The moment when a person acquires a Gift is always filled with mystery and fascination. A sort of innate intuition accompanied this process, as the name and nature of the Gift seemed to be already engraved in the DNA of the recipient. In his moment of revelation, Lostlyne became aware of the name of his Gift, "Last Hope", two words he remembered having seen on some sort of screen before being bestowed. However, when he tried to delve deeper into understanding it, he faced a veil of confusion, unable to fully decipher how this ability manifested.

Lostlyne thought he might just be tired or that the rest would become clear at another time. He didn't worry much because that feeling was overshadowed by the excitement of his encounter with the Paladin. He couldn't believe it; he immediately got out of the car and ran towards him, but once he was a meter away, he looked at him more closely. He was different from the videos; he was still very tall, but his face was older, more weathered; his eyes seemed to have witnessed a great catastrophe, and his armor was not of pure silver as in the posters Lostlyne had in his room, but it was dirty, slightly rusty, and seemed patched up with other pieces of low-value material.

"Paladin?" he stammered with his eyes fixed on his idol. "Is it really you?"

The Paladin smiled, but that smile carried the weight of many lived experiences.

"You must be the boy with the expired train pass, a pleasure to meet you, I'm Richard Lionheart," introduced the Paladin.

"Hello General Ark," greeted Paladin Richard with respect.

"Greetings, Commander," replied the soldier.

"You seem exhausted; let's go rest," suggested the Paladin, concerned for the well-being of the soldier.

"Thank you, sir," replied the general, abandoning the conversation.

"Before letting you into our base, I'll have to use my Gift, Jury, on you."

The Jury ability, acquired by the Paladin during his years in the military before his conversion to Christianity, involved perceiving and seeing the sins and good deeds of the person he touched. Lostlyne, the young ally, showed no objection, and so Paladin Lionheart placed his right arm on the young man's left shoulder.

The Paladin closed his eyes to concentrate, activating his ability. This time, he saw nothing particularly relevant. There were no serious sins or evil actions in Lostlyne's history. At that moment, Paladin Lionheart decided to welcome the young man into the refuge, trusting his intuition.

"Welcome to our guild, Lostlyne," said the Paladin with an encouraging smile. "We need pure and courageous hearts like yours in our fight against the Knights."

"Thank you, Mr. Paladin. Excuse me for asking, where are the other S-ranking hunters? They should be here to protect us from all this chaos together with you."

"Unfortunately, those I knew have died in battle," said the Paladin with a grave tone.

"But how? You should be invincible!"

"That's what the media said. They inflated our image to sell more action figures and for foreign policy," he explained with a hint of bitterness. "In truth, we were people like everyone else. Of course, we were the strongest, but we had normal lives, families, and dreams like everyone else."

"Now, we are few left to defend the stronghold." His gaze wandered into emptiness, revealing the weight of memories and losses suffered.

"All because of those madmen from other worlds who proclaimed themselves Knights."

"The general told me a bit about these Knights, but he couldn't tell me much," said Lostlyne.

"Only one person knows more than us; I'll introduce you to him when he returns to the refuge," said the Paladin.

As they talked and walked, they reached the central hall, and the Paladin showed him the enormous room. The devastation was evident, with fragments of what once was a lively and prosperous place. The Paladin introduced Lostlyne to two people who had helped in the creation of all this. First, the former Alchemist Rusvald, a man whose features were now marked by pain and difficult choices. His passion for alchemy had been sacrificed on the altar of necessity, and now he dedicated his skills to healing the wounded. The second person presented was the Paladin's daughter, a young girl with pale cheeks who seemed the same age as Lostlyne. However, the pain in her eyes betrayed her young age. The sad reality was that the girl, with leaf-green hair and slightly olive-toned skin, was confined to a wheelchair, a permanent victim of the cruelty of one of the Knights. The Paladin, while telling this story, couldn't hold back some tears, and his gaze got lost in the abyss of suffering. Lostlyne tried to start a conversation with the Paladin's young daughter, but the Paladin gently took him by the shoulder and brought him near the stairs of the central hall.

With a solemn tone, the Paladin shared with his new ally the story of the new guild he was part of, formed in this refuge, and expanded to other shelters. The guild had the noble task of saving survivors and serving as the last line of defense against the Knights, those monsters from other worlds who had brought chaos and destruction.

The guild was formed a few years after the start of the invasion to better organize defenses. Over time, this small team grew in number. Some guild members managed to move to other areas and create shelters in key locations, recruiting new allies.

"And so I welcome you to one of the last guilds on the planet, Last Hope."

"Last Hope?!" said Lostlyne with astonishment.

"It's not the greatest name, I know, but the guild's creator wanted this name," the Paladin spoke with a small smile.

Hearing the mention of the guild's name, Lostlyne decided to confide in the Paladin about the secret of his new Gift. The young man described his experience regarding the discovery of his Gift called "Last Hope." Together, they agreed that this was a time-traveling ability. Surprised by all this because he had never heard of such an ability before, but convinced by Lostlyne's words, the Paladin offered him the opportunity to become his apprentice. He offered him the chance to be trained so that, in case he went back in time, Lostlyne would become humanity's last hope in the fight against the Knights, either to prevent the catastrophe or, in the worst-case scenario, to face it. The choice to form a bond between master and apprentice represented a hope for change and resistance in that world marked by destruction.

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"I will personally train you for as long as we have," promised the Paladin with determination. "The next time the Savior returns, he will explain all the necessary information to give you an advantage against the Knights in the past. It will be different with you and with all the hunters still alive," Lionheart continued.

"Who would the Savior be?" Lostlyne asked.

"He's the creator of this guild; we don't know much about him. He stays still for a few days, then goes on an expedition to gather as much information as possible about the Knights and connect other shelters in communications, disappearing for indefinite periods."

"Is he a strong hunter?" Lostlyne wondered.

"I don't know if he was a hunter in the past; I've talked to him several times, but his face didn't seem familiar to me. Perhaps he was a minor hunter or worked in some other state," the Paladin replied with curiosity.

"It's said that the Savior is the last hunter born," added the alchemist.

"Why?" asked Lostlyne.

"There are many rumors about this; some shelters claim that he himself is a gift from the gods to defeat the Knights, others say that he also comes from another world."

"All rumors, he's just a person like us."

"But, if I may say, if he had revealed himself to the world before its end, I'm sure he would have been an S-class hunter."

"Speaking of grades, I would be curious to see what grade you are as a hunter, but unfortunately, we no longer have the machinery to classify a hunter."

"I am an E-class hunter," Lostlyne said with a bit of embarrassment.

"If your Gift is indeed time travel, I am confident you can become an S-class hunter."

Grades were crucial before the end of the world because they were necessary to understand how skilled a hunter could be in successfully facing dungeons, also classified using specially created scientific instruments.

Between one grade and another, there was an abyss of power, so it was very rare for someone to progress beyond the grade obtained with the unlocking of their Gift.

"But you must never tell anyone about your Gift; you cannot trust anyone, neither in this era nor in yours."

"The world would go into a panic if it found out that a person could change the course of events as if they were a deity."

"I understand, sir."

"Come now, rest; this is your room."

"Tomorrow morning, we'll find a portal and train there."

Weeks passed slowly; Lostlyne had not yet fully adapted to this new life. Every day could be the last. The only thing that kept people from going totally insane was the company of others. The young hunter particularly bonded with the blacksmith Marcel, who managed to create his armor and build him a decent sword. Rusvald taught him the basics of alchemy in his free time, and he managed to have some shy, brief conversations with the Paladin's daughter. Lostlyne seemed to have grown; he was more muscular and had a more serious look. Finally, he could consider himself an active member of the Last Hope guild with the training he was receiving from the Paladin. Of course, he was not up to the level of his idols, but he knew that with continued effort, the only thing he would lack would be mastery of his Gift.

Lostlyne, now an active member of the Last Hope Guild, stood in front of his next portal. The portals of this era were different from those of 2023; they were huge and blood-red in color. Armed with armor and a sword, he entered the portal along with the Paladin.

Entering a dungeon was an extreme danger because, in this era, there were no longer adequate instruments to calculate the danger of a dungeon.

Like every dungeon faced in 2050, this one also had a dark setting, no light, and tension in the air. But entering a portal was always better than wandering the streets of Hiro City, full of corpses and monsters of all kinds.

All of a sudden, there they were, three orcs. The Paladin gestured to Lostlyne to go ahead and strike the first blow. The orcs were about six meters tall, too many for a single hunter. The Paladin volunteered to take on two, but Lostlyne said, "Don't worry, Paladin, I'm sure I can handle it." The Paladin sheathed his sword and watched. Lostlyne ran towards the three enemies; his agility was phenomenal. He took the sword and, charging a blow, managed to sever the right leg of one of the orcs, making it fall. Lostlyne took advantage of it to climb on the temporarily fallen body of the monster, reached the head, and blinded it. The orc, panicked, started screaming and moving irregularly. Lostlyne decided to end its life immediately. The second orc charged a blow with its mace, which Lostlyne managed to dodge easily. He took the dagger he had brought with him for the first time in this era and threw it with all his might at the head of the monster. The dagger, with a single blow, ended its last breath, falling and making a great noise. The last orc met the same fate as its companions.

As the lifeless monster fell to the ground in front of his eyes, a screen appeared:

Name: Lostlyne Miller

Hunter Title: Hunter of Eternal Hope

Hunter Grade: E

Gift: Last Hope

Lostlyne, intrigued, tried to touch the screen; to the touch, he felt nothing, but there was a reaction, the writings changed. Now it read:

New skill available