The sky tore open like paper.
Elara grabbed Jake and Lily, pulling them close as purple lightning crackled through the massive hole above their heads. They’d been running for hours since escaping the bunker, but now there was nowhere left to go.
"What is that?" Darian shouted over the howling wind.
Through the tear in the sky, they could see another world. A place where the ground was made of crystal and three moons hung in a green sky. And sothing was coming through.
"Not sothing," Emma corrected, her silver eyes wide with terror. "Soone."
A figure stepped out of the hole in the sky and floated down toward them. It looked almost human, but its skin was pale blue and its hair moved like it was underwater. When it spoke, its voice sounded like music and breaking glass at the sa ti.
"So these are the children who woke the Devourer," the creature said, studying them with eyes that sparkled like stars.
"Who are you?" Elara demanded, stepping in front of her kids.
"I am Lyra of the Crystal Realm. And you have made a terrible mistake."
More figures began erging from the sky tear. So had wings made of light. Others looked like they were carved from stone. One appeared to be made entirely of flowing water.
"We felt the ancient hunger stirring," said a creature that looked like a walking tree. "Across seventeen dinsions, we felt it wake."
"You don’t understand," Kael said desperately. "We didn’t wake it on purpose. We were trying to save our children."
The water-creature laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. "Save them? Child, you have dood not just your world, but all worlds."
Emma stepped forward, even though her legs were shaking. "Are you here to help us or hurt us?"
Lyra tilted her head, studying the five-year-old girl. "That depends. Show your power, young seer."
"I don’t want to. My visions hurt now."
"Show anyway."
Emma looked at her parents. Elara nodded sadly. They needed these strange beings as allies, not enemies.
Emma closed her eyes. Her silver light began to glow, but this ti it was different. Instead of just seeing the future, she was seeing other places. Other worlds.
"I can see your ho," Emma whispered. "It’s beautiful. But there’s sothing wrong with it."
Lyra’s face went pale. "What do you see?"
"Darkness spreading. Your crystal trees are dying. Your people are disappearing."
"When?" the tree-creature demanded urgently.
Emma’s eyes snapped open, full of tears. "It already started. Three days ago."
The dinsional visitors looked at each other with growing fear.
"The Devourer moves faster than we thought," the stone-creature rumbled. "If it’s already reached the Crystal Realm..."
"What is this Devourer thing?" Ronan asked.
The water-creature flowed closer. "The first evil. The thing that existed before light, before life, before hope. We thought it was destroyed eons ago."
"But it wasn’t destroyed," Lyra said grimly. "It was only sleeping. And your children’s power was like a dinner bell."
Baby Marcus, still possessed by the ancient evil, giggled from Darian’s arms. When he spoke, it was still in that horrible old voice: "Hello, little friends from far away. I rember you."
All the dinsional beings stepped back in horror.
"It knows us," the tree-creature whispered.
"Of course I know you," Marcus said with his too-wide smile. "I ate your grandparents."
Jake suddenly went rigid. The animals around them - birds, squirrels, even insects - all started making the sa sound at once. A low, terrified humming.
"What are they saying?" Lily asked her twin brother.
Jake’s eyes were completely white now. "They’re not talking to anymore. Sothing else is using them."
The animal chorus got louder. And now they could understand the words:
"More coming. More hungry ones. Different hungry ones."
"What does that an?" Elara asked frantically.
Emma grabbed her mother’s hand. "It ans the Devourer wasn’t the only thing sleeping. Our power woke up other things too."
As if summoned by her words, more tears appeared in the sky. But these ones were different colors - red, black, sickly yellow. And the things coming through them were nothing like the first visitors.
"Blood Feeders," Lyra gasped. "And Dream Stealers. And..." She pointed at a particularly nasty-looking hole. "Oh no. Void Walkers."
"What do all those things want?" Kael demanded.
"The sa thing the Devourer wants," the stone-creature said sadly. "To feed on your children’s power until there’s nothing left."
Creatures began pouring out of the holes in the sky. So looked like giant bats with human faces. Others were just floating darkness with too many eyes. The worst ones looked almost normal, except they cast no shadows and their smiles never reached their eyes.
"We ca to warn you," Lyra said urgently. "But we’re too late. They’re all here now."
"How many dinsions are we talking about?" Tobias asked. He’d been quiet this whole ti, but now his face was white with fear.
"All of them," the water-creature replied. "Every realm of existence that feeds on power and pain. Your children are like a beacon calling to everything evil in the universe."
Emma started crying. "It’s my fault. If I hadn’t used my power so much..."
"No, sweetheart," Elara said, hugging her daughter. "You were trying to help."
"But now everyone’s in danger because of us."
Lily walked over to the possessed baby Marcus. "Can we make the bad thing leave him alone?"
"I wouldn’t try that," Lyra warned. "The Devourer is using him as an anchor. If you force it out..."
"What happens?"
"Your brother dies."
The sky tears were getting bigger. More creatures poured through every second. And they were all heading straight for the children.
"We have to split up," Darian said desperately. "If we’re all together, we’re too easy to find."
"No," Emma said firmly. Her silver eyes were glowing again. "I can see what happens if we split up. It’s worse."
"What do you see?"
"They hunt us down one by one. And without each other..." Emma’s voice broke. "Without each other, we’re not strong enough to fight back."
The first wave of monsters reached them. A Blood Feeder swooped down toward Jake, its fangs gleaming.
But before it could touch him, Lily stepped forward. Her healing power flared, but backward. Instead of healing the creature, she made its hunger so strong that it forgot about Jake and started eating itself.
"Did you know you could do that?" Ronan asked in amazent.
"No," Lily said, looking surprised. "But the power feels different now. Bigger."
Emma nodded. "All our powers are growing. The more danger we’re in, the stronger we get."
"That might be the only thing that saves us," Lyra said. "But there’s sothing you need to know."
"What?"
"Power like yours... it cos with a price. The stronger you beco, the more you change. Eventually, you might not be human anymore."
Elara’s heart broke. "What will they beco?"
"Sothing new. Sothing that’s never existed before."
More monsters circled overhead. The dinsional visitors were preparing their own powers to fight. And baby Marcus was laughing that awful laugh again.
But then Emma gasped.
"What is it?" Kael asked.
"I just saw sothing terrible in the future."
"What now?"
Emma looked at her family with eyes full of ancient sadness.
"The monsters aren’t the real problem. Neither is the Devourer."
"Then what is?"
"Us. We’re going to beco so powerful that we accidentally destroy everything we’re trying to save."
A Dream Stealer dove toward them, its claws extended.
And as Emma raised her hand to defend her family, silver fire poured from her fingers - fire that didn’t just burn the monster, but erased it from existence completely.
"It’s already starting," she whispered in horror. "I can’t control it anymore."
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