The world didn’t end that day.

It simply… stopped making sense.

---

The city was already collapsing.

Buildings split like brittle glass, long fractures tearing through concrete and steel. Smoke coiled into the air in thick, choking waves. Sirens screamed somewhere in the distance, only to be swallowed by something heavier—something wrong.

Above it all, hanging in the sky like a wound in reality itself, was the Black Sun.

It devoured light.

Not dimmed it. Not blocked it. It consumed it—pulling brightness inward until the world below was cast in a dull, unnatural twilight. Shadows stretched too far. Colors looked drained, like reality itself was losing definition.

People ran.

Some screamed. Others just stared, frozen, unable to process what they were seeing. A few collapsed where they stood, their minds refusing to accept what their eyes told them was real.

And then there were the things moving between them.

One of them phased through a wall like it didn’t exist—its body flickering, unstable, like a corrupted image struggling to render. Its limbs bent at impossible angles, glitching in and out of existence.

A car nearby lifted a few inches off the ground.

For a brief second, it hovered—silent, weightless.

Then—

It slammed back down with violent force.

The sound cracked through the street like thunder.

“…it just stopped making sense.”

---

Masszio stood in the middle of it all.

Still.

Unmoving.

Dust drifted slowly through the air around him, suspended in a strange, almost deliberate calm that didn’t match the chaos everywhere else. His glasses reflected the Black Sun above, its distorted light hiding his eyes.

For a moment, he didn’t react.

Didn’t move.

Didn’t speak.

“…How did it come to this?”

---

24 hours earlier.

---

It was just a normal day.

Sunlight poured through the classroom windows, warm and steady. The kind of light that made everything feel grounded—real. Students talked over each other, laughter rising and falling in uneven waves.

Nothing was wrong.

Nothing felt off.

Masszio sat by the window, pen moving steadily across his notebook. His posture was relaxed, his focus quiet but sharp. He barely paid attention to the noise around him.

Behind him, Zyren was slumped over his desk, completely unbothered.

“…wake me when something interesting happens…” he muttered, his voice dull with sleep.

Laura leaned over and poked him.

“You’ve been asleep since first period.”

“…still not interesting…”

He didn’t even open his eyes.

Across the room, Kiera and Lucien were already in the middle of another argument—voices low but intense. Ryn sat nearby, silent as always, watching everything without saying a word. Taro laughed softly at something no one else seemed to find funny.

It was ordinary.

Predictable.

Safe.

---

Masszio glanced outside.

At first, nothing seemed unusual.

But then—

The sky shifted.

Not visibly. Not in a way most people would notice. It was subtle. A distortion. Like a ripple passing through water, except it moved across the air itself.

His pen paused.

“…weird.”

For a second, he thought it was just his eyes playing tricks on him.

Then it happened again.

A faint flicker—like reality skipping a frame.

The class continued as if nothing had changed.

Until someone noticed.

“Yo… what is that?”

Heads turned.

Eyes lifted.

---

A thin white line cut across the sky.

Perfectly straight.

Perfectly unnatural.

It moved too fast—stretching, widening, spreading like a crack in glass. Within seconds, it expanded beyond comprehension.

The sky turned white.

Not bright.

Not glowing.

Just… empty.

Sound vanished.

Not faded—vanished.

Students froze mid-motion. Words died in throats before they could be spoken. Even breathing felt… paused, like the world itself had been placed on hold.

Then—

Darkness.

Complete.

Absolute.

---

When the world came back—

It wasn’t the same.

The Black Sun was there now.

Watching.

Waiting.

---

Silence lingered.

A pen rose slowly into the air.

No one touched it.

Papers followed—lifting gently, drifting upward as though gravity had loosened its grip. Strands of hair floated weightlessly. Desks creaked faintly as their weight shifted.

Masszio looked around, his expression tightening.

Something was wrong.

Everything was wrong.

Then—

Stillness.

Perfect stillness.

Like the world was holding its breath.

---

And then it exhaled.

Everything slammed down.

Desks crashed violently against the floor. Windows fractured in sharp, splintering lines. Students were thrown from their seats, bodies hitting the ground with painful force.

The building shook.

Walls cracked.

Dust filled the air.

And then—

People started changing.

A faint glow spread across some students’ bodies, flickering like unstable energy struggling to stabilize. It pulsed beneath their skin, unnatural and volatile.

One student screamed—

Then collapsed.

Another’s body surged with energy, uncontrollable.

Panic erupted instantly.

---

The hallway twisted.

Space bent inward, like reality folding in on itself.

Something was there.

Not fully visible.

Not fully real.

It flickered.

Then it stepped through.

---

The Strider.

Its form was wrong in every possible way—limbs too long, joints bending in directions they shouldn’t. Its body glitched constantly, parts of it phasing in and out like a corrupted signal.

It made no sound.

But its presence was overwhelming.

Oppressive.

It moved.

Too fast.

One moment it stood at the end of the hall—

The next, it was in front of a student.

Its arm snapped forward.

It grabbed.

The scream that followed shattered whatever fragile sense of reality remained.

---

Masszio couldn’t move.

His body refused.

His mind raced, but his limbs stayed locked in place.

One of his friends—

Right there—

In danger.

“…move…”

Nothing.

“…move.”

His glasses cracked slightly.

A thin fracture spreading across the lens.

“…move.”

---

The Strider lunged.

Time seemed to compress into a single instant.

Something in Masszio snapped.

---

SNAP.

---

The Strider stopped mid-air.

Lifted.

Frozen.

An invisible force gripped its body, holding it in place like it weighed nothing.

Silence fell.

Students stared.

No one understood what they were seeing.

Masszio’s hand was raised—just slightly.

His fingers barely moved.

But the effect was absolute.

---

Then—

The pressure increased.

Violently.

The Strider’s body compressed inward, its unstable form collapsing under a force it couldn’t resist.

And in a single instant—

It was crushed.

---

The impact echoed through the room.

Then—

Nothing.

Just silence.

Debris settled slowly.

Dust drifted through the air again.

Everyone stared at him.

No one spoke.

---

Masszio lowered his hand.

Slowly.

He looked at it.

Turned it slightly, like he didn’t recognize it anymore.

Like it didn’t belong to him.

---

His glasses were cracked.

His eyes—sharp now.

Focused.

Different.

“…What… was that?”

The hallway looked like a battlefield.

Concrete dust hung thick in the air, turning the light into a dull haze. Broken desks lay scattered across the floor, some overturned, others splintered beyond recognition. Papers drifted slowly downward, settling over the wreckage like ash after a fire.

Students stood frozen in clusters.

Shaken.

Breathing uneven.

Trying to understand what had just happened.

At the center of it all stood Masszio.

His glasses were cracked, a thin fracture running across the lens. His hand was still slightly raised… and faintly glowing.

“…What just happened?” he thought, staring at his own fingers.

A subtle tremor ran through them.

“…Did I… do that?”

---

Around him, things were getting worse.

A student let out a sharp cry as flames suddenly burst from his palms. He panicked, shaking his hands violently, but the fire only flared higher.

“I— I can’t stop it!”

Nearby, another student gasped as their desk lifted into the air—jerking upward with uncontrolled force. It hovered for a moment, unstable—

Then slammed back down.

Hard.

Masszio reacted instinctively, raising his hand toward a falling chair.

It slowed.

Just slightly.

But not enough.

The chair hit the ground with a sharp crack.

His control… wasn’t stable.

---

Behind him, Zyren yawned.

“…fine, fine… don’t get crushed,” he muttered lazily.

He barely lifted his hand.

A faint glow formed—soft, controlled.

As another desk tipped over toward a student, a small construct materialized beneath it. Clean. Precise.

The desk stopped mid-fall.

Gently.

Like it had been placed there.

Zyren didn’t even look impressed.

---

The moment didn’t last.

A loud crash tore through the hallway.

The wall exploded inward.

---

A Strider forced its way through.

Its body flickered violently, limbs twisting in unnatural directions as if reality itself struggled to contain it.

Students screamed.

Some tried to run.

Most couldn’t.

---

Laura moved.

Her reaction was instant.

Her eyes shifted—pupils narrowing into sharp, feline slits. A metallic sheen spread across her hands as claws extended from her fingers, gleaming with a cold, razor edge.

“Stay behind me!”

She lunged forward.

Fast.

Too fast.

The Strider barely reacted before she reached it.

Her arm cut through the air—

And sliced clean through one of its limbs.

The severed piece distorted, glitching as it fell.

---

Masszio’s eyes widened.

“…She’s fast…”

---

But it wasn’t over.

The Strider’s body pulsed.

The severed limb twitched—

Then began to regenerate.

The air around them shifted again.

Objects lifted.

Slightly.

Unnaturally.

Then—

Everything slammed down.

Ceiling tiles cracked loose and fell. Desks rattled violently. Students ducked and covered their heads as debris crashed around them.

Panic surged.

---

Masszio stepped forward, forcing his focus.

He raised his hand again.

The Strider jerked upward—lifted into the air by an invisible force.

But it resisted.

Its body glitched violently, distorting against the pressure.

His control wavered.

---

Zyren exhaled softly.

“…annoying.”

He extended his hand.

This time, the construct was larger.

Sharper.

A cage-like structure formed instantly around the Strider—locking it in place mid-air.

Stable.

Precise.

---

Laura didn’t hesitate.

She leapt.

Her claws flashed once—

Then again—

Cutting through the trapped Strider in rapid succession.

Its body fragmented under the combined force.

And then—

It collapsed.

---

Silence returned.

Brief.

Unsteady.

---

Masszio lowered his hand slightly.

The faint glow around it flickered.

Unstable.

He could feel it now.

The power wasn’t fully his.

Not yet.

---

Outside—

The chaos was worse.

---

A large section of the street had collapsed, rubble piled high where buildings had partially given way. Civilians were trapped beneath debris, voices calling out in desperation.

A man stood at the center of it.

Darius Cole.

His body radiated a faint orange glow, heat shimmering subtly around him. With one hand, he lifted a massive chunk of concrete—something that should have required machinery.

“Move!” he shouted. “I got you—go!”

He tossed the debris aside like it weighed nothing.

Another piece fell—

He punched straight through it.

The impact released a burst of heat, shattering the obstruction instantly.

---

From the shadows nearby—

Something moved.

Malik Voss stepped forward, calm despite the chaos.

Dark tendrils spread from beneath his feet, stretching across the ground like living shadows. They rose and curved upward, forming a protective barrier around fleeing civilians.

“Stay behind me,” he said, his voice steady. “Don’t panic.”

The shadows responded instantly—shielding, reinforcing, adapting.

---

From the broken classroom window, Masszio watched.

“…they’re not students,” he thought.

His eyes narrowed slightly.

“But they’re strong.”

---

Then—

The air shifted again.

Heavier this time.

---

Another Strider emerged.

Larger.

More aggressive.

Its presence warped the space around it, reality bending slightly with each movement.

The ground cracked beneath it.

Windows shattered outward.

---

Darius stepped forward, bracing as debris rained down. Malik’s shadows expanded, shielding civilians from the impact.

Inside—

Masszio turned.

“Stay close!”

---

They moved together this time.

Not perfectly.

But intentionally.

---

Masszio raised his hand—

The Strider lifted.

Zyren followed—

Constructs locked it in place.

Layered. Reinforced.

Laura moved last—

Her body cutting through the air with precision.

She struck mid-flight.

Once.

Twice.

Then—

Final.

---

The Strider fell apart before it could recover.

---

Outside, the civilians were already moving.

Darius cleared the remaining debris, guiding them forward. Malik’s shadows retracted slowly, maintaining a perimeter until the last person passed through.

Neither of them stayed.

They moved on.

---

Back inside—

The survivors gathered.

Exhausted.

Shaken.

Trying to breathe normally again.

---

Masszio stood apart from them.

His gaze lifted.

The Black Sun still hung in the sky.

Unmoving.

Watching.

“…This isn’t over,” he thought.

His expression hardened slightly.

“It’s only beginning.”

---

Beyond the broken city—

Something shifted.

A ripple in the distance.

Subtle.

But deliberate.

---

Masszio noticed.

His eyes narrowed.

Something was watching.

---

Behind him, Zyren stretched lazily.

“…so,” he said, glancing at the sky, “this is the new normal?”

---

No one answered.

---

Above them—

The Black Sun loomed.

Dominating everything.

Silent.

Unquestionable.

Unavoidable.