The realization hit him like a truck, he was truly trapped outside the barrier like he had gone through a one way door. When the pain finally receded from his head, he got up in silence. His back hurt a lot which made it difficult for him to stand upright, but he couldn’t care less right now.

  Night felt defeated as he walked slowly towards the transparent barrier which held his small village in its grasp. He knocked on the barrier with his hand which confirmed that it was in fact solid and seemingly, judging by the sound that it made as he knocked, extremely dense.

  Night couldn’t comprehend how the barrier was made or how it had the ability to block him out, and frankly, he didn’t have the mental capability at this moment to try and figure it out. His mind was battered and bruised.

  His village was so close to him, yet so far. He stared at it for a long time in the now eerie silence of the plain, he remembered his life and all the experiences he had in that village. He thought about his mother and how he had let her down, along with his father. He thought about all the people who were working so hard everyday just to provide for their families. He thought about all the children who had dreams just like his own. He might never be able to go back… He might never be able to experience that life again…

  Night couldn’t handle it anymore and broke out in a stream of quiet tears. As much as he had hated the isolation of the village, deep down he cherished the village and everyone in it. It was his home.

  ~~~

  The pale white light from the full moon shone across the field of azure grass. In the distance the village was bustling with activity even at such a late hour, just like every other night.

  Night was leaning on a large azure oak tree atop of a small grassy hill, he stared at the village with a sense of wonder and sadness. He had never seen it from this point of view before, it seemed almost cozy as it was sitting on a patch of grass tucked between two small mountains.

  After a few hours of contemplating everything that happened and trying to calm down, Night had decided that the best way for him to relax would be to just do what he came here for in the first place, to camp out.

  Night’s camp was small and quite lackluster. He had a sleeping bag which was quite raggedy and not too comfortable, a small fire which he successfully started after around two hours of trying, a couple of water skins, and some raw meat which he was unsuccessful in cooking.

  He sat down on the ground and grabbed a slice of meat. It was so burned that it looked like a slab of charcoal and felt like it was made of stone. He tried to eat it, but it was so revolting that he just decided to chuck it into the fire as more fuel.

  Night looked down at the burning chunk of meat with some sadness in his eyes, as he watched it burn he spoke to himself in a regretful way, “I should have paid attention to my mom’s cooking lessons… Her cooking was always so good…”

  After that failed attempt, Night decided to lay down and look at the stars for a bit. He laid down on the soft azure grass, his body was still aching a bit, but the undisturbed grass was comfortable enough to ease the pain.

  Night looked at the shimmering stars in silence as he marveled at their elegance, he then gazed at the bright full moon which was now almost directly above him. The brisk midnight breeze caressed his face while the calming sound of chirping crickets emanated from all around him. He closed his eyes and tried to calm down while taking in every part of the nature around him.

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  He began to breathe deeply and relax his entire body as he tried to switch his brain off and think of happy thoughts. Somehow throughout all the trauma and stress which he had gone through today, Night was able to drift off to sleep peacefully under the tall oak tree with minimal trouble. He was exhausted.

  ~~~

  Night was woken up abruptly only a few minutes after he had fallen asleep. The ground was shaking slightly and the air was filled with a light fog which was illuminated by the moonlight. Instantly he sat up and looked around, his gaze immediately stuck to the village, the barrier specifically. It looked a lot brighter than usual and the millions of tiny runes, which were usually only dimly lit, were shining with an intense radiance which was almost blinding even to Night who was quite a distance away.

  In a fearful tone, Night said, “What… What is happening… This has never happened before. The village… What's gonna happen to the village!?”

  In a panic, Night got up and started running towards the village, all while his exhausted body was struggling to keep up. He stopped quite a ways away from the barrier because he was unsure of what was going to happen and didn’t want to risk anything.

  The barrier was increasingly getting brighter every few seconds. The millions of tiny unintelligible runes began to combine together into many colossal runes which were each about the size of a large house. The new runes began to spin around the perimeter of the barrier while getting faster and faster every second, until suddenly they stopped completely.

  All the fog which was coating the plains rushed into the runes in a single powerful gust which almost made Night fall over. When all the fog was absorbed, the runes emanated one final blinding flash before they dimmed and disappeared. Then it was silent.

  It was so eerily silent that Night could hear his heart beating and his blood rushing through his veins. He looked at the village and then looked around at the vast plain. The wind had completely halted and the animals had gone silent.

  Suddenly a loud rumbling, which was coming from the sky, interrupted the silence. Night looked up, and then instantly froze in fear at what he saw.

  A massive beam of light came down from the heavens and pierced the land where the village stood. The pillar of light shone with the radiance of a thousand suns as it dug mercilessly into the earth. The pillar was seemingly bright enough to even be seen from space as it illuminated the entire surrounding area for miles.

  Night was far enough away so that he didn’t get hit directly by the beam, so he took his chance and booked it in the opposite direction as fast as he could. Once he got far enough away from the pillar, he turned around to take in the sheer madness of the event which was occurring.

  Just as he turned around though, the beam began to fizzle out slowly. It shrunk smaller and smaller until finally it just dissipated into nothingness.

  The village and every person in it was no more. All that remained was a huge circular crater that ripped deep into the ground. There was no evidence that anything had ever even been there, it was all just incinerated without a trace.

  Night looked at the disastrous scene in front of him, and fell to his knees. He was speechless and distraught. His stomach hurt, his head hurt, his mind hurt, everything hurt. Everyone and everything that he knew was just gone without a trace. The world resumed around him, the wind picked back up and the animals began to scurry about as if it was only a minor inconvenience. It seemed like the world didn’t even care, it was like the village was already forgotten.

  It was forgotten by everything except for Night. Tears streamed down his face like a waterfall as he screamed in agony, piercing the now again serene Azure Plains with a horrifying shriek.

  He punched the ground over and over again while mumbling unintelligible curses and cries, continuing even when his hands were covered in blood and his knuckles were almost broken. His pain was nothing compared to what the people of the village went through, so he didn’t care.

  He continued screaming and crying for over an hour until his voice became so hoarse that it hurt to even breathe. Finally he stopped and sat in silence for a little longer.

  In a voice filled with hopelessness, Night said quietly to himself, “What's the point… What's the point in even calling out anymore… No one can help them… There's not even anyone left to hear me… Why did this happen…? Just why…?”

  With that, Night had finally given up. He laid down on the grass and curled up into a ball, crying silently into his arms as he continually contemplated if he even wanted to continue living or not.