Thursday, March 7th, 2024 - Night
The moon hung high over Las Vegas, its silver glow casting eerie shadows across the towering skyscrapers. Bella perched atop the towering Abyss Rod, a colossal metal spire rivaling skyscrapers, its rounded summit kissed by the heavens. Ladders, like veins of iron, snaked up its sheer sides. Her golden hair whipping violently in the brisk wind. Beneath her, the neon-lit city pulsed with extravagance, unprepared of the calamity about to unfold.
Chao Cheng knelt before her, wrists bound, his haunting white eyes shut in deep meditation. He did not resist; he had already accepted his fate.
"When I was younger," Bella murmured, her voice steady, "my father told me that the most effective way to end poverty isn't by making everyone rich..."
She turned her gaze toward Jack, who had just staggered from the ladders, battered and bloodied. His breath came in gasps, his face a mask of desperate terror.
"Bella, don't!" he shouted, voice raw with urgency. "Millions…billions will die. You can't do this!"
Bella tilted her head, an unbothered smile curling her lips. She held his gaze for a few slow seconds, letting the weight of their opposing convictions settle between them.
"You're not the one to judge, Jack." Her voice was calm, almost reverent. "Abyss will soon finish, and the world will finally be equal."
Behind her, Chao Cheng exhaled deeply, his shoulders trembling with the strain of the ritual.
"Now," he intoned, "let it be done. Let the universe be stripped of all technology, every machine..."
And then—it happened.
Across the world, chaos erupted in a single, merciless instant. Planes winked out of existence mid-flight, spilling their passengers into the sky, bodies plummeting in helpless terror. Trains vanished from their tracks, hurling their occupants violently through the air, their screams swallowed by the abyss. Cars blinked away, some drivers crashing onto the pavement, others sent tumbling into oblivion.
Military arsenals dissolved into nothing—tanks, missiles, bombs—leaving governments powerless. Even the International Space Station melted into the void, exposing its crew to the vast, merciless vacuum of space.
Chao Cheng's breaths grew ragged. Blood seeped from his eyes.
"Let them be returned to their place of excavation," he whispered. "Every device, every man-made source of energy..."
Bella watched as the world unraveled, her heart hammering against her ribs. Hospitals plunged into panic as ventilators ceased to exist, doctors scrambling in vain to save dying patients. Stock markets crumbled; screens blinked to black before vanishing entirely, sending brokers into frantic hysteria.
Jack's hand trembled as he checked his telewatch–only to watch it fade before his eyes.
He turned, his grief hardening into rage. He lunged at Bella, fist raised, but she caught him effortlessly, twisting his arm before slamming him back against the steel floor.
She exhaled in exhilaration, her eyes shining.
"What so dramatic, Jack?" she asked with a quiet laugh. "I even minimized destruction, houses are still standing. You know what? Number One is almost done." She started to smile maniacally. "I'm finally happy, for true equality is here!"
Jack glared at her, his chest heaving, his mind racing. But all around them, the city drowned in darkness, people flooding the streets, their voices raised in collective panic.
The world had now been emptied of technology. Across the globe, the wealthy wept as their empires crumbled, stripped of their superiority. The mightiest nations stood powerless, their dominion erased. The world had reverted to the pre-modern era[1]
Bella took a deep breath, her arms wrapped up. I was born into a happy family. We didn't have much, but we had each other. That was enough.
She stared at the ongoing chaos, her eyes closed.
I was the youngest, the only daughter among three children. My family was rare—we were inseparable. Dad was the most handsome man I'd ever seen. His biggest dream was to become a successful metabiologist, and when he finally got a job related to that, everything seemed perfect.
Then, one night, he came home with a square box and set it on the table in the sitting room.
"No one should touch or open that box, please," Bella's Dad said, his voice unusually firm.
"What's in it?" Bella's Mum asked, glancing at him suspiciously.
"It's an organism… not quite an animal." He hesitated before continuing. "At Lovio Organization, we created something—something that could help defeat ultrahumans if necessary. It's called Vermian. I brought it home because my branch was raided".
Bella's mother accepted the explanation, and the night carried on as usual.
But curiosity had a way of pulling a child toward secrets.
Late that night, I sneaked into the storage room, where Dad had hidden the box. My fingers trembled as I lifted the lid—inside was a strange, liquid-solid creature. Before I could react, it leapt onto my face.
I screamed so loud that my Dad, Mum, and brothers came running. They tried to pull it off, desperate to free me, but every attempt only made Vermian cling tighter.
I remember watching my Dad step back, his face twisted in helplessness. It was too late.
"What have I done?" Her Dad muttered, horrified.
I had cried, my body shaking, and my parents—desperate—held me close, trying to calm me.
For days, we lived with the terrifying truth.
One morning, Bella's Dad burst through the door, panic laced in his voice. "We need to leave—now!"
We ran. From one hiding place to another. The same people who had raided Lovio Organization were now searching for me, wanting to sample my body, to see what Vermian had done. After weeks of moving, we finally found somewhere safe—at least, we thought so.
One evening, Dad sat beside me, his voice softer than usual.
"Hey."
"Yes, Papa?"
Bella's Dad sighed, looking at her with tired but loving eyes. "Don't blame yourself. Mistakes happen. And I will always do my best to protect you."
"Tha… thank you, Papa," Bella whispered, her chest tightening.
"I love you, my girl."
I smiled through my tears. Love wasn't a strong enough word. He was everything.
That night.
Several armed gunmem silently walked towards the room where Bella and her family were sleeping, the gunmen quickly blasted the door open with explosives and shot severally at Bella and her family. Bella's family members all died as a result, Bella on the other hand was instantly healed.
The leader of the gunmen smiled while confirming the family members death, he confirmed Bella's two siblings, Dad and Mum's death. He pressed his fingers against Bella's throat, feeling for her pulse.
"She's gone too," he confirmed, turning to his men. "Pack up the bodies and—"
He froze.
His body trembled. Then, he collapsed.
Bella's yellowium had cut through his legs before he even understood what was happening.
Yellowium is the name of the matter created by absorbing the creature Vermian into a humans body. Yellowium can be morphed into any texture. All these were taught to Bella by her deceased father, but little is still known about it.[2]
The gunmen froze, their eyes widening in terror as Bella's hand morphed, a sleek yellowium blade bursting from her flesh like a weapon forged in nightmares.
One of them stumbled back. "What the hell... I thought... no way." His voice was a panicked whisper, barely escaping his throat.
Another, trembling, gripped his rifle tighter. "She's the one... with Vermian in her. Master didn't tell us the victim was this young. Shoot that wretched thing!"
The gunmen raised their weapons, fingers twitching on their triggers. But before they could fire, Bella moved—too fast for their eyes to track. In an instant, five of them collapsed, blood pooling beneath them as they clutched their slashed shoulders, their firearms slipping from their grips.
The remaining two stood paralyzed, fear locking them in place as Bella passed them, her very presence radiating a force that crushed their courage.
Gunman 2 swallowed hard. "She moved so fast... even the bullets on the floor were cleared by the impact."
Bella could have killed them. She knew it. But she didn't. Instead, she ran.
_ _ _
I fled far, to streets where survival was as brutal as battle. I begged for scraps, though I could have stolen, used my abilities to take what I needed. But I didn't. No one helped me.
For two years, I lived off the remnants of meals discarded in trash bins.
Until they found me.
A family—two parents and their daughter. They took me in, fed me, sheltered her, and eventually, legally adopted me. Even when they discovered my ultrapowers, they weren't afraid. The father and daughter were ultrahumans too.
Julia, my foster sister, could teleport, command insects, and—most dangerously—emit toxic chemicals from her palms, forcing her to wear gloves at all times.
She became my best friend—not that I had any others.
For the first time, I believed I had a future.
Until that Tuesday
______________________________________________
Badolato, Calabria, 2006 – 13:03 PM
The town bustled with life. Children laughed, vendors shouted, cars crawled through narrow streets.
Then, chaos erupted.
Monstrous creatures emerged from nowhere, terror spilling through the city.
Bella's foster father sat in front of the television when the emergency alert interrupted the broadcast. "Demon beasts sighted—". The words barely had time to sink in before the power cut.
He exhaled shakily. "So... it's finally reached Italy."
The ceiling shattered.
A beast—a grotesque blend of buffalo and lion—crashed through, its claws ripping through his stomach in a vicious strike.
Bella and Julia's mother entered the room, shock freezing her in place. Another beast, chimp-like and menacing, seized her, its grip unrelenting.
Bella's foster father roared in pain, as the beast clutched his bleeding torso. "Nooo!"
But the buffalo-lion wasn't finished. It clawed at him repeatedly, tearing deeper.
Bella took a step forward, her yellowium blade forming instinctively. Her foster father, barely breathing, tried one last desperate thing—his mind-control speech. He willed his power to work, begged it to force Bella to run.
But it had no effect.
Instead, she became berserk.
She lunged, blade poised to kill—only for the beast to swat her aside with a single, devastating blow.
______________________________________________
Bella opened her eyes, unfamiliar surroundings greeting her.
A hotel room.
Julia sat nearby, watching her.
Bella's voice was hoarse. "Where's Dad and Mum? I had this... dream where—"
Julia broke. The grief spilled out of her in choking sobs as she buried her face in the bed.
Bella's pulse quickened, hoping—praying—she was wrong.
Julia's voice trembled. "It wasn't a dream, Bella. Mom and Dad... they're gone. The demon beasts are wiping Italy out. If I hadn't rescued you, I would have lost you too."
Bella didn't react. She stood, walked to the window, and stared outside.
A U.S. flag waved in the wind.
She realized then—they were no longer in Italy.
We weren't even teenagers yet, it seemed as though our suffering had just begun. There was no way we could even steal because every cash became digital since ultrahumans were publicly known.
We both grew up working at Jack's Pizza. You could say this period was cool. Then, another familiar day came, a few demon beasts attacked the city I lived in.
______________________________________________
Bella stretched lazily, her eyes still heavy with sleep. Julia, on the other hand, was already moving around, restless as ever.
Bella smirked. "You're too fast."
Julia scoffed, tossing a pillow at her. "Come on, we both know that's why you wake up whenever you want." She glanced around the tiny room. "Besides, this isn't even our house. We only got this place for free because the owner is abroad."
Bella hummed in response, pushing herself up. But something shifted in the atmosphere—an eerie disturbance that made her chest tighten.
Julia froze.
Slowly, both of them turned toward the window.
Their eyes widened.
Outside, a monstrous beast—its form massive beyond comprehension—barreled toward their apartment, its hulking figure eclipsing the sky.
The ground trembled.
BOOM!!!
The world around them shattered as the building collapsed.
[1] This is a paragraph that either explains further the above or the below.
[2] This is a paragraph that either explains further the above or below.