Japan, Sendai City
"Huff... Huff..."
Kaito Tenryū opened his eyes abruptly as a cold chill ran straight down his spine.
He immediately sat up on the corner of his bed. His chest heaved up and down violently as if he had just run a marathon.
He reached up with a trembling hand and wiped a thick layer of cold sweat off his forehead.
He had dreamed about it again.
It was a recurring nightmare that had plagued him for years.
In the dream, the world was suddenly engulfed in absolute darkness. There was no sun, no stars, and absolutely no hope left for humanity.
The only person standing in that terrifying void was him. He was completely alone, surrounded by the unsettling silence of the apocalypse.
Kaito took a deep, shaky breath to calm his racing heart.
He slowly turned his head and looked out the nearby window.
He noticed how the night was incredibly dark and calm. The moon was hanging perfectly in the sky without a single concern for the miserable humans living below.
Sendai City was quiet tonight. The streetlights flickered with a warm, orange glow.
Kaito stood up from his bed and walked over to his mirror.
He looked closely at his own reflection.
Objectively speaking, Kaito was a very handsome young man.
He was quite tall with long, black hair. He had broad shoulders that perfectly framed his body. His skin was smooth, and his facial features were sharp enough to be on the cover of a magazine.
If this were a normal, peaceful world, he could easily become a famous actor or a teenage idol.
Girls would definitely line up just to hand him love letters. He would probably live a comfortable life filled with luxury.
However, the universe had a very sick sense of humor.
There was a fatal flaw in his perfect appearance.
His body was ridiculously frail.
It was like putting a cheap, rusty toy engine inside a million dollar luxury sports car.
He could not even do a simple hundred meter run without collapsing to the ground and gasping for air like a dying fish.
In a brutal world where physical strength and magical combat power meant everything, his good looks were completely and utterly useless.
Naturally, with a body this pathetic and weak, he was not qualified to become a Hunter.
Kaito turned his gaze away from the mirror.
He stared at the official graduation robe hanging neatly on his bedroom wall.
Looking at it, Kaito could only let out a heavy, depressed sigh.
His greatest dream in life was to become a Hunter.
Hunters were the glorious, highly respected warriors of mankind. They risked their lives every single day to hunt the terrifying Daemons who constantly invaded the Earth.
They were the only ones capable of protecting regular people from the forces of evil.
A thousand years ago, the history of the world changed forever.
The very first Daemon came to Earth through a massive portal known to history as the Infernal Gate.
This terrifying gate randomly opened right inside the Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.
From that tragic point onward, mankind fell into absolute chaos.
The forces of evil were practically invincible. They ruthlessly annihilated human armies in every single encounter.
Guns, tanks, and missiles were like throwing tiny pebbles at a solid steel wall. Millions died in the blink of an eye.
However, the hopeless situation finally changed during the First Crusade. This was shortly after the Daemons completely occupied the entire African continent.
Humanity was pushed to the absolute brink of extinction, but they miraculously learned a new trick.
They learned the supernatural ability to sense and manifest Daemonic Energy.
This was the very same dark energy that spread endlessly through the Infernal Gate.
By using this energy, humans created incredibly powerful combat techniques. They finally fought back.
They successfully reclaimed the land they had lost and aggressively pushed the monsters back to where they came from.
The final, bloody battle during the First Crusade took place in the modern day Suez Canal.
Facing an enormous force of millions of Daemons, the strongest Hunters from that era joined hands.
They performed a miracle.
They created the Holy Wall.
It spanned hundreds of kilometers just to contain the Daemons from leaving Africa. It was roughly eighty meters tall and practically indestructible.
Since then, humanity had been locked in an eternal war against the Daemons.
Unfortunately, they made insignificant progress even after a millennium of nonstop fighting.
Thinking about this history, Kaito's expression suddenly turned very somber.
If the Daemons were completely trapped in Africa, why was he so obsessed with fighting them?
His parents had been brutally killed by a stray Daemon right in front of his eyes when he was only ten years old.
Although the Daemons were mostly contained behind the Holy Wall, things had drastically changed five hundred years ago.
A ridiculously powerful Daemon entity named Beelzebub appeared.
Beelzebub cast a global curse known as the Ruinous Dimension.
This annoying spatial magic allowed a small number of Daemons to be teleported everywhere across the Earth at random intervals.
This caused absolute havoc. Humanity quickly realized they were not safe, even if they lived thousands of miles away from the African warzone.
Ever since the day his parents died in pools of their own blood, Kaito had sworn a solemn oath.
He wanted to violently wipe out every single Daemon that dared to step foot on Earth. He wanted them to feel the exact same despair he felt.
But reality was a harsh teacher. It was impossible.
His physical body was just simply too weak.
Moreover, Kaito suffered from an even bigger, much more fatal problem.
He could not sense Daemonic Energy at all.
Sensing this dark energy was the absolute basic fundamental requirement of becoming a Hunter.
Even the lowest ranking Hunters in the world possessed at least one percent Resonance with the energy.
Kaito possessed absolute zero.
Without it, Kaito would never be able to kill any Daemon. He was just a sitting duck waiting for his turn to be slaughtered.
"Am I really going to live my whole life hiding like a coward?"
Just when he thought about this depressing fact, his room suddenly shook.
BOOM!
The floor violently rattled. His desk lamp flickered wildly.
Kaito desperately grabbed his bedframe. He thought there was a massive earthquake happening.
Japan had plenty of earthquakes, so he did not panic immediately.
However, a sickening smell suddenly filled the air. It smelled like rotten eggs mixed with old, decaying blood.
Kaito slowly looked up from his window.
He could see a grotesque, terrifying creature creeping inside his room.
It had multiple twisted limbs and a huge mouth full of jagged, razor sharp teeth. Disgusting drool fell from its jaw and sizzled against the wooden floorboards.
It was looking right at him.
"Daemon?!"
Kaito fell backward onto the floor. His heart felt like it was going to explode right out of his chest.
He desperately wanted to run. He wanted to scream loudly for help.
But his frail body completely froze in absolute terror. The heavy pressure radiating from the monster was suffocating.
The monster raised its sharp, bloody claws, ready to tear the weak human boy to shreds.
Along with this terrifying moment, something strange happened.
A sudden, cold mechanical voice echoed directly within his brain.
[Ding! Ultimate Test Have Started!]