CRYSTAL LAND

People poured into the streets in a frantic stampede, dragging luggage behind them, clutching children, valuables, gold, and diamonds. The wide roads that once carried peaceful crowds were now overflowing with terror. Then— BOOM! A deafening thunderclap ripped through the sky. The ground trembled. Cracks began crawling across the walls of buildings like living veins. Windows shattered. Towers shook. People screamed and pushed their way forward, desperately searching for an escape. Above them, the sky began to change. Bright clouds twisted into a massive darkness, spreading across the heavens until the sunlight disappeared completely. Lightning flashed between the clouds, illuminating terrified faces for a split second before plunging the city back into darkness. For nearly three hours, the destruction continued. Roads split apart. Buildings collapsed. The earth heaved beneath people’s feet. A blinding flash struck the city, leaving some people unconscious, while others staggered in confusion, unable to hear the screams around them. Yet even in the middle of the catastrophe, some stopped to gather gold and diamonds. Then the ground beneath them disappeared. CRACK! A gigantic fissure tore through the city. Buildings tilted. People ran. The earth roared. And then— THE ENTIRE CITY BEGAN TO SINK. Roads, houses, towers, treasures, and thousands of people were swallowed into the darkness below. Within moments, Crystal Land was gone. Only silence remained. Among the survivors, something strange happened. Memories began disappearing. Names, faces, places, and the events of that terrible night slowly vanished from their minds. Then, from the empty land, a masked dwarf emerged. He walked across the empty ground, disappearing and reappearing in different parts of the world, erasing every trace of the mysterious land from records, maps, stories, And as he disappeared into thin air, his voice echoed across the world: “One thousand years is upon us.”