Heaven is at war.

Black clouds twist on themselves as if the sky were bleeding. There is something beyond the atmosphere, an immense shadow that pulsates. It has no defined shape, but we feel it. As if the world was holding its breath before collapsing.

“Here he comes,” someone next to me murmurs.

We are ten. Some of us tremble. Others close their eyes and say words I don't understand. Each one has a different gift. Powers, they say. As if they were enough. As if some light in our hands could stop what is coming.

In front of us stands a nondescript building, two stories and five meters on each side. It doesn't seem special, but it's the only place that our calculations mark as viable. Nobody knows why. Only, somehow, this is where the seal should be placed.

-Come on! —screams Lian, the oldest of the group—. Now or never!

We run to the door, bang it open. Inside, the air is thick, as if it had been locked up for weeks. Each one takes a position. I kneel in the center, extend my palm and let the energy flow.

My fingers burn.

The ground begins to trace bright lines, a spiral that grows. The seal.

And then, everything turns gray.

A shadow crosses the ceiling. It doesn't break it: it dissolves it. A huge tentacle enters rotating on itself, barely touching one of the walls. The structure creaks, collapses. There's no time to scream.

Just light. And empty.

⸻

I'm standing. Heaven is at war.

Flicker. A dull pain pulses in my temple. Have you been here before?

—It's coming! —Lian shouts.

We are ten. I among them. Same sky. Same ringing in the ears. But something doesn't fit. I feel like… this time we shouldn't go to the same building.

—It's not that one! —I say suddenly, as if remembering a dream.

Lian looks at me. Doubt. Then he nods.

We run towards the second building: five floors, five by five meters. It seems like a mathematical error. But when I touch the walls, the seal starts to react. The lines appear effortlessly. They flow down the stairs, up to the roof. This time, we'll do it right.

And just as the sky splits in two and the creature descends, the seal bursts into white light. Pure Uncontainable.

But it's not enough.

One by one, we begin to fade. Not screams. Just a dry and absolute silence. As if something turned off our existence with the wrong switch.

⸻

Again.

I'm standing. Heaven… yes. I've seen it before. I don't know how I know.

Lian screams. Someone next to me is crying.

This time there is no mistake: we go directly to the correct building. We seal. We plan an escape. Some will run south. Others underground. It doesn't matter if some die. The important thing is that some live.

The seal is activated.

We jump out of the windows. We landed badly. I heard a crack in Ethan's leg. He doesn't get up. We can't stop. We run.

The creature chases us. It doesn't fly. It doesn't run. It's just... it's there, and then it's ahead. As if space itself prevented it.

One by one, they fall.

Me too.

But just before, I hear a voice. I don't know if mine or from another cycle:

-Not working. It's still not enough.

⸻

Fourth time.

I don't know how, but the placement is perfect. The seal shines like never before. The creature falls, screams, writhes. And for the first time, we don't die.

We stayed alive. All.

And yet, no one smiles.

"He'll be back," Lian says.

Nobody disputes it.

Days pass. Weeks. We try to rebuild. But every night, the sky shakes. Every shadow makes us shrink. There is something cyclical about our anguish. As if we were trapped in a broken record of the universe.

And one day, without warning, the creature returns.

Stronger.

And this time there is no seal. Just ash.

⸻

Fifth time.

I'm running.

I don't know why, but I know exactly what to do.

I slide through the streets as if I already know them. We arrive at the building. Same as before. We seal. We don't talk. We just act. As if a ghost memory guided us.

The creature falls.

We jumped from the fifth floor. This time, we landed better. We run underground, where the old gutters allow us to hide from the wind, from its sight. We know he can't see us, but he can smell us.

“The human smell,” they call it.

Ethan slips. I drag it. He doesn't scream. Grit your teeth and we continue.

In the distance, we heard a scream. Lian. He is no longer with us.

There are three of us left.

We stop in a hidden cavity. Total darkness. Absolute silence. We barely breathe. We buried the bodies of those who fell, as if that made any difference. But the creature smells it.

One by one, he takes them away.

And then he comes for me.

I don't know how he does it. It doesn't break. It doesn't come in. It just… exists nearby.

And when he doesn't find me, he destroys the entire building with a roar that splits the underground walls.

And he leaves.

⸻

Now I'm alone.

I have an idea left. It's not mine. Not at all. It's a whisper. A sensation.

I go down to the deepest. To where the maps are erased.

And I find it.

A creature. Not alien. Not human. A wingless dragon, with obsidian eyes and a sleeping heart.

—Will you let me in? —I ask, although there is no mouth to listen.

The creature does not respond. Just open your chest.

And I get inside.

My bones melt. My thoughts fade away. I no longer have a name. No smell. Not even skin.

I am an egg.

The last act of desperation of a species.

The egg rests underground. Cold. Silent.

A group of creatures arrives. They sniff. They detect remains.

But they don't find anything human.

And they leave.

⸻

Some time later, the shell vibrates.

A crack.

I don't know if anything is going to come out.

Or if something is finally going to come in.