The first crack appeared quietly.
No alarms.
No screams.
No divine signs.
Just a village that stopped existing.
One moment it was there—
fields swaying, children laughing, smoke rising from chimneys.
The next—
absence.
Not ruins.
Not destruction.
A clean hole in reality, as if the world had forgotten that place ever mattered.
---
Inside the tower, every observer system activated at once.
The assistant's eyes widened as data streamed across floating sigils.
"My King… we have a localized reality failure."
Elowen stood up sharply. "But the Trial ended."
"Yes," the assistant replied slowly. "This isn't judgment."
The Demon King's gaze sharpened.
"Location."
The assistant projected the image.
A blank circle carved into the land.
The Demon King clenched his fist.
"So it begins."
---
Elowen pressed a hand to her chest.
"…That wasn't the gods," she whispered.
"No," the Demon King said. "They're too loud."
The tower pulsed uneasily.
This fracture felt different.
Hungry.
---
Far beyond the world, the observer shifted again.
Not closer.
Not farther.
Focused.
A deviation had occurred outside expected parameters.
Something else had touched the world.
---
In the void left behind by the missing village, darkness rippled.
Not shadow.
Space refusing to reconnect.
A sound echoed—low, distant, wrong.
The assistant swallowed.
"My King… something is entering through the crack."
The Demon King stepped forward.
"Seal the perimeter."
The tower obeyed instantly, reality walls snapping into place around the void. The air screamed as containment fields locked down.
From within the crack—
Something moved.
Elowen's voice trembled. "That doesn't feel like collapse."
"No," the Demon King replied.
"It feels like arrival."
---
Across the world, sensitive beings shuddered.
Ancient beasts stirred uneasily.
Sealed relics vibrated.
Forgotten warnings resurfaced in ruined scriptures.
A single phrase repeated itself in dead languages.
THE WATCHERS ARE NOT ALONE
---
The Demon King looked into the sealed void.
For the first time since his return—
He smiled without boredom.
"…Good," he said.
"Now things can finally break properly."
The crack pulsed once.
And something inside it
noticed him back.