It wasn’t long ago that the ordinary world ceased to be “ordinary.” As sudden as a gust of wind, the monsters appeared—creatures twisted and maddened by a newfound force known as the Essence. It didn’t take long for humanity to change in response. In a desperate bid to defend themselves, humans too began to harness the Essence, becoming something more than what they once were.

These transformed individuals, known as Aeths, gained powers that varied widely based on their initial encounter with the monsters. The Aeths could generally be divided into two categories. The first were those who took up arms, their physical abilities amplified to superhuman levels—strength, resilience, enhanced senses, and even the power to regenerate from wounds. The second category consisted of those who, facing certain death, escaped their fate through sheer willpower, gaining the ability to control the flow of Essence and manifest it outside their bodies.

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Yet, not everyone who survived an encounter with a monster became an Aeth. In fact, when the monsters first appeared, around one in a million was granted these extraordinary abilities. These rare individuals were quickly hailed as heroes, the only ones capable of pushing back the monstrous tide. But as time passed, more and more people began to be born as Aeths, and the extermination of the monsters became a task manageable by ordinary humans. The admiration once held for the Aeths began to shift—gradually, subtly—toward distrust. Rumors spread like wildfire: the same Essence that empowered the Aeths might one day drive them mad, just as it had with the monsters.