Imagine your world being run over by what we now call Beasts.
It happened so suddenly, out of the blue—just like the people of old were told that Jesus would come.
Their arrival was apocalyptic. Terror spread, humanity plunged into chaos, and it all started with one little armada in the sky. A spaceship so mighty that its wreckage caused the destruction of an entire continent.
Yet, the resilience in humans did not waver, the world powers united in other to protect the race, believing their enemies were nothing more than mindless beasts bent on destruction.
What can I say, though? That belief only brought more destruction. Humanity was pushed back without resistance. Both low and high-caliber weapons proved utterly useless against these monsters' astonishingly strong hides.
They were wiped out… every single soldier that dared to face them bringing down the populace by one-third of its original.
***
Far from the gleaming towers of the city, near the dangerous 'Outlands,' just over a hill, sat a small, isolated bunker. This part of town was cut off due to how perilous it had become—left exposed, although just behind the wall dividing the city from the Outland, it was just as forgotten.
Inside, a boy sat quietly. His white hair swayed with the wind, moving back and forth like it was dancing,his dull grey eyes looking lazily at the object he was holding. In his hands, he held a small, round mass of shabby-looking hi-tech. The glowing orb pulsed with mysterious energy, almost as if it were alive.
His name was Dante... Just Dante.
He didn't have a last name—his parents had denounced him, discarded him for being too useless.
"What's this about?" Dante muttered to himself, inspecting the orb. He had found it while scavenging in the Scraplands, gathering and selling discarded material, that was the only way he knew that he could survive in a world was cruel as theirs. It had caught his eye—a softly pulsating blue orb that seemed to be calling him.
His first instinct was to sell it; it looked valuable, shiny. But the longer he held it, the more uncertain he became. He didn't even know what it was, he didn't know what it could do or what something that looked so scrappy yet so alluring was doing in the dumps. So, he decided it was best to bring it home first.
He tried opening it, but the orb didn't flinch, trying even further, he tossed it hard on the floor but nothing happened. He even activated his ability.
Dante had a pretty useless ability—one that allowed him to increase the mass of any object by a very minimal margin. He tried using it, smashing the orb, hoping to crack it open.
After several frustrating minutes of trying to break it, Dante finally gave up.
"Stupid piece of crap," he muttered, clearly irritated.
And the fact that he had used his ability made him feel more useless—more insane.
Dante stared at the orb resting in his palm, its glow mocking him with every pulse. A throbbing heartbeat that wasn't his. His reflection in the metal wall nearby showed a boy who looked too calm for the war he was losing within.
He'd tried everything—his ability, his tools, even a good ol' smash against the bunker floor—but the orb didn't budge. No cracks. No clicks. Not even a flicker of change.
Of course not.
Why would it respond to someone like him?
He leaned his head back against the cold steel of the wall, letting out a dry, hollow laugh. "Stupid piece of crap."
The truth was, it wasn't the orb he was mad at. No, it was far from that...
It was himself.
It always had been.
When the world went to hell, people clung to hope like it was their last lifeline. And somehow… the universe listened. Or maybe it pitied them. After the beasts came—those monstrous things with hides that no weapon could pierce, those horrors that tore through entire armies like paper—the Neva followed.
(It's pronounced as nee-va)
A strange, ethereal energy.
No one knew where it came from. Some said it was a reaction to the beasts' arrival. Others said it had always been here, just dormant.
Whatever it was… it changed everything.
Neva seeped into the earth, the skies, the very air itself. And with it came power. People began to awaken abilities—supernatural skills that seemed ripped from the pages of old web novels. Telekinesis, elemental control, even time distortion.
For a while, it seemed like humanity had a chance.
And they did.
The tides turned to their favor.
For the first time, the beasts were pushed back—shoved into the Outlands, where the world ended and nightmares began. That desolate place where the land itself trembled with residual Neva energy that could suffocate anyone.
And that's where Dante lived close to.
Right on the edge.
Funny, wasn't it? He was born in one of the seven great continents. Back when they still called it "Valis." Born into a family of high-ranking Neva scientists—people who had mastered the art of coding.
The "Code." That's what determined how much of the Neva a human body could process. It was like a neural blueprint. The more stable, the more refined, the more powerful the result.
When the Neva first emerged, people had to undergo years of exposure to awaken powers. But after a decade, a new generation started to be born with it—like the energy had etched itself into humanity's DNA.
And Dante?
He should've been exceptional.
His parents spared no expense. They injected him with every enhancer, ran countless simulations, nurtured his Code like it was a sacred garden.
But his vine never bloomed unlike his other siblings.
His Code was flawed... more like fractured. Where others were granted fire, lightning, or psychokinetic force, Dante was left with... mass manipulation.
A power that sounded decent on paper. But all it did was make things heavier. That was it. No devastating effects. No combat application. Just... extra weight, a burden nonetheless.
His family was furious. Not openly. No—they were too proud for that. But he could see it in their eyes. Hear it in the silence. He was their greatest investment and also their grand failure.
Eventually, they stopped looking at him altogether.
They called him "Incomplete."
They weren't wrong though. At least that's what he thought....
Because today... something shifted.
The anger he felt wasn't direced at himself anymore.
It was now towards his family.
The fact that thr orb was opening orb was making him feel evn more fraustrated.
How dare they? How dare they cast him away like a broken tool? As if his worth was tied to the power he wielded? As if he chose to be this way?
He clenched the orb tighter, the pulsing light matching the storm in his chest.
Maybe he was incomplete.
Maybe he was useless.
But then why... why did this thing call to him?
Why did it feel like the moment he touched it, something changed?
He stood up, pacing in the tiny confines of the bunker, the wind howling faintly through a cracked vent above. From here, he could see the distant line of the Outlands—the scorched horizon, warped by Neva storms and distorted air.
He sighed once again, his anger reducing a bit, he ruffled his white hair, a little habit he had developed over the years... "Scratch this..."
Just as he was about to lay on his beg, the orb began to give a low beep sound, following it was the sound of shifting gears, like the insides were undergoing some sort of movement...
Dante stopped momentarily looking strangely at the circular device.
Without warning, the orb cracked open transforming into a medium sized latch that latched unti Dante's chest and desolving into his skin.
It was like hell had broken loose, his brain went numb and he just collapsed on the cold floor. He felt like screaming in pain but the pain didn't allow that, Dante felt his bones getting reformed as if they were being sterilized with fire.
The only thing he could let out was a loud screech as the process continued, his vision was getting blurry, he looked around the bunker finding nothing in particular.
Almost 10 minutes had gone by before the pain had begu n to subside, finally his eyes were beginning to loose the glow in them. But before he lost consciousness, he saw something appear before his eyes.
[System Activated...]
[Welcome Dante.... You've be...]
****
Bear with me, my writing style is a bit weird since this is my first go at writing. It will become better over time, just bear with me...hahaha.
Again there are a lot of mistakes, especially with my [it's and its]. I'd appreciate if u don't base so much on it.
I'll update once everyday.