1 Prologue

In the year 2020, following immense worldwide political instability due to a global pandemic, World War III was triggered, resulting in a five-year long conflict that ended in worldwide nuclear devastatation, putting humanity on the brink of extinction. By the end of 2025, several hundreds of millions had been killed in the explosions, and millions more died due to the resulting radiation in the aftermath.

During 2022, in the mid-stages of WWIII, a special division under the name 'Salvation' was formed in the UN, tasked with the creation of a massive airtight and radiation-resistant dome structure, located in Russia. This dome was a massive 200,000 square kilometers in size, and would later be dubbed the 'Sanctuary'. A water supply was acquired by tapping into several underwater springs, and thousands of plants were taken into it so that there would be an oxygen supply as well.

And when the warring nations began launching the nukes in 2024, as many people as possible were taken into the Sanctuary, though some countries didn't allow their citizens to be taken, while some people refused due to being in denial and stubbornly believing that the whole thing was a hoax. By 2025, the war was over as there was no one left to keep it going, and not a single human was alive outside of the Sanctuary, which housed around sixty million people and a few million animals. The war ended with no winners, the simple result was that all of humanity had lost.

The layout of the Sanctuary was split into four equal quadrants, North, East, West and South, and the citizens evenly divided among the four sections.

By 2045, the citizens had more or less settled into the Sanctuary, technological advancements resumed and the four quadrants had each been structured and layed-out differently. Technological advancements, discoveries and inventions were openly shared between all four quadrants in order to prevent any disruption of political balance between the four.

The North Quadrant was split into different districts, namely the Residential District, Education District, Entertainment District, Research and Hospital District, Recreation District, Agricultural District and Shopping District. The districts were separated using walls with no openings or gates, so traveling from one district to another required the use of facilities called Teleportation Points, while traveling within a district would require the use of public transport buses.

A citizen of the North Quadrant could own a personal vehicle if they wanted, but it wasn't very cost-efficient since each district was physically separate from each other with no road or bridge connecting them, so if someone wanted to drive their vehicle to another district, they would have to teleport the vehicle using a Teleportation Point, and the fee for that was pretty steep, resulting in hardly anyone in the North Quadrant owning their own vehicles.

The South Quadrant was structured like a normal city from before WWIII, with various different types of buildings mixed together, so owning a vehicle there was a lot more practical, though not necessary since Teleportation Points and public transport did exist, just like in the North Quadrant.

The East was similar to the North in that it was split into districts, but you could travel between them using your own vehicles or public transport, the walls seperating the districts had gates with toll booths, which connected them to each other. Teleportation Points were available but weren't necessarily the only option.

And finally, the West was split into three different sections, based on wealth level, and each section was structured similarly to the South, with the quality of the buildings and facilities varying based on the section.

Each of the four quadrants were run by their own government, and the four governments closely worked together to ensure that a good relationship was maintained between all four populations and minimize the threat of conflict, though they made a point not to interfere in each other's domestic affairs so long as it didn't negatively affect the other quadrants.

In 2050, the scientists and researchers in the Sanctuary were able to gain access to some of the satellites that were still left in orbit, allowing them to observe some of the rest of the planet outside the Sanctuary. And it didn't take them long to discover that the immense radiation all over the globe had given rise to powerful and dangerous new creatures.

These creatures were likely evolved and mutated versions of animals that had managed to survive the aftermath of WWIII, and while most were about as dangerous as a wolf or wild dog, some were absolute monsters that made humans looks like insignificant bugs in comparison. There did not seem to be any danger of these creatures attacking the Sanctuary, but leaving them alone did not seem safe, since they were multiplying rapidly at an alarming rate, and the researchers estimated that it would only take a handful of decades for these creatures to overrun the planet.

These creatures were named Mutants, and their existence was a definite threat to the weak flame of humanity's survival. The creation and research of nuclear weapons and weapons of war had been outlawed, which meant that there was no means of defending ourselves against the Mutants, let alone eradicate them...

Then, in 2065, the newly born children started showing signs of evolution, and researchers began studying them to find out exactly what it was.

By 2075, they had mostly understood the specifics of the evolution. The new generation of humans, referred to as Paragons, were born with a special type of energy inside them, and this energy was labeled X-Factor Energy, or XFE for short. However, the Paragons couldn't naturally harness the energy on their own, though it did give them a much higher resistance to radiation than regular humans had. And so, a certain procedure was developed.

This procedure was called the Awakening Procedure. A Paragon would be locked inside a pod, a special chip would be implanted in their brain, and weak radiation at a specific frequency would be sent into their body, and this would stimulate the XFE inside them and form a network inside their body, called XFE Circuits, allowing them to freely manipulate and control their XFE.

The majority of Paragons have a moderate amount of XFE, and could manifest it with the help of specially-crafted weapons known as X-Weapons, such as guns that could fire the XFE in the form of energy bullets, sword handles that could extend out XFE in the shape of a blade, armguards that could form XFE in the shape of a shield, and so on.

Then, five percent of Paragons had more than a certain amount of XFE, simply known as the Threshold, and they could manifest their XFE without the use of any weapons, in a specific format, Primary Manifestation and Secondary Manifestation. The former was generally in the form of a weapon, while the latter was typically a support skill. The power and complexity of these manifestations depended on the amount of XFE inside the user, the more they had in them above the Threshold, the more destructive and versatile their manifestations would be. This five percent of the Paragons were known as Prodigies, and following the Awakening Procedure, their physical abilities would increase to about two hundred percent.

And 0.05 percent of Paragons would develop different abilities after going through the Awakening Procedure, the amount of XFE they have would be below the Threshold, and like ordinary Paragons, they wouldn't be able to manifest their XFE without an X-Weapon, but they'd develop a special power that'd be extremely powerful. This rare percentage of the new generation were known as Anomalies, and following the Awakening Procedure, their physical abilities would increase to about a hundred and fifty percent.

After the Awakening Procedure, the researcher overseeing the procedure would be able to tell if the Paragon was a Prodigy or not using by using a special scanner, but there was no way to tell if they were an Anomaly, only they themselves would know, thanks to the brain chip. The chip would let the Paragon immediately and instinctively know whether or not their XFE exceeded the Threshold, and if so, what their abilities were and how to use them.

The scanner would only indicate whether the Paragon's XFE capacity was above or below the threshold, which meant that there was no way to differentiate between ordinary Paragons and Anomalies. In other words, an Anomaly could hide the fact that they were an Anomaly if they wanted to.

A Paragon can undergo the Awakening Procedure when they're fifteen years old, though they can opt not to if they aren't interested in awakening their powers. And so, with these effectively super-powered humans on the rise, the residents of the Sanctuary finally had a way to combat the Mutant infestation that was now rapidly growing throughout the planet.

In 2085, a neutral and independent area that wasn't under the control of any of the four quadrants was build at the center of the Sanctuary, called the X-Warrior Zone, in order to train and develop Paragons into hunters capable of killing Mutants called X-Warriors. It had several buildings, the biggest being the X-Warrior Academy, where Paragons could apply when they turn twenty, and after a two year course, they would be granted the title of X-Warrior if they managed to graduate. Then there was the X-Warrior Guild, where X-Warriors could take on Missions to kill Mutants. There were also a bunch of training facilities in the X-Warrior Zone.

The vast majority of X-Warriors were Prodigies. Paragons with XFE levels below the Threshold were sometimes referred to as Duds derogatorily, and were rarely even able to pass the Academy entrance exam, let alone become X-Warriors. As for Anomalies, there were hardly any in existence at all.

My name is Kilzachs Floence, I'm a Paragon who was born on the 6th of September in the year 2095, to a family in the North Quadrant of the Sanctuary. My father was an important government official in the North Quadrant, his side of the family had been heavily involved in the governing of this Quadrant ever since it was set up. My mother was a doctor. I also had an older sister, who was about five years older than me.

My father was a minister who oversaw any and all operations concerning X-Warriors and Paragons in the North Quadrant, and as a result, had developed an obsession with finding powerful Prodigies in the North Quadrant. There were unconfirmed theories that a Paragon is more likely to become a Prodigy upon going through the Awakening Procedure if they are in good physical condition leading up to it, so my father had my sister and I continuously train extensively, and excessively, in martial arts ever since we were old enough to do so.

In 2105, when my sister turned fifteen and went through the Awakening Procedure, the result was that she turned out to be a Prodigy with incredible potential and extremely powerful abilities. This overjoyed my father, and subsequently put a lot of pressure on me to become a Prodigy as well, even though it was something that was out of my control.

I didn't have a great relationship with my father, I preferred reading, watching videos and gaming over physical training, and he didn't like that one bit. I was a pretty introverted person, and didn't have any real friends in school either, I tended to keep to myself most of the time.

I was around ten years old at the time, five years away from being able to go through the Awakening Procedure myself. It was something I was both dreading and looking forward to. I certainly liked the idea of becoming an X-Warrior, since it was very high paying and allowed you to work whenever you felt like it, and I certainly didn't like the idea of working a boring nine-to-five desk job. However, unless I turned out to be a Prodigy, it would be pretty tough to become an X-Warrior. If I didn't turn out to be a Prodigy, I might still give it a shot, but realistically I wouldn't stand much of a chance of making it.

Anyway, I'll save the rest of the details for later, and I'll start my story at the age of ten...

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