Two days had passed since the raid on the depot.
The group had grown: we were no longer just the squad,but also the rescued survivors—most of them still fragile, their eyes hollow, but clinging to life.
We kept moving, never staying in one place for more than a few hours.We rested only as much as we needed.The lesser creatures were no longer a threat.But something else—something quieter—was following us.
We couldn't see it.
But we felt it.
A cold draft that wasn't from the wind.A constant pressure on the back of the neck, like an invisible gaze piercing the skin.
—You feel it too, right? —Romina whispered while adjusting a warding rune.
Everyone nodded.Even the survivors.Even Pablo.
—Whatever it is —I said—, it's not normal.
That night, we took shelter in an abandoned sports center.It had thick walls, only a few access points, and good sightlines.
We fortified it as if preparing for war.Barricades.Warding seals.Shorter, stricter watch shifts.
During our nightly briefing, I didn't mince words:
—Something is behind us.It's not hiding.It wants us to know it's coming.
One of the captains asked:
—What if it's just more bandits?
It was Patricio who answered:
—Bandits breathe fear.This thing…
breathes hunger.
Miles away, beneath a forest choked in black fog...
Three figures walked without leaving a trace.
Tall.Emaciated.Clad in tattered, metallic garb that moved too silently.
The first wore a helmet of inward-pointing spikes.The second dragged living chains behind him—slithering like dark serpents.The third had no face, only a smooth white mask that wept liquid darkness.
They didn't speak.They didn't smell.They didn't blink.
The Reapers.
Released by The Hollow One.
Not to capture.Not to warn.
To exterminate.
That same night, inside the makeshift refuge...
The air thickened.Heavier.As if the oxygen itself was being watched.
The survivors slept together in the main hall, unnaturally silent, as if something inside them also sensed what was coming.
I didn't sleep.
Neither did Pablo.
We walked the perimeter in silence, each of us stationed at opposite ends of the building.Because we knew.
Because the calm we were in… was not natural.
And then it happened.
All the alarm runes triggered at once.
Sparks of light.Vibrations through the floor.A low, muffled echo—like a roar buried beneath the earth.
I ran outside.
And I saw it.
On the rooftop of the sports center.
A motionless figure.Its needle-helmed head glinting under the pale moon.Arms hanging loose, back perfectly upright.Watching us.
The first Reaper had arrived.
And with it, more than a battle had begun—
The hunt had begun.