Corpses were piled up in massive mounds and scattered across the cratered ground, stars shattered in the distance, and the dusk of a foreign sun slowly descended the open mass grave. Unlike the occasional explosions, roars of terrifying beasts, and clashing of heavy metal coming from the distance, this unending stretch of land was eerily silent.

Littered across the battleground were unsightly war-torn bodies, sludge puddles that were victims of acidic blasts, and body pieces sprinkled over everything like grim confetti, so much so that the bodies with gaping wounds or soulless eyes were the better of the bunch.

While many had met their gruesome demise, one seemed to have been spared. In the depths of the dead, a metallic hand pushed through and twitched.

In the distance where chaos and war raged, rays of light dazzled all over the bleak battleground where the living still stood. Battle cries, screams of despair, mocking laughter, and metallic clashes of weapons sang a cacophony that could drive anyone to the brink of madness.

A colossal three-headed wolf breathed poisonous gas over its companion’s foes, one of its heads licking blood off its jaws while it watched men drop like flies as the poison filled their lungs. Above the wolf’s heads, golden spears adorned in runic characters whizzed past, hitting their targets with distinct thuds as they punctured human skulls and sternums. Futuristic cannons obliterated targets within their range, and a miniature sun razed areas to scorched earth not far off.

How had humanity managed to achieve such impossible feats? A fighter unleashed a ten-foot-tall feline creature with the head of a bird of prey to attack the wolf, a small rectangular glow of light having made it possible to wield such power. Magic cards, the reason for humanity’s rise and downfall, were truly a wonder of the heavens.

In the resplendent skies of the battlefield, the strong battled for dominance. Several figures among the humans, armed with the extraordinary powers and strengths of what was once fictional superheroes, fought against their kind and against alien races who also sought this treasured land. However, it was clear the present humans held the advantage; they were mainly fighting amongst themselves, the alien races blown to the side.

Each traded blows for blows, metal for metal, blood for blood, joining enemies to kill off mutual enemies, in pairs and alone. A lone figure cut the sky in two with a single sword stroke, his beard dancing in the wind. A bulky fellow multiplied in size, growing into a steel giant and bouncing off projectiles. Yet another human wielded a staff, casting spells that brought catastrophic weather to the battlefield.

Opponents changed within seconds, but this category of fighters where high-ranked and of similar strength, each with a least hundreds of battles under their belt. They were like cockroaches, hard to kill. The battle raged on.

Several figures surrounded a woman with sapphire blue hair and matching eyes. Her beautiful features were covered in dirt and unruly blue hair strands, a cut bleeding out on her petite nose. Her once-splendid blue dress was now tattered, swaying forlornly as she staggered forward, the weight of fighting for three days taking a toll on her.

Clutching a broken staff that glowed faintly, she trudged over to a giant sapphire-colored bird, dropping the staff and caressing its feathers as they emitted weak blue flames but did not harm her. The bird chirped lowly to comfort her, its diamond eyes weary. It stared at the blue flame rings floating behind her, but their embers were slowly fading like candlelight into the wind, a testimony of the duo’s impending mortality.

However, the crowd was uncaring of this tragic sight. Their eyes were all focused on the golden iridescent crystal in her other hand, its seven edges catching the light at different angles. She was the first to have gotten a hold of the crystal for more than three hours!

Of course, these battle-seasoned fighters were not stupid. Even in her pitiful state, Celes was not one to easily contend with, having the ability to put up a horrifying fight even with her dying breath. They were stalling by talking, fearful of the final desperate attack that could take one of them out with her.

"Celes, hand over the crystal now, and maybe we’ll spare you!" roared a burly man, the murderous glint in his eyes saying otherwise.

A woman with long golden locks scoffed, every drop of patience sapped from the weariness of the war. "We don’t have all day, bitch. Now!"

"Miss Celes, if you please," a handsome but grimy man said, brandishing his sword. "Let’s not do this the hard way."

Celes coldly glared at the crowd blocking all paths of retreat. Scanning the sea of faces, her sapphire eyes landed on one woman in particular who stood aside, trying to detach herself from the crowd. Turning to another with deep red hair, Celes started to speak, "Flame Empress —"

"Blue Phoenix," Flame Empress interrupted softly, "we are all fighting for the same thing, but you’re the only one among us Lords that possesses a White Silver natal card. You are the closest to becoming King, so that crystal cannot fall into your hands." Her expression was soft and serene as if explaining to a child why she couldn’t have more candy, but Celes knew she was as fiery as the flames of her natal card.

"Tch…" Celes muttered with a clench of her jaws, "And my Stronghold can’t get it either, right? Because it threatens all of you present, is that it?!" She let out a short laugh of disbelief. "I didn’t think the rumors of the alliances were true…" Looking to the side, she said, "The royal alien races will soon come. We are now weak from battle and they know this, and yet we still want to fight ourselves."

The crowd had clear segregations, though several people looked to be in cahoots, as expected of the sly figures that each led their strongholds, there was no sign of the several alliances before today. They were all silent to her accusations.

Flame Empress was right; Celes, the Blue Phoenix, was currently the strongest humanity had, leading the stronghold whose average strength exceeded theirs. If Celes were to claim ownership of that crystal, she would finally have the power to rule over them all. Everything they built would no longer be theirs.

Humanity would have a single ruler.

They didn’t want to even imagine the thought. The taste of power was too irresistible to revert to the way it was before… No, even a slight reduction was unacceptable!

Their lives and fates at the mercy of another?

Impossible.

Celes sighed heavily, seeing no way out as she stared at the determined figures blocking her paths of escape. Sapphire, her loyal feathered companion, was on her last breath, meaning Celes was too unless she went back for the feather she hid away. But all her main cards were shattered in battle. Her foes were definitely in similar situations, but she was greatly outnumbered, and her low-level cards were either not combat-oriented or worthless in this situation.

‘Screee…’ Sapphire crooned, her breath heavy as she weakly rustled her once majestic feathers.

Celes gently looked over to her lifelong partner, Sapphire Beauty, her weak posture and fading life force cutting like knives into Celes’s soul. This was not merely the emotional pain of losing her closest companion, but also the mental burden of what was coming. As her natal card beast, her and Sapphire’s deaths were shared, so she too had no hope.

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She closed her eyes for a moment, thinking of her family and friends, people she had abandoned before the New World descended, people she was going to abandon in her dying breath. She couldn’t bring herself to accept all she had achieved was going to end right here. If she could get to her nirvana feather now, there might still be a chance for her and Sapphire to survive. She opened her eyes, attempting to negotiate.

"Will you let me leave if I surrender the crystal?" she asked, half-knowing the truth.

"Naturally…" Flame Empress said, her firey eyes stationed on the crystal.

Celes let out a laugh of disbelief. The audacity to lie to her face.

Her eyes caught a trio not too far from Flame Empress, her glare freezing over in pure unbridled hate. The trio was notorious for practicing slavery and cruelty to any woman they could lay their hands on. Even if the entire crowd miraculously let her live after she gave up the crystal, these three would never pass up the chance to exploit her in such a vulnerable state.

She should have killed them when she had the chance.

Drawing a deep breath, wincing as pain spiked within her lungs, Celes finally accepted her fate. She was going to die, but she would take the crystal down with her.

"Wait!" a thin man shouted in panic as he noticed her intentions. "She’s attempting to explode her aperture!"

Upon hearing this, everyone backed away in unison. All but one person.

"Insolent human, don’t you dare shatter the holy treasure!" A man wearing black armor shouted. His human facade shredded, giving way as he transformed into a Titan thirty meters tall. Lava flowed down his skin, and he wielded three arms and eight eyes.

An alien race had managed to slip among them.

"The Flame Abyss Titan!"

"A royal alien race? How?!"

"Kane, Horace, you motherfuckers!"

The crowd was outraged seeing an alien race present, in the armor of one of their native forces no less, but Celes was unfazed.

The rumors were true after all. How laughable that one of the top ten… No, three of humanity’s tallest lighthouses had gotten in bed with the enemy. Different from the elves or mermaids with no explicit hostile relations, the abyss titans ate, enslaved, and killed humans en masse.

While the chaotic disturbance ensued, no one noticed an injured man who had crawled out of the corpse hills. He dragged himself forward with his mechanical arm, his second arm ripped off during the battle.

Seeing a small window of chance, Celes flicked her wrist and activated her card wheel. The three rows of slots were now mostly empty, a far cry from her prime, just four days earlier. Using three cards in succession, she retreated dozens of meters away. Knowing she didn’t have much time, she placed her remaining cards in her aperture and was just about to explode it, but a hand grabbed her ankle. Before she could see who it was, she was roughly pulled down to the ground and the crystal fell out of her grasp, rolling off to the side.

Looking up, she came face to face with a scarred yet handsome man. He was missing an arm but had an intact mechanical arm, save for a few scratches on the metal. His golden amber eyes were deep and cold like a stagnant pool of water, the horrific scars littering his tanned skin telling stories of the hells he had been through. He was wearing tattered armor with a black metallic glow.

A Dust Soldier!

Celes recognized who he was with a glance, known yet unknown, a wandering mercenary without affiliation who fought in many battles to carve out a path of survival. Dust soldiers did so in hopes of getting a high-level card or suitable resources to evolve their natal cards to go a step further, often using lower-level cards and equipment that didn’t match their level to fight.

Currently, the armor he was wearing was a mere Black Iron-ranked item. On a battlefield of this level, it was like bringing a spoon to a gunfight!

The dust soldier felt the titan quickly approaching as a blast of heat sweltered against his face. He weakly crawled forward, musing over his luck as Celes had teleported beside him. He went straight for the crystal.

Seeing him rush towards the crystal, Celes jumped out of her reverie, quickly crawling forward as well. Both reaching for the crystal, their fingers touched and they looked at each other.

"Let go," he growled, allowing her to hear his voice for the first time. It was weathered beyond his years.

"Are you serious?!" She shouted at the absurdity. This little dust soldier lower than her foot soldiers dared to tell her to let go. "It’s mine!"

"Yours?" the dust soldier spat. "It belongs to no one. Whoever holds it last is the owner. Now let go, you delusional idiot."

"What did you just call me, you tool? You pathetic excuse for a human being!"

The man seemed to be hit by those words, his eyes flashing with anger. Celes was unfazed by his reaction. He was not the first dust soldier she met. Their ‘woe is me’ bullshit was nothing; everyone was dealt the same hand! Should she pity him? They were all living in hell, having to deal with humans and aliens alike. She was merely stronger than him. Well, several times stronger, and luckier. Her wit, guile, and real ability got her this far, and this was after many sacrifices and lives lost!

"Let. Go," he grunted.

"You let go!" she snapped back.

He clawed at the crystal. "No, you!"

Both had undergone several days of battle and couldn’t muster the mental strength to form constructive arguments. They were simply too exhausted. Realizing how childish they sounded, they fell silent and glared daggers at each other.

Somewhere in the future, Celes would regret this one moment. She didn’t know just yet that she would look back on this moment countless times and wish she had found the strength to pluck his fingers off the crystal, wish she had dug that strength out from somewhere! For now, she only lamented how pathetic her last moments were.

The blood from her injuries, along with the dust soldier’s, mingled and smeared against the golden crystal, causing it to suddenly let out a blinding light. The next moment, their bodies fell cold, and their souls had departed.

The Titan finally arrived. He smashed their corpses, but his anger didn’t stop and he roared, shaking the entire secret realm with shockwaves.

The crystal had disappeared.

***

Sierra Valley University, California, United States of America

12:07 p.m, September 25th, 2028

3 months before the apocalypse.

A young man with tanned skin and a head of waves was rushing out of the lecture hall for an urgent call at work. Getting out to the entrance of the brick building, he suddenly tripped and fell. Raising his body a bit, he spat out the grass and dirt he managed to get in his mouth from such an intense fall, his dark eyes dazed and lost. He looked up at the bustling groups of college students moving to and fro, not paying him any mind.

Unlike seconds before, the boy was struggling to recognize anyone or the environment now. When was the last time he had seen such peaceful scenery? When was the last time a functioning university like this existed?

‘Where am I?’

‘Who am I?’

‘What is this?’

***

Sierra Valley University, California, United States of America

6:37 a.m, December 18th, 2028

An elegantly dressed young lady was surrounded by three companions, chattering nonstop and sipping iced drinks.

"No, he didn’t!"

"Girl, I swear he was —"

The young lady stopped abruptly, losing touch with reality for a moment. The others carried on the discussion, not paying attention. She touched her long black hair, rubbing it between her fingers and blinking slowly. It was no longer sapphire blue.

‘What… Where…’

She looked up, dazed, trying to make sense of the chuckling three and the surrounding scenes in blank astonishment.

***

And so two souls returned to the past, before the start of the end of the world. Both were destined to set off waves so high they would pierce the sky.

Knowledge was power, but that was only true for those capable of acting on it. Both happened to wield such time-sensitive knowledge, knowledge whose value could be conservatively dubbed as priceless.

But how would they use it? What paths would they set themselves on?