Prologue, (2/2)

"Hmmm... that's a good question. The answer would depend, though."

As the woman talked, her voice slowly changed tune. Almost as if her vocal cords were repairing themselves to their original shape. The man felt an inexplicable feeling well up within him as he attempted using his ability once more. Cigarette smoke poured out of his mouth in a long puff. The smoke cloud took shape as two bright spots of flames appeared.

After a few more puffs of smoke, a new pack of smoke wolves stood by their master's side. Their emotionless, hollow amber eyes helped to solidify the eeriness of the silence that followed. With a click of his tongue, the wolves moved forward as a unit. They coordinated themselves well within the narrow space and dashed to the next cabin while avoiding any blind spots.

Throughout all this, the young girl had remained still with her indifferent eyes completely focused on the Arab. Her body had completely regenerated and regained its human color. Almost as if she had completely resurrected.

She was still covered in blood and torn clothes. She made no move as the wolves avoided entering her direct line of sight. They passed through the seats in their smoke forms and made no sound. They were hunters that reflected the emotions of their master, and the emotion they were practicing... was hesitation.

"JUST WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!!!"

The man was scared and so the wolves pounced in from what they best thought to be helpful positions. The first of the wolves to reach the girl landed right behind her without a sound. Its smoky body enlarging as it placed most of its mass into its jaws, for a powerful bite as it attempted to nip at the girl's ankles.

"..."

FWOOSH

There was no warning as a powerful force struck the wolf. Its body broke down in an instant and vanished into nothingness. Where it once stood was a proud claymore sword stabbed into the cabin floor. Immediately, the screaming restarted and a good deal of chaos ensued at the sight. The wolves immediately retreated to protect their master. After all, he was experiencing incomparable fear. However, they didn't even make it past the curtain.

BOOM

The smoke that once used to be the wolves dissipated into the air along with burnt carpet. Where they had attempted to retreat stood several iron rapiers coated in flames. Nobody present on the plane could perceive how fast those swords materialized, nor how much force they had struck the wolves with.

"We will destroy the plane at this rate... at the least give me a challenge."

The man fell onto his knees and his cigarette rolled out from his fingers. He choked on the very words he wanted to say and could feel his own heartbeat speed up. The girl remained still and simply returned his disbelief with indifference.

"Why are you silent... does the fact that I'm stronger than you disturb you? Are humans so fragile?"

Suddenly, without warning, the girl vanished and reappeared behind the man. Her movement seemed so natural, almost as if she was simply moving frames in an animation. The man felt himself crying as the girl placed her hand on the nape of his neck. Her soft touch gave him shivers as he felt the grasp of the hand wrap around his neck.

The hand was so immensely cold and painted in blood, the very blood he had reaped for amusement.

"Please... I'm sorry... don't kill me-"

"You really are fragile. I think humanity can do just fine without you."

"PLEASE NO-"

BOOM

The man's neck was torn like paper in an instant. Naturally, his head followed and unfortunately landed on the lap of a nearby elderly passenger. The old man was silent for a moment before he began screaming. He immediately tried ridding himself of the sight, only to meet a sword on his shoulder.

"The rest of you are too noisy. Please be silent."

And so, she painted the Entire interior of the plane red as countless blades pierced through every passenger, young and old alike. The engines exploded with a deafening sound as its metal frame was sliced neatly by swords. The entire plane caught on fire as it quickly lowered altitude and rushed through the clouds. A loud deafening whistle followed the plane as it fell down towards the sea below.

And standing in the smack center of the explosion was a single young girl with hollow eyes.

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(7 months earlier)

Within the metropolis of Sydney was a certain school bus. It belonged to Blakav middle school and was dropping students in suburb Menai. Even after 200 years, Australia had still kept its status and cities. Majority of students in the bus were talking to each other while some minded their own business. Two boys sitting close to the back bench were the least loud of those talking. Winter had come along and holidays were fast approaching. However, that also meant the gates would enter a 'hunting' state.

Those were never fun.

The taller of the two boys was wearing a thick blue jacket. He covered his face in his scarf and began a new topic of conversation.

"Did you hear?"

The shorter of the two boys wore a similar getup, but was being weighed down by the bag on his back.

"Hear what?"

"France got a new S-rank..."

"SERIOUSLY!!! but I thought it would be America next."

"That's what everybody thought. I mean, their last civil war nearly destroyed France. Who thought a new S-rank would come from them?"

"True, but it's kinda cool they got a new one. History is boring, but when they add that to the books, it might be fun to read. Anyway... you think they'll add whoever the guy is to the game? I mean, I've been stuck with 7 S-ranks in my team. And all of them are from Latomia."

"You're a dumbass... Latomian heroes are legends."

Just as the tall boy said that, the bus came to a stop. It was his stop and with a smile; he left his friend on the bus. Soon the bus continued on its route and the noise restarted once again. The short boy smiled to himself as he looked out of the window at the passing scenery. He quickly got bored though and pulled out his transparent glass phone. With a tap, the glass lit up, and a screen formed.

After the apocalypse, the world went into a global economic fallout. Companies of all kinds struggled to hold themselves and thus countries fell alongside them. The ones that took the largest hit were the tech companies.

After a while, new ones appeared and governments backed them to make their economies more stable. New technologies developed and lifestyles of the common people improved.

The boy held one such technology that was only a theorized object 200 years ago. He swiped and swiped until he found his desired app. With a grin, he opened it and admired as the opening animation gave the game title.

[Keep it going]

The current no.1 game on the global game market. It was originally developed in Japan and was recently released globally. It was such a masterpiece that it had even conquered international game awards and inspired major motion pictures. The boy watched as an animated sprite of his favorite hero walked onto the screen.

It was the no.1 global hero, the X-rank Jesse summers of America. The sprite smiled as it said the phrase the boy loved most to hear.

"Humanity knows how to always survive the worst of days. Why don't you help us keep it going?"

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