The sky over Technopia was usually a brilliant, synthetic blue, but today it was choked with a thick, oily blackness. Near the Modern Bridge, a landmark of silver and glass, a roar louder than any engine tore through the air. School – 4 was an inferno.
Panic surged through the streets. Firefighters and droids struggled against the heat, but the structural integrity of the building was failing. High above, trapped behind reinforced glass, nearly ninety students huddled in terror.
Five young men arrived at the scene almost simultaneously, drawn by a shared instinct for justice.
"The bridge!" Erif shouted over the roar of the flames. "It's buckling from the heat. If it falls, the school goes with it!"
Donald didn't hesitate. "I have the stabilizers in the back of my truck. Erif, get the students! I'll anchor the bridge!"
What followed was a display of courage that the city would talk about for years. Erif, his natural anger channeled into a focused fury, charged into the smoke. Behind him followed Tom and Micheal, using their scientific gadgets and wind-speed calculations to navigate the crumbling hallways. Robert, despite his inner doubts, found a source of water and began creating a path through the wall of fire.
They reached the students and began the evacuation. One by one, ninety children were led to safety. But as the final student reached the ground, a frantic teacher grabbed Micheal's arm.
"The exhibition!" she cried. "The kittens... twenty-one of them. They're still in the science wing!"
The crowd below began to retreat. "It's too late!" someone yelled. "The roof is coming down! Think of your own lives!"
But the five friends looked at each other. There was no discussion. There was no hesitation. In a world where most people cared only for their own survival, these five shared a singular, pure-minded resolve.
They plunged back into the belly of the beast.
Inside, the heat was unbearable. Tom used a prototype scanner to locate the small, frightened creatures. Donald used his knowledge of minerals to identify the strongest floorboards to walk on. Together, they gathered the twenty-one kittens, shielding the small animals with their own bodies. Just as the central column of the school shattered, the five leaped from a second-story window, landing in the soft dirt Donald had prepared below.
Not a single life—human or animal—was lost.
High above the clouds, in the God's Assembly, a council of divine beings watched the scene unfold through a shimmering pool of light.
The Supreme God, his form translucent and weary, leaned forward. "There," he whispered. "The fire has tested them. They are the ones."
A murmur of disbelief went through the second-level gods. One god, Muqti, stepped forward, his eyes narrowing with a hidden malice.
"My Lord," Muqti challenged, his voice cold. "They are mere mortals. They play with gadgets and save animals. Why choose them to hold the powers of the universe? I have served you for millennia. Give the elements to me."
The Supreme God turned his gaze toward Muqti. "Power is not a reward for service, Muqti. It is a burden for the kind-hearted. Those five risked their lives for the smallest of creatures when the world told them to run. They used their own inventions to save a city that does not yet know their names. Their minds are pure. Yours... is not."
Muqti's face contorted with rage. Driven by a sudden, desperate greed, he lunged toward the altar where the five elemental essences hovered. He reached out to steal the lightning, the fire, the very fabric of ILTAW.
"Enough!" the Supreme God thundered.
The room vibrated with divine authority. With a flick of his wrist, the Supreme God summoned the Supirio Blade—a weapon of pure celestial energy. He threw it with the force of a collapsing star.
The blade struck true. Muqti did not even have time to scream before his physical form vanished. His soul, dark and heavy with sin, plummeted through the clouds, falling past the mortal realm into the gray, chilling mists of Terra Mortis, the Land of Death.
The Supreme God turned back to the pool of light. He raised his hand, and below in Technopia, the world began to change.
"The time of men is over," the God declared. "The age of the Elemental Gods begins."