6 THE FIRST NEW GENERATION Date: May 27, 2026 Time: 10:27 AM Location: Adamawa State, Nigeria The sky above Adamawa no longer looked natural.
Dark fractures stretched across the heavens like broken glass, leaking strange colors into the atmosphere while smoke drifted upward from the burning city below.
Sirens echoed endlessly in the distance.
Somewhere farther south, several buildings were still collapsing from the earlier battle between AETERNUS and MALGRATH.
High above the destruction, a colossal crimson dragon flew through the clouds.
Eight enormous wings cut through the air with enough force to scatter storm clouds apart.
Blue frost flames drifted across crimson scales while faint traces of unstable purple energy occasionally flickered around his claws.
Below him, the city looked smaller than before.
Fragile.
Roads were clogged with abandoned vehicles.
Apartment buildings burned openly.
Some people ran through the streets carrying children or supplies while others hid wherever they could find shelter.
Soldiers fought desperately against monsters that had appeared only hours earlier.
AETERNUS watched everything in silence.
The emotions inside him felt strange now.
Human concern still existed, but something colder had begun growing underneath it.
Detached.
Predatory.
Ancient.
Weakness invites extinction.
The thought surfaced naturally in his mind.
AETERNUS slowed slightly midair.
For a brief moment, the idea almost felt reasonable.
Then he frowned.
“No.” His voice rolled through the clouds like distant thunder.
“I’m still human.” But even while saying it, uncertainty lingered beneath the words.
Because human beings were not supposed to survive impacts that shattered buildings.
They were not supposed to breathe frozen fire or split cities apart with energy attacks born from instinct.
And human beings definitely were not supposed to enjoy flying this much.
The wind crashed against his scales as he accelerated again.
Far below, several monsters suddenly scattered in panic before he even reached them.
His presence alone was becoming enough to terrify weaker creatures.
That realization unsettled him more than he expected.
Then his senses caught something familiar.
Two presences.
Temitope.
Damilola.
AETERNUS immediately changed direction.
The air exploded behind him as he descended toward Airport Academy.
Date: May 27, 2026 Time: 10:29 AM Location: Airport Academy, Adamawa State The school grounds had become a battlefield.
Smoke drifted through the courtyard.
Several buses had overturned near the entrance gate, and broken glass covered the pavement.
Students huddled inside damaged classrooms while teachers attempted to organize evacuations with rapidly failing authority.
Temitope Olaniyi stood near the center of the courtyard breathing heavily.
Her school uniform was stained with ash and partially burned along one sleeve.
Heat shimmered faintly around her hands as orange flames flickered across her fingers instinctively.
In front of her lay the body of a wolf-like monster with cracked black scales.
She had killed it less than thirty seconds earlier.
And she still hadn’t fully processed that fact.
Beside her, Damilola clutched a small backpack tightly against her chest.
Unlike Temitope, her fear mixed strangely with fascination.
Every few seconds, she glanced around as if listening to sounds nobody else could hear.
Her Spirit affinity continued feeding her fragments of information she barely understood.
Hungry things.
Angry things.
Dying things.
And somewhere above all of them— something vast.
Damilola suddenly stopped walking.
“He’s here,” she whispered.
Temitope turned sharply.
“What are you talking about?” Before Damilola could answer, the atmosphere changed.
It began subtly.
The monsters froze first.
Several flying creatures circling above the school abruptly stopped moving before retreating backward in visible panic.
The smaller beasts near the school gate whimpered and lowered themselves toward the ground instinctively.
Even the air felt heavier.
Students slowly noticed it too.
Conversations died mid-sentence.
Some people looked upward.
Others simply felt it.
A pressure unlike anything they had experienced before descended across the school grounds.
Then the clouds split apart.
A colossal crimson dragon emerged from the sky.
Screams erupted instantly.
Several students collapsed backward in terror while teachers shouted useless instructions nobody followed.
One injured boy near the staircase began crying uncontrollably the moment he saw the creature descending toward the school.
The dragon landed with overwhelming force.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The courtyard cracked apart beneath its weight.
Dust, frost, and shattered concrete exploded outward in every direction.
Temitope froze completely.
Her brain struggled to connect what she was seeing with reality.
The dragon lowered its massive head toward them slowly.
Blue eyes glowed within the smoke.
Not hostile.
Familiar.
Then the transformation began.
Crimson scales dissolved into streams of energy.
The enormous body rapidly shrank while the eight wings collapsed into drifting frost flames.
Seconds later, a young man stood where the dragon had been.
Tall.
Pale-skinned.
White hair streaked with crimson and icy blue.
Glowing sapphire eyes that no longer looked entirely human.
Temitope stared blankly.
“…Ayo?” Damilola immediately pointed at him excitedly.
“I knew it!” AETERNUS opened his mouth to speak— SMACK!
Temitope punched him directly in the shoulder.
He blinked in shock.
“What was that for?!” “You disappeared!” Her voice cracked slightly despite her anger.
“We thought you died!” The words hit harder than the punch.
AETERNUS paused.
Only then did he fully notice her trembling hands.
The burn marks on her sleeves.
The exhaustion in her face.
For all his new power, his family had spent the apocalypse believing they might never see him again.
“…Sorry,” he said quietly.
Temitope looked away immediately, embarrassed by the tears forming in her eyes.
Around them, frightened students stared silently.
One teenage boy whispered shakily to his friend: “That’s the dragon…” Another student slowly activated her status screen with trembling fingers.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ NAME: ESTHER DANJUMA RACE: HUMAN RANK: G-RANK LEVEL: 2 AFFINITY: WIND ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ She looked between the screen and AETERNUS repeatedly, struggling to understand the difference between ordinary awakened humans and whatever he had become.
Nearby, a middle-aged teacher named Mr.
Suleiman cautiously stepped forward despite his fear.
His glasses were cracked, and blood stained one side of his shirt from a monster attack earlier.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ NAME: IBRAHIM SULEIMAN RACE: HUMAN RANK: G-RANK LEVEL: 1 AFFINITY: EARTH ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ He swallowed nervously before speaking.
“…Are you here to help us?” AETERNUS looked around the ruined school.
The injured students.
The fear.
The dead monsters.
Then he nodded once.
“Yes.” And for the first time since the system appeared, some of the students finally felt hope instead of panic.
Date: May 27, 2026 Time: 10:41 AM Location: Air Force Comprehensive School, Yola Tomi Olaniyi sat against a damaged classroom wall trying to steady her breathing.
Around her, injured students received rushed first aid from terrified teachers.
Water still floated unconsciously around her arms in slow spirals, responding directly to her emotions.
She still wasn’t used to that.
A dead flying creature lay half-submerged in a puddle nearby, its body broken from her earlier attack.
Every few minutes, Tomi glanced at it again.
I actually killed that thing.
The thought felt unreal.
Outside, military vehicles sped through the streets while helicopters circled above the city searching for survivors.
Then shadows suddenly swept across the school grounds.
Students panicked again immediately.
Somebody screamed: “Another monster!” Tomi looked upward— and froze.
A crimson dragon descended through the clouds surrounded by blue frost flames.
The pressure alone silenced the area.
Even before the transformation happened, she somehow knew who it was.
Moments later, AETERNUS landed before the damaged school building.
“You okay?” he asked.
Tomi stared at him for several long seconds.
“…You turned into a dragon.” AETERNUS rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
“…Yeah.” Despite everything happening around them, Tomi laughed weakly.
“That sentence is insane.” Even AETERNUS smiled slightly at that.
For a brief moment, the apocalypse felt strangely distant.
Then nearby system windows flickered rapidly.
[WARNING.] [PRIMORDIAL PRESSURE DETECTED.] [LOWER-RANK ENTITIES EXPERIENCING FEAR RESPONSE.] Several remaining monsters fled the area immediately afterward.
AETERNUS frowned slightly at the notifications.
He was beginning to affect the environment itself simply by existing.
And that worried him more than he admitted aloud.
Date: May 27, 2026 Time: 11:12 AM Location: FMC Yola, Adamawa State The hospital had descended into organized chaos.
Doctors moved injured civilians through overcrowded hallways while generators struggled to keep sections of the building powered.
Some awakened patients accidentally activated abilities during panic attacks, creating even more problems for exhausted staff.
David Olaniyi stood near the shattered entrance helping stabilize an injured nurse when the pressure arrived.
People stopped moving instinctively.
Outside, clouds parted above the hospital.
Then the dragon descended.
Several civilians screamed.
Others backed away immediately.
A young nurse dropped the medical supplies she had been carrying.
David narrowed his eyes upward.
“…Ayo.” Moments later, AETERNUS transformed and landed near the hospital entrance.
Silence spread through the surrounding crowd.
One older doctor whispered under his breath: “That thing can’t possibly be human…” AETERNUS heard him.
And honestly, part of him agreed.
David approached slowly until he stood directly in front of his son.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
David noticed everything immediately.
The unnatural eyes.
The faint frost drifting from his skin.
The overwhelming presence pressing against the atmosphere itself.
But beneath all of that— he still recognized his son’s expression.
Concern.
Fatigue.
Relief.
“…Are you still yourself?” David finally asked.
The question caught AETERNUS off guard.
Not because it offended him.
Because he genuinely didn’t know the answer.
After a long silence, he answered honestly.
“…I think so.” David studied him quietly before nodding once.
“That’s enough for now.” Something inside AETERNUS relaxed at those words.
Not complete relief.
But enough.
Date: May 27, 2026 Time: 11:47 AM Location: Olaniyi Residence Julie cried the moment AETERNUS walked through the door.
Not dramatically.
Not loudly.
Just quiet tears from accumulated fear finally breaking apart.
Mayowa still looked stunned every time she glanced at him, while Damilola openly circled around him like an excited researcher examining a mythical creature.
“So cool…” she whispered.
Temitope immediately smacked the back of her head.
“Stop treating this like anime.” “But it literally is!” Tomi burst into laughter from the couch while even David smiled tiredly nearby.
The sound felt strangely precious.
Outside, the world continued collapsing.
But inside the house, for the first time since the apocalypse began, the Olaniyi family was together again.
And that mattered more than ranks or systems.
For now.
THREE DAYS LATER Date: May 30, 2026 Time: 7:13 PM Location: Olaniyi Residence Rain tapped softly against the windows while system screens floated throughout the living room.
The atmosphere inside the house had changed over the past three days.
Not normal.
But calmer.
People adapted surprisingly quickly when survival demanded it.
Temitope practiced flame control near the backyard entrance while Tomi experimented with compressing water into rotating spheres.
Mayowa quietly studied moonlight reinforcement techniques through system tutorials, and Damilola continued trying to communicate with wandering spirits despite repeated warnings from everyone else.
Julie focused on healing abilities.
David researched constantly.
And AETERNUS— AETERNUS was changing fastest of all.
He stood near the window silently studying his status screen.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ NAME: AETERNUS ASGORATH MORNINGSTAR FORMER NAME: AYOMIDE OLANIYI RACE: PRIMORDIAL DRAGON RANK: E-RANK LEVEL: 31 AFFINITY: COSMO ICE TITLE: FIRST NEW GENERATION PRIMORDIAL DRAGON ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Blue-white frost flames flickered faintly around his fingers.
He could feel his instincts evolving every day.
His senses had become sharper.
His emotions felt heavier.
Even hunger no longer resembled ordinary human hunger sometimes.
That realization unsettled him quietly.
Behind him, Mayowa suddenly spoke.
“You’re thinking too loudly again.” AETERNUS blinked.
“…What?” She pointed toward the frost spreading unconsciously across the nearby wall.
“Oh.” He quickly pulled the energy back.
Mayowa smiled faintly.
“You do that whenever you’re stressed.” For a moment, AETERNUS just stared at his sister.
Then he laughed softly.
Maybe I’m still more human than I thought.
Date: May 30, 2026 Time: 1:44 PM Location: Paris, France Lucia Devereux stood alone inside a ruined apartment bathroom staring into a cracked mirror.
Rainwater leaked through the ceiling above her while shadows moved unnaturally around the room.
Her younger brother remained near the doorway pretending not to stare at her glowing crimson eyes.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CURRENT NAME: NOXARA VEILBORN FORMER NAME: LUCIA DEVEREUX RACE: SHADOW VAMPIRE RANK: E-RANK AFFINITY: BLOOD / SHADOW ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Lucia touched her reflection slowly.
Even her heartbeat sounded different now.
“…What am I becoming?” Her brother hesitated before answering quietly.
“…Still my sister.” The shadows around her calmed slightly after that.
Date: May 30, 2026 Time: 8:03 PM Location: Moscow, Russia Snow drifted through a destroyed military zone while gravity distorted faintly around Ivan Petrov’s massive frame.
Several damaged tanks remained half-crushed nearby from an earlier training accident.
Russian soldiers kept their distance despite the freezing weather.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CURRENT NAME: THORVAK TITANBLOOD FORMER NAME: IVAN PETROV RACE: PRIMORDIAL TITAN RANK: E-RANK AFFINITY: EARTH / GRAVITY ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ One nervous soldier finally asked: “…Do you think you’ll appear in the rankings?” Ivan stared toward the fractured sky.
“If I don’t,” he answered calmly, “then the rankings are wrong.” The ground cracked beneath his boots.
Nobody laughed.
ONE WEEK LATER Date: June 6, 2026 Time: 9:58 AM Location: Earth Life across the planet paused.
In Lagos, traffic slowly stopped as drivers stepped out of vehicles to stare upward.
In Tokyo, conversations inside crowded train stations died away one by one.
In Paris underground shelters, frightened civilians looked toward the trembling ceiling as blue light spread across the surface above them.
Even monsters hesitated.
Then the world screen returned.
It illuminated the heavens with impossible scale, visible from every continent simultaneously.
Inside the Olaniyi residence, silence filled the living room.
Julie clasped her hands nervously while David adjusted his glasses for the third time in less than a minute.
“…Do you think your name will appear?” Julie asked softly.
AETERNUS didn’t answer immediately.
Because deep down, he already knew.
Yes.
Not from arrogance.
From instinct.
Something within him had been aware of the system’s attention for days now.
Watching.
Evaluating.
Measuring.
Then the screen changed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [TOP 30 FIRST NEW GENERATION RACES WILL NOW BE REVEALED.] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Across Earth, millions stopped breathing for just a moment.
In Paris, Lucia closed her eyes.
In Moscow, Thorvak folded his arms silently.
Inside a heavily guarded American facility, Kael Vantharion watched space distort around his fingertips.
And in Nigeria— blue frost flames suddenly erupted around AETERNUS instinctively.
The room temperature plummeted.
Everyone looked toward him immediately.
But AETERNUS barely noticed.
Because for the first time since his evolution began— he felt them.
Other New Generations.
Distant.
Powerful.
Awake.
And somehow connected to him through the same terrifying transformation reshaping the world.
Then slowly— the first name began appearing across the sky.