Anna’s heart pounded against her ribs as she stepped out of the capsule chamber.
The corridor stretched before her, lit by ergency lights that flickered weakly. Her bare feet pressed against cold tal flooring, each step echoing in the silence. She hadn’t bothered with shoes. She hadn’t bothered with anything except the desperate need to see.
To know.
To understand what had beco of her world.
Hundreds of years, her ancestor had said.
Her hands trembled at her sides.
Every shadow in the corridor made her flinch. Every distant creak of settling tal made her gravity abilities pulse involuntarily, sending tiny cracks spider-webbing across the walls beside her.
Monsters could be anywhere.
Humanity could be extinct.
She might be walking into a world already conquered.
Anna pressed forward, her breathing shallow. The ergency stairs leading upward seed endless. Floor after floor she climbed, her legs burning, her mind racing with worst-case scenarios.
Finally, she reached a heavy tal door with a small window.
Through it, she could see daylight.
Real daylight.
Anna’s hand hovered over the release chanism. Her gravity field expanded unconsciously, ready to crush anything that moved against her.
She pushed the door open.
Fresh air hit her face. Warm sunlight fell across her skin.
And standing directly in front of her, less than three ters away, was a figure in a clean uniform.
The woman snapped to attention imdiately, heels clicking together, right arm crossing her chest in a crisp salute.
"Miss Celestus! Congratulations on waking up on your own. Please co with . We’ll do so light checkups before you can go."
Anna’s gravity field surged violently.
The ground beneath the woman cracked. Dust particles froze in mid-air. Loose stones lifted from the earth and hovered like tiny weapons ready to strike.
Anna’s eyes were wide, her breathing ragged, her entire body coiled like a spring.
The woman didn’t move.
She simply stood there, arm still raised in salute, expression calm and professional, as if having an epic ranked talent user ready to crush her was a completely normal Tuesday occurrence.
One second passed.
Two seconds.
Three.
Anna’s mind finally caught up with her instincts.
Uniform. Salute. Familiar insignia.
She’s Alliance personnel.
The gravity field collapsed imdiately.
Rocks clattered back to the ground. Dust settled. Anna staggered slightly, grabbing the doorfra for support, her chest heaving.
"I—I’m sorry," she gasped. "I didn’t an—I thought—"
The woman lowered her salute and smiled warmly. "It’s completely understandable, Miss Celestus. Please don’t apologize. You’ve just awakened from cryo-sleep under extre circumstances. Your caution is appropriate."
Anna stared at her, still struggling to process.
"You’re a human? Are you also soone from the apocalypse protocol?",she asked with surprise.
The woman’s smile widened slightly. "No, Miss Celestus. I am a dical officer assigned to the Aurora City Central dical Center. My na is Leona Hart."
"What is going on?" Anna’s voice ca out more demanding than she intended, but she couldn’t help it. "Can you tell how long I’ve been sleeping?"
"About three days," Leona said calmly.
Anna’s mind blanked.
Three days.
Not hundreds of years.
Three days.
"Huh?" The sound escaped her before she could stop it. "Then what happened to the apocalypse protocol? What happened to humanity?"
Leona’s expression softened with understanding. She understood this reaction. The confusion. The disbelief. The desperate need for answers.
"Please co with ," Leona said gently. "You’ll know everything while going through the checkup procedure. I promise all your questions will be answered."
Anna hesitated.
Every instinct scread at her to run. To find answers herself. To not trust anyone until she understood what was happening.
But the woman’s calm deanor, the professional patience in her eyes—it didn’t feel like a trap.
It felt like kindness.
Anna nodded slowly.
"Okay."
Leona turned and began walking toward a nearby building. It was pristine. Perfectly maintained. Nothing like the fortified bunkers Anna had expected to find.
Anna followed, her eyes still scanning their surroundings out of habit.
She saw other people walking peacefully in the distance.
No monsters.
No destruction.
No signs of an ongoing apocalypse at all.
The Aurora city looked exactly as she rembered it from before the crisis—maybe even better.
What the hell happened?
They entered a dical facility. The interior was clean, well-lit, and staffed by personnel who moved with calm efficiency.
Leona led Anna to a small examination room.
"Please have a seat, Miss Celestus. I’ll begin with basic vitals, and while I work, you can watch this."
She pressed a button on a small device mounted on the wall.
A holographic projector activated.
And then Anna saw it.
The battle.
The footage was chaotic at first—shaky cara angles from surviving drones, distant shots of massive creatures, explosions that lit up the horizon across the other four continents. But slowly, the perspective shifted to clearer recordings.
Anna’s eyes locked onto the screen.
She saw the four generals fighting desperately on the battlefielda. She saw martial artists falling by the hundreds on continents that were now wastelands. She saw monsters the size of mountains rampaging across lands.
Her hands gripped the edge of the examination table so hard the tal creaked.
"This is impossible. How could anyone survive this?"
The footage continued.
She watched as a warrior in black fought valiantly against the massive Godzilla. He was powerful, incredibly powerful, dodging attacks that could level mountains, striking back with everything he had.
But it wasn’t enough.
Anna’s heart sank as she watched the black warrior stumble. As she saw Godzilla’s tail coil back for a killing blow. As she realized the warrior was about to be crushed.
And then—
A figure appeared.
Not in the black warrior’s place.
But above.
High above the battlefield.
Anna leaned forward unconsciously.
The footage showed a young man standing on the air. His expression was calm. His eyes held no fear. He looked down at the monsters that had been terrorizing humanity like nothing.
And then he muttered sothing.
That was all.
Just one gesture.
And the world turned white.
Anna watched in stunned silence as an ice age descended upon the battlefield in an instant. The temperature plumted. The air itself froze. Every single monster across the battlefield, hundreds of thousands of them, turned to ice in the sa mont.
Godzilla, the mountain-sized beast that had been about to kill the black warrior, froze solid where it stood.
Then the footage showed sothing else.
The young man vanished from his place and appeared infront of the frozen godzilla and kicked it. The massive monster flew away like a ragdoll.
She saw how he beat that thing into a pulp. She also saw the vampires coming to threaten him and how he dealt with them as well.
Anna’s hand flew to her mouth.
Tears stread down her face before she even realized she was crying.
"So you’re still alive," she whispered brokenly. "Thank god. Thank you, god."
Leona continued her checkup silently, allowing Anna to process the footage. Blood pressure. Heart rate. Neural response. All within acceptable paraters.
The holographic display finally ended.
Anna sat there, tears still falling, staring at the blank wall where the images had been.
"That’s... that’s really him?" she asked quietly. "Alex Moriarty? He survived? He’s still alive?"
"More than alive, Miss Celestus." Leona’s voice held genuine awe. "He’s currently guarding the borders of the continents. Alone. So that the rest of humanity can rest and rebuild."
Anna laughed.
It was a broken sound, half sob and half incredulous joy.
"He’s fifteen," she said. "He’s only fifteen years old."
"And yet," Leona replied softly, "he carries the weight of the world on his shoulders without complaint."
Anna wiped her tears with the back of her hand.
She thought about her ancestor’s words. About waking up hundreds of years in the future. About leading the remnants of humanity.
None of that had happened.
Because one boy had been strong enough to change fate itself.
"Can I see him?" Anna asked suddenly. "Is that possible?"
Leona smiled gently.
"In ti, Miss Celestus. He’s currently occupied with guarding the borders. But when he returns to Aurora City,and he will return, there will be a greeting ceremony. The grandest in Earth’s history."
Anna nodded slowly.
She would wait.
She had been prepared to wait hundreds of years.
A few more days was nothing.
"Now," Leona said, finishing her checkup, "all your vitals look excellent. You’re cleared to go."
Anna stood up.
For the first ti since waking, her hands weren’t trembling.
"Thank you," she said sincerely. "For everything."
Leona bowed slightly. "It’s my honor, Miss Celestus. Welco back to the world."
Anna walked out of the dical facility into the sunlight.
She looked up at the sky.
It was blue.
Peaceful.
No monsters.
No destruction.
No end of the world.
Sowhere beyond that horizon, on the edges of the wastelands that had once been thriving continents, a fifteen-year-old boy was standing guard over all of humanity.
Anna smiled.
"I hope you haven’t forgotten ."
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