1 Ruination

"Hah… hah… hah…"

Blood. Fire. Chaos.

All around university student Zane Silverdale, the ruins of a city sat. Buildings lay collapsed and fractured, roads broken and raptured. Ashes arose from the bright orange flames all around Zane, filling the air with the smell of charred blood and a thick smoke that clogged up his lungs.

'How did this happen? What is happening?'

It was all too sudden. All too surreal.

Amidst the chaos, Zane thought back to how this all occurred—the events that had led up to this moment, that very evening.

*****

- Earlier That Day, Evening -

Zane was taking a nap on the bus. It had been a long day at university, and his eyelids were too heavy to keep open. This bus' normal ETA was 2 hours, but his current one shedded half an hour—a pleasant and welcome surprise to bring a little bit of joy into today. He'd spent most of the hour prior listening to his alt-rock playlist which had since then fell out of style, but was one of the only things that gave him solace.

He'd packed quite a bit—the result of clothing, blankets and pillows which regrettably, were provided for by his residence which he now had to bring back. Taking up the seat adjacent, he and his luggage received a few disgruntled looks as the bus began filling up.

With half-opened eyes, he looked out the window. A roadsign. San Francisco, 112 miles.

'Home,' he thought, but not particularly cheerfully.

The image of the landscape through the bus windows reflected through his black pupils, as he patiently waited for his ride to come to an end. It was then that he heard the voices of the passengers sitting across from him through his noise-cancelling headphones, conversing with each other in hushed, worried voices. He turned to look.

"Hey… what's going on? The moon's red… a lunar eclipse?"

"What the… you're right! Let me take a photo real quick!"

"Um… guys? Is it just me, or did a hole just open in the sky?"

And there, he saw it.

Patches of the sky were gone. In its place were tunnels of a bright purple of which he could see no end. Around the hole's periphery, the sky bent and warped.

A massive wormhole. A vortex. A portal.

The moon was glowing the color of blood, like a lunar eclipse—except the sky too had turned completely red.

'Well,' Zane thought. 'That's not normal.'

The anomalies weren't just in the sky, either. Down on the ground, the same wormholes were opening in smaller scales. Dark patches bubbled, emerging as shadowy figures from the portals, from humanoid creatures to those more resemblant of beasts. Regardless of their shape, however, one thing was for certain:

They were not from this world.

Just as the passengers in the bus watched on in awe, however, from the lake below the bridge they'd been traveling across, rose an enormous creature. Its body was made up of some kind of thick black energy, radiating from every pore on its surface, but with such a departure from reality it was hard to discern if it had skin. Its two white, pupil-less eyes stared at the bus blankly.

Normally Silverdale would be looking forward to his crossing of the Golden Gate Bridge, marveling at the feat of engineering. Now it paled in comparison to the creature whose mouth widened into a grin lined with sharp teeth, as it raised its monstrous arm.

"Ah… AHHH!"

There was a scream. A couple, actually.

Then, the bus was sent flying.

There was no time for Zane to even witness the grotesqueness of the monster before the entire chunk of the bridge—his bus included—was launched across the lake.

What followed was a period of unconsciousness. All around Zane lay the lifeless bodies of other passengers, but miraculously enough, he managed to survive the crash—his headphones needless to say were broken, the bracing cracked and appeared to have cut his cheek. The cushioning the sheets and clothing he planned to bring home was nothing short of miraculous, but as he began to move he realized damage was still dealt. A fracture reserved mostly on his right side, a concussion—there was more that he was sure he couldn't diagnose—but right now that didn't matter.

What he found after he crawled out of the burning bus was a sight that almost made him wish he hadn't survived after all.

Portal-like gates had opened all across the city, and spewing in came monsters—mutated wolves, massive mechs, dark warriors, and so much more. Anything one could imagine, it was there—and together, they were raiding this world. Ravaging it. Tearing down human civilization to their content, until someone could put a stop to their rampage.

Confused and panicking, Zane had no time to think. All he knew was that he was in great danger—and that he must live. To do that, he'd need every last bit of power he had. His human survival instincts told him so, and in a situation of life and death, that was what he was going to listen to.

Suddenly, from his left, Zane heard a deep, bestial growl. Immediately, he whipped his head around, and saw what looked like a hound staring back at him.

That was no normal dog. It was no doubt a monster that came out of one of the many portals that had opened in the city—and now, with bloodshot and pupil-less white eyes, the hound stared directly at Zane, like a predator looking at its prey.

Immediately, he bolted—as fast as his injured body would carry him. In his head was one simple instinct: live.

Running and panting down an alleyway, Zane turned around to see the rabid canine round the corner. Its body was ghastly. Hollow. A thick black energy emitted from its figure like poison, and the only sources of light on its body were its two shining white eyes and its sharp devilish teeth that looked ready to tear Zane apart, lined with saliva.

Eyes widening in fear, Zane quickly whipped his head back to the front and continued sprinting as fast as he could, breathing uneven and imbalanced.

Suddenly, however, he felt his foot step on something slippery—and fell backwards.

"Gah-!"

He'd tripped, hitting his head on the solid concrete. Being a narrow alleyway between buildings, it was a hotspot for littering in an urban city like this. And so, because someone didn't want to toss their soda can into a recycling bin, Zane was now facing imminent death.

His body ached all over. His vision was blurry. Yet despite all this, his survival instincts were still going strong.

"Hah… hah… there!"

Quickly, Zane scrambled to reach for a nearby crowbar. It was rusted and dented, but it was the closest thing he had to a weapon in the area. As the canine approached, Zane slowly rose to his feet, realizing his legs could no longer run. It was do or die. Gulping down his fear, he steeled his resolve and held the crowbar firmly in both hands, aimed at the shadowy demon dog.

'Okay, Zane… you can do this. Remember the martial arts you used to do. Remember!'

It wasn't going to help much, but it was more of a mental self-reassurance than anything. Zane and the dog stared at one another for a few seconds, each waiting for the other to make the first move. Eventually, the former got impatient, and snarled in annoyance.

Then, it leaped.

"Tch-!"

Quickly, Zane thrust his crowbar out horizontally, blocking the canine's sharp teeth using the metal. However, the power of the beast was not to be underestimated, and Zane was knocked back from the impact.

"Ngh!"

He hit the ground once more, grunting in pain, but he could not afford to relax. Gritting his teeth tightly, his trembling arms held the crowbar firm, but it was only a matter of time before he ran out of strength.

Zane needed something to turn the situation around. A desperate move, all or nothing.

It was a gamble—but in a situation like this, it was either he accepted the risks, or he waited to die. If death was going to be his end either way, he might as well take his chances.

"Grr… agh!"

With a sudden thrust of power using up every ounce of strength he had left, Zane let out a heartfelt yell and shoved the beast back, tossing it to the side.

But he wasn't done yet.

"Eat… this!"

Taking advantage of the canine's monetary vulnerability, Zane shoved the sharp end of the crowbar down into the beast's throat, spurting out a deep black fluid—presumably blood. The demon dog let out a screech of pain, but no other monsters came. Instead, Zane repeatedly stabbed the crowbar into the beast, carving out multiple holes on its ethereal body.

'I need to live… I need to live… I need to live.'

Those were the only thoughts going through Zane's head at the moment. After too many stabs to count, his vision finally failed him, and he lost consciousness.

Beneath the blood-red moon, everything went black for Zane.

[Become the Void you desire. Eat, Mutate, and Evolve. Command your army, leave no survivor. Devour them all.]

[Vampire Devouring System]

[Initializing...]

[͞E͜ŔROR͡:͟ REQUIR͢E͞M̡E̕N͢T̸S͡ N̶OT M̨ET̨]

*****

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Zane woke up to the sound of his phone ringing.

'Ugh… that dream again…'

Slowly, he sat up on his bed, and held his forehead. It's been seven years since 'that day', now classified as the Day of Ruination. On that day, monsters pouring into Earth by storm was not the only event that happened. Humans—people just like Zane himself—had awakened powers, something known as the System. It was a holographic screen that appeared upon summoning it, and would display a person's 'status'.

Unfortunately, not everybody was fit to use it well.

'Status.'

With a simple command in his head, Zane summoned his System.

[Status]

[Zane Silverdale]

Race - Human??? | Sex - Male | Age - 25

Titles | [???, ???, Bearer of the ??? Body]

Level 5 | [No Class] | EXP: 0/500

Specialization: ???

Physique: ??? Body

[STR: 5] [DEF: 3] [AGI: 4] [INT: 4] [DEX: 3]

Skills: [???]

It was a screen filled with utterly pathetic stats, and a few mysterious, seemingly random question marks. Each and every morning for seven years now, he'd check his System to see if any of the question marks would reveal themselves into something new, but to no avail.

This wasn't something that was unseen of before. It was rare, but a few other people also had question marks on their Systems when they first received it. However, by trying out different things using given clues they already had—for example, their Specialization—they were eventually able to 'unlock' their System and use it to its full potential.

Unfortunately, Zane had no such hints, and the name of his Physique didn't provide any clues either. A big problem in particular was the fact that he didn't know what his Specialization was—after all, this meant he didn't even know the correct direction to train in, much less unlocking his System by performing a specific action.

Therefore, throughout the past few years, he'd tried performing training activities of numerous Specializations—pyrokinesis, voidmancy, heavyweight—and many more. Every Specialization he could possibly ask or research about, he tried, so long as the action didn't involve actually using any special powers.

Yet none had resonated with him.

Sighing, Zane picked up the phone that had been ringing numerous times now, and put it close to his ear.

"Yo! You awake?"

Immediately, a cheerful voice belonging to a young man resounded on the other side.

"Well, if I'm answering your call right now, then yes, I think it's safe to say I'm awake," Zane replied exhaustedly. "What do you want, Leo?"

"… Judgin' from that depressed-soundin' voice of yours, I'm guessin' they're all still question marks, huh?"

Leo had been in the same situation several years back—but since his Specialization was Pyrokinesis, he'd tried out various fire-related activities in an attempt to activate his powers. In the end, all it took was smoking a cigarette.

Zane sighed. "… Yeah. And… I had that dream again."

"The one about the Day of Ruination? Did you manage to see what the messages at the end were this time?"

"I was about to, until you called me," Zane groaned, rolling his eyes. "That aside, get to the point already. You wouldn't call me just to check up."

"Gee, that hurts," Leo muttered over the phone, though it was clear he wasn't really hurt. "Anyway. I just wanted to ask if you wanna come along for a Hunt. The Dungeon's only D-rank, but apparently there's something special about it. Abnormal energy… signora? Or something like that."

"Abnormal energy signatures?" Zane corrected. "Hm… sure, why not. I'm running low on cash anyway. Just remember, don't expect me to fight. I don't even know what my Specialization or physique are, much less skills."

It was also precisely because of that reason why leveling up was so hard for him. He could only barely slay the lowest-rank monsters, and even then, he never got a chance to most of the time since he was always tasked with being the 'porter'—someone who carried the supplies during a Raid. The only reason Zane was even Level 5 right now was because Leo would sometimes nearly kill a beast, then let Zane deal the final blow.

"Alrighty, that's fine! I'll meet you at the Hunter's Association branch, then. Be quick! Oh, and—by the way, how's your sister's condition?"

"Still the same as usual," Zane replied, sighing. "Can't even recognize me."

"… I see. It'll get better, man. It'll get better."

"I hope so."

"See you in 10?"

"See you in 10."

With that, Leo hung up, and Zane was left to stare up at the ceiling of his tiny rented apartment room.

'Abnormal energy signatures, huh... how interesting.'