The Beginning
An extinction-level threat. Absolute. Unstoppable.
Then—it stopped.
Six thousand feet above the clouds, the meteor froze mid-air.
The roaring friction of re-entry died in an instant. The crushing shockwave vanished into a suffocating, unnatural silence. For three breathless seconds, the blood-red sphere hovered motionless, defying gravity, physics, and the laws of the universe.
CRACK—
An invisible force detonated from the core.
A blinding shockwave shattered the heavens as the meteor exploded, splitting cleanly into twelve distinct, crystalline shards. They didn't fall at random. Driven by an eerie, guided velocity, the fragments tore through the clouds to strike twelve different nations:
One pierced the urban sky above Tokyo, Japan. Another slammed into the historical expanse of Beijing, China. A third buried itself near the iconic skyline of New York, United States. A fourth struck the bustling heart of Seoul, South Korea. Others plunged straight into London, England, the ancient stones of Rome, Italy, the outskirts of Paris, France, the desert sands of Cairo, Egypt, the frozen expanse of Moscow, Russia, the sprawling coast of Sydney, Australia, the vibrant coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the massive urban stretch of New Delhi, India.
Not a single shard touched the soil of the Philippines.
Yet, as the world stared upward at those twelve scattered anomalies, the true catalyst remained hidden in plain sight.
Where the fragments landed, there was no mass destruction. Only the birth of the Crystal Cores.
The moment they embedded into the earth, they pulsed like living hearts. An overwhelming, suffocating tide of Crystal Essence spilled into the surroundings. The air warped with Crystal Dust. The ground twisted. The fundamental rules of nature shattered and rewrote themselves in real-time.
Humanity's era had ended.
And from that day, everything changed.