Year 2XXX. Humanity had shattered the boundaries of reason and technology, stepping through the gates of a new era. In this age, miracles could be shaped by thought alone.
With nanochips embedded in their brains, people could command swarms of nanobots, bend matter to their will, and bring imagination to life. This age came to be known as "The Nanochip Era."
On a narrow street, beneath the looming shadow of storm clouds, a young man walked alone. He wasn't even seventeen, yet his physique was far beyond that of his peers. His name was Mustafa.
His steps were heavy, his head bowed, as if the weight of the world rested on his shoulders. His solitary walk was not by choice; it was punishment.
Only days ago, he had secretly joined a nanobot battle and left four opponents nearly unrecognizable. The scandal had been buried with great effort, and his family had paid dearly. As punishment, Mustafa was forbidden from using his nanobots for an entire week.
"Today is the last day of this punishment," he muttered under his breath. "Tomorrow, no more walking."
The sky above darkened like an omen of doom. Heavy clouds devoured the heavens, thunder boomed like a drum of steel, and the wind howled through the streets with savage force.
"Damn it! Why do I always have to be this unlucky?" he grumbled. His home was still a kilometer and a half away; the rain was inevitable.
It was as though his words provoked the heavens. The wind roared louder, the storm raged fiercer.
When the distance shrank below a kilometer, something extraordinary occurred in the sky.
A blinding light ripped apart the darkness. From the heart of the clouds, a colossal bolt of lightning tore down toward the earth. For an instant, night turned into day; the city shone as though bathed in noon sunlight.
And its target was clear. A single being: Mustafa.
~ BOOOOOMMMMM ~
The moment the lightning struck him, earth and sky trembled. The explosion unleashed electromagnetic waves that disabled every electronic device within a three-kilometer radius. Glass, crystal, shimmering panels—shattered into dust.
Everything happened faster than a single breath. And before anyone could comprehend it, the sky flashed again.
The second bolt was even more merciless, a wrathful spear splitting the heavens.
~ BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM ~
The shockwave devoured a four-kilometer radius. At the epicenter, a crater a hundred meters wide gaped open, and every structure within three hundred meters began to collapse.
Then came the third strike.
Ordinarily, a lightning bolt would never strike the same spot more than twice. But today, nature was denying its own laws.
~ BOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM ~
Once again, the bolt sought only Mustafa. Buildings crumbled; thousands of people were knocked unconscious by the magnetic shockwave.
But the storm would not relent.
~ BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM ~
~ BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM ~
~ BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM ~
~ BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM ~
~ BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM ~
Five more bolts fell within mere seconds of each other. Each one stronger, fiercer, more cataclysmic than the last.
The crater swelled to eight hundred meters across. Thousands lay dead or gravely wounded. In theory, the nanochip technology could have saved them, but most had lost consciousness before they could act.
When at last the minute-long lightning storm subsided, survivors scrambled desperately to rescue the injured.
It was as if the sky itself had collapsed. Clouds pressed so low that heaven and earth had become one.
~ BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM ~
The ninth strike came. The ground screamed open as if clawed by some monstrous hand. Fissures, like a web of cracks, spread across thousands of kilometers, hundreds of meters deep.
And then, the storm began to disperse. The sun broke through at last. But nothing was as it had been.
Only minutes ago, the city had been a modern marvel of steel and light. Now it was a ruin so shattered that calling it a "city" would have been an insult to the word itself. Silence reigned, a silence that screamed; and the wind howled mournfully among the wreckage, as though mourning the dead.