(A.N. - This is a prologue of the story, you can skip it if you want. I will include the information in the latter chapters as the story progresses.)
---
World War III had long been considered inevitable. Everyone knew that if nuclear weapons were ever unleashed, the disaster would be unimaginable. Only after the war ended did humanity truly understand how wrong they had been. "Catastrophic" didn't cover it. The aftermath revealed how close the human race had come to being wiped out entirely.
The war burned on for twelve relentless years, from 2034 to 2045. No one could point to a single trigger. It was a chain reaction of arrogance and fear, amplified until no diplomacy could stop it. Even the U.N., desperate and overworked, failed to slow the carnage.
When the dust settled, humanity had shrunk to five percent of its former size. Out of ten billion people, only five hundred million survived. Five hundred million hearts left beating on a mangled planet.
In the new world order that followed, India, America, China, Africa, and Russia re-emerged as the dominant powers. But their triumph came at a price that history would never forgive. To prove their supremacy, they sacrificed entire nations.
Some countries vanished from the map altogether—Pakistan, Portugal, Monaco, Los Angeles, and many more. Smaller nations were swallowed by their nearest giants. Coastlines sank as rising oceans devoured entire regions. Where old continents once existed, new ones formed.
The reshaped world took on unfamiliar names: Hindvarthya, the Huaxia Empire, Ameriork, Afropia, Soversia, and Austran.
Hindvarthya, formed from most of eastern and southern Asia and parts of Europe, became the largest continent with nearly one hundred million people.
China expanded north and west to form the Huaxia Empire, now home to roughly one hundred twenty million survivors, the most populous region on Earth.
North and South America merged as Ameriork, held together by naval infrastructure.
Africa built an empire of its own, colonizing Europe and ruling from London under the name Afropia.
Russia claimed its place as Soversia, the fifth continent.
Australia renamed itself Austran, emerging relatively unscathed due to its neutrality during the war.
Japan fared the worst. Tsunamis swallowed its islands, earthquakes sank much of what remained, and the survivors were scattered between Austran and the Huaxia Empire.
Cities that once touched the clouds collapsed into fields of twisted metal and quiet dust. But amid the ruins, humanity set about building again—smaller, humbler, but determined.
The war didn't begin with nuclear strikes, but it ended with them. Their use didn't just redraw borders—it scarred the planet itself. The ozone layer, once merely damaged, was reduced by ninety-nine percent, practically erased. Climate became chaotic. Morning rain turned into scorching afternoon heat, followed by nighttime snow. Weather lost all rhythm. Thick grey clouds became the sky's new permanent expression.
Nature moved fast to reclaim the broken cities. New plant species appeared—radiation-proof, adaptable, wild. They spread through the ruins as if the Earth had decided to start over.
Humans noticed, but they were too busy repairing their own mistakes.
With rare unity, the world powers declared a new era: the YUGADI era. A century slipped by. Nations rebuilt. Laws changed. Empires rose. Inventions flourished. Humanity clawed its way toward a futuristic peace.
But peace never stays still.
. . . . .
On the 3rd of August, Year 95 of the YUGADI era, the world heard a sound that split the air like the sky cracking open.
BOOOOM.
Thunder upon thunder, rolling across the entire planet. Every living creature froze—stunned, paralyzed for a heartbeat too long.
Then the impossible began.
. . . . .
A family of three was having dinner when a jagged crack opened beneath the father's chair. A rift—like space tearing itself apart—swallowed him whole. He vanished before his wife and child could even scream.
. . . . .
Two brothers resting after mountain climbing heard the same thunder. A rift opened, and the younger one was simply… gone.
. . . . .
In a gym, thirty people froze mid-movement. Eighteen disappeared.
. . . . .
A group of young women watched an old TV show; two faded into a rift that blinked into existence and out again.
. . . . .
In a college courtyard, a bully taunting a shorter boy vanished mid-sentence.
. . . . .
And on the outskirts of a mountain city, two thugs grabbed a teenage girl while children watched helplessly. The rift chose her too.
. . . . .
All across the world, it was the same story.
By nightfall, the estimate was clear: around a hundred thousand living beings had vanished. The world named it Vicyuta Day—the Day of the Lost.
Scientists tried everything. Research poured in from every continent, but answers refused to appear. Instead, they discovered something else: a new form of energy saturating the air. It had begun showing up only after Vicyuta Day, as if it had always been here but had never wanted to be seen.
It was potent—far stronger than any known energy source. Humanity named it Ojas.
Used wisely, it could push civilization forward by thousands of years. Used recklessly… it could make nuclear fire look merciful.
---