A black sky.
In a city where neon lights should shine under a starry sky, everything had gone dark.
Only ruins remained.
"Uff..."
Liam Tubor let out a long sigh.
The smell of blood still permeated the air, thick and metallic.
"It seems that..."
He didn't finish the sentence.
Death was near. So near that he could feel the cold creeping across his skin. Yet he felt no fear. No anger. Only despair.
Because the words, floating before his eyes, were precisely what he had been trying to escape for so long.
[You have failed to complete the final stage.]
[Several constellations witness your final moments.]
[The Stigma [Infinite Regression (Mythical)] has been activated. You will return to the past.]
Liam spat out a mouthful of blood.
His body was beginning to go numb.
"It seems I still can't die properly."
Die. Wake up. Repeat.
He had gone through this process so many times that he had lost count. Each time was the same: he opened his eyes in the same place, at the exact moment, with a new body... and an increasingly older mind.
He hadn't cried in a long time. He didn't feel anger either.
Just exhaustion.
Liam just wanted a normal death.
Nothing more.
He sat atop a hill of corpses, blood flowing beneath his feet. Around him, several black tentacles writhed, slowly stirring in the air.
[The regression will begin shortly.]
Liam stared at the notification with an exhausted expression.
"Let's start this damn hell all over again."
He closed his eyes.
The world sank into darkness.
…
…
…
In a dark room, a man slept in the middle of a bed.
He wore pajamas that barely protected him from the early morning cold. The faint light of dawn began to filter through the window when, suddenly, a white flash illuminated the entire room.
The cold increased suddenly.
The man shivered.
He blinked.
He blinked again.
"Ugh... looks like I'm back."
Liam opened his eyes after taking a deep breath, trying to sort through the scattered thoughts that always accompanied regression.
The surroundings seemed all too familiar to him.
The old desk. The gaming computer. The phone, an iPhone 17, is on the nightstand.
Nothing had changed.
He sat up, ran a hand through his hair, and picked up his phone.
[28/03/2026]
[10:34 a. m.]
"Same as always."
He sighed, put the phone down, and went to the bathroom. Standing in front of the mirror, he looked closely at his reflection.
There were no scars.
Not a single one of the wounds that had covered his body before he died remained.
After showering, he returned to the room and dried his hair. At that moment, his phone vibrated.
Notifications.
[Liam, happy birthday. Let's go for a drink.]
[Happy birthday, when are we all getting together as a class?]
[Damn bastard, happy birthday. It's about time you learned about the pleasures of life.]
"Ah... right. My birthday."
He showed no surprise. He had read those same messages countless times.
Today was his birthday.
But it didn't feel like it.
Liam didn't respond. He had more important things to do before the "Scenarios" began.
He checked the time once more.
Twenty-six minutes to go.
"Let's start this hell all over again."
He grabbed his phone, left the apartment, and closed the door behind him.
The clock ticked relentlessly toward eleven o'clock.
...
The street was as busy as ever.
People rushing, horns honking, overlapping conversations. Everything was proceeding as usual, oblivious to the disaster that was about to unfold.
"It's still noisy..." Liam muttered.
He walked through the crowd to a small café on the corner and ordered a croissant and a latte. He sat down at one of the outdoor tables, where he could watch people coming and going.
He checked his social media while he ate breakfast.
The news was the same as always—no warning signs. No alerts.
In other regressions, he had tried to change things: leaking information, warning key people, even causing minor disturbances to alter the course of events.
Nothing had worked.
The result was always the same.
The phone vibrated.
Liam frowned.
[Arlene: Honey, where are you? I'm at your apartment.]
His hand stopped.
That message shouldn't exist.
In none of his previous regressions had Arlene written to him before the Scenarios began. Most of the time, when he came to find her, she was already dead.
Other times... they never managed to meet.
And yet, there was the message.
Liam looked down at the clock on his phone.
[10:50 a.m.]
Ten minutes to go.
Ten minutes before the world fell apart.
After a few seconds of silence, he replied.
[Liam: I'm at Wester's café. At the table outside.]
The reply came almost immediately.
[Arlene: I'll be there in five minutes.]
Liam closed the screen.
"Maybe... this time it will be different?"
He didn't know. Nor did he want to dwell too much on that possibility. Experience had taught him that clinging to hope only made the final blow more painful.
He leaned back in his chair and looked around.
A mother was arguing with her son about a book he had to return to the library. A couple laughed without a care in the world. Someone was taking photos in the middle of the street.
The normality was almost insulting.
Five minutes later, Liam looked up.
Arlene was there.
Her long, dark hair fell messily over her face. She wore a gray plaid coat, a black shirt, and dark blue jeans. In one hand, she held her phone, an iPhone 16 Pro Max.
When she saw him, she smiled and ran toward him.
She hugged him tightly.
Then she kissed him.
"Happy birthday, honey."
"Thank you..."
Liam hugged her back.
It was the first time in a long time that he had seen her alive. He felt something warm awakening in his chest, a feeling he thought he had forgotten.
The two sat down and began talking about their day and their plans for his birthday.
Then, an enthusiastic salesman knelt and pointed to a giant silver pyramid, flashing a fanatical smile:
"Thank you, God, for the sales you gave me today."
"Take a picture of me next to the big pyramid that's in the news."
"Are tourists still coming? What do they see that's new about that pyramid?"
"It's been 10 years since that pyramid appeared. I don't know what they find so appealing about it."
While chatting with Arlene, Liam looked up and gazed at the silver pyramid looming over New York City.
The structure floated among the clouds, an inverted quadrangular pyramid of silver metal. It wasn't golden, but cold, as if it didn't belong in this world.
It had appeared out of nowhere ten years ago, suspended above the Earth's atmosphere.
During the first month, the world panicked. Cities were paralyzed, supermarkets were emptied, and the word "end" dominated all the news. However, social order was maintained, and as time passed, humanity grew accustomed to its presence.
Today, the pyramid was just another one of the so-called wonders of the modern world.
Liam knew the truth.
It wasn't a miracle.
It was the announcement of the hell that was about to begin.
Then it happened.
BOOOOOM!!!
A loud explosion echoed around the world, and they watched as the silver pyramid that had been there for a decade disappeared into particles.
And what followed was pure chaos.
Ppang! ¡Ppang!
Bbiik- Bbiik- Bbiik-!
Car horns, alarms, and shouting.
"¡Kyaaaaaak!"
A woman's scream rang loudly in his ears.
Everyone's gaze turned in the same direction.
Liam calmly checked the time on his phone.
[11:00 a.m.]
Changes were beginning all over the world.
With a quick movement, he grabbed Arlene's arm just as she was about to run away.
"Stay by my side."
Boom!
Another explosion rocked the building.
The Earth shook violently, and the power went out instantly.
Screams, cries, and moans filled the streets. Some people stumbled and fell; plates crashed to the floor, overturned chairs rolled amid the chaos.
"I-is it an earthquake? What's going on?"
"Mom, I'm scared!"
"Has World War III started...?"
"Say something that makes sense!"
"My phone is dead too."
"What the hell is this?"
The murmur grew louder, more confused, and more desperate.
At that moment, the sun disappeared, replaced by a triangular moon, like a pyramid, which barely illuminated the outside.
Liam let out a long, tired sigh.
"It has begun..."
"¡Kyaaak!"
A woman standing by a window screamed and fell backward.
At the same time, something wet splattered on the glass.
Blood slowly ran down the window.
Then, two messages appeared before everyone's eyes.
[Planetary protection service #2026 has ended.]
[March 28th, 2026. Earth is connected.]