It's late 2027.

  The sun falls down once more on a typical everyday modern city view with golden orange hues coloring the horizon. The lights of the day break, giving the stage for the darkness of the night to take over its place.

  "Oh great, lost track of time again," Ethan stood up abruptly, picking up his bag and packing his laptop and books, he left his favorite desk in the library.

  The desk had a nice view of the city, just the perfect spot that allowed a clear view of the skies between two complimentary designed apartment buildings.

  Narrowing his eyes and with a slight confusion on his tired face after a whole day of hyper-focusing he notices that it looked like the sun was trying to set but stayed in the same place as night took over simultaneously, but the moon was nowhere to be seen.

  "Is the sunset supposed to have such exaggerated colors?" he asked himself out loud, in awe of the blue hue that turned the golden orange of the sky just a bit purplish.

  Looking around nervously, he passed through the infamous area of his hometown. He pressed his fist tighter on the straps of his bag as he picked up the pace.

  "If I miss today's dinner as well, getting mugged won’t even be the scariest thing happening because of me coming back late..."

  Arriving home, he saw everyone already around the table and comically froze.

  With a scary gaze, his mother - Sarah breaks the awkward moment of silence, "At least you’re consistent. I dare you not to succeed in this test if you’re not planning to come on time" she warned, half-jokingly - this was the weekly family dinner.

  "Dude, you literally live at the library. Might as well just pitch a tent there," Zoe said, scrolling through her phone with a smirk. "Though, I guess the Wi-Fi's probably better there."

  Ethan scoffed, leaning back in his chair. "Yeah, well, at least the library doesn't come with your constant commentary. I'll admit, the peace and quiet would be a welcome change before finals. This last few years are not really a student ideal study environment, I don't see you two doing any better... it's like the world's trying to speed run its own destruction."

  Lily, never one to miss a chance helping her sister to roast her brother, raised an eyebrow. "Geek, who does a speed run? Are you 15?"

  "Stop now, not while we eat, please. Cut it out" Sarah warned, cupping the side of her head with her hand. the hard work really grinding her gears.

  "You are doing the dishes because of that fashionable delay..." John, the three siblings’ father, decreed with a voice that left no doubt he was just throwing responsibility like an Olympic disk hurler.

  "Okay, okay, no need to go for the new blood in the table, how was the shift, mom?” Ethan asked and sat down in front of a waiting empty plate “people still hoarding like the world end tomorrow?" Ethan tried to break the ice of the conversation.

  "Can you blame anyone? The situation is so tense around with everything that’s happening. The only thing missing is gangs and robbers plainly going outside and attacking people" John answered.

  “With prices skyrocketing every two days, it feels like hiding stolen items between paid items is not different from the theft being done on us” Ethan stated dejectedly, "another day in—"

  "Paradise?" The sisters completed Ethan's usual overused catchphrase, already well-versed in it, nodding at the perfect sync with a childish high-five.

  As dinner came to an end, a knock at the door.

  Everyone sent a wary look as Ethan approached, looking through the little peephole on the door.

  With a ‘shoo’-ing gesture of his hand, he sent everyone to their daily evening routine and opened the door.

  “Hadn’t you been from the building next door, I would have been pissed off at you for going out so late,” Ethan scolded theatrically.

  “A thing that would not have happened if a friend would not have called me over after a few months of only texting at the last moment…” Liam rolled his eyes.

  “I most definitely… remembered you were coming today…” and safe, Ethan thumbed up himself.

  Liam looked at Ethan, rolling his eyes. “Pop a cold one, or I’m leaving.”

  A few moments later, the laughter of the two could be heard from the balcony between the hollow thumps of beer bottles lowered onto a glass table.

  Ethan leaned back, stretching his legs across the floor. “Is it just me, or does the sunset look... weird? Like it’s stuck. And what’s with the color? Golden-purple? It’s like god plays with his new filters”

  Liam followed Ethan’s gaze and snorted. “Weird sunsets are just what we need. Next thing you know, aliens are gonna pop out of the sky. Let’s officially make this century the worst one yet.”

  Ethan shook his head, smirking. “Classic red flag, dude. You’ve cursed us all. Great job.”

  Liam raised his bottle mockingly. “To doom and gloom!”

  “To your big mouth,” Ethan quipped, clinking his bottle against Liam’s with a faint chuckle.

  Liam took another swig of his beer and tilted his head. “Hey, here’s something I don’t get. Why is booze always cheap? Everything else—cars, groceries, even toothpaste—costs a fortune, but alcohol? It’s like they’re begging us to drink ourselves into a stupor.”

  Ethan let out a short laugh, the kind that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Cheap drinks for expensive problems. Keep the masses calm while the world burns, right? It’s practically humanitarian.”

  Liam raised an eyebrow. “That’s... dark, even for you.”

  Ethan shrugged, rolling the bottle between his palms. “Makes sense, though. A bottle’s cheaper than a shrink and easier to find than hope. Even the guy on the corner with holes in his shoes can drown his day for a few bucks.”

  The laughter faded between them. Liam’s gaze drifted toward the cityscape beyond the balcony.

  “What about you? You ever crack one open for that?” he asked, hesitantly.

  Ethan’s lips twitched, but the grin didn’t come. “Nah. I’m too stubborn. Besides, my mom still needs me to be her personal comic relief. Someone’s gotta make bad jokes while we’re all treading water.”

  Liam didn’t respond, but the silence between them carried its own weight.

  At home, only his mom and sister awaited. His father had caught a nasty lung disease working in a factory; he didn’t make it. Now, his family struggled to make the factory cough up some money to breathe.

  The battery of lawyers wasn’t something a common populace could deal with. Also, with the corruption of the insurance company over the last few years, there is no hope in sight.

  “Look at you, you studied so much you are now—” Liam’s words were cut off mid-sentence.

  At that moment, as if a punch went straight to his chest, it went through and reached a plane he didn’t know existed in him, Ethan recoiled back in his seat.

  A weird sensation of otherworldly scrutinizing and judgmental eye peered into his soul.

  [Ding! Analysis finished, Bloodline Detected - A spark of unknown origin(Uncommon)]

  And without notice, he felt as if thrown back to reality.

  “Liam, did you just…” Ethan asked skeptically.

  “Yes, what the….” He didn’t even manage to reply as a holographic screen appeared before Ethan.

  [Ding! This is an announcement to all living creatures on this plane.

  The threads of creation have shifted, and the hour of reckoning is at hand. The Seven Layers converge, their fractured echoes resonating as one. The Trial of Ascension begins anew—an ancient rite for the forsaken, the flawed, and the forgotten.

  For millennia, exiled races have wandered their mortal prisons, stripped of divinity, abandoned by their creators. Now, the cosmos demands an answer: will you rise above the ashes of failure, or will you be consumed by the flames of eternal obscurity?

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  Earth, the outermost layer of existence, is chosen. The cosmic stage is set. Mana flows freely, rewriting the essence of your world. From this moment, you are not alone. Races long buried in myth, beasts born of chaos, and gods whose names have faded into whispers shall walk among you.

  The system shall observe and record. No hand shall guide you, no mercy shall temper its judgment. The strong will ascend; the weak will be cast aside. This is not salvation. This is not punishment. This is a decree for a new order.

  3 minutes until dimensional convergence.

  Prepare for the great expansion. Your place in the hierarchy is yours to claim—or to get forgotten in the sands of time.]

  Shocked by the still floating holographic screen, Ethan checked to see if there was one in front of Liam and saw him staring dumbly at the air.

  “Everyone, quick! Come with me!” Ethan suddenly called out.

  A sense of collective confusion and panic palpably painted the house.

  “I hate to say it, but this feels like the start of every end-of-the-world story ever. Guess my bad jokes finally caught up with me,” he quipped, attempting to lighten the mood amidst the chaos.

  The eyes boring holes in him made it clear, it was a role 1, critical failure.

  Picking up his phone the screen was black, the back of the phone looked like the batteries about to explode, with a quick check all phones and more complex batteries, electric systems and power sources looked like they were in the same state.

  The crude and more simplistic old school batteries seemed more durable to whatever wave of energy caused this weird deformation of the electronic devices, it was Validated by looking at his survival like crude digital watch and a random food weight.

  As an earthquake began, increasing in intensity by the second Ethan picked up to backpacks. Staying on the sixth floor while in an active earthquake felt like the more dubious choice.

  five of the biggest knives, deodorants, bug killer spray, water bottles, a few cans, and lighters were thrown into the two. Locking the door they went out, picking the staircase over the elevator while an earthquake takes place is but the obvious course of action.

  A few more quick-witted people joined them as the gradual earthquake worsened. What felt like the collapse of the building came down on their heads. Floor by floor, they felt the concrete skies falling above them, and a deafening crash echoed from the walls all over them, this was the elevators falling from great heights, panic increased.

  ‘Damn it, We gotta go faster. What can I do?’ Ethan tried to calculate the situation he was in, followed by his family and Liam.

  All of a sudden, he felt the building quake worsening by the moment.

  The crumbling staircase groaned under the weight of panicked residents, the air thick with dust and the screams of those trapped above. Ethan, his mind reeling from the System's announcement and the collapsing building, stumbled forward, his family close behind. He reached a gap where the stairs had crumbled away, leaving a precarious path across a narrow beam.

  Liam, always the quicker one, took the lead. He didn't hesitate, scrambling across the beam with a desperate urgency. But as he reached the other side, the beam splintered and gave way, leaving a chasm between him and Ethan.

  "Liam!" Ethan yelled, his voice barely audible above the din. But Liam didn't look back. His eyes were wide with fear, his face pale, and he disappeared into the swirling dust and debris.

  Ethan felt a surge of anger and betrayal. His childhood friend, the one he'd shared countless hours with, had abandoned them without a second thought. He looked back at his family, their faces etched with fear and uncertainty. He couldn't let Liam's cowardice dictate their fate.

  He took a deep breath, steeling his nerves, deep down he knew what his friend was thinking, his family must be in the same situation, if not worse. Focusing back on his situation, he had to find a way across. His eyes darted around, searching for an alternative route, a hidden passage, anything that would allow them to escape this crumbling death trap.

  Furiously looking around, all but a jump that will be impossible for his parents to make was in his view. All of a sudden a sharp pain came from his torso, he knew from descriptions and common knowledge it was a sign for heart attack but, it was not his body that was aching it was something else, something different.

  Ethan’s vision blurred, his balance lost, and his mind was in turmoil.

  The world seemed to tilt, the groaning staircase echoing the nausea rising in Ethan's throat. He crumpled to his knees. The weight of the collapsing building pressing down on him, not just physically, but as a suffocating dread that threatened to crush his spirit. A searing pain tore through his skull, a blinding agony that eclipsed any injury he'd ever known. It was as if his very consciousness was being ripped apart, leaving him stranded in a maelstrom of suffering.

  His mother fell to her knees beside him, her care for her child and the ability to completely ignore the situation around them earning her both gazes of jealousy and disapproval for doing it in the middle of a collapsing stairwell, as the calmer people in the crowd showed a look of respect and sympathy, almost as if accepting their faith.

  A flicker of defiance lit up in Ethan seeing a tear form in his mother’s eye, urging him to help his family, but his body wouldn’t listen. Even registering his environment felt like a mountainous task.

  As the stairwell was struggling to hold its integrity, screaming people, assuming chaos and increasing panic - in front of a debatable gap between the staircases, a young man on his knees holding his chest as if his heart was about to explode.

  In his head the voice of the unknown system fighting against something from within, a feeling like an extremely violent meeting between two businessmen takes place.

  [Ding: mutation detected, initiating reassessment] the cold and robotic system sounded in his head , the system window which was blue turning black in front of his fleeting moment of clear visibility.

  ‘It spoke? The color is changing?’ he managed to slip in a thought before the next sting of pain

  The rings of the system kept on hitting like hammers, muffled and shuffled words took place in a manner he couldn’t disregard as a conversation, he felt like two maddened businessmen arguing, shouting in his ears.

  Weirdly enough it was the system that felt submissive, not the unknown feeling from his being.

  Then, without warning, like a mountain that was pressed down his frontal brain was lifted, his eyes sprang open, and he felt a surge of focus and strength like never before.

  Although it felt like long minutes passed for Ethan, for the people present in the stairwell a less than a minute went by not that he noticed or cared.

  Springing into action he looked around, then he noticed that he was in a state he could never miss, he was hyper focusing to a degree he never reached before, every detail, every sound, every brush of wind on his face was palpable, everything became unforgettable.

  Looking around for the brittle spot of a broken handrail, he gripped it and toppled it down with great force. Creating an improvised ladder, his family and the rest to keep on descending the stairs, 5 seconds later, a great weakness took over, noticed by his father he helped him move forward.

  Among all the panic and confusion the thoughts about all the people from the peripheral parts of the building falling or crushed to death haunted the escaping people filling them with guilt and dread, heck, who knows how many around the world are dying for not acting in time running from buildings, planes, moving cars, what happens in the seas?

  As countless thoughts ran through everyones’ mind, they sprinted down and left the building.

  Taking his family in toe, in a relative open clearing outside the now crumbled building.

  His sisters bursted out crying, unable to grasp the situation.

  His folks confused darting their heads all over for a safe haven for their children.

  Ethan snapped out of it. The chains of confusion and weakening he felt disappearing, startling his family, he took control of the situation, “We need a low safe place, a ground floor apartment would be idle. We need to lay low, lock ourselves in a safe place, let this whole collapsing world situation calm down and regroup!”

  “You are right! The private houses are that way” his father, John was the first to slap himself awake from the shock.

  “The collapsing of the building, the earthquake, we can only assume that the expansion the message of the black screen was telling us about is taking place already. You all saw it right?”.

  “Black? Mine is blue.” His mom corrects him, “my too” , “here as well”, and soon his family pointed out a glaring difference that he had no time to address.

  “I meant to say blue, I'm not focused, I guess” Ethan states, extremely unconvincingly, but what could they do? The world still shakes around them.

  “That means we have to be extremely aware of the surroundings, from slight rumbles to the ground cracking open, let's move” Ethan calls out trying to change the subject.

  adding mental note he pondered as they moved onward, ‘the system also mentioned monsters and other races. We could only be wishful in hoping it will be later on or at least, in a gradual and fair manner for the people of earth…the last thing we need is a damn minotaur casually walking around all of a sudden’.

  As they navigated the debris-strewn streets, Ethan's gaze snagged on a familiar sight – Liam's apartment building. The lower floors, where Liam's family resided, seemed relatively unscathed, a stark contrast to the surrounding devastation. A pang of guilt twisted in Ethan's gut. Despite Liam's escape, he understood his familial reasoning. He hoped they had managed to escape the chaos. But there was no time to dwell on it now; his own family needed him. He pushed the thought aside and focused on the path ahead.

  The world around them was a maelstrom of destruction. Buildings groaned and crumbled, the ground buckled and split, revealing gaping chasms. The very earth seemed to be stretching and expanding beneath their feet, making their progress feel like an endless uphill battle.

  Amidst the chaos, a flash of movement caught Ethan's eye. He squinted, focusing on three figures scrambling through the debris – Liam, his mother, and his younger sister. They were heading in the opposite direction, their faces etched with panic.

  "Liam!" Ethan shouted, his voice barely a whisper against the cacophony of collapsing structures and terrified screams. But Liam didn't react. He either didn't hear Ethan over the din or was choosing to ignore him, his focus solely on escaping the chaos. The uncertainty regarding what option is real left a bitter taste filled Ethan's mouth.