[WP]No time may pass in the story. No flashbacks either. The entire story must take place in one single instant.

...

In that instant...

Behind the old blue hatchback, mirrors all but shrouded by the metallic sheen of the cargo which it dragged, the Western sky was a shade of dark.

To my straining neck and widened eyes, I could see this was not an ordinary dark plainly as I might see the familiar colors of shadow and shade, brought on by clouds or lacking sun. No, for even in the barest instant that I chanced a look with my own eyes beyond the window, I found its presence to be something worse.

This was a dark nothingness of an empty sky. A devoid and desolate absence brought on and held in place by power alone.

Power that defied the realm of what a man should be capable, what all of man combined should be capable: An example of strength that passed for miles- to the border of my sight and surely beyond it.

More strength than I possessed or could ever hope to: It was a terror which brought a sense of sickening dread right alongside, hand in hand companions of despair. Like the feeling one might find in their horrified awe, staring up from the trenches of a war long-fought, right before a bomb lands from a screaming plane above. Like the eye's that close and teeth that clench for a single and final moment of choice before those waiting tanks in the distance begin their slow rolling forward under a foreign army's cry.

In that instant...

It was a worldly moment of peace, a second calm before a mighty storm I lacked the judgement and knowledge yet to understand; and it stood frozen above the world.

In the mirror behind us, even as tires threw up dirt and grime, I saw the bell-tower, and the monastery beneath it as though they were a tiny candle against the deep black that covered the Western sky. The white brick of the holy grounds held little weight by comparison, but unlike the thick walls of stone not yet a mile distant past them, the tower held resistance to the shades of depth and shadow. It loomed by its own image, a strange and blackened Keep of the tainted earth, which rose as a sick mockery miles beyond everything else.

For all her desperation prior to this point, Sola didn't look back as I did. Her eyes pressed away from whatever scene was moments from unfolding, as if the lesser of two similar charges pressed aside with brutal force.

Perhaps, in retrospect I might come to terms with why she stared straight ahead towards the Eastern clouds of white and blue. Maybe in time she might speak in her own defense as to why her naturally tanned face was red and sodden; but as the instant unfolded around us my focus was held to split like a coin on its edge and those things mattered all for naught.

The unknown behind, and the unknown before, dragged on by the hum of pistons and metal, rubber and tread. A wheel held beneath white knuckled grip, a foot pressed hard against the floor, and stones lofting past behind on the air which caught them.

In that instant...

I'd tried to ready myself for what this world might offer, and I'd tried to understand my place within it. The differences listed themselves on a long and rolling sheet of mental fabric, each more excessive than the one before, but as my eyes widened at the sight of what lay in the pitch of the Western Sky, I finally understood where it was I stood. Where anyone stood, beside that Mage.

Even if I knew nothing more than rumors, it was plain as day to see. When placed beside the Mage of Death: Be it a King or Queen, a Priest or Wizard, an Elf or Man or even Beast.

In that instant, I knew we were nothing but ants to be crushed between his feet.