of gunfire and the clashing of steel, he lunged at the monsters like a desperate predator.
On the other side, a sentry stationed at the western front of the fortress suddenly looked toward the slope.
There, amidst the silence and the mist, a gargantuan monster was clutching a human figure in its massive claws.
Dragging them into the darkness. The soldier's throat went dry.
He ran, panting, toward Kelen. "Commander! I just saw something...!"
The words caught in the soldier's throat. He looked at Kelen.
The commander's face was smeared with blood and gunpowder soot, his eyes like glowing embers.
And his body at the very edge of exhaustion.
Seeing Kelen's terrifying and broken state, the soldier's courage failed him.
He felt that if he delivered the news now, this exhausted warrior might shatter completely.
"What... what did you see?" Kelen asked between breaths, his eyes still fixed on the threat ahead.
The soldier lowered his gaze and swallowed hard, uttering a lie:
"No... nothing, Commander. Nothing happened."