The sky was ink-black, rumbling with a bass of thunder.
For humankind, it was only a storm.
For Serein, it was the sign of a Gate preparing to open.
"The weather's awful. And the forecast even promised us clear skies."
Hearing her colleague's complaint, Serein's fingers froze over the keyboard for a fleeting moment.
"Good thing I brought an umbrella." She teased lightly before resuming her unfinished task.
Only thirty minutes left until the end of her shift. She refused to risk overtime.
Tomorrow was Sunday, and her plans included nothing more ambitious than lazing in bed all day. The worst thing that could happen on a rest day was a work call.
"You knew it was going to rain, didn't you, Serein?" Dora slid her chair away from the window, drifting closer with a mischievous grin.
"Honestly, you should switch careers. Fortune-telling would pay better than this boring job."
Serein gave a polite chuckle, saying nothing. She had not foreseen the future.
She had only lived through it once before.
"You still haven't finished your report, Dora," she said, redirecting the conversation.
"Damn it." Dora jolted, scrambling back to her desk with a squeal of her chair. "They'll keep me late for sure."
At last, silence returned, and Serein could concentrate.
Her eyes slid toward the window. Black clouds surged in, heavy and restless. The storm carried a particular scent, one that tugged at something deep and instinctive in her chest.
An A-rank Gate, perhaps. Hopefully, it would open only after she was safe at home.
At precisely five o'clock, Serein shut down her computer and rose without hesitation, blending into the tide of bodies pressing toward the elevators.
Outside, not a single ray of light pierced the sky. She had planned to stop at the supermarket for snacks and wine, but with the storm looming, home seemed the wiser choice.
There was still some wine left at her apartment. Enough, perhaps, for tonight.
The thought of sprawling on her sofa with a glass in hand, watching her favorite drama, quickened her steps toward the station.
Rush hour. People crushed into the subway car, an impatient tide desperate to return home. Each clung to their own exhaustion, their own private hopes. Out there, a Gate could open, monsters could flood the streets—yet no one would care.
The train's overhead screen flashed a commercial. Lumina, the idol group.
Serein's weary expression lifted as Elias appeared on-screen.
Her idol. An S-rank Hunter whose levo resonated as pure sound.
Instead of wielding his gift to cut down monsters, Elias used it to pierce the hearts of ordinary people.
In her previous life, Serein had mocked him for it. Called him a coward.
Now, the roles had shifted. She was the coward, hiding, while Elias's voice rose bravely to the world.
Once, she had lived as nothing more than a backup battery for Hunters. For the first time, one of them was giving energy back to her.
The unfamiliar warmth tugged her lips into a faint smile. Her fingers tapped lightly against her thigh in rhythm with Elias's vibrant melody.
"A Gate has opened in the center of Astralis. Hunters are now on-site."
The advertisement vanished, replaced by a live broadcast. A round, gaping hole spread across the sky, its edges bleeding darkness through the clouds.
Serein's mood dropped at once. She clicked her tongue and looked away. She had no interest in that chaotic world.
The passengers around her showed no fear. At most, a few teenagers leaned forward, eager for the spectacle of Hunters in combat
This had been the rhythm of the world for fifty years. People had grown used to it, entrusting their safety entirely to the Hunters.
"According to the CBAA, the number of Gates worldwide has spiked dramatically. Could this be a harbinger of humanity's extinction?"
News anchors sensationalized everything, yet there was truth beneath the noise. The endless Gates were the symptom of a deeper rot: Awakeners' power weakening.
Extinction? Quite possible.
"What nonsense. Humanity, extinct?" A young man scoffed somewhere down the carriage.
"Exactly. Hunters have kept the peace for fifty years." Another teenager chimed in.
"They're heroes! They'll always save us!" A child shouted from his mother's lap, eyes shining.
The corner of Serein's mouth twisted in mockery.
Heroes? If only they had seen those same heroes discarding their comrades like worn-out boots in the depths of a dungeon.
She pulled her earphones from her bag, slipping them in. She was no different from these people, after all. Salvation was no longer her concern.
"Not good! An A-rank Hunter is losing control!"
The announcer's scream froze her hand midway. Conversations cut off. Silence strangled the carriage.
"Where's the Guide? Bring the Guide here, now!"
A desperate shout from the chaos.
"I… I'm already guiding three others… I can't…" A trembling voice, frayed and faint—another Guide.
On the screen, a girl swayed where she knelt, face ghost-pale, biting her lip until blood welled. Her small body shook violently under the strain.
"Do something!"
The camera turned. The Hunter convulsed, body twisting, skin splitting to reveal searing veins of red flame. A fire elementalist, on the verge of rupture.
Without a Guide to stabilize him, he would either detonate or unleash hell upon the civilians nearby.
"He's Fallen! Eliminate him before it's too late!"
The Hunters turned from monsters to their own ally, blades now aimed at the comrade who had fought beside them. For the same purpose still: to shield the people.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the situation is spiraling—AH!"
The feed erupted with an explosion. The final image was the Hunter lunging at the broadcast crew, before the transmission went dead.
The train car sank into deathly stillness, broken only by the clatter of wheels against rails and the phantom echo of that blast.
The teenagers who had shouted bravado now sat pale and speechless. The child who had believed so fervently sobbed into his mother's chest.
Everyone understood, even if they would not say it aloud. Faith had been crumbling for years.
Since the government begged Guides to enlist.
Since Hunters began to mutate into Fallen, bringing ruin instead of salvation.
And this was only an A-rank. If the S-ranks lost control… then extinction would not just be a rumor.
Serein calmly fitted her earphones back in, flooding the silence with her favorite song. Her lips mouthed the lyrics under her breath, keeping time with the crash of drums and the sharp cry of an electric guitar.
"I'm awake. I'm alive. Now I know what I believe inside.
Now, it's my time. I'll do what I want. 'Cause this is my life."
The city lights streaked past the subway window, painting her indifferent face in fleeting gold.
The chaos of the world could no longer touch her.
By the time she squeezed free from the suffocating car, night had fallen over Astralis.
Her apartment lay in Wall District, Eighth Street, a modest unit she had managed to purchase after eight years of relentless work. In truth, she had only paid half; the rest was a bank loan.
But for a self-reliant twenty-eight-year-old woman, it was a hard-earned pride.
A greater triumph, perhaps, than conquering her very first Gate in her previous life.
The security guard greeted her warmly as she passed through the lobby.
Serein returned his smile. She had only moved in a few days ago, yet he already remembered her face and name. Clearly, he was meticulous in his duties.
From the corner of her eye, she caught the elevator doors about to close. Serein hurried forward, calling out:
"Wait—hold the door."
The doors slid open again.
And Serein wished, in that instant, that she had bitten her tongue and walked away, pretending the voice had not been hers.
Because inside stood a Hunter.
The very kind of person she had sworn to avoid in this life.
A long coat clung to him, heavy with blood and grime. Tangled silver hair fell into cold, storm-gray eyes, eyes that carried a darkness deeper than the night itself.
Every hair on Serein's body stood rigid.
She knew him. His face had appeared on the news countless times, impossible not to recognize. More than that, they had crossed paths in her previous life.
Zane.
An S-rank Hunter.
Master of Eclipse, one of the three greatest guilds in the nation.
The elevator was thick with the metallic tang of blood, sharp and suffocating. He was on the edge of losing control.
"Not coming in?"
His voice rasped low, soaked with blood and shadow, as though it had clawed its way up from the pits of hell.
Every instinct screamed at Serein to nod politely, wave goodbye, and run.
But if she did, what if that rejection pushed him into the abyss faster?
Her lips pressed tight. Against every warning of her body, she stepped inside.
***
[Official Document – Central Bureau of Awakened Affairs (CABB)]
The Central Bureau of Awakened Affairs is a global intergovernmental organization tasked with oversight of Gates and individuals known as Awakeners.
Awakeners are beings who have transcended human limits, awakening the latent power in their blood. Within them flows a unique energy known as Levo—the source of their ability to bend elements and reshape the world.
Awakeners fall into three categories:
- Hunters: Combatants wielding supernatural powers, often elemental.
- Healers: Specialists in recovery and protective barriers.
- Guides: Exceptionally rare Awakeners who stabilize unstable Hunter auras.
When Hunters lose control, they become the Fallen—inhuman, destructive, often more dangerous than the Gates themselves.
At adulthood, every Awakener undergoes an aptitude test, ranking them from F to S. This rank determines missions, resources, and combat priority.
Issued by: Central Bureau of Awakened Affairs (CABB) – Classified
***