The world didn't end that day.
It simply… stopped making sense.
---
The city was already collapsing.
Buildings split like brittle glass, long fractures tearing through concrete and steel. Smoke coiled into the air in thick, choking waves. Sirens screamed somewhere in the distance, only to be swallowed by something heavier—something wrong.
Above it all, hanging in the sky like a wound in reality itself, was the Black Sun.
It devoured light.
Not dimmed it. Not blocked it. It consumed it—pulling brightness inward until the world below was cast in a dull, unnatural twilight. Shadows stretched too far. Colors looked drained, like reality itself was losing definition.
People ran.
Some screamed. Others just stared, frozen, unable to process what they were seeing. A few collapsed where they stood, their minds refusing to accept what their eyes told them was real.
And then there were the things moving between them.
One of them phased through a wall like it didn't exist—its body flickering, unstable, like a corrupted image struggling to render. Its limbs bent at impossible angles, glitching in and out of existence.
A car nearby lifted a few inches off the ground.
For a brief second, it hovered—silent, weightless.
Then—
It slammed back down with violent force.
The sound cracked through the street like thunder.
"…it just stopped making sense."
---
Masszio stood in the middle of it all.
Still.
Unmoving.
Dust drifted slowly through the air around him, suspended in a strange, almost deliberate calm that didn't match the chaos everywhere else. His glasses reflected the Black Sun above, its distorted light hiding his eyes.
For a moment, he didn't react.
Didn't move.
Didn't speak.
"…How did it come to this?"
---
24 hours earlier.
---
It was just a normal day.
Sunlight poured through the classroom windows, warm and steady. The kind of light that made everything feel grounded—real. Students talked over each other, laughter rising and falling in uneven waves.
Nothing was wrong.
Nothing felt off.
Masszio sat by the window, pen moving steadily across his notebook. His posture was relaxed, his focus quiet but sharp. He barely paid attention to the noise around him.
Behind him, Zyren was slumped over his desk, completely unbothered.
"…wake me when something interesting happens…" he muttered, his voice dull with sleep.
Laura leaned over and poked him.
"You've been asleep since first period."
"…still not interesting…"
He didn't even open his eyes.
Across the room, Kiera and Lucien were already in the middle of another argument—voices low but intense. Ryn sat nearby, silent as always, watching everything without saying a word. Taro laughed softly at something no one else seemed to find funny.
It was ordinary.
Predictable.
Safe.
---
Masszio glanced outside.
At first, nothing seemed unusual.
But then—
The sky shifted.
Not visibly. Not in a way most people would notice. It was subtle. A distortion. Like a ripple passing through water, except it moved across the air itself.
His pen paused.
"…weird."
For a second, he thought it was just his eyes playing tricks on him.
Then it happened again.
A faint flicker—like reality skipping a frame.
The class continued as if nothing had changed.
Until someone noticed.
"Yo… what is that?"
Heads turned.
Eyes lifted.
---
A thin white line cut across the sky.
Perfectly straight.
Perfectly unnatural.
It moved too fast—stretching, widening, spreading like a crack in glass. Within seconds, it expanded beyond comprehension.
The sky turned white.
Not bright.
Not glowing.
Just… empty.
Sound vanished.
Not faded—vanished.
Students froze mid-motion. Words died in throats before they could be spoken. Even breathing felt… paused, like the world itself had been placed on hold.
Then—
Darkness.
Complete.
Absolute.
---
When the world came back—
It wasn't the same.
The Black Sun was there now.
Watching.
Waiting.
---
Silence lingered.
A pen rose slowly into the air.
No one touched it.
Papers followed—lifting gently, drifting upward as though gravity had loosened its grip. Strands of hair floated weightlessly. Desks creaked faintly as their weight shifted.
Masszio looked around, his expression tightening.
Something was wrong.
Everything was wrong.
Then—
Stillness.
Perfect stillness.
Like the world was holding its breath.
---
And then it exhaled.
Everything slammed down.
Desks crashed violently against the floor. Windows fractured in sharp, splintering lines. Students were thrown from their seats, bodies hitting the ground with painful force.
The building shook.
Walls cracked.
Dust filled the air.
And then—
People started changing.
A faint glow spread across some students' bodies, flickering like unstable energy struggling to stabilize. It pulsed beneath their skin, unnatural and volatile.
One student screamed—
Then collapsed.
Another's body surged with energy, uncontrollable.
Panic erupted instantly.
---
The hallway twisted.
Space bent inward, like reality folding in on itself.
Something was there.
Not fully visible.
Not fully real.
It flickered.
Then it stepped through.
---
The Strider.
Its form was wrong in every possible way—limbs too long, joints bending in directions they shouldn't. Its body glitched constantly, parts of it phasing in and out like a corrupted signal.
It made no sound.
But its presence was overwhelming.
Oppressive.
It moved.
Too fast.
One moment it stood at the end of the hall—
The next, it was in front of a student.
Its arm snapped forward.
It grabbed.
The scream that followed shattered whatever fragile sense of reality remained.
---
Masszio couldn't move.
His body refused.
His mind raced, but his limbs stayed locked in place.
One of his friends—
Right there—
In danger.
"…move…"
Nothing.
"…move."
His glasses cracked slightly.
A thin fracture spreading across the lens.
"…move."
---
The Strider lunged.
Time seemed to compress into a single instant.
Something in Masszio snapped.
---
SNAP.
---
The Strider stopped mid-air.
Lifted.
Frozen.
An invisible force gripped its body, holding it in place like it weighed nothing.
Silence fell.
Students stared.
No one understood what they were seeing.
Masszio's hand was raised—just slightly.
His fingers barely moved.
But the effect was absolute.
---
Then—
The pressure increased.
Violently.
The Strider's body compressed inward, its unstable form collapsing under a force it couldn't resist.
And in a single instant—
It was crushed.
---
The impact echoed through the room.
Then—
Nothing.
Just silence.
Debris settled slowly.
Dust drifted through the air again.
Everyone stared at him.
No one spoke.
---
Masszio lowered his hand.
Slowly.
He looked at it.
Turned it slightly, like he didn't recognize it anymore.
Like it didn't belong to him.
---
His glasses were cracked.
His eyes—sharp now.
Focused.
Different.
"…What… was that?"