The world ended on a school day.
Ling would remember that detail forever—not because it mattered in the grand scheme of things, but because of how unbearably ordinary it had been. The memory clung to her with cruel precision. The morning sun had shone brightly across the city, warm and golden against the classroom windows. Her school uniform had been neatly pressed, the collar slightly uncomfortable against her neck. She had spent breakfast complaining half-heartedly about a mathematics quiz she had not studied enough for.
Normal.
Painfully, impossibly normal.
Then the sky split.
Not cracked.
Not darkened.
Split.
A screaming wound of crimson light tore open above the city, stretching across the heavens like reality itself had been ripped apart by unseen claws. The air changed instantly. It became sharp and heavy, carrying a pressure that made breathing difficult, as though the world had suddenly realized something was terribly wrong.
Then came the sounds.
Howls.
Roars.
The shattering of glass.
The distant thunder of collapsing buildings.
Those sounds never truly left her ears after that day.
At first, nobody understood what they were seeing. Teachers rushed toward the windows while students stood frozen in confusion. Some laughed nervously, believing it to be a strange weather phenomenon or perhaps some kind of military exercise.
Then the first creature landed.
It crashed through the roof of a nearby building in an explosion of concrete and dust, its roar echoing across the district. More followed after it—shadows descending from the crimson tear in endless waves.
Monsters.
Real monsters.
Her school was not special. It was not protected by soldiers or barriers. It held no strategic value, no hidden importance.
That was why it fell so quickly.
The outer gates exploded inward as orcs stormed through them like living battering rams. Massive bodies covered in crude armor crashed into the campus with terrifying momentum. Their green skin glistened with sweat and blood beneath the morning sunlight, tusks protruding from snarling mouths twisted into savage delight.
But what terrified Ling most was not their appearance.
It was their purpose.
They were not rampaging blindly.
They were hunting.
Students screamed as panic consumed the school within seconds. Teachers attempted to organize evacuations, shouting instructions no one could follow anymore. Desks overturned. Glass shattered inward. Alarms blared uselessly overhead.
Someone grabbed Ling's arm hard enough to hurt, fingernails digging into her sleeve as the crowd surged toward the corridors.
Then the grip vanished.
People were already being trampled.
Ling stumbled against a wall, her breathing shallow and uneven, and that was when she awakened.
Not with light.
Not with power.
But with truth.
Knowledge flooded into her mind so violently it nearly made her collapse. Information appeared instinctively, impossibly, embedding itself into her thoughts before she could comprehend it.
She knew who was lying.
She knew who was about to die.
She knew which screams would end first.
The realization almost drove her to madness.
An A-ranked ability.
Completely useless.
Her body had strengthened during the awakening—she could feel it clearly. Her muscles were tighter, her senses sharper, her reflexes faster than they had ever been before. But none of that mattered.
She had never fought anyone in her life.
She had never thrown a punch.
When the shadow of an orc fell across her classroom doorway, her legs locked instantly. Her breath escaped in short, broken gasps as terror rooted her to the spot.
Other students awakened too.
One boy suddenly ignited flames across his trembling palms, fire dancing wildly out of control. Another girl screamed, and the force of her voice shattered windows and cracked the ceiling overhead. A third student's skin hardened into rough stone that spread across his arms and chest.
For one brief moment, hope appeared.
The awakened students charged forward desperately, fear twisting into reckless courage.
Heroes.
They died in seconds.
The orcs laughed as they butchered them.
The boy with fire barely managed to throw a single attack before an axe split his skull apart. Flames scattered harmlessly across the floor. The stone-skinned student tried to block a strike, only for the impact to shatter both his arms before crushing his chest inward. The girl using soundwaves screamed again and again until an orc grabbed her throat.
Her scream became a wet choking sound.
Then silence.
Blood sprayed across overturned desks and shattered walls. Bodies crumpled to the floor with sickening finality.
Ling watched one of her classmates—a girl she had shared lunch with just yesterday—get dragged across the room by her hair. Her fingernails clawed desperately against the floor while she screamed for help.
An orc snapped her neck casually with one hand.
The screaming stopped instantly.
Ling nearly vomited.
Her entire body trembled uncontrollably as the truth of the situation settled upon her like ice.
The world was ending.
Not tomorrow.
Not someday.
Now.
The school became a slaughterhouse within minutes.
Students and teachers alike were herded into the courtyard like livestock, ropes cutting into wrists while towering orcs argued among themselves in guttural voices. Some pointed at terrified students while laughing crudely. Others kicked anyone too slow to move.
Ling could understand none of their language.
But she understood enough.
The monsters were deciding who would survive a little longer.
The smell of smoke and blood thickened the air. Fires had already begun spreading through parts of the campus, black smoke curling upward toward the fractured sky above.
Then—
A sound that did not belong.
A human voice.
A furious shout tore across the courtyard.
The front gate exploded inward once more—not from magic or monsters this time, but from sheer physical force. Dust and debris erupted outward as a lone figure stumbled through the ruined entrance.
A man.
Breathing hard.
Clothes torn.
Blood running down the side of his face.
Isey.
At the time, Ling did not know his name.
She only knew what she saw.
He did not look like a savior.
He looked terrified.
There was fear in his eyes, real fear, the kind any normal person would have standing in front of monsters straight out of nightmares. His breathing was uneven. His hands trembled slightly.
But his eyes remained clear.
Focused.
Determined.
He was only using the first stage of his power then. Nothing overwhelming. Nothing godlike. His body was stronger, faster, tougher than a normal human's, but not enough to make this battle easy.
Not enough to make it safe.
Still, he moved.
Without hesitation.
He grabbed a fallen fire extinguisher from the ground and slammed it into the knee of the nearest orc with all his strength.
Bone cracked loudly.
The orc roared in pain and fury.
Isey struck again.
And again.
And again.
Metal bent from the force of the impacts while blood splattered across the concrete. He did not stop until the creature finally collapsed.
"RUN!" he screamed.
For a single second, nobody reacted.
The students simply stared at him in stunned disbelief, unable to comprehend why a lone human had willingly charged into certain death.
Then they understood.
Chaos exploded instantly.
Students scattered in every direction like birds flushed from hiding. Orcs roared in outrage as their prisoners escaped, weapons raised while they charged after the fleeing children.
Isey stepped between them.
Not because he thought he could win.
But because someone had to stand there.
He fought using whatever he could reach. Broken chair legs. Fallen knives. Pieces of shattered furniture. Anything.
Ling saw him stab an orc through the throat with a broken table leg before immediately dodging another axe swing that shattered concrete where he had stood moments earlier.
He was not graceful.
Not invincible.
Every movement looked desperate.
But he kept fighting.
Ling ran.
Her legs burned from exhaustion and panic as she sprinted through smoke-filled hallways alongside dozens of others. The school corridors had become scenes from a nightmare. Blood smeared across lockers. Bodies littered staircases. Fire alarms screamed endlessly overhead.
Then she tripped.
Her foot caught against a fallen backpack, sending her crashing hard onto the concrete floor. Pain exploded through her palms as skin tore open against rough ground.
For one terrible second, she could not move.
Heavy footsteps thundered behind her.
An orc.
Ling turned in horror—
And someone grabbed her arm.
Isey.
"DON'T LOOK BACK!" he shouted, voice ragged and shaking. "JUST RUN!"
His eyes burned with desperation.
Not for himself.
For them.
Ling staggered back to her feet as he shoved her forward before turning to intercept the pursuing monster. She heard the clash behind her immediately—a savage roar followed by the dull impact of metal against flesh.
She wanted to look back.
She didn't.
Because she already knew what would happen if she stopped.
That was the curse of her ability.
Every corridor became a gamble. Every scream echoed with inevitable death. Ling knew who would survive the next few seconds and who would not. She knew which students would make the wrong turn before they even reached it.
And she could do nothing.
A boy running beside her was suddenly impaled through the chest by a spear thrown from behind. His body jerked violently before collapsing mid-stride.
A girl ahead slipped on blood while turning a corner.
She never stood again.
An orc seized her ankle and dragged her away while she screamed.
Ling knew it would happen seconds before it did.
That was the worst part.
Not the blood.
Not the monsters.
The helpless certainty.
By the time they reached the back fence of the school, only a handful of students remained alive.
Smoke billowed into the sky behind them while distant explosions shook the city. The world beyond the campus looked no better. Buildings burned across the horizon. Sirens wailed endlessly in the distance before abruptly cutting off one after another.
Isey slammed himself against the locked fence gate repeatedly until the metal hinges finally snapped apart.
The moment it opened, he shoved the surviving students through.
"GO!" he yelled.
An orc reached them at that exact moment.
Its blade carved deep into Isey's side.
Ling heard the sound of tearing flesh clearly.
Blood splattered across the fence.
Isey staggered violently from the impact, his entire body twisting as the weapon cut through him.
But he did not fall.
Even injured.
Even bleeding.
He never fell.
Instead, he turned and struck the orc directly in the face with enough force to stagger it backward before forcing himself between the monster and the escaping students once again.
Ling would remember that image forever.
A single bleeding man standing against monsters while the world burned around him.
Not because he believed he would survive.
But because someone had to buy time.
They escaped into the alleyways beyond the school, stumbling into a city already collapsing into madness. Smoke choked the streets. Cars burned along abandoned roads. Distant screams echoed from every direction while the crimson fracture in the sky loomed overhead like an open wound upon reality itself.
Behind them, the Orc Chief stood within the ruined courtyard.
Watching.
The massive creature rested a brutal weapon across one shoulder as it observed the fleeing survivors. Then it chuckled—a deep, ugly sound filled with cruel amusement.
As though it already knew running away would change nothing.
As though humanity had already lost.
Ling looked back only once.
Her school was gone.
Not destroyed.
Claimed.
The banners hanging above the entrance had been torn down already, replaced by crude symbols painted in blood. Fires spread across classrooms where students had laughed and studied only hours earlier.
Everything familiar had vanished in a single morning.
She never forgot that day.
Never forgot the fear.
Never forgot the screams.
And above all else—
She never forgot the man who chose to stand when everyone else ran.
Before Ultimatum.
Before Clara.
Before the world learned his name.
There, amidst smoke, blood, and the end of everything she had ever known, Ling made a simple decision.
If he was going to fight the end of the world—
She would never allow him to fight it alone.
She would stand beside him for as long as she lived. Support him whenever she could. Fight for him the same way he had fought for strangers he did not even know.
Because on the day the world ended, when terror consumed humanity and monsters descended from a broken sky—
A random man had still chosen to save her.
A man whose name she did not know.
A man who could have run away like everyone else.
A man who looked terrified and charged forward anyway.
And to Ling, that mattered more than power.
More than destiny.
More than fate itself.