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Beneath a black moon with an orange rim that plunged the world into darkness, the Great Night went on, though it would soon come to an end. For men had been born again, and a new dawn would soon rise over humanity—because, after all, darkness comes before the light.
In the cities, the monsters, who had been the hunters, had now become the prey. The cries of creatures and men rang out in a great echo that seemed to reach the sky.
"Ahhhh!" shouted a man as he tore a monster's jaws apart with his bare hands.
The creature's body crashed to the ground, spilling its blood. Around him, many other people were also fighting the monsters relentlessly. They all gave body and soul to exterminate the creatures that, for some, had plunged them into fear, disgrace and grief through the deaths of loved ones. As the battle between men and monsters raged on that third day, hope had risen out of despair, tears and lamentation.
"And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day!" (Genesis 1:13)
The men roared with rage at every monster they killed, to avenge the lives already lost. In the surrounding chaos, a man carried an injured child in his arms, his daughter whom he had tried to protect.
"A doctor, please, my daughter is hurt!" he cried out in distress, part of his daughter's belly torn open.
Her blood stained his hands and clothes and there was nothing he could do about it: the strength to fight was in him, but the power to heal was not.
"Bring her to me!" shouted a young woman.
The man gently laid the little girl on the ground, her belly almost entirely open.
"Please, save her!"
The young woman closed her eyes and a soft light emanated from her hands. And there, before the man's astonished eyes, the wound began to close by itself. After several minutes, it had completely disappeared without a single scar, as if it had never existed.
"Daddy…" said the girl, opening her eyes again.
"Thank you… Thank you…" he stammered, hugging his daughter tightly.
Countless explosions rang out in great rumbles that cracked the sky and the earth. This time it wasn't bombs but men who were literally summoning flames and lightning from their hands. As if these men had become gods, come to deliver humanity from its punishment.
"Be strong and courageous! Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you." (Deuteronomy 31:6)
During the three days that followed the appearance of these powers, most of the monsters were exterminated. The remaining army, which had been almost annihilated, mobilized to completely wipe out what was left of the threat. Within their own ranks, people who had also received these new powers allowed them to lend a hand. And at the end of the last day, the moon finally returned to its normal state, no longer hiding the sun. At the same time, all the monsters had finally perished, putting an end to the Great Night.
Afterward, some wondered whether it was God who had inflicted this punishment on them. But if it was a punishment, it was apparently far from over. For the portals kept appearing one after another. This marked what people called the breaking point: the beginning of a new era, the era of dungeons and the awakened.
The years that followed this fateful event turned the world as we knew it upside down. The awakened, or hunters, capable of fighting these monsters, at first represented a new hope; then they became celebrities, stars adored by the whole world. And all these events transformed the hierarchy of our former societies.
Fourteen years later
In a classroom, a young man with black hair and brown eyes was speaking in front of his classmates.
"The world changed fourteen years ago: phenomena called rifts or portals suddenly appeared, bringing in their wake creatures from another world, a new threat to humanity. However, powers began to manifest in certain people. These people were named the awakened, or hunters. They possess powers and physical abilities far superior to those of normal humans. A theory about their awakening was put forward and later proven. When the portals appeared, they brought a new energy to Earth, mana, and this energy was then absorbed by the humans who awakened. But the process took time, which is why people awakened on the third day."
"An awakened person's powers can manifest between the ages of 10 and 30; after that, it's impossible to awaken. But in general, it happens extremely early: a large share of high school students today are awakened. There's also a divide, because the new generations have absorbed much more mana than the previous ones. A distinction has been made between first-generation and second-generation awakened. The second generation is of course more powerful, because they have been absorbing mana since birth. And the fact that this generation absorbed so much more mana has led to certain evolutions."
The young man pressed a remote and several images scrolled behind him.
"Hybrids are awakened people who were born with physical transformations, or who underwent them, such as horns, tails or claws—modifications that are all different from one another. They have a mana reserve and certain attributes superior to those of a normal awakened person. We have therefore concluded that some humans absorb mana much better than others."
He pressed the remote again.
"A classification system was introduced to rank rifts and the awakened: ranked from 0 to 10, the closer you get to zero, the more powerful the rifts and the awakened are, and vice versa. The rifts had also become real gold mines, full of new materials and energy. Not to mention monster corpses, which are highly sought after and used in all kinds of manufacturing. Research on the portals has taught us many things, especially that the boss creature must be defeated to close the rift. After that, it takes three hours for the rift to close completely, which leaves time to exploit its resources. Three hours on our side, but nearly three days on the other side of the portal: time doesn't flow the same way there. Once that time has passed, you'll be trapped with no way back. An important fact from the research on dungeons is that all the dungeons that appeared during the Great Night were rank 10, the weakest. There are also several types of rifts, categorized by a color code:
- Blue: these are open portals; monsters pass through them without difficulty, but they are rare. And yet, at the beginning of the Great Night, there had only been this kind of rift.
- Red: these are closed portals; only humans can pass through them. But after 7 days they break, and the passage can be made in both directions; they then turn blue. These portals are the most common.
- Gray: this is a rare variant of the red ones. Once someone has entered, the red rift turns gray, which raises the dungeon's level; its environment can be unusual. It then becomes impossible to leave without defeating the boss.
To date, these are the only known types of dungeons. The awakened then created guilds to raid the rifts. At the same time, awakened bureaus were born to regulate and oversee them in every nation. They are sometimes more important than certain government organizations, but they also work with them. Society has also adapted in some ways, especially for young people, since most of them are awakened. Schools have changed accordingly and have also partly become training centers, with specialized tracks for training the awakened. Awakened teachers are either former hunters or active hunters who give classes from time to time. They teach the younger generations to master their powers so they can defend themselves in case of danger.
Every month, schools organize dungeon raids into rifts ranked at the lowest level, accompanied by several experienced awakened and seasoned teachers to limit the danger and ensure safety, while allowing students to train and gain confidence and experience. After high school, there are special schools to train the most talented awakened, so that they can keep growing and become seasoned hunters."
A bell rang as the students were already leaving the room, some without waiting another second.
"Thank you, Kevin, for your presentation, which was very well done. Don't forget that tomorrow there are more presentations on the disasters that occurred afterward and on the guilds. With that, have a good rest of the day," said a teacher.
"Hey, Kevin, are you coming over this afternoon so I can crush you at Mario Kart?" said a handsome young man with glasses named Arthur.
"I'm the one who's going to crush you. I'll come at 3 p.m.!" Kevin replied.
"OK, take your time, huh," Arthur said sarcastically, knowing that Kevin was sometimes late.
POV Kevin
Arthur is very smart and always has a joke ready, and he's one of the few friends I can count on. He made me a little less dumb and always helped me with my studies. Every time I went to his place, he offered me little cakes and tea. His father was really nice and was the cooking teacher at our high school. There was always his horrible stepmother, whose virtues he kept singing to me.
7 p.m.
"So, who lost?" said Arthur, very pleased with his victory.
"I lost the race, but I destroyed you in balloon battle and the other modes."
"Yeah, but Mario Kart is a racing game."
"Forget it, Arthur," I said, laughing.
"You're staying to eat with us, Kevin. I made a little couscous," said Arthur's father.
"Are you sure?" I said, still a little hesitant.
"None of that between us, please."
I sat down, savoring the best couscous I had ever eaten in my life. Next to it, my mother's couscous was cat piss. After we finished eating, Arthur and I, as usual, stayed outside his building talking about politics, video games and other always fascinating things, and then I rode my bike home.
I was always greeted by my sister and my mother, whom I love so much; after all, who doesn't love their mother? As they say, "spare the rod and spoil the child." I was also greeted by my brother, who is a bit dumb and stubborn around the edges, but he's my brother; we've fought several times already. But who has never fought with their brother or sister? It helps build family bonds and also establishes a certain hierarchy. But I always lost, since my awakening was almost nonexistent. He bragged about it, too. My brother is 14 years old, the youngest of the family. He thinks he knows everything, he's rather pretentious, and he places great importance on his style and designer clothes. He dreams of becoming a firefighter and is preparing for it, in his own way.
My sister Marie is seventeen; she's a pretty girl who is very fashionable, but she doesn't neglect her studies for all that. She's very sociable and loving and dreams of becoming a renowned scientist. She's my beloved sister and she has always supported me. My father, on the other hand, was never really around, always busy with his job instead of taking care of his own family—a slave to work.
"Work more to earn more," Sarkozy used to say; it was more like work more to be taxed more. He always told me he worked for us, but I would have preferred to have him by our side. It cost him his wife, who couldn't take it anymore. How could I blame my mother after nearly 15 years, when my own relationships never lasted more than 4 months?
But in my life, the thing that had destroyed me throughout my existence was illness. I was very seriously ill as a child. So seriously that I died from it. The newspapers called me "the miracle child"; in middle school, they preferred "the walking dead." What happened next, I don't like to talk about. It changed my relationship with others and my own growth. Then I would lie in bed with a knot in my stomach, trying as best I could to sleep, thinking back to every person who had hurt me, to my failed romances, to every person who had no regard for me even though I gave everything for them. I have always been kind, caring toward others, but did others show me the same consideration? Did I ever even matter in their eyes, or did they see me as something disposable?
Haven't we all asked ourselves that question at some point? In my case, throughout my life, I have never stopped asking it.
"But one thing is certain: I am not happy. I am not fulfilled, I'm probably missing something, and I have often wished for my own death. And it wasn't long before it came knocking at my door."
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