The world ended at 9:45 a.m.
And was reborn in fear.
---
📍[Earth – Modern City – Morning]
Kael's school was the same as always.
Chalk dust. Echoing bells. Classmates laughing about nothing. Teachers dragging through dull words.
But Kael never laughed.
He watched. He listened.
And sometimes… he heard things no one else could.
Like today.
Like the low hum in the sky — growing louder.
---
💣
At 9:42 a.m., two nations went to war.
By 9:43 a.m., a nuclear missile had launched.
By 9:44, it was streaking toward Kael's city.
Sirens. Screams. The world watched it live. News drones captured every second as a weapon of extinction ripped through the sky.
And in all that chaos…
Kael sat on the school rooftop.
Silent.
Calm.
As if he had seen this moment in a dream.
He whispered to no one:
> "He's coming."
---
☄️
Then… the air split.
The missile didn't explode.
It froze mid-flight, surrounded by impossible energy.
The clouds darkened.
The wind stopped.
Birds fell from the sky.
A ripple of black lightning tore across the atmosphere — and from it emerged a being draped in obsidian armor, his face hidden behind a crown of flame.
He hovered above the city like a judgment made flesh.
The world held its breath.
> "This is your only warning," the figure's voice echoed across continents.
"You aim destruction at my blood…
You suffer in return."
One blink later — the entire nation that launched the missile was erased.
No explosion.
No radiation.
Just silence… and absence.
---
🌐
News feeds died.
Then flickered back.
Every screen on Earth — phones, tablets, satellites — showed the same image:
The dark figure floating above Kael's city.
Eyes burning like suns.
Cape dragging space behind it.
They called him: The Protector.
But he was no savior.
He was a force.
A god.
A myth made real.
---
👁️🗨️
And on the rooftop… Kael watched.
No fear.
Just familiarity.
Because Kael knew that figure.
That god.
That king.
That monster.
> "You're late," Kael whispered, a small smile twisting on his lips.
Because that being — the one the world now feared — had raised Kael.
Taught him power.
Taught him pain.
He wasn't a father. He was a weapon.
And Kael?