Chapter 1 —
There was a village the world had forgotten.
Hidden deep within a mist-covered valley, surrounded by endless forests and silent mountains, it existed quietly beyond the knowledge of travelers. No roads led to it. No maps marked its location. Even the wind that passed through the valley seemed to lose its way before reaching its borders.
To outsiders, it did not exist.
To those who lived within, it was their entire world.
And in this village, there were only two rules.
Never leave the boundary.Never step outside after sunset.
No one questioned them.
No one dared.
Life in the village was peaceful.
At dawn, smoke rose gently from wooden homes as families prepared their meals. Farmers walked the fields beneath soft morning light. Children played freely along stone paths, their laughter echoing through the valley like birdsong.
Everything appeared ordinary.
Yet beneath that peaceful surface lingered a quiet tension — an unspoken awareness shared by every villager.
As evening approached, work ended early. Doors were shut. Windows were sealed. Oil lamps flickered to life inside every home. Even the children, who once ran freely across the village, were quickly called indoors.
The village grew silent before night had fully arrived.
Because everyone knew what waited beyond the light.
At the outer edge of the settlement stood eight enormous statues.
They formed a silent circle around the village like ancient guardians. Time had worn their stone bodies smooth, yet their presence remained overwhelming. Moss clung to their surfaces, and deep cracks traced their forms like scars from forgotten battles.
Each statue was different.
One resembled a warrior raising a broken blade toward the sky.Another sat in meditation, unmoving through countless seasons.One had no face at all — only an empty surface that seemed to watch everything.Another gazed toward the distance with an expression of deep sorrow.
Strange symbols were carved across their bodies, markings no villager could read.
And yet, when the sun set, the carvings began to glow.
A faint golden light spread from the statues, slowly expanding outward until it surrounded the village like an invisible wall. Within its reach, the air remained warm and calm.
Beyond it…
the world changed.
The forest grew darker than natural night.The wind carried unfamiliar sounds.And sometimes — only sometimes — shadows seemed to move where nothing should exist.
No one who stepped beyond the statues after sunset had ever returned.
So the villagers simply obeyed.
Children grew up hearing the same warning.
"Stay within the light."
They were taught not through fear, but through certainty — the kind of certainty that came from generations who had already witnessed the consequences.
And so the village endured.
Year after year.Season after season.
Safe beneath the watch of silent stone.
That evening, as the sun slowly disappeared behind the mountains, golden light once again awakened upon the statues. The protective boundary spread across the land, sealing the village within its quiet embrace.
A cool wind drifted from beyond the barrier.
For a brief moment, the forest outside stirred.
Something unseen moved in the darkness — watching, waiting, lingering at the edge of the light.
Then the night grew still again.
The village slept peacefully, unaware that the calm it cherished was fragile… and that one day, the silence surrounding it would break.