The distorted existence snaps its fingers. A wave of mana flows throughout the cosmos infecting several planets. But what we will delve into is ours, Earth.
It was January 4, 2019, a monumental night for humanity as the world's tallest building was being inaugurated. The Emiratis in their white robes stood in awe gazing upon the marvelous structure, the Burj Khalifa.
Not long ago, this would have been an unrealistic dream for humanity, but now it stood before them.
Fireworks were going off hither and thither.
The festive mood was held up by every person present.
Until, the moment of execution began.
The sky turned darker than the already dark night. The fireworks stopped. Each and every person felt a great deal of pressure pushing down on their hearts and the planet shook. A calamitous quake struck the whole Earth. The people at the site didn't experience the tremors. What they had to face was much more sinister.
A purple light shone throughout the celebrations.
Not from joy and celebration
But from chaos and destruction.
A huge portal ripped open underneath the skyscraper. The tower slowly descended underneath, rendering all the work and capital taken to build it, utterly useless.
Once it was completely sunken, creatures started pouring out. Each one more horrifying than the last. In truth, their formidability was a facade but their numbers made them a threat. Although strong, 3-4 adult men were enough to take on one of them. One trained muscular man would be enough to take on one on his own.
The pressure was lifted and people ran helter-skelter hoping to grasp survival. Although it was a lost cause for most. Most children survived due to the heroic compassion of the adults present. The vehicles sped off in hopes of saving the few evacuees.
The men left, fought back to hold them off until most of the weak men, women and children were evacuated. As the evacuations were wrapping up, the last left standing, ran the opposite direction. As measured, after 100m, the creatures stopped. They would not leave that 100m radius. Perhaps the unnamed god had other plans.
The humans retreated, and after interrogations and surveys,the government assessed the creatures' strength and intelligence. The strength was of 3 average men and their intelligence was almost none as they just marched forward and were easy to outrun. Military preparations were made and just 2 days later a task force of 20 men equipped with rifles, tasers and grenades was sent.
The monsters had poured out until the circumference they occupied had no space left to walk on.
The task force arrived on a military truck, confident yet scared due to the unnatural occurrence.
"What the hell's happenin'? The quakes and now this portal. How are you guys so calm?", a soldier says in an aggresive and frustrated tone.
"We're just as nervous as you, Jonas. Don't let the nerves get ya. This is a dangerous operation", the commander replies to comfort the frightened soldier.
"We're here. Arm yourselves", the commander orders. The soldiers carefully step down with their sights aimed at the creatures.
"What the hell are these things?", Jonas exclaims.
The team paces towards the creatures slowly.
"Alright, remember the orders. This is a simple mission. Fire!"
The team opens fire upon the creatures.
All the bullets ricochet off of their bodies and fly off in random directions.
One of the bullets hits a soldier in their toe.
"Jonas, take him to the truck and treat him! What are these guys made of?", says the leader.
The next hope were the grenades they brought. The commander throws one onto the ground inside the circumference.
As it's about to explode, one of the creatures kicks it towards the team.
"GRENADE, TAKE COVER!", shouts The commander as everyone scattered. All those years of training went to waste in a fleeting moment of panic. 20 soldiers arrived to the scene, yet only 4 made it out, 3 of which were injured.
Jonas hears the explosion and runs out of the truck hoping that everybody's safe and curious to see if the grenades worked on the creatures. All he comes to is a sight of, 18 lifeless corpses, and 2 unconscious, injured bodies. Jonas evacuates and follows procedure, giving the survivors medical care and taking their statements.
It was now evident that these creatures possessed atleast a sliver of intelligence and that modern weapons did not affect them whatsoever. The goverment proceeded to test all sorts of weaponry but the only thing that worked was raw physical human strength.
All the while, the media was in an uproar. The whole world astonished by these events, and all companies and investors that funded the Burj Khalifa were disheartened. All their money and hardwork was gone in an instant. The media speculated that the laws of science did not matter from that day on. False religions claimed that the day of judgement was coming and all sinners would perish.
Now that the government had a proper idea of what they were dealing with, they gathered an army of trained martial artists and physically strong combatants to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the creatures which were deemed as "Nekros" by the general public because of their lifeless or dead behaviour.
The next skirmish did not go as planned. The whole army of 50k fighters returned injured with 3k declared 'dead' in battle.
The Nekros were evolving, getting stronger. The circumference they inhabited was also growing slowly, day by day.
Eventually, several humans had unusual dreams on their 18th birthdays. A large and obese human looking creature with 2 heads was present. As big as a 5 storey building, towering over the human as they stood there. The heads would introduce themselves as the Quest-Giver and the Quest-Judge. The giver would give the human a quest, a God's desire that they wouldn't know. The Judge would bring the human back into a dream once they've completed their quest, to inform them about the power they've received and what their quest was.
The first few to complete these desires received overwhelming power. Some have perished, some remain alive and each is worshipped on a scale equal to a god with festivals and holidays for their births.
These heroes were the ones who saved humanity on the day of The Descent, when the unnamed god sent an extremely small fraction of his power in the form of a deity.
It was December 31st and 12:00AM was approaching. The humans celebrated for the creatures were no longer a threat with the powerful transcendents on their side and that the New Year was before them.
Unfortunately, all the festivities were in vain as the worst was yet to come. As soon as the clock struck 12, the portal enlarged until a humanoid figure walked out.
Adorned with blue protective draconic scales and the ability to exhale scorching blue flames. It's skin, grey, hidden below the scales. A charming face with fangs reaching his chin. Hair, long till where his wings sprouted out of his back and most of all, a devastating mana field enveloping it.
It flew out and wreaked havoc. It seemed as though, the very idea of destruction had been implanted into it's mind as it destroyed everything in sight.
The heroes were deployed immediately in a desperate rush to save humanity. The heroes' ears rung as the freak of nature screamed,
"GOD HAS COME TO DESTROY."
The humans scoffed at this obnoxious line and fought back with all their might, not believing that a God has descended to eradicate them.
The battle raged on for hours and after a severely long struggle, Hermes, the hero of Thievery stole the final blow, defeating the cosmic draconic entity.
The monster's might proved it might have actually been a form of a god and the humans proceeded to believe that.
Humanity took a year or two to get back on its feet after the catastrophic damage caused by the god's descent. It marked the beginning of a new era for humanity as these portals started appearing throughout the whole planet, none as strong as the first.
Humans created evaluation systems, found magical devices to assess mana and created a whole framework and system of operations regarding these new supernatural occurences.
The Transcendent association was brought into fruition by many government subsidies and donations. They classified the portals between several ranks ranging from S,A,B...F. Netizens joked saying that the manhwa and webtoons have come to life.
The Transcendents were also ranked using the same system. On average, a party of 5 F rankers is adequate to take on an E class dungeon.
The association used specially designed devices to gauge the mana concentration of a portal or to measure the strength of a transcendent. The occupation of transcendent, got normalised as a job akin to superheroes and kids all over the world dreamed to become one. Parents often disapproved of it, saying it's dangerous and similar to sending your children to war but people often argued that a transcendent's job is a cakewalk due to the supernatural strengths and powers.
Perhaps you might become one as well...