Chapter 25: Hope Beneath Collapse

The countdown ticked on in the sky like a silent omen.

Above the ruined city, above the burning skyscrapers, the collapsing highways, the swirling ash. A figure hovered as if the dying world beneath him barely existed.

Ishtar’ka.

He drifted through the smoky heavens like a phantom verdict rendered in human shape. His form shimmered in and out of visibility, fracturing at the edges where mana distorted the air. Pale white hair floated behind him in long, weightless strands, lit faintly by the glow of distant fires. His silver eyes, slit-pupiled, ancient, merciless surveyed the chaos below with the detached quiet of a being who had judged countless worlds before this one.

A burning tower groaned beneath its own molten ribs before buckling in half. The collapse erupted into a plume of orange and black that washed upward like funeral incense.

Ishtar’ka inhaled quietly.

“The scent of endings never changes. Smoke… screams… fear… desperation.”

The tremors from the collapse rippled through nearby structures, glass shattering, metal screaming, loose signage clanging like distant bells. Below him, gunfire stuttered weakly against the roars of monsters. Mana flickered across ruined streets in erratic blue-white veins.

Every breath the city took was labored.

Every sound was a plea.

He did not feel pity.

His body, tall and sinuously built, held the effortless poise of a predator unconcerned with prey. Even suspended in the sky, he seemed carved from something colder than marble, lean muscle coiled beneath skin that glimmered faintly like frost.

“Another world teetering on the edge of collapse,” he thought. “Another species struggling to prove its worth before the test truly begins.”

A distant boom drew his gaze downward.

A herd of Ferrinox thundered through a shattered plaza beneath him. Their three-horned heads plowed aside debris like paper. Their metallic hides, dark, tempered plates rippling with raw mana, caught the dying sunlight and reflected it in violent flashes. Their hooves struck stone with seismic force, each impact sending shockwaves through the ruined fountain they stampeded across.

Ahead of them stood a small squad of hunters armed with scavenged weapons, cracked armor plates, and hope far thinner than their trembling stance.

Ishtar’ka’s pupils narrowed.

“Fragile creatures… Always charging into battles they cannot win.”

One hunter, a crimson-haired woman sprinted across debris, jumping high her blade flashing as she narrowly dodged a charging Ferrinox. Dust billowed around her as the beast rushed past her. Shards of concrete skittered from the beast’s passing.

For a heartbeat, a flicker of potential glimmered around her.

Ishtar’ka tilted his head.

Then the second Ferrinox barreled in. Its horn caught her squarely in the side.

The impact cracked the air.

Her body struck a ruined wall like a doll hurled from the heavens. Blood splattered across the splintered concrete in an expanding crimson bloom. Her sword clattered to the ground, bouncing once, twice, then lay still.

“PRIYA!!!”

Her squadmates screamed her name.

Their anguish echoed across the broken plaza, raw enough to pierce the thunder of hooves.

Ishtar’ka watched impassively.

“They cry, though they know the truth. Death walks beside them as an old companion… Yet they still scream for its arrival.”

The remaining hunters did not flee.

They surged forward mana flaring around them in fractured halos of crimson, blue, and white. Rage twisted their faces. Their grief made their movements reckless. They were mortally wounded before they even struck their first blows.

But they fought.

One lost an arm to a sweeping horn.

Another’s leg was crushed beneath a stamping hoof.

Another was thrown so hard his body carved a trail through pulverized stone.

Yet together, screaming through agony, they dragged down one Ferrinox… then another.

The plaza shook as the beasts toppled.

Blood sprayed in thick sheets.

The air grew heavy with iron and steam.

The hunters’ roars half victory, half animalistic survival instinct echoed off the skeletal remains of the city.

Ishtar’ka felt his expression shift for the first time.

A subtle curl at the corner of his lips.

“Such defiance… Even knowing the outcome, they hurl themselves at fate with bared teeth.”

The portal overhead pulsed, its swollen, diseased glow rippling like a colossal heart convulsing in the atmosphere. Ash churned around its edges. More monsters spilled through its widening maw in droves.

On the city’s outskirts, another structure collapsed, its fall trembling through the bones of the dying metropolis.

Ishtar’ka’s eyes narrowed.

“But the era of watching ends now. This world begins its true maturation soon. And when the time comes… we shall see if these humans endure, or crumble like all the others.”

His pupils thinned, gleaming like razor slits of silver.

A simple snap of his fingers shattered his form into motes of white luminescence. They scattered like cold embers across the sky, drifting away on a mana-laden breeze.

The city mourned beneath him, screams, fire, collapsing metal. None of it enough to slow his departure.

The observer vanished.

The judgment had merely begun.

–

Hannah sat in the corner of the empty apartment, her knees to her chest and covering her ears as tears ran down her cheeks, her cries muffled as voices and constant thoughts and emotions flooding her head.

“Mom… Dad…”

“HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!!”

“I don’t want to die.”

People’s screams, cries, and wails rang through her ears, her vision blurred, the room was spinning, her breath was getting short, her heartbeat fast, her body felt weak, her hands shook violently,

“It’s just a dream, It’s just a dream, It’s just a dream, It’s just a dream,” Hannah chanted, but it wasn’t working,

The voices of people crying, screaming, wailing, begging, the sound of flesh tearing, bones snapping, the sound of guns and rifles being fired, the sound of helicopters and jets flying above, the sound of buildings collapsing, explosions, sirens blaring, monsters roaring. She could hear it all, she could feel it all, and she couldn’t stand it.

“PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!” She begged.

–

[Mental stability dropping. Stability 27%.]

–

Hannah curled up in a ball and covered her ears. She cried and begged,

“Someone… Please make it stop…”

Just as she was about to lose her mind a warm hand rested on her head and another on her shoulder, Hannah looked up to see a blurry figure.

“Shhh,” She hushed her, her voice soothing, “I’m here, I’m right here.”

It was Maria, she pulled her into her arm, cradling her. “Listen to my heartbeat,” Maria said as she gently moved Hannah’s head to her chest.

Hannah listened, her heart was beating slowly,

“Breathe in…” She inhaled. “And out,” She exhaled.

Maria’s hand stroked her hair as she gasped for a breath between breathes and tears.

Hannah began breathing along with Maria, her heart calming, the voices in her head disappearing.

Hannah’s body relaxed, her eyes closed, her breathing slowed and became steadier.

–

[Mental stability increasing. Stability 42%.]

–

“There you go,” Maria whispered. “You’re okay, I got you.”

“They are all dead…” Hannah sniffed, “The… kid… the others…”

Maria’s brows furrowed, she looked at Hannah’s face, her cheeks wet, her eyes bloodshot and red,

Steeling her resolve, she looked away.

“We can’t help them now,” Maria said, “We always look after ourselves first, and then those close to us, we can’t save everyone, not now at least. So, for now stay silent and get some sleep okay?”

Hannah nodded weakly, Maria wiped her tears away and, in her arms, she tightened her hold on Hannah. Maria hummed a Spanish lullaby to help her sleep.

Hannah’s eyelids slowly became heavy, and finally, she fell asleep.

Maria looked at her and sighed.

“God… If there is any, please give her the strength to keep going.” She prayed.

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