Night did not fall.
It collapsed.
The sky....normally a pale, serene sheet stretched over Umbralune...twisted into coils of darkness, like ink stirred into milk. Wisps of black vapor clawed across the firmament, spiraling around a single trembling point above the cliffs.
Aurelianth felt it before he saw it.
An ache in his veins.
A pressure behind his ribs.
The clicking rhythm deep inside him turning urgent and sharp.
click....THUMP
click....THUMP
click....THUMP
He jolted upright in his bed.
"No," he whispered. "No no no...."
Lioren burst into his room, lantern blazing with frantic light.
"Aurelianth! It's happening!"
He didn't need her to explain.The world itself was screaming.
He stumbled out of bed, chest burning, the runes on his skin writhing like frightened creatures trying to escape.
"What is it?" he gasped. "What's happening to the sky?"
Lioren grabbed his arm. Her fingers trembled, but her grip was grounding.
"The matriarch wants you at the cliff summit," she said breathlessly. "Now. Before the tear opens completely."
"Tear…?"
"Yes," she whispered. "A rip in the sky. A breach. A real one this time."
The words struck him like lightning.
The Pulse had not sent echoes.
It was opening a door.
A door made of sky.
A door meant for him.
The Climb Into Terror
The entire village was awake. Lanterns flared along the cliff pathways. Hunters shouted. Children cried. Runes across the stone walls glowed in frantic pulses, trying to alert the living that something ancient was descending.
Aurelianth sprinted alongside Lioren up the cliff paths.
Every step made his veins pulse harder.
Every breath felt like inhaling knives.
Above them, the sky groaned.
A crack split through the firmament like lightning frozen in place.But it wasn't white.It was black...a jagged wound seeping darkness into the world.
And from it, something whispered.
Not words.
A rhythm.
click…
click…
click....THUMP
Aurelianth stumbled.
Lioren caught him immediately. "Hey....hey! Look at me, Aurelianth!"
"I..I can't..." His chest seized. "It's calling me again..."
"Fight it!"
He tried.
The pressure inside his ribs squeezed tighter, dragging at him, pulling him toward the sky as if strings were tied through his bones.
He gasped, "It wants me to step outside. To fall upward...."
Lioren's eyes widened with horror.
"Aurelianth… it's trying to lift you."
Gravity faltered beneath his feet.
His skin tingled with unnatural weightlessness, the world loosening its grip on him.
"I...can't...." he choked, hand slipping free of Lioren's. "It's pulling..."
Lioren slapped him across the face.
Hard.
Aurelianth gasped in shock.
"You're here!" she shouted. "You're with me. Look at me. Feel me."
His vision steadied.
Barely.
Lioren grabbed his hand again and pulled him up the slope.
"Hurry!"
The tear widened overhead, bleeding black lightning down the sky.
The world shuddered.
Stone cracked beneath their feet.
The Pulse was coming.
The Sky Cracks Open
When they reached the summit, every elder was already there...each holding lanterns blazing with full moonlight, forming a circle around the altar.
The matriarch turned sharply when Aurelianth arrived.
"Get to the center. Now!"
Aurelianth moved on trembling legs.The sky above the summit split again...a second fracture.
Then a third.
The cracks connected into a trembling web, glowing faintly with silver-black radiance.
Lioren stared upward, horror freezing her features.
"It's tearing reality…"
Elder Vesen whispered, "The Pulse is opening a mouth."
Aurelianth's blood went cold.
A mouth in the sky.
A maw in the fabric of existence.
The clicking rhythm thundered through the world—no longer confined to his chest.
It rattled stone.
It trembled cliffs.
It echoed in the wind.
CLICK....THUMP
CLICK....THUMP
CLICK....THUMP
The matriarch slammed the end of her staff against the stone.
"Lanterns! NOW!"
Each elder thrust their lantern forward.
Moonlight surged upward in a spiral, forming a dome over the summit...a shimmering barrier of silver light.
But the tear in the sky....ignored it.
The barrier flickered.
Cracks spread across its surface.
Aurelianth's heart dropped.
"It's breaking through."
"Yes," the matriarch said grimly. "Because this time it isn't reaching for the village."
Her eyes burned into him.
"It's reaching for you."
The tear widened into a jagged oval.
A shape moved behind it.....
Something tall.
Hollow.
Faintly glowing with stolen moonlight.
Aurelianth's runes screamed.
"No....no no no...."
The matriarch shouted, "Hold the barrier!"
The elders poured more moonlight into the dome.
The air vibrated.
The stone platform trembled.
But the Pulse pushed harder.
The tear bulged downward as if a hand was pressing against thin, cracking glass.
"Aurelianth…" Lioren whispered in terror. "It's coming through."
His veins lit up like rivers of fire.
White-silver.
Violent.
Unstable.
"Why now?" he gasped.
Elder Therrin shouted, "Because you've grown stronger!"
Lioren grabbed his shoulders. "Because it wants you at your best..Aurelianth, don't let it"
The sky burst.
The Descent of Hunger
Light imploded.
The tear ripped open like a wound sliding apart, spilling a violent river of black luminescence into the world. A shockwave slammed into the summit, knocking elders backward, shattering several lanterns.
Aurelianth felt the pressure before he saw the form.
His bones hummed.
His blood shook.
His runes writhed madly.
Then.....
A silhouette stepped through the tear.
Taller than any human.
Longer-limbed.
Hollow, but more defined than before.
Not a shadow.
Not an echo.
Something closer to real.
The Hollow Pulse had taken shape.
A living absence.
Light bled from its edges....silver stolen from moon, black pulled from void.
Aurelianth couldn't breathe.
"Why… is it so solid now?" he choked.
"Because you are," the matriarch whispered.
The Pulse tilted its head.
Studied him.
Measured him.
And then....
It raised a hand toward him.
Aurelianth's body responded against his will....veins pulsing, runes flaring, knees trembling.
Lioren grabbed him desperately.
"Aurelianth....DON'T MOVE."
"I'm not...." His voice cracked. "I can't...."
The Pulse whispered.
"Come."
Aurelianth's vision blurred.
His feet slid forward.
Lioren screamed. "NO!"
She threw herself onto him, anchoring him....
But the Pulse didn't like that.
Not at all.
A shadow tendril shot from its arm....fast, sharp, a whip of void straight at Lioren.
Aurelianth's heart stopped.
"NO!" he roared.
His runes exploded with white-silver light....a shockwave of raw creation energy.
The tendril shattered.
The Pulse recoiled.
It tilted its head again, curious.
Almost pleased.
A new clicking pulsed inside Aurelianth's skull:
click…
stronger…
stronger…
The Pulse took a step closer.The tear widened behind it, shaking the sky.The matriarch screamed:
"Hold him! Do NOT let him touch the tear!"
Lioren wrapped her arms around Aurelianth's waist.Hunters grabbed his shoulders.Elders pushed their lanterns forward.But the Pulse didn't attack them.It simply raised both hands.
And reality bent.
The stone under Aurelianth split.
The moonlight dome shattered.
The cliffs shook violently.
And Aurelianth's body lifted off the ground.
Air turned brittle around him.
Gravity lost meaning.
The world spun.
He screamed as invisible hooks dragged at his ribs.
"AURELIANTH!" Lioren clung to his legs.
But she was lifting too.
The Pulse whispered:
"Be mine."
"No!" he choked. "I don't belong.... to you....!"
The Pulse leaned closer.
"…You will."
The tear surged downward.
The air screamed.
Lioren's lantern shattered from sheer pressure.
Aurelianth felt his fingers slipping from her grip.
"No....Lioren....!" he cried.
She climbed up his body, grabbing his shoulders.
"You're not going! You're not....!"
The Pulse extended a second tendril...aimed straight for Lioren's chest.
Aurelianth roared.
The runes on his skin blazed brighter than ever before..white-silver fire exploding outward.
The tendril burned away.
The Pulse lurched backward.
The tear trembled.
Aurelianth's entire body shook....
And for the first time ever....he wasn't losing control.
He was fighting.
The Pulse's whisper sharpened:
"…beautiful…"
Aurelianth screamed.
"I SAID....NO!"
A blast erupted from him...pure light...pure defiance.
The Pulse staggered.
The tear shrieked.
Shadows recoiled.
Lioren fell with him as gravity snapped back.
They crashed onto the stone.The Pulse steadied itself.Its hollow eyes fixed on him.
Not angry.
Not frustrated.
Hungry.
"Third."
Aurelianth froze.
"What…?"
The Pulse's whisper was a prophecy:
"The third attempt will be mine."
The tear pulsed violently...a living wound and then the Pulse stepped backward into it...the tear sealed,the sky healed and the world fell silent.
Aurelianth collapsed against Lioren, trembling violently.
His veins dimmed.
His runes cooled.
His pulse returned to human rhythm.
Lioren's voice cracked.
"Aurelianth…it's leaving."
"Yes," the matriarch whispered, collapsing to her knees.
"And its next return…will be the last attempt."
Aurelianth looked up at the sky, horror sinking into his bones.
The Pulse wasn't done.
It was preparing.
It was waiting.
It was promising.
And somewhere in the sky, faint but undeniable....
click…
…soon.