The cries of the creature echoed through the night skies of the Kingdom of Vena. With its body growing larger every passing second as more tentacles sprout out of it.
Running through the forest away from the mountains, and heading straight for the sea, was Cutini. Who once again was trying to save himself, without any care for the soldier who the creature had popped out of.
'What happened to the people of Vena, huff. Why is this happening to me, huff.' He said, as he ran faster than he ever has in his fifty six years of breathing.
"Huh?" With eyes wide open, he could see one of the 3 moons that shone down on Vena closer than it should be. Confused by the situation, he turned his head and right next to him was a smokey black tentacle as thick as four buildings arranged next to each other.
"Ah, I guess this is how I d..."
"WHAM."
With the tentacle slamming his body, a large sound echoed across the whole northern region, blowing up his ear drums and shattering most of his bones.
Cutini was sent flying straight in the direction of the rescue team who were now exiting the forest, only to see something falling from the sky at an incredible speed and landing right in front of them, straight on a protruding metal pipe from one of the ships the Ichrak empire had destroyed in the war.
The group ran to see what it was, as it had the shape of a human only to come face to face with one of the chiefs of their Kingdom completely covered in blood, with broken bones protruding out of different parts of his body and blood flowing out every opening in his body.
He called out to them for help in a voice that sounded like a broken record and the breathing of an old dying horse.
One of the younger soldiers wanted to go help, but those who understood how and why he was still alive and right in front of them in the very region the Ichrak empire had set camo stopped him, lowering and shaking their heads with eyes closed.
They knew he chose his fate the moment he was still alive while the other chiefs were not.
They continued their race away from the creature, leaving his body there to die slowly in the remnants of the chaos he brought to his home land up north of Vena, the mining town of Copper.
The people in towns within Vena began evacuating to different shelters made of Ganbo, as the cries of the creature kept flooding in and shaking the land.
They couldn't tell what was causing it, but the fear they all felt from the cries was so unnatural and otherworldly that their souls forced their bodies to move to safety and as far as possible from where it could be heard.
And then it moved.
"BOOM."
The sound of mountains and mines getting completely blown up from the swings of its tentacles shook the continent.
Every town was hit, with some completely flattened to the ground. With men getting trapped within the mines and the entrance of some shelters getting completely jammed from its weight as it moved around.
This was the first appearance of a Nightmare recorded in the history of the world.
As the sun rose, the dark smoke-like creature which has been wrecking everything in its path all night, took flight and crawled into the sea, vanishing from the continent of Vena.
The Vines of Vena who had survived both the war and nightmare, began working harder than they did even while fighting the Ichrak empire.
Moving from town to town, rescuing as many people as they could for days, while accounting for those who had gone missing or died during the chaos from nights ago.
Starting the new year with a death and injury toll so high, they knew this was the end of Vena's reign as the Kingdom of ores, and the end of its successful run as the longest standing Kingdom.
The news of the fall of Vena shook the world more than the death of the emperor of Ichrak.
A fall that was caused not just by a five year war, but by the arrival of a creature never heard of or seen before. A creature that brought about a change to how the whole world worked, kick-starting the arrival of something even worse.
Unknown to them, the fall had already begun seven years earlier with the curse of Ogun.
With no nation willing to help Vena rebuild except they were paid with the new ore, the people of Vena were left alone to fend for themselves just as they had left the healers and doctors of those nations to do seven years ago.
As if the suffering they had endured while entering into the new year was not enough. The Vines realised the creature had somehow found and completely destroyed the extra oils made by the Egwus, leaving only enough to last them for the next 3 generations. Completely solidifying their end.
With the citizens of most towns taking shelter in tents and sheds, scrapping for whatever food they could find and drinking polluted water, while they all patiently waited for their death.
The people began demanding the Vines, who had openly revealed themselves in order to establish peace and control to prevent the people from losing faith and giving up on living, that they forced the Egwus who they were sheltering to provide oils to heal their wounds and treat their waters and land.
The Vines held on for long until it was becoming unbearable to deny the people of their request. Although the Egwus weren't the ones who killed and destroyed their land, they were from the land that did it. So what harm would it cause them to lose the last bit of their humanity by working the Egwus as slaves.
And with that the one hundred Egwus became a part of the Vena empire, not as citizens but as slaves locked in for life.
Luckily for them, in the month the Vines decided to finally listen to the cries of the people, those who were sent away to foreign lands to find a solution returned.
Some returned with fruits that could help slow down the speed of the Ogun within the younger generations, but had no effect on those past the age of ten, while others returned with waters from a fountain in a land far east of Vena beyond the reach of their allied nations.
A water known as the Pink Heart, which helped slow down the aging of internal organs of people, in return slowing down their aging.
All of these were things never seen before in the world before the Great Drop. A pure proof that the world had become something completely supernatural beyond its origin.
The men and women who returned spent time wailing their lost families and loved ones, after finding out what had happened in their absence.
Then after a week had passed since their return and they had fully settled down and came to terms with the situation of their homeland.
One of the men presented what he had learnt on his journey to the far south, a region with never ending snow and cold that reached temperatures of negative hundred degrees caused by the changes brought upon the land by the Great Drop.
He gathered the vines and showed them a breathing technique that allowed the people of that region to control the very blood pumped from their heart to different parts of their body, allowing them completely heal off injuries through storing new blood cells in one part of their body and completely releasing it into the damaged part, forcing a whole renewal of the damaged part.
Of course this was only possible because their blood had been altered to have an insanely fast regenerative property. But with a technique like that, even people with normal blood could heal minor wounds and push out poison within their body.
The Vines who completely understood what he meant when he finished his explanation, gathered all the people of Vena in each town.
Each Vine began explaining and showing the new breathing technique and the way to flow ones blood the man had brought back from the frozen lands of the south to everyone from the old men and women to the young children, as everyone could greatly benefit from it.
They did this as quickly as they could in order to ensure they do not force labour on the Egwus who were still making the oils but with a much lesser work load than their first time in Vena.
The breathing and blood control technique were named after the man and those who mastered it to the point where they could freely manipulate the Ogun within themselves into making constructs and coating their body with it were called Venators.
People trained in combat using Ogun, to fight and protect Vena from whatever may come its way in the future.
The full control of this powerful liquid metal made the next generation of Venas extremely dangerous to those who would dare attack them, but the versatility of the Ogun enabled them to build their fallen nation back up in the span of just thirty years, away from the watchful eyes of others.
Ogun which was initially what led to the fall of Vena, had now become what led to their stability once again.
Although they could not return to becoming a Kingdom once again due to the issues that arose from time to time. They were able to have a place fit to be callled home again.
***
"BOOM."
"Little Ichrak dog. You really are strong, to be able to match the strength of my Ogun and not completely shatter your bones on contact. I commend your strength. Tell me your name so that I won't forget it after I have slain thee." The huge man said, with a smile large enough to show his golden tooth.
Zaria stared him down with a contemptuous look on his face, "You talk to much for someone who is about to die."
He said as he began hoping from one foot to the other to a particular rhythm.
Slowly but steadily little sparks of lightning began to appear around his body and around the area as his hair turned white.
"My body's durability isn't perfect enough to fully perform this move but no matter how strong your Ogun is you better begin praying it protects you from what is about to come." He added as he looked straight into the man's eyes and.
"LIGHTNING STEP."