There are moments when the world doesn't end in explosions,
But in silence.
And in that silence,
Humans begin to understand… they no longer belong to the same Earth.
The sky turned pale.
The stone pulsebilanNot a blinding light, but a throb—like the heartbeat of a giant slowly waking.
"What… is happening?" Sinta's voice trembled, nearly choking.
"Oh God… my legs! I can't move them!" Yudha shouted, his face pale. "This is real! We have to get out of here!"
But the ground offered no time.
The air thickened,
And in an instant, the earth gripped them tight.
"Radith! DON'T touch that again!"
"I DIDN'T TOUCH ANYTHING!"
One by one, their bodies were pulled—not upwards, not downwards—but in a direction that couldn't be described,
As if their existence was yanked from the thread of time and hurled into a space where even names couldn't hold meaning.
Caeltharyn didn't scream.
He didn't faint, didn't resist.
He simply stared at the light slowly consuming him, and asked within:
"Is this… the end? Or just the next page?"
...Silence.
Then—
Wind.
But not Earth's wind.
The air here… was dry. Too dry.
As if this world had long forgotten how to cry.
Caeltharyn opened his eyes slowly.
He was lying on grey sand.
The sky above was dull grey, no sun, just a hanging light with no source.
As far as the eye could see—sand, stone, and unknown ruins—towering like massive grave markers.
The first sound he heard was… crying.
Not a child's cry, but an adult's—broken and lost.
He stood up.
Chaos surrounded him. Dozens of students were scattered—some waking, others still unconscious.
"W—what is this, a movie set?! This… this isn't funny!"
"My phone! No signal! Why is there no signal?!"
Someone screamed in hysteria.
Another vomited, smelling death faint in the air.
"CAEL! CAEL, ANSWER ME! WHERE ARE YOU?!"
Caeltharyn walked, slowly, staring at the desert that echoed with alien whispers.
No trees. No water.
Even sound seemed swallowed.
"Is this a dream...?" Sinta approached, her body trembling. "Please… tell me this is just a dream."
Cael didn't answer.
He knelt, scooping a handful of sand, letting it slip through his fingers.
"This sand… is real."
Cael's voice was soft, yet firm.
"You mean—"
"And this world… doesn't belong to us."
Their steps faltered across the plain.
Some students wandered aimlessly, panicked and shouting like animals chased by their own shadows.
Others formed a circle, waiting for "help that's surely coming."
But time passed.
And there were no machines, no sirens, no helicopters.
Only wind carrying dust.
And a sky that refused to change.
Some began to argue.
"This is all your fault! You made us come to the summit!"
"My fault?! Who told us to approach that stone?!"
Anger was born of fear.
Fear grew from ignorance.
And ignorance was the fastest-spreading ghost.
Cael watched them from afar.
He sat on a stone, silent, like an observer in a bad play.
"Why are you just sitting there, Cael?! Aren't you scared?!" Radith shouted, his face dusty and drenched in sweat.
Cael looked at him. His eyes were calm, not empty.
"Fear is natural."
He rose slowly.
"But fear won't change this world. We… are no longer home."
The first day in that foreign world passed without a night.
And in that frozen time,
One student vanished.
He walked too far and never returned.
They called for him. Searched. Screamed.
But the world didn't answer.
The wind returned. But now, something was different.
It wasn't just air that moved,
But… something within it.
A faint sound, like fluttering wings,
Mixed with a hiss from afar.
"...Do you hear that?" Sinta whispered, frozen in place.
Everyone fell silent.
The sound seemed to come from deep within the desert, from the direction where the sky began to coil.
Then, through the thinning dust—
A large floating shadow emerged.
A creature.
Its body was long, serpent-like, but winged like a bat.
Its skin was scaly, yet thin like transparent membrane.
Its eyes were many—not two, but six—and all stared unblinking,
As if they could see not just bodies,
But fear within souls.
The creature hovered without sound.
It didn't land. Didn't roar.
It simply… observed.
"WHAT IS THAT?!" Yudha screamed.
"S—is that a monster?! WHAT DO WE—"
"DON'T RUN!" Caeltharyn shouted—his voice raised for the first time.
But it was too late.
Three students bolted in the opposite direction.
And when the creature saw their movement—
A hiss.
Its wings flapped lightly. The air changed.
The world tore like a painting.
In a blink, one of them—Hilman—was lifted mid-air, hanging like a puppet.
Then his body dissolved—not torn,
But vaporized into black ash.
The others' screams froze in their throats.
Sinta covered her mouth, her body shaking uncontrollably.
"W—was that… real…?"
No one could answer.
The creature continued to hover. But it no longer attacked. It merely… watched.
As if to deliver one message:
"This is not your world. And you will die if you act like it is."
One student was gone.
Now they all knew this world didn't forgive ignorance.
Caeltharyn remained standing. His eyes followed the creature's departure.
"Monster?" he muttered softly.
"No… not just that.
It's not a predator. It's… a guardian. Or a watcher."
Someone asked, "How do you know?"
Cael stared at the sand.
"Death isn't a threat here. In this place, death is a language.
And we… are being read."
The creature didn't move.
It simply… hung in the air like a wound upon the sky.
His friends froze—caught between the urge to flee and the inability to move.
Yet Caeltharyn, though chilled to the bone, stepped forward.
One step.
And the world fell silent.
The wind stopped.
Dust hung mid-air.
The creature turned—or seemed to turn, for it had no clear front. But its six eyes now focused solely on Cael.
And Cael, standing firm, did not raise his voice.
"Forgive us for disturbing you.
We… do not know where we are. We do not belong here."
"If you can hear me, I ask one thing.
Not forgiveness.
Only… an explanation."
Silence.
But in that silence, a voice emerged—not from a mouth,
Not through ears,
But directly… into his mind.
"You speak… like the one before."
Cael didn't understand, but he didn't interrupt.
"This place is not a world.
It is a shard of a shard,
A reflection of wounded will."
"You came not by path.
But by fracture. By leaking will."
"Can we… return?"
Cael's voice was almost a prayer.
Yet still steady.
The creature paused. Then:
"There is no 'return'.
Space has severed its veins.
Time has forgotten your form."
"But… shards shift.
And fortune… sometimes falls on the voiceless."
"Fortune?" Cael echoed.
"Seek the place that doesn't belong.
This world hates order.
There, you may move…
to the next shard."
Cael bowed slightly.
"Thank you. I don't know who or what you are. But… I appreciate your answer."
The creature said no more.
It turned, then slowly… vanished into the air like night's cloud.
And the wind returned.
---
"Did—did you just talk to it?!"
Yudha nearly stumbled in shock.
Cael didn't respond right away. He looked at the sky, now calm again.
"I don't know if it was a conversation… or just an echo of something deeper."
Rania stepped forward. "Did it say we can get out?"
"No.
It said we can't go back.
But… we might move to another shard."
They all looked at him.
No one fully understood. But one thing was clear:
Hope did not exist.
Yet possibility… still flickered in the distance.
Footsteps on sand echoed like whispers of the past.
The wind didn't blow straight.
It swirled.
Sometimes touching skin, sometimes just shadow without form.
They walked. Destination unknown.
No visible sun. Just pale light behind the dusty haze,
Like remnants of a fire from a world long dead.
"I still don't get it, Cael," Rania said, watching the shifting sand.
"What did it mean by 'the place that doesn't belong'? None of this makes sense."
Yudha sighed. "If this is a game, we're already in hell mode."
He stopped, picked up a stone, and threw it.
It didn't fall, but floated…
…then slowly burned, without flame, and crumbled into ash.
Caeltharyn watched.
"This world doesn't need to be understood," he finally murmured.
"The world only… wants us to survive."
Yudha raised a brow. "Why are you so calm?"
Cael stared into the distance. "Because I've always felt like a stranger… even before this world.
Back home, I was just… passing through.
But here, for some reason… it feels like I was invited."
Rania looked at Cael for a long while. But said nothing more.
---
Their journey continued.
Their steps eventually brought them to a different land.
The sand changed color—from pale gold to dull red.
Then… black.
And then they saw it.
An open field…
Littered with broken spears, rusted swords, shattered armor, and skulls that weren't quite human.
"What is this place..." Rania whispered, barely daring to breathe.
Silence.
As if the entire battlefield held its breath, awaiting those who would disturb its sleep.
Cael stepped slowly, as if entering sacred ground.
He saw a weapon, half-buried in the soil.
A broken sword, veined like living roots.
He glanced at it briefly, turned to leave—
Then—
The broken sword trembled,
And the light returned to normal.
Yudha turned. "What did you just do?"
Cael didn't answer.
---