Kiyokazu Lazar — POV
I was there.
I saw it. I couldn't do anything but watch.
The darkness surrounded me — the air thickened, my vision blurred, and everything felt unreal. When I opened my eyes, I understood only one thing: I was somewhere far away from where I had been.
No time passed. No sounds reached me. There was nothing at all — only darkness in every direction, and the cold certainty that I was lying on the ground.
I opened my eyes slowly.
White was the first thing I saw. I was lying in snow, wearing the same clothes as before. Strange — I couldn't feel the cold. No wind moved through the air. There was nothing to feel at all.
I pushed myself up and looked around.
I was in Liva village. The center of it — houses on every side, smoke curling lazily from the chimneys. Quiet. Untouched.
"Lazar."
A soft voice called. Behind me.
I turned.
My mother stood in the snow a few meters away, looking at me.
"Mom!" I shouted.
I ran straight toward her. The snow crunched beneath my boots with every step, and the world around me seemed to shrink — the houses drawing closer, the distance between us collapsing —
I was one step away. She raised her open palm toward me. I raised mine to meet it.
But then… something seized my leg and pulled.
I hit the ground hard. I pushed myself up immediately, but the force came — it pressed me down, refusing to let me rise from the ground.
"NO!" I screamed.
Snow got into my eyes as I writhed on the ground. It made me blink.
As I opened my eyes, she was gone.
I tried to get up again. The force held me. I turned my head left —
The houses were in ruins. Fire spread everywhere. Smoke swallowing the sky.
I closed my eyes and turned right, hoping for something different.
As I opened my eyes, the same thing happened, nothing changed. More houses. More fire.
Then an impact happened to my left — something hitting the ground.
I turned.
Her body fell. Her hair spread across the snow. Blood ran from her mouth down her face, falling on the snow.
"La…zar…" she said weakly, her eyes finding mine.
"AAAAAAHHHH!"
I sat up.
The world changed in an instant — darkness to white, silence to noise, dream to something real and overwhelming. Voices came from every direction. Left. Right. Everywhere.
I was breathing hard. My chest heaved. I looked around, trying to understand where I was.
A room. White walls, white floors, white sheets on rows of beds stretching in both directions. People everywhere — some lying in beds, some standing, some talking in groups. More of them than I could count at a glance.
I looked down. I was sitting on top of one of the beds, a white sheet tangled around my legs. My head was pounding — a deep, constant vibration behind my eyes that sent pain through my skull in steady waves, it was unbearable and impossible to think past.
I pressed my right hand against my forehead and tried to breathe.
My right hand.
I opened it, then closed slowly. It worked, no pain, no struggles. She was working just fine as new.
Wait a minute. I thought.
It had been broken. I had felt it break. I had felt every second of it.
"Yo."
A voice to my right called. Forcing me out of my thoughts.
I looked up.
A young man was walking toward me — he was around my age, maybe slightly older. Short black hair. A black shirt that fit close to his body, showing a build that was clearly trained rather than natural. His hands were in his pockets. His eyes were closed as he approached, and when he slowly opened them, a deep red color looked back at me.
His pupils were red. Very red.
Something in me sharpened immediately — a wariness I couldn't explain, a tension that moved through my body before I had decided to feel it. There was an energy coming off him that my instincts didn't know how to deal with.
He stopped beside my bed and looked over me briefly, then met my eyes.
"Are you okay?" he asked, reaching out his left hand.
"I am," I said, pushing it aside. I kept watching him.
His red pupils caught the light. It was hard not to look at them.
"You were asleep for quite a while," he said. There was something in his voice — not quite warmth, but something close to it, something that didn't match the unease his eyes produced.
My body began to relax slightly, against my better judgment.
Then the pain hit again — sharp, sudden, driving through my skull. I gritted my teeth but couldn't hold the position. My body tilted sideways before I could stop it.
He caught me.
With one hand, moving quickly, stopping me before I hit anything. He slowly lifted me upright.
"You're not well at all," he said.
"Why did you help me? I could've do it on my own."
"You were about to fall off the bed." He answered calmly.
"I said I could've do it on my own."
He looked at me for a moment. "You were moving the whole time you slept. Whatever you were dreaming — it wasn't good, was it?"
I was moving in my dream?
I didn't answer to that. I looked at the rest of the room instead — the rows of beds, the white walls, the people I didn't recognize. In the middle of the room, a wide set of stairs led up to a pair of enormous wooden doors, easily three meters tall. Everything around those doors was the same unbroken white as everything else.
I looked to my left, I saw another man around my age. He was sitting on his bed, leaned against the white wall. He had short brown hair, he was looking at the other side of the room, then he moved his head towards me and our eyes met.
"Ooh," he made a sound smiling, "our sleeping princess finally woke up from It's dream."
I ignored him, I looked towards the other side of room, then at the man with red eyes.
"Where are we?" I asked him.
He tilted his head slightly, as if the question surprised him more than he expected.
"You don't know where we are?" he asked.
I nodded.
He leaned back against the wall beside my bed and crossed his arms.
"Honestly? I don't know either."
"What?" I said confusedly.
"I was brought here with a blindfold on," he continued. "I can tell you that we're somewhere large, and somewhere with a lot of people. But I don't know where exactly."
I looked down at my hands.
The village. What happened to everyone? What happened to Sarah? How did I end up here?
The thoughts came in a rush and I couldn't organize them fast enough —
"OYYY!"
Something slammed into my attention from the left.
I bring my look there, the man that was on the bed stood up and walked towards me, clearly being angry.
It seems the troubles are about to start.
His voice got louder as he closed the distance. "You have the audacity to ignore me? HUH?" his voice become more louder as he finished his sentence.
I looked away, the rest of the room noticed. Conversations dropped off. People turned our way to watch.
"AGAIN!?"
He was stepping closer to the bed.
"YOU DARE TO DO THAT TWICE!?"
"WOW!?"
He reached my bed in a few steps, grabbed me by the shirt, and pulled me toward him. His other hand found my throat.
"JUST BECAUSE THEY SAID TO FOLLOW THE RULES DOESN'T MEAN I CAN'T BREAK THEM."
His grip tightened. The pain in my head spiked and mixed with the pressure on my throat, and behind it all — uninvited, unwanted — the alpha's face surfaced across his face. Golden eyes. The same pressure. The same inability to breathe.
NO!
"NO!" I clawed at his hands, trying to pry them loose.
He drove his forehead into mine. Then he grabbed my shirt again and pulled me towards him.
"DIE, YOU—" he said raising his arm.
The man with the red eyes moved.
I didn't see exactly what happened — in one moment the brown-haired man was raising his fist, and in the next he was on the bed with one arm locked in the air and the other pinned flat.
and I was on the floor trying to catch a few calm breaths.
"Stop," the red-eyed man said. His voice was completely level almost sounding commandingly.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" he shouted at him.
"If you don't stop, I'll use even more force." He said applying more pressure to his arm. The brown-haired man screamed through gritted teeth.
I caught movement from the corner of my eye — small sparks at the trapped man's free hand, the beginning of a flame forming between his fingers. The red-eyed man saw it the same moment I did. He shifted his grip and squeezed the brown haired guy forearm hard, the veins popped on his own hand as he did that. Stopping him from creating fire from his palm.
"I warned you didn't I?" he said.
"YOU LITTLE—DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO I AM? I'LL MAKE SURE YOU—"
"AAAAGGGH" he screamed.
"Do you really think that I care about who you are?" he replied coldly
Then again he squeezed his arm. Making him scream again.
A hand came down on the red-eyed man's shoulder.
I looked at the new arrival. Another person, he looked older than the rest of us — early twenties, I'd say. He had short black hair, wore glasses, with an expression that gave confidence.
"That's enough," he said, revealing his calm, matured voice.
The red-eyed man held him for a few more seconds, then released. He walked the brown-haired man to the center of the room — the others moved out of his way without being asked — once he got there, he let go of his hands and raised his leg, kicking the brown hair guy with his boot. Making him fall on the ground.
As soon as he could, he got up from the ground and went for red-eyed man again. He swung his hand at him.
The man with the glasses stepped in and caught his fist, stopping him from attacking the red-eyed man.
"YOU WANT SOME TOO!?" he shouted at him.
"This is enough, you already made a lot of unnecessary trouble."
The man with brown hair spit at his way only for the man with glasses to dodge and slam him into the ground.
"See?" he added.
"Another unnecessary thing," he said calmly, looking down at him. "You're only making it worse for yourself."
"OKAY, OKAY!" he screamed.
He let go and stepped back. The brown-haired man got to his feet, teeth still clenched, breathing hard. He looked at both of them. Then at me. He looked like he was about to explode.
"TCH" he made a sound, "You will regret that." He whispered stepping towards me.
Both of them let him pass between them without stopping him. He kept walking — straight toward me, his widened eyes full with anger locked on me, his fists tight at his sides.
"If you touch that man again," the red-eyed man said behind him, "I'll kill you."
He stopped the moment he heard that.
He was two steps in front of me. He looked down at me on the floor, his teeth screetching, everything in his body pulled tight. A long moment passed.
Then finally he did something, he came closer and crouched near me.
"You were lucky today you piece of shit," he whispered quietly. "But know this — I'll make sure you suffer for as long as I see you here."
He held my eyes for a few more seconds.
Then he stood and turned around. "Remember that." He said as he walked back to his bed, sat down, and leaned against the wall exactly as he had been before. As if nothing had happened.
"What are you all looking at?" the man with the glasses said, raising his voice to carry across the room. "Mind your own business."
"And who made you our leader, four-eyes?" someone added from the crowd.
The voice came from the right — from a young man sitting on an upper bunk, one leg folded beneath him, the other hanging loosely over the side in the air. He had long black hair, spiked, with a strands dyed red at the end. He was leaning back against the wall, his arms crossed.
He was looking very confident, and was well built physically.
"Excuse me?" the man with the glasses replied.
"You heard me four-eyes." He tilted his head slightly. "Who do you think you are? Our mother?" he joked.
Laughter arose that echoed through the room itself, most of people were laughing at the man with the glasses.
"Are you all right?" The man with red eyes crouched beside me and was looking at me with concern.
"Yes," I said. "Thank you. You didn't have to do that."
A smile crossed his face — brief, genuine, making him look way softer than the red eyes suggested.
"I didn't do it for you specifically," he said. "I just cannot stand people like that, the people who think they can do whatever they want." He paused, then looked at me. "But you're welcome."
"I owe you one." I added.
He shook his head. "You don't owe me anything friend." He held out his right hand. "I am Luiz Takami, It's nice to meet you"
"Kiyokazu Lazar." I took it. "Good to meet you, Luiz."
„Then prove that to us four-eyed."
Our acquaintance was interrupted by a voice coming from the middle of the room. Both me and Luiz turned and watched them. The man from the bed was walking around the guy with the glasses, clearly provoking him.
The man with the glasses didn't looked surprised or scared, in fact he looked even more proud and ready. He was just watching him, turning his body for as much as he needed to.
„Why would I have to prove anything to people who doesn't even know how to control themselves, or even talk like normal human beings."
"Ohoho," the other man replied.
„So, you want to tell us that we are not normal? Is that what you want to say four-eyes?"
He stopped.
„Do you hear this people?" he said turning around to everyone raising his hands in the process.
„This man says that we are not normal, what should we do now?"
The whole room went quiet, no one answering him.
„Is this blind fool going to scare you all?"
„I am not scaring anyone here idiot, I am just following the rules, and you should follow them as well. Everyone who doesn't follow the rules deserve to be ashamed like that man over there." He said pointing his finger at the man that attacked me.
The brown hair man was sitting there, gritting his teeth, looking at him.
"And?" the other guy replied
The guy with glasses looked at him.
"Shall we all be like that weakling over there?" he said pointing his finger at me.
I tightened my fist.
"Do you want all of us to be like him? Hahaha." he laughed.
"I am sorry but I will not be like him four-eyes."
The smile left Luiz's face. He stood.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Luiz added, defending me.
He turned towards Luiz.
"How do you know that he is weak?"
The spiked-hair man looked at him. "Because I saw what just happened. Someone attacked him and he did nothing."
"Not wanting to fight doesn't mean that person is weak."
"Hahaha." He burst laughed,
"Then what is it if It's not weakness, red eyes?" he continued. "If someone attacks you and you can't even protect yourself from that man — what is it if it's not weakness?"
Luiz didn't answer, just watched him.
"Exactly," the other man said. "You don't want to answer to my question because you don't want to prove to everyone else that I am right." He looked at me directly. "That man that you protected just now is a weakling. It's simple as that."
I tightened my fists harder.
Why is this place filled with people like this. He is annoying me.
But, he wasn't wrong either. I knew he wasn't wrong. I had lain on the ground and been held there and done nothing. That was the truth of it, I can't deny that.
"That's enough," the man with the glasses said.
"No It's not." He turned to him and answered immediately.
"Luiz," I said quietly. "Leave it."
He looked at me, frustrated.
"Leave it," I said again.
"You are making fool of yourself. Everyone came here for one reason, he wouldn't be here if he was a weakling as you call him." the guy with glasses said
"Hah," he made a laughing sound, "He showed all of us what he could do." He said swinging his right leg at the man with glasses.
"You think rules make order, It's just as that man said, just because they say you should follow the rules doesn't mean you cannot break them."
The man with the glasses blocked it with his hand and pushed back, forcing him to jump away. The spiked-hair man went straight towards him as soon as he got on his legs. As they were about to collide again -
The doors opened.
They both stopped.
The sound the doors made when they swung was enormous — two people arrived from those doors
As soon as the doors openned, some enormous pressure arrived.
It came without warning — a weight that had nothing to do with the air, it pressed me down from everywhere at once. My knees hit the floor before I understood what was happening. Around me I heard others doing the same, the sound of dozens of people being forced down all at once. The man with the spiked hair. The man with the glasses. The man with the brown hair on his bed — even he was pressed flat against the mattress.
Luiz somehow manage to stand. Clearly struggling, his legs shaking.
I looked at him, his jaw tightened, his eyes widened, he was somehow holding this pressure. Barely. But did it.
"Enough."
One word. One voice. Calm, absolute, carrying no effort whatsoever.
The pressure vanished instantly as it had arrived.
The room was completely silent and the pressure vanished, as if nothing happened.
I was left to hear the heavy breathings of all the people in the room including me. I looked at the middle of the room, both the spiked hair guy and the guy with glasses were still on the ground, not moving.
The figure stepped forward through the doorway, and began to speak.