Chapter 1: The Raging Sun

Year 2080. Earth.

The once-glorious Earth lay in utter ruin. Cities that had stood tall as symbols of humanity's triumph were now unrecognizable—crumbling remnants of civilization overtaken by twisted creatures and unrelenting chaos. A bleak landscape of ash and despair stretched endlessly, illuminated only by the eerie glow of the full moon.

A deep, guttural laugh echoed across the wasteland.

"Haha, you have nowhere to run, human," said a grotesque creature. Its head, a disturbingly cute German shepherd's, grinned like a dog waiting for a treat, but its body—long, sinewy, and covered in chitinous plates like a centipede—crawled and slithered with horrifying agility. It towered 100 meters tall, a monstrosity born of a world gone mad.

Eryndor Valcis tightened his grip on the spear in his hand. The weapon was crude, salvaged from what remained of a world long past its prime, but it was all he had. His protective gear—patched and worn—groaned as he braced himself for battle. A lone cigarette burned in his mouth, its faint orange glow casting fleeting shadows on his face.

His expression was hard, his anger palpable.

This creature wasn’t just another abomination in the apocalypse. It was one of the monsters responsible for killing her.

Stephanie Stacy.

The name rang in his mind like a bell tolling for the dead. Her voice—soft, kind, and reassuring—still haunted him. He could hear her last words as clearly as if she stood beside him now.

"Protect yourself, Eryndor," she had said, her face smiling even as her body—mangled and half-consumed—bled out before his eyes.

But he had failed.

Only half of her body had been recovered after this thing tore her apart. He clenched his teeth, suppressing the tremble in his legs as his rage threatened to boil over.

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The dog-headed centipede loomed closer, its monstrous grin widening.

"Join me, human. Become one of us," it hissed, its voice a grotesque parody of a whisper. From the creature's chitinous sides, smaller forms began to emerge, grotesque fusions of humanity and monstrosity.

Eryndor's breath caught when he recognized them.

There, crawling forward, was a face he knew—only a face, grafted onto a writhing, half-rotted torso. Beside it, a woman emerged, her eyes completely black, her voice achingly familiar. It was Stephanie's voice, calling out to him.

"Become one of us, Eryndor. We'll be together again."

For a moment, his grip on the spear faltered. His heart wavered as the weight of loneliness and loss crushed him. The apocalypse had taken everything from him—his friends, his comrades, the world itself. In just half a month after the dungeon break near The Last Standing Human Shelter, the entire human species had been overrun. Cities fell, governments crumbled, and even the world's strongest Hunters—heroes once thought invincible—were slaughtered when the SS-rank Apocalypse Dungeon opened.

This creature, this abomination standing before him, was a walking reminder of that loss. It had slaughtered the last people he cared for. The smile on Stephanie’s lips as she lay dying haunted him. And now, with no hope left, with the entirety of humanity reduced to either ash or slaves to the infection, there was no reason to keep living.

Except one.

Eryndor's cigarette burned out as he spat it to the ground. The embers landed at the feet of the dog-headed monstrosity, which began to lunge forward, its maw wide open and filled with jagged teeth, aiming for his throat.

Eryndor’s eyes burned with a cold fire. His voice was low but firm, trembling with resolve.

"Not today."

He activated his trait—The Sacrifice of the God.

The air around him ignited, a searing blaze of golden light erupting from his body. For years, this trait had been the reason Eryndor remained stuck at B-rank, unable to rise higher. It was a cursed ability, dismissed by others as a dead end for any Hunter. To activate it required a price—one so steep that no sane Hunter would ever consider it.

The price was his life.

But for Eryndor, that price was meaningless now.

The golden flames swirled and surged, wrapping around his body like a radiant inferno. His spear, now glowing white-hot, extended outward as the energy coursing through him turned him into a living sun. The ground beneath his feet cracked and melted into molten slag. The centipede recoiled for a moment, its grin faltering.

"What is this?" it screeched, its confidence shaken.

Eryndor’s voice was steady, his gaze unwavering. “You took everything from me. Now I’ll take you.”

The centipede lunged, its massive body barreling toward him with terrifying speed. But Eryndor didn’t flinch. With a single, blinding movement, he hurled himself forward, spear in hand, and met the creature head-on.

The flames surrounding him roared to life, consuming everything in their path. Eryndor’s spear pierced through the creature’s armored body with ease, the golden energy erupting outward in a devastating explosion. The monstrous dog-head howled in agony, its once smug grin contorted into pain as its body began to disintegrate under the sheer heat of Eryndor’s attack.

As the flames began to subside, the battlefield fell silent. Only the faint crackle of molten earth remained. Eryndor stood in the center of the devastation, his body weak and trembling. His life force was fading, drained by the trait that had granted him this final moment of power.

But as he looked up at the sky, a faint smile played on his lips. The creature was gone. The monster that had taken Stephanie was no more.

He closed his eyes, her voice echoing in his mind one last time.

"Protect yourself, Eryndor."

With a soft exhale, Eryndor

collapsed, his body falling into the still-burning earth.

To Be Continued…