Prologue

  The end of the world has always fascinated humanity, especially those devoted to religion. Over the centuries, countless predictions have been made—and all have failed. In 1499, the German mathematician Johannes St?ffler claimed the world would end in a great flood on February 20, 1524. It didn’t. Even the famed Christopher Columbus offered world-ending prophecies based on biblical timelines—yet life continued.

  What all these prophets failed to predict, however, was that the world would not end in destruction, but in transformation—beyond anything anyone could imagine.

  In 1952, somewhere deep in the Pacific Ocean near the Philippines, something otherworldly was discovered. What scientists now call “the origin point” was the first known portal. It had no identifiable power source, internal or external, yet it remained open—silent, ominous, and ancient.

  Its discovery wasn’t made by a government or a research team, but by a fisherman who caught a grey wolf with three glowing red eyes and a single crimson horn. The creature should not have existed.

  The world responded fast. Governments mobilized. The first interdimensional arms race had begun.

  What lay beyond the portal were dead worlds—civilizations reduced to ashes. No one knew how or why. But one thing was clear: the Earth would never be the same.

  When the first portal opened in 1952, deep in the Pacific near the Philippines, it was seen as an anomaly—strange, but manageable. Scientists rushed to study it, calling it the “origin point,” a phenomenon that defied the laws of physics. No radiation, no measurable energy, no detectable sound. Just a silent tear in space, hovering above the ocean floor.

  But then more appeared.

  Within months, dozens—then hundreds—of portals opened around the globe. Some were small, no wider than a doorway. Others engulfed city blocks. They appeared at random, with no warning and no pattern. Out of them came nightmares.

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  The monsters were unlike anything known to biology. They were immune to bullets, resistant to fire, and moved in ways the human eye struggled to follow. Entire towns were wiped out in hours. Panic overtook science. The military declared global martial law. Nothing worked.

  And then, seemingly without reason, it happened. One hundred people across the world awakened.

  There was no common thread between them. Some were poor, some wealthy. Some were dying; others were newborn. One was in prison. One was a monk. But in a single moment, each of them felt something crack open inside their soul—and power flooded in.

  They became the world’s first and only defense.

  These individuals could fly, bend metal, summon lightning, heal wounds, or crush tanks with their bare hands. But not all were equal. Among the hundred, only a dozen possessed strength that could be called godlike. These few became the legends—the ones who single-handedly closed portals and brought down monsters the size of buildings.

  The world hailed them as saviors… at first.

  But once the fighting slowed, something else emerged. Those with great power didn’t return to normal life. They vanished from the public eye. In secret, they began to shape the world: forming alliances, building hidden cities, starting families. Their children inherited their powers—and in some cases, even stronger versions.

  Over decades, these bloodlines became known as the Great Families—an elite class separate from governments, answerable to no one. They live in luxury, augmenting their powers with technology and intermarriage, ensuring that strength never leaves their line.

  The governments of the world tried to keep control. They formed global coalitions, set up agencies to monitor portals, and attempted to recruit the Awakened. Some joined, mostly those with weak or mid-tier abilities—outcasts not welcome in elite circles. But the truth became clear quickly: governments no longer held the highest power.

  They shifted focus. In response, they created the Division of Special Affairs (DSA), a global agency dedicated to training and deploying government-sanctioned Awakened operatives. These agents, often with weak or unstable powers, were thrown into frontline crises the great Families ignored.

  The government claimed it was protecting the people. But in reality, it had become a caretaker of the old world—trying to hold together a system where true strength now lived in private mansions, not public office.

  Society changed in many ways that