*YEAR 0 – THE BREACH – PACIFIC OCEAN*
The sky tore open without sound.
A black fissure, ten kilometers wide, split the atmosphere above the Pacific. Its edges burned purple, bleeding light that stained the clouds and turned the ocean black for a hundred miles.
Humanity called it _The Breach_.
From it came the Beasts.
They didn't speak. They didn't think. They didn't feel pain. They only killed. Chitin armor plated their bodies like living steel. Bone grew from their arms and spines in jagged, natural blades. Red eyes that never blinked, never rested, never showed fear.
Tokyo fell in forty-seven minutes.
Shanghai in two hours.
One million dead in three.
Tanks shattered on impact. Missiles turned to dust midair. Nuclear warheads detonated, and the Beasts absorbed the radiation, growing larger, faster, stronger. Each explosion birthed two more.
For two days, humanity stood on the edge of extinction.
Then the first one awakened.
In the ruins of Shanghai, a twelve-year-old girl knelt over her brother's corpse. Concrete dust covered her hair. Blood crusted her hands. Her breathing was shallow. Her vision blurred.
Her heart stopped.
The silence lasted three seconds.
When it started again, blue fire wrapped around her fist.
She didn't know where it came from. Didn't know how. There was no instruction. No voice. No system. Only instinct.
She raised her hand and burned the Beast standing over her brother's body until nothing remained but ash.
One kill. One awakened.
The signal spread like wildfire.
Across the globe, people began to change. One in a thousand. No pattern. No bloodline. No age limit. No status. A soldier in Moscow. A farmer in Brazil. A doctor in Cairo. A criminal in Lagos.
The trigger was always the same: trauma. Desperation. The moment between life and death.
The awakened fought back. The unawakened died.
Beast cores were discovered inside the corpses. Crystalline structures, the size of a marble, that pulsed with cold blue energy. Scientists called them _Mana Crystals_.
They could be forged into weapons that cut through chitin.
They could be refined into elixirs that enhanced the human body.
They could power cities for decades.
But only the awakened could use them. The unawakened could hold a core and feel nothing.
The unawakened begged. The awakened refused. Power was survival. Survival was not shared.
So the first awakened made a choice.
They tore out pages from their own skill books and gave them away.
A skill book was a physical artifact. Leather-bound. No title. No words. Only a blank cover that reacted to blood and mana. When an awakened pressed their palm to it and bled, their ability was imprinted into the book.
That book could then be used by another.
The receiver would gain the skill instantly. At Level 1. No training. No awakening. No risk.
The cost belonged to the giver.
For seven days, the awakened who gave away their skill would feel hollow. Slow. Their limbs heavy. Their senses dull. Their mana would not respond. They could still fight, but they fought at half strength. Vulnerable.
The skill remained with them. It was not lost. It was only dormant. After seven days, full power returned.
It was called _The Pledge_.
Wars followed. Not with the Beasts. With each other.
The Guardians formed in Europe. Awakened who believed power should protect the weak.
The Syndicate rose in Asia. Awakened who sold skills for money, territory, and control.
The Sovereign claimed Africa. Awakened who believed only the strong deserved to live.
Five years after The Breach, the world built a single neutral ground to control the chaos.
*CENTRAL PORTAL ACADEMY*
A fortress-island built on the edge of The Breach itself. Neutral territory. Outside all nations. Outside all laws.
Its purpose was simple and absolute.
One: Train the awakened to fight Beasts and survive portals.
Two: Regulate skill transfers and prevent black-market pledges.
Three: Explore the dimensional portals that appeared one year after The Breach.
The portals were ranked by color and danger.
*Blue.* Basic tier beasts. Training grounds for first-years. Survival rate: 67%.
*Green.* Intermediate tier. Post mid-term requirement.
*Yellow.* Advanced tier. Instructor escort mandatory.
*Orange.* Master tier. Restricted access.
*Red.* Demigod-class. No one returned.
Twenty years later, the Beasts were contained. Not defeated. Contained.
Awakening rate: 0.3%. Stable. Unchanging.
Skilless rate: 99.7%. Forgotten. Ignored. Left behind.
The Academy created the level system. Level 1 to Level 8. A measure of power, control, and threat.
Level 8 was the peak. Humanity's strongest wall against extinction.