But not him. Never him.
Standing atop a tall building, Calamity Killer gazed down at the city he once protected. His black coat fluttered in the cold breeze, his fingers clenched into fists. He had returned after ten long years—weak, powerless, but alive. And as if fate itself had been waiting for him, the first gate in a decade had opened the moment he stepped back into this world.
A glowing blue rift crackled in the distance, illuminating the night sky. Screams echoed as creatures of nightmares poured from its depths. People ran, desperate to escape. Hunters—those who had once been warriors—hesitated. They were no longer the soldiers of war. They were relics of the past.
But he was The Past. And he had unfinished business.
"I thought you were dead," the voice came from behind him.Calamity Killer turned, his gaze meeting the only person who had ever known his real name. Cale. His only friend. The one who had once fought beside him.
"So did I," he admitted, his voice hoarse. He looked at his hands—steady but empty. The raw power that once surged through him was gone.
Cale studied him for a long moment. "You're not the same, are you?"
"No." A pause. "But I will be."
As if to challenge his words, the night air shuddered. Another gate was opening, larger than the first. The creatures sensed him, drawn to his presence. It was as if the world itself had been waiting for his return.
His journey had only just begun.
He had been 15 when he started clearing gates. A child forced into war. Now, a decade later, he was back at square one.Strength was everything in this world. And without his power, he was nothing. But he refused to remain weak. He would reclaim what was his.
The mountains became his first battleground. He spent days training, pushing his weakened body beyond its limits. Every punch, every strike, was a reminder of what he had lost—and what he had to regain.
Then, one night, something changed.
As he fought against his exhaustion, a familiar energy flickered within him. Faint, unstable, but there. The remnants of his former strength.
For the first time since his return, he smirked.
It was coming back.
The world believed the gates were gone because he had cleared them. But that was only half the truth.The gates had not disappeared. They had been waiting.
A force beyond comprehension had sealed them away the moment he vanished. And now that he had returned, so had the apocalypse. The real war was just beginning.
And this time, he wasn't fighting to protect the world.
He was fighting to reclaim his throne.