James asked, his voice still trembling from the shock of what had just unfolded before their eyes,
"Are you two okay?"
Angelo's head rested on Olivia's lap.
"I'm fine," she said softly. "Head hurts… but I'm okay."
Sophia winced as she touched the bleeding scrape on her brow.
"Just a scratch… I'll live."
James sat beside Olivia in the crater and looked toward Alex, who was holding Emma close.
"Alex."
Alex snapped out of his daze, the knife slipping from his trembling hand and clattering onto the floor beside him.
"Y-Yeah, Dad?"
"Are you and Emma alright?"
Alex looked down at Emma. She was still sobbing, trembling from fear. He exhaled shakily, trying to steady himself.
James asked again, firmer this time.
"What happened? Are the two of you okay?"
Alex whispered first, "Yeah." Then, louder, "Yeah, we're fine. Emma's still scared, but we're unharmed."
Sophia sat down on a broken piece of furniture, staring at what was left of the home.
James nodded to Alex.
"Good. I'm glad you two didn't get hurt."
He looked down at Angelo.
"Come here—help me move your brother out of this hole."
Alex hesitated. He didn't want to go near Angelo. His eyes darted to Emma.
"I can't. She's too afraid to let go of me."
James turned to Olivia.
"Can you handle her?"
Olivia tried to get up, but her body refused. Exhaustion had drained every last drop of strength.
"I can't," she murmured. "My legs won't move."
James scratched the side of his head.
"Alright, you rest. I'll see what I can do."
He placed his left hand on Angelo's arm.
"Hang in there. We'll get you out soon."
Climbing out of the crater, he found Sophia still gazing at the wreckage.
"Sophia," he called.
She turned toward him.
"You sure you're alright?"
"Yeah," she replied calmly. "Don't worry about me."
James nodded, then walked over to Alex and Emma. Alex was kneeling as Emma clung to him, her fingers digging into his shirt.
"Keep an eye on everyone," James said. "I'll go outside and check the situation."
As James turned to leave, Alex's eyes flickered between Angelo and the others. Something in him snapped.
"Dad, wait."
James turned, confusion in his eyes. "What is it?"
"I'll go instead," Alex said, voice tense. "You stay here with Emma."
James raised a brow. "Why the sudden change?"
Alex looked toward Angelo, then away.
"Just… let me go outside." His voice dropped. "It's suffocating in here."
James glanced at Olivia. She nodded faintly.
He sighed.
"Alright. Don't go far."
James reached for Emma. "Come on, sweetheart."
Emma clung tighter to Alex. James whispered softly,
"It's alright. It's me—Daddy."
Her teary eyes met his. Slowly, she loosened her grip and let James take her. Still trembling, she buried her face in his chest.
Alex picked up the knife again and walked toward the door.
"Stay within the block," James said.
Alex nodded and stepped outside.
The sight froze him.
What once was their town now looked like a graveyard.
Houses reduced to rubble. Flames licking at collapsed beams.
The air was thick with smoke and ash.
Cries echoed from the distance—people trapped, injured, dying.
Bodies lay broken and scattered, some half-consumed by things that no longer moved.
Alex's face turned pale, but he forced himself to step forward.
Inside, James said to Sophia,
"Can you go with him? I don't want him doing anything stupid."
Sophia nodded, pushed off the furniture, and staggered a bit before finding her balance. She followed Alex outside—and froze.
The horror that met her eyes mirrored his.
Their neighborhood was gone, replaced by ruin.
Alex walked a little farther. The knife slipped from his grip and fell blade-first into the dirt.
Then—faint at first—came the low, rhythmic thrum of rotor blades.
Helicopters.
The sound grew louder, sweeping over the burning town until they hovered above the destruction.
A spotlight cut through the smoke… and froze.
In the midst of all the carnage, the Walker house still stood—damaged, but intact.
A miracle at the epicenter of ruin.
Alex waved frantically, shouting. One of the crews spotted him and signaled the others.
Within minutes, helicopters began to descend nearby, stirring dust and ash into a storm.
Armed soldiers poured out, weapons raised, faces grim and confused.
The lead officer stepped forward.
"What happened here?"
Sophia and Alex exchanged a glance.
"Creatures attacked the town," Alex said, trying to steady his voice. "We barely survived."
The officer narrowed his eyes. "And the house?"
Sophia answered quickly, "We don't know. We just hid inside."
Suspicion lingered, but there were too many wounded, too much chaos. No time to press.
"Any survivors inside?" the officer asked.
"Yes," Sophia replied. "Four."
The soldiers approached the house with caution, guns raised.
Inside, James held Emma tightly, while Olivia sat beside Angelo in the crater. Both froze as the soldiers burst in, rifles aimed.
"Don't shoot! We're not armed!" James shouted.
Emma cried out at the sudden panic in his voice.
A soldier spoke into his radio, "Four more survivors located."
Their boots crunched on shattered glass and splintered wood. The living room was a ruin—
a crater splitting the floor, the roof torn open to the storm-dark sky.
Angelo lay at the center, unconscious. His hair was snow-white now, his skin pale. The strange runes that had once pulsed across his body had vanished, leaving only the mark on his back—
faintly glowing sigils burned into his back like a brand on his soul.
He looked peaceful.
Too peaceful.
As if something inside him had simply… left.
The soldiers stared, caught between awe and unease.
"Is he alive?" one asked.
Olivia nodded weakly. "Yes. But he needs help. He won't wake up."
"Get him to the medics," the officer ordered. "Carefully."
They helped Olivia to her feet and guided everyone to the helicopters, where Alex and Sophia were already waiting. Someone had patched the cut on Sophia's brow.
Within the hour, all survivors—including James, Olivia, Emma, Alex, and Sophia—were airlifted to the nearest military base.
Medical teams rushed to work. Angelo was moved to the infirmary, separated from the rest, with only Olivia and Sophia allowed to stay near him.
That's when things began to unravel.
The doctors ran every test they could—no burns, no fractures, no internal damage.
It made no sense.
When they tried to insert an IV, the needle bent.
Another attempt.
Same result.
His skin felt soft to the touch—but resisted every tool, every probe.
Whispers filled the room.
"Isolate him," the lead doctor ordered.
"What? No!" Olivia tried to push forward, but soldiers held her back.
"He's not dangerous!" Sophia shouted. "You don't understand—"
But her voice was lost in the flood of orders and protocols.
Soon, the family was separated.
Interrogated.
Monitored.
And while the humans scrambled to contain the aftermath, they remained blind to what was truly beginning.
Because far beyond the scorched towns, beyond the flicker of broken cities… something else was stirring.
The second breach had begun.
The air split open once more—
and this time, what came through weren't mindless beasts.
They were calm. Composed. Terrifying.
Entities cloaked in radiant light and endless shadow.
Their forms glowed like embers wrapped in stormclouds, eyes burning like dying stars.
Their wings unfolded across dimensions, stretching into unseen realms.
They weren't loud.
They were deliberate.
Measured.
They looked like angels.
And they had come not to destroy—
not yet.
They came to observe.
To understand.
To decide.
But they weren't alone.
Because the Watchers—
those who had only ever observed, never acted—
had begun to move.
No longer passive.
No longer distant.
Their gaze now pierced through every shadow, every soul.
And so the earth trembled beneath the weight of two presences:
the angels who judged—
and the Watchers who remembered.
Both now roamed freely across a broken world.
And far above, beyond the veil where reality thinned, something far greater stirred.
They all felt it—
the return of something ancient.
Something long buried.
Something that should never have existed.
A presence born not from divinity or darkness…
but from the abyss itself.
The one, Born From Nothingness.