For many years, the world was in a state of perpetual peace, with occasional wars that came to the attention of countries but were quickly settled or ignored as they did not pose a major problem for the world powers.
But that was more than 70 years ago, before the first rifts began to appear around the world. When it was discovered that the rifts contained not only strange creatures, but also valuable resources, all countries began to covet the realms.
Wood, oil, water, and minerals were all resources that were slowly being depleted around the world, so the rifts were a breath of fresh air for the world powers, who were quick to monopolize the rifts.
They invested in the development of new technologies and in supporting the people who possessed them, as they were the ones who could protect them from the calamities within the rifts.
Over the years, these people formed families who used their power and influence to fight for these resources and increase their wealth.
Eventually, after many years, man's greed broke the sack, and the first cataclysm came.
The rifts were dangerous places, yes, but they were not dangerous in themselves, the calamities within them had no way out, it was only thanks to human intervention that this happened.
If one person enters a rift and dies, nothing happens. But if twenty people enter a rift and all of them die, then the stability of the rift will fluctuate, and then the calamities can come out. The reason for this was still a mystery.
At one point in history, a great world power ignored the warnings of world organizations that prevented the exploration of the upper rifts. They sent their best men to explore and secure them in order to exploit the resources. Tens if not hundreds of people were sent into the rift to clear it.
Then, after a few weeks... none returned. Instead, the calamities that lived inside came out of the rift and ravaged everything around them.
The strongest had died within the realm, leaving no one capable of stopping the calamities. Before reinforcements arrived from other countries, the world power was gone in less than a week.
Millions of people died, unable to defend themselves. It was the first time that mankind felt the real danger of calamities... but one warning was not enough.
During the 70 years of history, 3 cataclysms occurred, wiping out dozens of countries, places now inhabited by calamities with no sign of human's life.
After the third cataclysm, humanity united.
With a third of the planet's territory occupied by calamities, countries were left behind, then those families with enough power to defend themselves against the calamities took their place. All this under the regime of one world government ruling the world.
With this radical change, the world was once again at peace.
Nathan walked discreetly through the busy streets of the outskirts. He looked around nostalgically, remembering the days when he had to dig through the rubbish to find food.
That was all behind him now, he had only been doing it for a few months, but it was something that marked him forever.
Now he had a bed and a hot plate of food every day.
It had been 7 months since Nathan had almost died at the hands of the Blood Ogre, which meant he had been out of the hospital for 4 months.
During that time, he had concentrated on regaining his normal physical condition and training his essence.
Syril had lent him his arena, so Nathan began to train there quite often. There were days when he slept in the arena itself, too lazy to go back to his quarters.
He had asked Dilliard why he didn't have anything like Syril's, and Dilliard had replied in one sentence.
"Because I'm poor"
Nathan didn't understand Dilliard. Did it take money to have such a building? Wasn't it given by the organization itself?
Without fully understanding, Nathan had to stay in his small room in the dormitories.
As he did not appear much in public, the cadets began to rumor that he had died or perhaps left the island. But when some saw him returning late at night from the building where Syril lived, they began to speculate.
But Nathan didn't care about these silly rumors, he just concentrated on his own business.
On the other hand, he had not seen Maya since that day. So, they had not had a chance to talk. Nathan hadn't really wanted to tell her much, just to make sure that the young woman hadn't revealed her identity but considering that so many months had passed, and no rumors had started, he assumed that Maya had kept the secret.
It came as a surprise because, as far as Nathan knew, the young woman loathed him.
But when he put all that behind him, not much had really happened. It had been two months since he had been given another mission, and only now had he been given his new one.
Nathan paused and sighed before reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out a piece of paper.
'It's supposed to be here'
He found himself at the end of a rather empty street on the outskirts of the city. Years ago, he would have been afraid to be alone in the middle of the outskirts... but now it was different.
Pushing these thoughts aside, Nathan looked at the building in front of him. The led sign showed a woman holding a beer mug.
'A bar? Why would they send me to a bar?'
Nathan checked the address he had been given and, seeing that it was correct, pulled the door handle and entered.
Once inside the bar, he found a busy atmosphere, with dozens of people talking to each other, drinking, and having fun.
Nathan was surprised as it wasn't the usual scene he had seen in the outskirts.
'I guess it's not all bad here...'
Seeing that everyone was ignoring him, Nathan walked over to the bar and sat down in an empty chair, resting his arms on the bar as he waited for the bartender to serve him.
Some people looked at him strangely as Nathan still had the hood of his coat on, mainly because he had his mask on and didn't want to be seen too much.
He knew his mask was somewhat famous, so the less attention he attracted the better.
He wasn't the only person who wore a mask, it wasn't that unusual. There were some people who preferred to live in anonymity, so it was not uncommon to see them covering their faces.
Waiting longer than expected, Nathan began to think that the bartender was deliberately ignoring him.
Nathan became impatient and began tapping the table with the index finger of his left hand, while holding the paper with the instructions in his right hand, when he suddenly felt someone sit down next to him and put an arm around him.
Nathan swallowed hard as he could barely feel the person sitting next to him.
His senses had improved a lot compared to a few months ago, and he didn't even need to strengthen his body with essence to sense the people around him. That's why he felt strangely in danger with the person next to him.
"Are you new here? I've never seen you before"
A soft voice reached his ears, Nathan turned his head slightly and saw a woman wearing an elegant red dress that didn't fit in with the surroundings and the place they were in.
Nathan was momentarily struck by the woman's beauty, her long red hair waving like beautiful flames, her blood red eyes looking at him sensually.
He had seen many beautiful women like Syril. But the woman next to him had a much more mature and… dangerous aura.