People passed by the child, staring at him, whispering gossip and judging him. For a child barely five years old, the eyes resting on his small, frail figure felt like white lights in the darkness.
It could have been stressful and frightening—but not for him.
The truth was that Nova Asmodai was different from any other child his age. His eyes were dull and lifeless. Every small gesture carried a sad, almost robotic monotony. The way he spoke, the way he expressed himself—everything about him felt dull.
He was different: he had the Spectrum of Serenity. That was why he couldn't feel anything at all. Even if someone insulted or hit him, Nova would be unable to feel anger, fear, or sadness.
People would continue to judge, talk, and whisper behind his back. Whatever it was, little Nova didn't care.
As the years passed, he would lead a quiet life, leaving that turbulent childhood behind.
In the present, sitting on the edge of a rooftop covered in green vines, twenty-one-year-old Nova looked at his communicator—a modern device that tried to imitate the smartphones of Old Earth.
He swiped his finger across the translucent glass screen. He frowned when he saw a new post on the forum of one of the most famous social networks on his continent.
Same thing again, huh? How many times has this happened already this year?
The screen showed testimonies and videos of people being thrown into Dimensional Portals—space-time openings—by mysterious forces. After that, the portal would close and the person would be trapped on the other side with no chance of returning.
Bored—it was common news by now—he turned off his communicator's screen of his communicator and continued eating what he had in his other hand. It was a delicious Killer Squid skewer. He chewed the soft, lightly browned meat and smiled.
Man... This has just the right amount of salt.
His jet-black hair danced to the rhythm of the strong breeze that broke the silence around him. His amber-yellow eyes were revealed in a face with fine, elegant features. His pale skin looked as if he rarely ever went outside, and his strangely fashionable clothes highlighted his appearance.
"I should buy some of this for Mom," he said to himself in a soft, calm voice. "I'm sure she'll be happy."
Crash! The sound of destruction echoed in the distance.
Nova looked up. Between the buildings on the horizon, traces of smoke began to fill the air.
Buzz... Buzz...
The communicator screen lit up with a notification. For a moment, the wallpaper showed an eight-year-old Nova holding a colorful egg the size of his head. Beside him stood a man and a woman who were clearly related.
He picked up the device and looked at the notification. He sighed as he read the content of the notification.
[
Luminaris Security Department.
A Dimensional Portal with traces of Category 7 Energy has appeared in the northern part of the Long District. The alert has been sent to the nearest Empaths.
]
Category 7, huh? Yeah—this is definitely for us.
He stood up, putting the communicator in his trench coat pocket. However, the device beeped again. This time, as he checked the contents of the notifications, a relaxed smile formed on his lips.
"Yes. It's definitely for us."
He took a few steps back to gain momentum. Then he ran across the rooftop and, upon reaching the edge, jumped as high as his superhuman strength allowed.
He rose so high that, for a moment, it seemed he could fly, but gravity dragged him back down to earth. That didn't seem to bother Nova, though. He remained as relaxed as he had been at the beginning.
He simply let himself go as the wind hit his body.
"Rasténiye," he whispered, pointing his hand toward the vines on the building.
The plants heard him and helped him. The vines stretched out, grabbing his arm and allowing him to swing to the next building in one go.
His body swung like a pendulum this time, the momentum of the fall sent him much higher than anyone would have thought possible. That's how he reached the next rooftop, which he ran across while jumping and dodging obstacles.
Something similar was happening to other people nearby. Those were the Empaths—protectors of the innocent in this world. This, however, was not always the case. Before, there were no Dimensional Portals, people with powers, or random catastrophes.
***
Before Earth came to be known as Terra, 1,325 years ago,, humanity faced its destiny against a mysterious asteroid that appeared out of nowhere near the solar system.
No one had a coherent explanation for the appearance of this asteroid. Its composition was mysterious, shining like a shooting star, but containing materials never before seen by the human eye. The only thing that was known for certain was that it would collide with Earth and wipe out all life on the planet's crust.
In the end, the asteroid crashed into the planet and all life was exterminated—more or less how it must have been at that time, but humans, stubborn and selfish, forced themselves to survive by any means necessary.
Bunkers, space stations, even caves. Somehow, out of the nine billion humans who populated Earth, about two million managed to save themselves.
These survivors emerged from their hiding places some time later, when they no longer had the supplies to continue living in seclusion. What they found when they came out was a perpetual winter accompanied by the debris of what was once human civilization.
But that wasn't all. There was something else lurking. With the arrival of the asteroid came the Impact Abominations, creatures that were murderous by nature and sought only one thing: the complete extinction of humanity.
The survivors fled and hid, but they were always found and killed. To make matters worse, a mysterious disease began to kill the weakest among the survivors: children and the elderly.
Exhausted, the survivors stopped running and began to fight back. That's when something no one expected happened. By facing their fears—their own emotions against the danger of a hostile world—they awakened what is now known as the "Emotional Spectrum," and the disease that tormented them so much came to be called the "Psychological Virus."
The virus was merely the assimilation phase of the energy that the asteroid brought with it, and humans were going to make the most of it. That is why those who decided to protect the weak were called Empaths.
Unfortunately, that was not all, because the same energy that the asteroid brought with it was what created the infamous Dimensional Portals—breaches in space and time that open paths to other dimensions—from which new and more dangerous Aberrations emerged.
But humanity did not give up. It dominated everything in its path with sheer power, managing to rebuild society after a long time.
Today, almost as a tradition, Empaths continue to exist to protect the world. This is the story of one Empath who went beyond all limits…