Some people have to fight against the wind.
Civilization is dying. There are no more lights, no more hope.
The ground has no life left. The sky is just endless gray.
Kyle stands in front of an magnificent machine, looking quietly at the ruined world.
He has lived for 500 years.
In those 500 years, he traveled everywhere. He read about every government, religion, culture, and science that still existed. He saw true kindness and terrible greed. He tried every way he could think of to save people — teaching them, bringing them together, making rules, changing systems, creating new technology, guiding their beliefs.
None of the gentle ways worked.
Normal thinking didn't help anymore.
People weren't stupid.
They just always chose what was good for themselves instead of what would keep everyone alive.
Before the real end came, they destroyed all chances for a future themselves.
But Kyle never stopped believing.
He still believed people could be saved.
Just not with soft, slow methods anymore.
He had to take a much harder, lonelier, more dangerous path.
Kyle looks down at his hand.
A special energy called "qi" flows quietly inside — it's the power of life, the fuel of time, the deepest strength of any civilization.
The machine he built is waiting. It's a one-time device that will use up everything when it starts — no second chances.
It needs life as fuel.
It needs qi as fire.
One life ends, so another beginning can start.
A researcher next to him speaks in a quiet, tired voice:
"Are you sure? No one knows what will happen. No one knows the price. They warned us many times."
Kyle slowly looks up.
Wind blows dust across his tired but strong face.
"We'll go with you," someone says.
Another person steps closer and whispers:
"You can still stop."
Kyle doesn't answer. The qi in his hand starts to shake a little.
500 years of pain and lessons sit heavy in his eyes.
He knows what he carries is bigger than words.
They have prepared everything. There is no going back.
He gives the order.
Everyone raises their hands. They point their palms at the center of the machine.
Suddenly, huge amounts of golden qi pour out from all of them — like a silent river rushing into the cold metal.
The machine turns on.
The center collapses instantly into something like a tiny black hole.
Strong gravity explodes outward. It tears everything apart. Metal screams. The ground cracks. Even light gets pulled and bent.
Their bodies start to break down in the gravity.
Their minds slowly melt away.
500 years of memories are pulled out, crushed, gathered, and squeezed smaller and smaller.
In that extreme pressure, the memories become pure and strong — turning into a bright beam that can cut through time itself.
Right before everything disappears,
in the deepest darkness, he feels something very small, very quick.
Then light swallows it all.
When he opens his eyes again, he is small.
The world looks big again — like when he was a little child.
Inside his head: 500 years of future trends, 500 years of never giving up.
The light pours into his young body.
It doesn't hurt. It's too much.
All the pictures, sounds, knowledge, scars, and choices from 500 years flood in like cold water.
The little boy shakes. His eyes open wide for a second — showing deep, ancient sadness that doesn't belong to a child — then it hides again.
He stands there, tiny body shaking under the weight of a whole lost world.
His hair moves in an invisible wind. His fingers tremble, like they're trying to hold something… and let it go.
His mind doesn't break. It just gets filled completely.
The memories of the future sink deep inside him — like a seed buried in frozen ground. Quiet. Sleeping. Almost forgotten.
To everyone else, he's just a normal child.
But for one short moment, in those new young eyes, you can see it:
the dead gray of a dying world…
and the tiny light of someone trying to start history again.