Harry Schloßmacher
MYSTIC ISLAND / PART 11 / The First Campaign (DARK EDITION)
The sky above Mystic Island was black as burnt silk.
No stars.
No moon.
Only a pulsating rift stretching across the horizon like an open wound.
Beneath it stood the Riders.
Not the riders who had once thundered across the beach.
Not the riders who had fought each other.
Not the riders who had died.
But the riders who had returned.
Blackriders.
Red Zombies.
Beauty Riders.
Three factions once sworn enemies, now united by something greater than hatred—
Hunger.
The Devil Tornado hovered above them like a crown of living storm.
It pulsed in rhythm with the Sky Maw.
It was their master.
Their god.
Their command.
And it spoke.
Not in words.
In a pressure that warped the air.
In a tremor that shook the bones of the world.
In an impulse that forced every rider to kneel at once.
“Go.”
The First Campaign had begun.
I. The Blackriders – March of Shadows
Captain Mordrain rose first.
His headless body creaked as the island rearranged his bones.
His flesh-hook hand lengthened, becoming a scythe of black metal that glittered in the light of the rift.
He began to move.
Not running.
Not riding.
But gliding, as if the ground itself carried him forward.
Behind him followed the Blackriders—
an army of shadows that left no footsteps, no sounds, no traces.
They moved like smoke.
Like darkness.
Like death that had decided to become faster.
Their objective was clear:
The forests.
The first victims would be the ancient trees that still carried memories.
The island wanted no witnesses.
II. The Red Zombies – Firestorm
Bella Zomba rose next.
Molten slag dripped from her body, melting the sand beneath her feet.
Her eyes burned like two gates to Hell.
She raised her arms—and the beach ignited.
Not with fire.
With heat that warped the air, turned stone incandescent, and made the very sky tremble.
Her army followed.
Red Zombies whose bodies dripped like liquid metal, whose footsteps left craters behind them, whose voices hissed like burning coals.
They marched toward the coast.
Not to conquer.
To transform.
The island desired new forms.
New creatures.
New servants.
And fire was the first brushstroke.
III. The Beauty Riders – The Cold Radiance
Seraphin Vale rose last.
His body was flawless, yet his eyes were empty like two holes cut into nothingness.
He hovered above the ground, his light cold, sharp, unnatural.
Behind him assembled the Beauty Riders.
They drifted like angels without souls.
Their armor of light sliced through the darkness like blades.
They rose into the air.
Slowly.
Steadily.
Like a procession of frozen light.
Their destination was the sky.
Not to fly.
To break it.
The island no longer wished to live beneath the heavens.
It wanted to subjugate them.
IV. The Storm Commands
The tornado pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Each pulse was an order.
The Blackriders accelerated.
The Red Zombies erupted into blazing motion.
The Beauty Riders climbed higher.
The Sky Maw opened wider.
A crimson glow poured from within, twisting the world around it.
The ground trembled as though it were stretching itself awake.
And then—
a breath.
A breath that tore apart the clouds.
A breath that blackened the air.
A breath that made the world shudder.
The tornado spoke again.
“Begin.”
And the Riders surged forward.
Not as an army.
Not as warriors.
Not as humans.
But as the first wave of a new world.
E N D
All rights belong to its author. It was published on e-Stories.org by demand of Harry Schloßmacher.
Published on e-Stories.org on 06/23/2026.
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