The Man Who Should Be Dead
The corpses of the giants lay crumpled beneath him, their grotesque bodies split open like sacks of meat. Blood soaked the earth in wide pools, steaming in the air, mixing with ash and dust. The stench of death was everywhere.
Adam stood among them—bare-chested, his clothes ripped and singed from the earlier battle. His body trembled, not from weakness, but from the raw surge of energy that hadn't left him since he tore through their ranks.
He was breathing, but he didn't know how.
He remembered dying.
The pain. The sound of his bones snapping. The fading light. The bitter regret.
And then… nothing.
A void. Cold, empty nothingness. Not heaven. Not hell.
Just silence.
That was what he remembered before the heat returned to his body. Before his chest heaved again with air. Before his eyes opened to a new world where everything felt different.
"I should be dead," he whispered.
His voice was rough. Deeper. As if even it had changed.
He lifted his hands slowly. They were glowing faintly. Blue veins pulsed under his skin, but not like before—they shimmered, like a river of stars running through him. When he exhaled, he swore he could see sparks in his breath.
The wind had stilled. The air seemed to bend around him.
And then there was that feeling.
A pressure in his chest. Not pain. Power. Coiled and waiting. Like a sleeping beast beneath his ribs.
He could feel the mana now—he didn't know how he knew the word, but it echoed in his thoughts: mana. Energy. Essence. Something ancient and alive now burning inside him.
Behind him, the lone surviving giant groaned.
Adam turned his head slowly. His glowing blue eyes locked onto the beast's trembling form. It was already crawling backward, eyes wide with something he hadn't seen in them before—fear.
Good.
Adam didn't move.
He simply raised his hand, palm open.
The mana in his veins responded instantly. A pulse. A hum. Then a sudden shhh-BOOM—a shockwave of force erupted from his hand, blasting the giant backward into a shattered tree, crushing bone against bark.
Silence returned.
Adam lowered his hand, blinking in disbelief.
"What… the hell… am I?"
—
A Few Days Later
The world had not changed.
The skies were still gray. The sun still hid behind thick clouds, and the land bore the scars of the Sovereigns' "cleansing." Cities still smoked in the distance. Forests were torn up by the roots. Mountains had been cracked in half.
But Adam had changed.
He walked now with purpose, not desperation. Where once he hid from monsters, they now fled from him. Even the animals sensed it. Birds took flight before he got near. Wolves watched from a distance, but never approached.
He wasn't human anymore—not completely.
But neither was he a beast.
Something else had awakened in him. And while he didn't understand it fully yet, he knew one thing:
It wasn't just power.
It was purpose.
He would find her. He would find Belle.
And he would burn the world to the ground if that's what it took.
—
The World Now: A Brief Flicker of What Remained
In the months since the Light Sovereigns arrived, Earth had become a shadow of itself. They came under the pretense of salvation—but brought annihilation. They claimed to be celestial architects sent to reshape Earth into a new realm worthy of higher beings.
But their definition of worthy was simple: obedience or death.
They didn't destroy everything. Just enough. Just what mattered most.
The survivors called it the First Fall.
Governments collapsed in days. Technology failed. Satellites blinked out. Communication networks died. Cities went dark.
Then came the monsters—beasts not of Earth but conjured through Sovereign Gates. Portals, swirling and jagged, torn open across the globe. From them came horrors: dragons with molten breath, goblins that hunted in packs, titanic insects that burrowed entire towns underground.
Humanity's population dropped by over 60% within three months.
But then, something strange began to happen.
People started awakening.
They called it the Mana Surge. The theory was simple: Earth had been bathed in foreign magic. The planet itself changed. And some humans, under extreme stress or trauma, began to tap into this energy source.
Abilities manifested.
Some could control elements. Others could manipulate gravity. Some awakened with monstrous strength or speed.
And for the first time… humanity pushed back.
Small resistance factions formed—scattered enclaves of Awakened who fought back against the horrors. But even they knew the truth:
As long as the Sovereigns ruled the skies, humanity's hope was just a flickering candle.
—
Adam Now
He made camp in the ruins of what used to be a high school.
He didn't sleep much—not because of nightmares, but because the mana inside him refused to rest. It was always moving, humming, demanding release. Sometimes it whispered to him. Sometimes it felt like it was testing him.
But he wasn't afraid.
He welcomed it.
He sat near a broken window, watching the sun rise—if it could still be called a sunrise. The light was weak, filtered through clouds and ash. Still, it painted the sky in crimson, and for a brief moment, Adam remembered Belle's hair.
"Hold on," he murmured.
The wind blew gently through the building. He could hear distant roars—monsters on the hunt. But they'd avoid him. They always did.
And then—
crackle
A surge of energy.
Adam snapped his eyes open.
The air outside the window shimmered, rippling like water.
Then it tore.
A thin slit in the sky—purple and gold. Another Sovereign Gate opening.
Adam stood up slowly.
His heart thudded.
His mana pulsed.
A Sovereign Gate… that meant new monsters. Or worse… another arrival.
He clenched his fists.
"If you're watching…" he whispered, looking skyward, "...I'm not the same man you left behind."
His blue eyes burned brighter.
"Come down. Send more. I'm ready."