The boar's breath steamed in the frigid air, violet eyes gleaming with unnatural intelligence.
Kael's fingers tightened around his spear.
Just a little closer.
He crouched behind a rusted automobile—sleek metal now strangled by vines. The faded logo read "—ota."
His father said these machines could travel a hundred miles in an hour.
A hundred miles. In an hour.
Now it was just another grave marker in civilization's cemetery.
The boar pawed the scorched earth. Three hundred pounds of mutated rage, chitinous plates covering its hide like armor.
The radiation from the war, Kael thought. Still poisoning everything after ten thousand years.
Back at the village, fifty-three people were starving. Two days without a successful hunt. Children crying. Elders dying.
He couldn't fail.
The beast's guard dropped.
Now.
Kael charged.
Three strides. The boar's head snapped up.
Two strides. Violet eyes locked onto him.
One stride—
He slid, spear angling upward.
The boar charged.
IMPACT.
The spear drove through flesh beneath its jaw. Three hundred pounds crashed over him. A tusk carved fire across his shoulder.
He rolled free.
Purple-black blood oozed around the spear. The beast should have been dead.
Instead it squealed—a horrible sound mixed with mechanical clicking—and charged again.
Kael dove behind rubble. The boar struck like a battering ram.
He grabbed a rock and hurled it at the spear shaft.
Direct hit.
The boar's legs buckled. It crashed down, that clicking stuttering into silence.
Dead.
Kael collapsed, bleeding but alive.
They would eat tonight.
『 THE GRAVEYARD OF GODS 』
Two hours later, Kael dragged the carcass through the forest. He'd cut away the mutated sections—experience taught that corrupted meat caused sickness.
Ruins surrounded him.
A twenty-story tower, half-collapsed. His father said hundreds had worked there once, at machines called "computers" that held all human knowledge.
Now birds nested in its bones.
A vending machine, corroded and empty. Insert money, push button, receive food instantly.
No hunting. No risk. Just... convenience.
Vehicles scattered like broken toys, their sleek designs still visible beneath decay.
Every ruin whispered the same question:
What happened to us?
Kael knew the answer. Every child learned it like prayer.
The story of humanity's Fall.
『 THE GOLDEN AGE 』
Ten thousand years ago, humanity had been blessed beyond imagination.
Cities of glass and steel stretched toward the clouds. Towers that pierced the heavens themselves. Flying vehicles carried hundreds across oceans in hours.
Sickness was cured with pills. Hunger was ended by machine-grown food. People lived a hundred years in perfect health.
The entire world was connected by invisible networks. You could speak to someone across the planet instantly. You could access all human knowledge with a device in your pocket.
Machines did the work. People pursued art, science, dreams.
Paradise.
And then the sky cracked open.
『 MARCH 15TH - THE DAY HEAVEN FELL 』
It started with the Japan Space Agency.
They detected massive objects approaching Earth at impossible speeds. At first—asteroids. Cosmic debris.
Then the objects got closer.
And the truth became clear.
Ships.
Not human ships. Something else.
Vessels larger than mountains, made of materials that shouldn't exist. They moved through space without conventional propulsion. They appeared and disappeared as if stepping through invisible doors.
The world held its breath.
First contact. Humanity's dream and nightmare arriving simultaneously.
World leaders gathered. The United Nations convened emergency sessions. Scientists worked frantically to establish communication.
Military forces mobilized, but there was hope. So much hope.
Surely advanced beings capable of interstellar travel would be peaceful. Surely they'd come in friendship.
The ships landed in six major cities:
Tokyo. New York. Moscow. Beijing. London. Delhi.
Billions watched on screens as the vessels settled onto the earth like mountains taking root.
Humanity's representatives approached with gifts and greetings, arms extended in universal peace.
The ships opened.
And they emerged.
『 THE INVADERS 』
Not creatures of flesh and blood like humans expected.
Beings of impossible beauty and terrible power.
Humanoid, but wrong. Skin that shimmered like starlight. Eyes that held galaxies. Hair that moved despite windless air. Robes that seemed woven from reality itself.
They radiated power that made the air crack and bleed.
They spoke in voices that bypassed ears and echoed directly in minds:
"Humanity of Earth. You have been judged. You have been found... problematic."
Before anyone could respond—
—reality shattered.
The beings raised their hands, and the world screamed.
Buildings didn't explode. They unmade themselves, matter dissolving into light and ash.
People didn't die. They simply stopped existing, erased from reality by gestures.
Military forces opened fire. Tanks, jets, missiles—everything humanity had.
The invaders waved their hands.
The weapons turned to rust mid-flight.
Soldiers aged a hundred years in seconds.
Entire battalions simply vanished.
『 THE WAR THAT BROKE THE WORLD 』
Humanity fought anyway.
What choice did they have?
The war lasted six months. Six months of hell.
The invaders seemed impossible to kill. Bullets passed through them. Explosions barely scratched them. They moved faster than eyes could track. They wielded powers that bent physics itself.
But humanity had numbers. Billions strong. And desperation.
Scientists worked around the clock, analyzing the enemy, searching for weaknesses.
And they found something.
The invaders weren't invincible. They could be hurt. They could die.
But it took everything.
Nuclear weapons. Biological weapons. Experimental technology never meant to see the light of day.
City by city, humanity pushed back.
Moscow fell, but they killed three invaders.
Beijing burned, but they destroyed one of the ships.
Tokyo became a crater, but the enemy's numbers dwindled.
The invaders seemed surprised. As if they'd expected humanity to surrender, not fight to extinction.
In the final battle—fought in the ruins of what had been New York—humanity's last military forces detonated every remaining nuclear warhead simultaneously.
The explosion was visible from space.
When the light faded—
—the invaders were gone.
The ships were destroyed.
Humanity had won.
『 THE COST OF VICTORY 』
But at what price?
80% of humanity dead. Eight billion souls erased.
Every major city destroyed. Infrastructure obliterated. The satellites, power grids, supply chains—all gone.
Nuclear winter blackened the skies for decades.
Radiation poisoned the earth.
Biological weapons mutated the ecosystem into nightmare.
The survivors scattered into the ruins, struggling just to breathe.
Technology degraded without knowledge to maintain it. Books rotted. Digital records corrupted. Computers became useless without power.
Generation by generation, humanity forgot.
The great cities became legends. The flying vehicles became myths. The age of plenty became a fairy tale told around dying fires.
Ten thousand years later—
—humanity lived like animals in paradise's bones.
『 THE QUESTION NOBODY COULD ANSWER 』
Kael had grown up with this history.
But one question haunted him. One question nobody could answer:
Why?
Why did they attack?
They'd come from the stars. Traveled impossible distances. Possessed powers beyond comprehension.
What did Earth have that they wanted?
Resources? They could harvest entire planets.
Slaves? They could have conquered without genocide.
Territory? The universe was infinite.
So why?
The elders had no answer. The ancient texts said nothing. It was as if the invaders had attacked for no reason at all.
But that makes no sense, Kael thought. Beings that advanced don't act randomly.
There has to be a reason.
Something we're missing.
He didn't know it yet, but he was right.
There was a reason.
A terrible, cosmic reason.
And when he finally learned the truth—
—everything would change.
『 THE VILLAGE 』
The wooden gate creaked open. People rushed out.
"Kael's back! He got one!"
Hope sparked in fifty-three pairs of eyes.
His father pushed through, weathered face breaking into a smile.
"My boy." Marcus Ashborne gripped his shoulder. "You're bleeding."
"It's nothing. We eat tonight."
The crowd cheered.
But Kael saw past the joy. Saw the hollow cheeks. The exhaustion. The slow death.
This boar would last three days.
Then what?
Another hunt. Another risk. Another desperate gamble against extinction.
This isn't living. This is waiting to die.
『 THAT EVENING 』
The feast was magnificent by wasteland standards.
Roasted boar over crackling fires. After weeks of starvation, real meat felt like a miracle.
People smiled. Laughed. Remembered what it meant to be human.
Kael sat apart, watching from a ruined wall.
His notebook lay open—precious paper filled with sketches.
Designs for walls. Irrigation systems. Organizational structures.
A kingdom.
"Dreaming again?" Elena sat beside him with two bowls of stew.
"Someone has to."
"Kael—"
"We're dying, Elena." He gestured at the celebration. "Not from one disaster. From a thousand small defeats. Every winter, we lose someone. Every hunt, someone's hurt. Every year, the beasts get stronger and we get weaker."
He opened his notebook.
"But look at the ruins. All that knowledge is still there. Buried. Waiting. The old world didn't start great—they built it. Generation by generation."
His eyes blazed.
"We can do it again. Organize. Specialize. Build real walls. Explore the ruins systematically. Rediscover what was lost."
"You're talking about revolution."
"I'm talking about having a future."
Elena studied him. Then extended her hand.
"You're insane. But you're right. So yes—I'll help you rebuild the world."
They shook on it.
Above them, the haze cleared slightly. Stars appeared.
The same stars the invaders came from.
Kael didn't know yet that among those stars, someone was watching.
『 THE HIGHER COSMIC REALM 』
Tsukihime Seraphina stood on a platform of crystallized starlight.
Her silver hair flowed without wind. Violet eyes containing galaxies gazed down at Earth.
"Six months now, Princess," Master Kaizen said. "The Council grows impatient."
"Let them wait." She didn't look away. "The prophecy was clear. I must find the right one."
"And this hunter is your choice?"
"Look at him, Master." She pointed down. "No power. No resources. Just stubborn determination. He plans to rebuild an entire civilization from ashes."
A rare smile touched her lips.
"He reminds me of the First Emperor."
"High praise."
"Deserved." Starlight gathered in her palm. "The Enforcers who destroyed his world ten thousand years ago... they weren't aliens. They were us. Cosmic cultivators sent to cull humanity."
Master Kaizen's expression darkened. "Because ancient humanity discovered cultivation."
"And advanced too quickly. The Cosmic Order couldn't allow it. So they reset the world." Her voice turned soft. "But the prophecy says one will rise again. One who will challenge heaven itself."
"And you believe this boy—"
"I know this boy." Her eyes gleamed. "Kael Ashborne will either save ten thousand worlds... or burn them all."
She began to fade.
"When he reaches his breaking point—when everything he builds isn't enough—then I'll descend."
"And if the Council discovers you're helping him?"
Tsukihime's smile turned dangerous.
"Then they'll learn why I'm called the Moonlight Princess."
She vanished in sakura petals and starlight.
Master Kaizen stroked his beard, gazing at Earth.
"A mortal who challenges the gods themselves. How unprecedented."
『 EARTH 』
Kael stared at the stars, unaware of his divine observer.
Something about them filled him with longing. As if answers waited up there.
"Tomorrow," he said. "Tomorrow I call a village meeting. Tomorrow, everything changes."
Elena smiled. "Then I'll be right beside you, crazy dreamer."
They sat in comfortable silence.
Two young people carrying impossible dreams.
One of them being watched by destiny itself.
Kael Ashborne didn't know yet that the "aliens" who destroyed his world were cultivators from the Higher Realms.
Didn't know his world had been culled to prevent cosmic ascension.
Didn't know that the same forces would try to destroy him when he grew too powerful.
But he would learn.
And when he did—
—he would declare war on heaven itself.