Felix couldn't look away from the devastation. His mind kept trying to reconcile what he was seeing with the memories of New Avalon he still carried.
The gleaming towers, the streets packed with hover vehicles, the neon signs that had made the city glow like a beacon at night. All of it was gone, replaced by this twisted mockery of civilization.
"I did this," he whispered, his voice hollow. "All those people. The entire world."
Cyber's hand landed on his shoulder, firm but not unkind. "You didn't do this alone, and you certainly didn't intend for it to happen."
"The Mana Integration Project had hundreds of scientists and engineers working on it. No one could have predicted what Mana would become."
"That doesn't make them any less dead."
"No," Cyber agreed. "It doesn't. But standing here drowning in guilt won't bring them back either. What matters now is what you do next."
Before Felix could respond, movement caught his eye. Not the jerky, mechanical motion of the corrupted machines, but something smoother. More purposeful. He raised his rifle instinctively, but Cyber pushed the barrel down.
"Wait," she said. "Look closer."
Felix squinted through the purple haze. There, moving between the ruins about two hundred meters away, were figures. Human figures.
Or at least, they looked human from this distance. They moved in a tight formation, weapons raised, advancing on one of the smaller corrupted machines that hadn't noticed them yet.
"There are still people alive?" Felix felt something stir in his chest. Hope, maybe, or just the desperate need to believe humanity hadn't been completely wiped out.
"More than you'd think," Cyber replied, pulling him back from the doorway and into cover. "Humanity adapted."
"They had to. Come on, we need to get to higher ground where we can observe without being seen."
She led him along the exterior wall of the facility, using the rubble and twisted metal as cover. Felix's enhanced body made the climbing easier than it should have been, and within minutes they were crouched behind what remained of a concrete barrier on an elevated platform that gave them a clear view of the street below.
The group Felix had spotted was closer now, and he could see them properly. There were five of them, and none of them looked like the humans he remembered.
The one in front was clearly a cyborg, even more extensively modified than Felix himself. Her entire left side was mechanical, covered in sleek armor plating that glowed with the same blue lines as his own augmentations. She carried a massive rifle that looked like it had been built from salvaged parts and pure determination.
Behind her was a man whose body seemed to flicker in and out of focus, like he was phasing between dimensions. Purple energy crackled around his hands, and when one of the corrupted machines lunged at him, he simply raised his palm. A wave of force erupted from his hand, slamming the machine into a wall hard enough to crumple its frame.
"Mana Wielders," Cyber explained quietly.
"After the initial outbreak, some humans discovered they could absorb and manipulate Mana without being corrupted by it."
"It took years of trial and error, and a lot of people died trying, but eventually they figured out how to harness it safely."
Felix watched in fascination as the third member of the group, a woman who looked entirely human except for the faint glow in her eyes, pulled a pistol and fired. The bullet that left her gun wasn't normal ammunition. It was pure condensed Mana, and when it hit its target, the corrupted machine simply disintegrated into scattered components.
"The Mana gives them abilities," Cyber continued. "Different ones depending on how they've trained and what their natural affinity is."
"Some can enhance their physical capabilities, making them stronger or faster. Others can manipulate energy directly, using it as a weapon or a shield. And a rare few can even interface with technology, bending it to their will the same way the corruption does."
The fourth fighter was an android, obvious from the way parts of its chassis were exposed, showing the machinery underneath. But unlike Cyber's sleek design, this one looked cobbled together from whatever parts had been available. It moved with practiced efficiency though, firing calculated shots that took down corrupted machines with minimal waste of ammunition.
"Wait," Felix said, something occurring to him. "If Mana corrupts technology, how is that android functioning?"
"How are you functioning, for that matter?"
Cyber's smile was grim. "Because we're not running on normal power systems anymore."
"After the outbreak, the remaining AIs and androids had a choice. Adapt or die. Those who survived learned to channel Mana through their systems, using it as both power and protection."
"It's like developing an immune system against a disease. We had to let a controlled amount of corruption in to build resistance against the uncontrolled kind."
The fifth member of the group below was the most disturbing to look at. At first glance, Felix thought they were wearing some kind of biological armor. Then he realized the truth.
The armor was growing out of their skin, crystallized Mana fused directly with human flesh in a way that should have been fatal. They moved with unnatural grace, and when they touched a piece of debris, the Mana crystals on their arm glowed and the entire chunk of concrete simply dissolved into dust.
"That one's a Fusion," Cyber said, her tone carefully neutral. "They've taken Mana integration to an extreme level, letting it physically merge with their bodies."
"It gives them incredible power, but it's also slowly killing them. Most Fusions don't live more than a few years after their transformation."
The group below finished off the last corrupted machine and immediately began salvaging parts from its corpse. They worked quickly and efficiently, clearly experienced at this kind of scavenging. The cyborg leader kept watch while the others stripped anything useful from the wreckage.
"How do they do it?" Felix asked.
"Learn to use Mana, I mean. Is there some kind of training program, or does it just happen naturally?"
"Both," Cyber replied. "Some people are born with a natural affinity for Mana."
"They can sense it, manipulate it instinctively. For everyone else, it takes time and practice. You have to learn to feel the energy around you, to draw it into yourself without letting it take control. Think of it like learning to breathe underwater."
"Your body doesn't want to do it, every instinct screams at you to stop, but if you can push past that and find the right rhythm, it becomes second nature."
She turned to look at him, her glowing eyes intense. "You already have an advantage though. Your Mana Integration System was designed to channel and control Mana at a level most Wielders could never achieve."
"That's why you could use that rifle earlier without any training. Your body already knows how to process the energy."
Felix looked down at his mechanical arms, watching the blue lines pulse beneath the plating. "So what does that make me? A Wielder? A cyborg?"
"Something more," Cyber said. "You're the prototype for what humanity could have become if the project had gone as planned."
"A perfect fusion of human, machine, and Mana. You can do things that would kill a normal Wielder or burn out a standard cyborg."
"Your system was designed to handle massive amounts of power and redirect it however you need."
She gestured toward the group below, who were now packing up their salvage. "See how the Wielder down there had to stop and rest after using that force blast?"
"And how the cyborg's rifle needs to cool down between shots?"
"You don't have those limitations. Your system constantly regulates the Mana flow through your body, storing excess energy and releasing it on demand. You could theoretically fight at full capacity for hours without tiring."
"Theoretically," Felix repeated. "But I just woke up and can barely walk without my legs shaking."
"That's just your muscles remembering how to work," Cyber said with a slight smile.
"Give it a few hours and some real combat experience. Your body will adapt faster than you expect."
The group below was moving out now, heading deeper into the ruins. Felix watched them go, struck by how fragile they looked despite their obvious power. Five people armed with salvaged weapons and abilities they'd had to learn through trial and error, facing an entire world of corrupted technology.
"How many survivors are there?" he asked. "Total, I mean."
Cyber was quiet for a moment. "Nobody knows for sure. The last census was done about fifty years ago, and even that was mostly guesswork."
"Best estimates put the global population somewhere between two and five million. Most of them are scattered in small settlements built in areas where the Mana corruption is less intense."
"A few larger cities have managed to survive, protected by Wielders and defensive barriers, but they're rare."
Five million. From a population that had been nearly twelve billion when Felix went into stasis. The number made him feel physically sick.
"There's a settlement about ten kilometers north of here," Cyber continued. "A place called Haven."
"It's one of the larger ones, maybe fifteen thousand people. They have Wielders, defenses, even some working technology. That's where we're headed."
Felix nodded slowly, still processing everything he'd learned. The world had ended, but humanity had refused to die. They'd adapted, evolved, found ways to turn the very thing that had destroyed their civilization into a tool for survival.
"Alright," he said finally, checking his rifle. "Then let's get moving. The sooner we reach this Haven, the sooner I can start figuring out how to fix the mess I made."
Cyber's expression softened slightly. "You can't fix everything, Felix. Some things are broken beyond repair."
"Maybe," Felix agreed, starting to climb down from their vantage point.
"But I have to try."