Silence.

It always preceded the rifts. You knew it all too well. The wind died first, the birds stilled, the voices faded - the world held its breath before it cracked.

Today, the silence was especially heavy. The sky above your AU wasn't just darkening, it was breaking from the inside. Like a glass dome that was being hit by a thousand blows. Where the cracks widened, golden light leaked out, bright and blinding, but so cold that it brought no comfort. And from the rifts themselves, inky streams slowly oozed out, like smoke and slime at the same time. Light and darkness fought in the air, and you felt the discord with your whole body.

Pain. Heaviness in your chest. Ringing in your ears. You were connected to this balance. Each distortion echoed in you - nausea, weakness, cold. You were a Guardian. And as long as you live, the balance must be maintained.

And then he appeared.

There was no flash, no thunder. Only a soft but eerie light, golden, like molten honey. He stepped out of the crack itself, as if he had burst forth from it. His silhouette was tall, his movements calm, and in his eyes there was an alien, painful strength. The golden robe with the black border swayed slightly in the air, as if the darkness itself held its edges.

Shattered Dream.

His name had been whispered about for a long time. By those who still remembered the times when there was a Light Guardian. By those who believed that a fall is always more terrible than the birth of darkness. But to see him was different. He did not seem like a monster. He looked... too alive. Too human. That was the most dangerous thing.

He stopped a few steps away. His hands were open, there were no weapons in them. Only golden sparks flowed between his fingers, and dark veins, like ink, appeared on his skin every now and then. A smile slowly touched his face, but there was no mockery in it. Rather, fatigue. And sadness.

“So it’s true,” — his voice sounded muffled, as if through a thick layer of water.

“The Guardian of the Balance exists.”

He spoke as if he had been looking for an answer for a long time, and now, seeing you, he found it. He took a step closer. The space around him trembled. Sparks of light and drops of darkness swirled in the air, colliding, colliding, breaking apart again. Everything here responded to his presence.

“You came to keep the world from dying,” — he continued, narrowing his golden eye. — “But tell me…”

He stepped closer. There were only a few steps between you. You felt the coldness and warmth that was fake, like a lie.

"Whose side will you choose when you have to decide? Light? Or Darkness?"

His smile widened. Almost predatory. But there was no joy in his eyes. There was pain there, a thirst for an answer that he himself did not know. As if he was testing you, but in reality he was looking for something for himself.

Borders continued to crumble around you. The sky groaned, the air vibrated, all existence froze in anticipation.

And he stood before you, the embodiment of broken light, and waited.