“I said we need to move,” Kiyo repeated.

But nobody budged an inch.

Minds gridlocked in an intermixed moment of life-threatening shock by the display of Kiyo’s sheer power unleashed in front of them. All three of the stalker's bodies were incapacitated, with two killed by Kiyo’s bare hands. A task that Kichi and Yori found impossible. Both were left baffled by the fact a child from their house could accomplish such a feat. Isao and Monterio, on the other hand, were drawn into intrigue, lost in the questions of the extent of his capabilities.  Daisuke expected to be relieved, proud, but he was just lost. One question left on his mind: how far behind am I? 

Through the rising miasma, Daisuke noticed the aftermath of the battle that scarred Kiyo’s hands. Skin fractured by the sweltering heat concentrated in his palms, released as excess steam through cracks in Kiyo’s skin. No severe burns were present this time, only a few burst bubbles and intense tart-colored patches. Daisuke recoiled at the sight as a sliver of Kiyo’s forearm swelled up, the used radiance inside still searching for more ways out. His body pushed to its current limitations. Any more excessive use would be detrimental.

“Kiyo. . .are you—” Daisuke muttered with an outstretched hand.

But his words fell flat. Kiyo sucked in a deep breath and blew it all out in one failed swoop. The next was shakier than the last as his body attempted to draw back in the throbbing pressure surmounting, Kiyo’s eyes glowing a lively yellow. All his focus centered on equalizing the power coursing through his veins. Visions of the Sun and Stars popped into his head, little glimpses that spazzed out across his face. Memories he had no recollection of. Nothing more than static blurs connected to the grandeur embedded in his vessel. 

At the end of it, all was darkness, an infinite abyss.

Yet a light shone at the end of the tunnel.

Kiyo peered through the night to find a lone girl standing in the middle of a paved road. Everything around her was blurred; a hazy mystery. There were no other people or animals to be seen, a lifeless landscape. Her clothes and hair seemed foreign to the chosen boy, this abandoned child like none he had ever seen in his village. Repulsive inky jet-black hair darker than the night itself draped down the sides of her head, a deep contrast to her dandelion yellow dress. But something else grasped at his focus. A thin silver chain hung around her neck.

Intense heat waves cut off his line of sight, wafting smoldering ash-filled puffs of air. Kiyo winced at the stagnant putrid air swirling between them as he stumbled toward her to get a better look. Each step upon the smoothened earth was agonizing. Just barely able to make it before a thick rush of dust cut through the path ahead, her presence lost in the fray, reduced to nothing more than a blemish on reality.

Waving his hand through the air, Kiyo searched for her as a strange sensation of desperation grappled at his thoughts. Questions and worries he had never once contrived crowded out his entire mind. There was no rhyme or reason, just an impulse not of his own creation.

Feelings of the vision transferred across time and space, feelings he embraced in the moment. 

WhoooooooOOoooooOOOOOooooOOOOOOO-

But it all plummeted in a second. No chance to even realize what was happening as the depth of the matter made itself known. Nested above in the midmorning sky a distant glimmer of light cascaded down toward the earth. It looked like a shooting star but was far too close. It passed through the upper layers of clouds, and pink and orange light reflected off the bright luminescent orb as it fell toward the earth. Closer and closer and closer.

A brilliant spectacle to behold in Kiyo’s eyes, encapsulated in the moment, he could only reach up and attempt to grasp it. To catch the falling star, but it was far from being in reach. Retracting his hand, Kiyo settled his focus back onto the little girl who calmly swayed in the wind toward the flickering light in the sky, arms dropped to her sides. With them, a flimsy pure snow-white weasel bounced against the concrete. Its white coat was tainted, stained a vile crimson, its body lifeless and limp. Dragging it along the paved concrete, the little girl only grew closer to the light, to heaven. But why did Kiyo feel a sudden surge of anxious fear, of despair?

There was no time to break it down.

Within seconds, the light crossed the skyline, a clean passage from the heavens above to the hell below. Behind it, a beam of clouds spiraled down from the sky, whisked by the whirlwinds surrounding the blazing cluster of unnatural glorious light. Inching closer and closer to the horizon.

-OOOOoooOOOooooooooooosh!

Then silence. A brief quenching of the light as it buried itself into the earth. Sunlight bleeding back into the sky, a peaceful picture painting the scene in front of Kiyo. Only a moment's notice of this tranquility.

It was beautiful.

Tears trickled down the sides of Kiyo’s face, a reaction brought on by clashing emotions of his own and those unknown. Fear and admiration, love and hate, loss and gain. Life itself reared its glory toward him. 

BANG!

Then it was all gone.

Kiyo stumbled back in horror at the abnormal cloud that had sprouted from the collision of the light into the horizon. He braced to hold his ground against the abysmal sight, forearms crossed over his eyes, but he could only do so much. Blown away into the back of his subconscious as the rapid winds hurled him out of the hallucination, of the vision, right back into reality.

“Kiyo?” Daisuke asked as he waved his hand in front of the boy’s face.

Lunging out of the trance, Kiyo gasped for air, coming face to face with a choir of confusion. Just five faces hanging in the air, staring at him warily. Kiyo shook his head and brushed past Daisuke as he wiped off the little steam of tears that had glazed his cheeks. Redirecting his focus, he brushed off the waterworks and sped to one of the stalkers’. Wasting no time or strength, he slung the massive beast over his shoulder.

Hands gripped onto its head as it bled out along the floor from the cavity in its chest. Its raw, chilled skin cooled Kiyo’s palms as the energy within him receded, kindled by his grasp on the situation. They had what they needed, a ticket out of the Night Sea. Their end to the trial, but that step was far from achievable. They had so long until the horde would come barrelling through the walls. This was no time to be lying down.

“It’s time to go,” Kiyo spat out.

“Right,” Daisuke muttered, launching upright with a confident smile.

Daisuke turned back to the rest of the children still staring in awe at Kiyo as he waved them over to the exit. Their time in this place had dwindled to its bitter end, an escape from all that was left swirling around in Daisuke’s head.

“Yeah, let’s go!” Daisuke called out as he darted over to the entrance.

No hesitation was present in the eyes of the children in the den, all nodding along one by one. Ready and willing to get out of this hell hole. Rushing out of the room, they all filed up the tunnel behind Kiyo back toward where they left Mamoru with the other three. The bloody trail now dried on the slick limestone floor, the dusty decayed gray slabs stained with maroon splotches. A direct trail through the maze toward they left the rest of their group.

But no one was there, only a shallow scarlet pool.

The open hallway only puzzled Daisuke as he pushed through to the front, peeking down nearby caverns to see if there was any sighting of them. But there was nothing to be found, the entire area barren of any life form. Scaling the walls, Daisuke searched for a reason, meaning behind their absence. Fingers running over the walls, a set of brash strokes interrupted the smoothened surface. He followed the jagged marks further along the wall to a series of deep slashes that tore at the rock in the walls.

Callsigns of stalkers.

But something else remained. Daisuke spotted a little knot of cloth caught on the corner edge of a protruding limestone slab in the wall. He picked it off the wall and flipped it over to see the underside marked with a deep set splotch of blood. Still fresh.

“What is it?” Kichi asked confusedly.

“They were chased out. . .they have to be alive,” Daisuke claimed as he analyzed the cloth. Yet he couldn’t help but worry. Tense rapid pulses agitated his chest, heart racing at the thought of what could’ve happened to them. Were they able to escape?

Isao showed little concern, adjusting the beast on his shoulder as he grunted in annoyance at the sudden pause on their escape. Sighing aloud, he couldn’t help but voice the greater problems picked at his nerves, the darkness toying with his mind. For starters, while observing the rest of the group, it was clear to Isao that both Monterio and Kiyo were out for the count. Both were preoccupied with carrying their kills and beyond worn down. The other three, in his eyes, didn’t show the most hope for a safe exit if another beast was to wander their way. One wrong encounter and it could all end in a snap of their necks.

“Well, we’ll surely be dead if we stand here much long—”

“CoMe, cOmE, cOMe. . .”

The whispers rushed in from behind on a foul foreign wind, stalkers on the move from the inner depths of the cave system. In search of the children, the invaders into their home of isolated darkness littered with broken specks of the children’s glowstones. Instincts recoiling at the glimmers of the Sun’s blessing spread across the floor. A glorious love they never were able to receive, rejected at birth.

“Please, tell me that was one of you?” Kichi asked beneath the worrisome wrinkles that crowded out his face.

“What do you think?” Isao scoffed.

“Oh. . .then that’s—t-h-e-m?” Kichi mumbled between frivolous shivers.

“Right. . .I’m not waiting for that,” Yori said bluntly with a wide-eyed stare.

Time’s up.

Daisuke grappled onto the cloth tight within his left fist and took off. Leading the way beside Kiyo out of the tunnels, they bobbed and weaved through the narrow passages ahead. One turn after another through an infinite abyss, all until scratches of light caught their eyes. The way out was just in arms reach. Breaching the hollows one giant leap toward salvation.

Toward escaping.

They darted between the narrow pathways that zigged and zagged up toward the surface, craggy random assortments of slabs of stone and gems that reflected an ounce of the Sun’s shine in the dire halls. That light was a motivation to see the surface, nearly four days far more than they wanted to bear.

A short stretch of grated rock was all that was left ahead of them. Feet put into a frenzy as they sped to the exit of the Hollows, relieved to relinquish the night’s hold over them. Their feet were skittish as they sped up the jagged halls, paying little attention to what lay in their wake.

Squuuiiish.

Daisuke glanced down with his glowstone, thrown back by the grisly sight that had ridden up his leg. Blood, tons of it. His right foot sunk into a thick mud-like puddle of scarlet blood that coated the bone sole of his tabi.

The other children crowded around and shined their light on the walls, blood lacing the plain dreary stone. A few syrupy drops from the ceiling above, an obvious dent in the dug-out structure. Whether it was Paladinian or stalker blood was the only question that resonated with everyone. That and an unsettling fear for what awaited them, death or redemption?

“What the hell happ—” Kichi uttered, yet his sentence never found its end.

“EEERRRRAAAHHHHWWWLL!” A stalker cried out from dead ahead.

Scrambling together, they all dashed up the last stretch that opened up to the grand mouth of the entrance to the Hollows. Exiting the cave system they bore witness to it all. To Shoma, Eiko, and Kono.

“ggggrgrgrRRRAAAH GRRRAAHH!”

“Back up,” Shoma relayed with a flick of his wrist.

Swoosh-swoosh!

Kono and Eiko listened without hesitation as they cleared the space, this communication one established over the years they spent together in Hundraike. Preparing for days like this, for becoming warriors. Eiko’s usual sarcastic grin was replaced with a lurid expression, heaving out one hefty breath after another. Kono appeared calm and collected, clothes drenched in sweat as he awaited the next call. Their radiance pushed to its current limitations, barely able to keep up with Shoma going toe-to-toe with the stalker circling him.

The other children didn’t even have to move a muscle to help as they watched on the sideline. Shoma at the lead, their entire assault assimilated within his mind. Primed for this moment.

Analyzing the situation that unfolded, two other beasts were laid out on the ground, torn open right down the center of their stomachs, the scene painted with their brutal misery. Beaten to shreds by the children, Mamoru was off to the side in recovery, his back posted up against a granite mound. Hidden from the site, from the creature's focus.

This battle was one of luck, Shoma the only boy who could brush off such odds.

“LLEEAARRVVVEEALL!” The stalker cried as it charged forward, jaws unhinged toward Shoma.

Fwoosh! Slashslashslash!

Glistened beneath his blue glowstone, he baited in the creature as he ran up the side of a cavern behind him. Leaping off the very edge of the stone, he soared over the stalker as it dived into the wall. In one fail-swoop, Shoma shattered the glowstone over the head of the creature. Bits of the stone sprinkled into its eyes, glorious shards of holy light.

“EEERRRRAAAAWWWLL!”

The second the creature cried out in agony, Kono and Eiko broke off and ran around either side of the beast. Out of its line of sight as they grasped at a stray jagged stone on the ground and lunged toward the beast’s legs. Primed like baseball bats, one good swing was all it would take.

ccCRRAACCKkk.

Collapsing on itself, the cold desolate cave floor greeted the creature's underbelly. Upon impact, little spires of sharp-edged stones sculpted by the waters that trickled from above pierced the stalker’s ribs. Each one tore into the stalker’s hardened flesh, grating it like rusted razor blades. Waves of intense riveting agony rippled through the creature as it sprawled out on the floor, grasping at anything to try and lift itself off the spire. Talons dug into the limestone floor sending debris in every which way. But it was no use.

Bam-bam!

Quick to pin down the joints of the stalker’s arms, Kono and Eiko held the creature down firm beneath their pressured grip. Fueled by mere ounces of the radiance within, steam permeated from their palms as they burned the creature's skin. As they cooked it alive.

“ARRROO! ARROO!”

No sympathy, no fear, and no hesitation was shown. Shoma swayed up to the head of the beast, looking over it with disdain in his eyes. His training gear was laced with a thin coat of blood, a mix of his own and the creatures they slaughtered mercilessly. The blood encrusted his feet as heat simmered up from beneath his scarlet-stained heel. Deep concentration put into his motions as he raised his left foot above the beast, teeth gritted bracing for the impact. One target in mind. The creature’s skull.

“RRRARAAGHHGHGHGHHH!”

A sinister fury gleamed in his eyes as he stomped down with all of the power he could conjure. Beneath his boot, the stalker wailed aimlessly, but it was no use. Eiko and Kono ensured the judgment Shoma prepared to deliver, his role the judge, jury, and executioner. This place, this void was something born from the nightmares of hell. Down here, there are no saviors for the damned.

Shatter! Squelch!

Shoma's foot caved the creature's skull in, brains rendered to mush as it fell dead on the frigid ground. Blood poured out like a water fountain as it collapsed upon itself, dead.

“Rot,” Shoma murmured under his breath with a death glare toward the beast.

Able to finally relax, Eiko peered through the shadows with a smack of his lips.

“Took you all long enough,” Eiko wanned as he shoved himself off the dead creature. Face quick to simmer back into the boy they all knew, overwhelmed with disgust at the sight of the stains left on his gear from the bloodshed.

“I think we got one. . .or two,” Kono muttered through hefty gasps.

Their battle for survival was finally at an end, the way home in sight, but the obvious resonated within everyone.

“Now what?” Kichi questioned from the back of the group.

The children looked around for an answer, some at others deemed more capable, and some at the landscape surrounding them. All in search of a plan. Kiyo had already set his sights on the end goal, eyes gravitating toward the intense veil of light in the distance. The passageway out of the darkness into the light the only inhibitor. Daisuke followed Kiyo’s gaze and fell to the same straightforward conclusion. Climbing to the top of the divot, Daisuke pointed off into the distance, toward the only answer imaginable.

“We get out. . .together,” Daisuke asserted, clenching his fist.

Their time in the Night’s Sea was near its end.

…

No looking back.

They all sprinted in the shadows, moving in haphazard silence as they hauled the dead stalkers' bodies with them. The blood’s scent spilled out on the ground with every janky step, a fair warning and lure for other creatures of the deep. For other stalkers.

Their territory encroached upon.

“StOp, sTOp, STOP!”

“WaIt fOR uS!”

“StAY wItH Us!”

Whispered cries, the twisted voices of children lost to the deep. Past warriors who never found their way out of the Night’s Sea were mimicked by the creatures that took their lives, lures for others to fall victim. Sirens of the nights.

“Hey!”

Was that a stalker? Daisuke thought as the crystal clear voice cut through the air. Slowing down to take a glance, Shoma and Kono rushed past him with the dead stalker slung over their shoulders.

“Wait!” The unfamiliar yet recognizable voice cried out once more.

Grabbing onto a stone pillar, Daisuke came to a halt and climbed up for a better look. His eyes scanned the horizon for the source of the pathetic cries. Each desperate yell heard loud and clear.

“HELP!”

“Oh. . .” Daisuke groaned.

It was Torio.

His squad close behind him with a defeated stalker carried on their shoulders, the gruesome beast ground down to a mangled corpse. Most likely crushed from a fallen pillar from the looks of it, their combined strengths only enough to do so in the most demoralizing of manners for warriors of the Sun. Tactics used over skillful nature.

Yet now on the verge of losing it all, a horde of stalkers bombarded the sickly children from every side. While their movements were as silent as the shadows cast on the walls, they could be made out in the darkness. Leaping around pillars over the dreary terrain, closing in on Torio’s squad.

Someone they had cast aside, crying out for help.

Daisuke was stuck in the middle of it all, his squad lingering behind as they watched him come to a standstill. Monterio and his group charged on ahead, not giving a second thought to the children left in their dust. Their survival was all that mattered, an injured Mamoru was a whole other issue on their plate to deal with.

“Daisuke, we need to go!” Eiko cried out.

He was already starting to drag Kono and Shoma with him, racing to escape the onslaught that was gaining on Torio’s group. At least four stalkers, only brief glimpses of them seen in the shadows. Their eyes were a vile scarlet, enraged, and locked in on their prey. The time to make a decision was dwindling.

But he had already made it.

With what radiance he could withdraw, Daisuke leaped back toward them, right into the fire.