The sky burned bright as it tore through the dark clouds hanging over the Monster Realm.
Arin sat with his friends, breakfast laid out before them, yet his hands had gone still. His eyes lingered on the distant horizon, his thoughts tangled around the same question that refused to leave him. The monster from last night had died without them lifting a finger.
Hanase noticed first.
She reached across the table and took his plate.
"You stopped eating," she said. "So I'll eat it myself."
Arin snapped back to reality. "Hey, give that back."
He lunged for the plate. Hanase turned away, laughing, lifting it just out of reach. What followed was less a struggle and more a petty battle of pride. By the time it ended, an hour had passed, and neither of them had won.
Eventually, they continued their journey.
Hours into their travel, a voice called out.
"Arin."
He froze.
The sound did not come from any direction he could place. It was close, yet distant, familiar, yet wrong. Before anyone could stop him, Arin broke into a run.
"Where are you going?" Hanase shouted.
Neblaheim followed close behind, but Arin did not answer.
They chased him until the land changed. Cracked stone replaced soil. Collapsed towers rose from the ground like broken bones.
A ruined city.
At its center, they found Arin.
He lay unconscious before a massive wall etched with symbols none of them recognized. The air felt heavy, as if the place itself was watching.
The world went white.
A bright blue summer sky stretched endlessly above. Crickets hummed. People walked past, chatting, laughing, living. Arin opened his eyes and found himself lying in the middle of a road.
He stood up, confused.
A man walked straight through him.
Arin staggered back, his heart pounding. He looked at his hands, then at the people passing by. No one reacted. No one noticed him.
The world shifted again.
A laboratory replaced the road. Cold lights. Metal walls. The smell of something wrong. Arin's stomach twisted as his eyes landed on something just out of view.
He gagged and turned away, barely keeping himself together.
The scene shattered once more.
A vast green field spread before him. In its center stood a massive, round piece of metal, half buried, scarred, and humming with power. A figure stood behind it.
"Fire it," the figure said.
A red beam tore through the sky.
Mountains vanished. The earth screamed.
"That thing," the voice continued, calm and heavy, "soon became our sin."
Darkness fell.
A thud echoed.
The lab returned.
A human rose from a machine, gasping, trembling. Before Arin could react, a shot rang out. The bullet tore through the man's head.
Arin froze. His breath caught in his throat.
The body collapsed.
Then it moved.
The man stood back up.
A hole gaped through his skull, flesh unmoving, eyes still open.
Arin realized then that he had seen something he was never meant to witness.