The Day the Sky Split Open
It was just another ordinary day in Seoul, peaceful as always. The roads during rush hour were jammed as usual, and lines of people stood at crosswalks, eyes glued to their smartphones. Students grumbled while lugging their academy bags. No one could have imagined that this everyday normalcy would shatter so suddenly.
Without warning, a crack formed in the sky. A blinding flash and deafening explosion swept through the city in a shockwave, splitting the heavens like glass. Clouds tore apart, light bent and distorted around us—it looked like something that simply couldn’t happen in reality. The black fissure that appeared over Seoul would later be called a Gate by the public, and this era would come to be known as the Great Change.
From inside the Gates poured beings that were neither beasts nor humans. Their forms varied wildly, but they all shared one trait: they did not belong to this world. The grotesque creatures that harbored hostility toward all life on Earth were eventually named Demonic Beasts.
For some reason, bullets bounced right off them. Ordinary artillery had no effect. Tanks were crushed, armies slaughtered. The unstoppable Demonic Beasts pushed the entire world to the brink of collapse in the blink of an eye.
But at the same time, a change began to occur in humanity. Some people started gaining powers that defied physical explanation. The ability to create fire from their hands, summon lightning, bend steel like paper, or soar through the sky. Humanity called this phenomenon Awakening, and the powers themselves superpowers.
Unlike conventional bullets or missiles, these superpowers actually worked on the Demonic Beasts. In the early days of the Great Change, the Awakened had no choice. Fight the beasts or everyone dies. They became the vanguard and saved countless lives.
The people rescued by those early Awakened began calling them heroes. The government, wanting to support these heroes, developed far more powerful missiles than before to soften up the giant Demonic Beasts, making it easier for the heroes to finish them off.
In this way, through the desperate cooperation between the government and the heroes, humanity barely avoided total annihilation. Slowly, the world began to stabilize.
Afterward, people sought to measure the danger and utility of these superpowers. They evaluated each ability across six parameters—Destructive Power, Speed, Range, Duration, Precision, and Growth Potential—and began ranking them from F-rank to S-rank.
To make the middle value easy to understand, they used D-rank as the baseline. At D-rank, Destructive Power and Speed were roughly equal to those of a healthy adult male. Range at D-rank extended about three meters around the Awakened. Duration at D-rank allowed stable use for roughly three hours. Precision at D-rank meant the ability could be controlled with the same fine motor skills as a healthy adult male. Growth Potential at D-rank reflected the possibility that the ability could grow stronger depending on how creatively it was used.
The closer a rank got to S, the stronger, faster, and wider-ranging it became. It could be sustained longer, controlled with computer-like precision, and possessed even higher growth potential. Of course, no one could be exceptional in every single parameter. One area might even be weaker than an ordinary person’s, while another could be overwhelmingly superior to other Awakened.
But when people gained power, the way they chose to use it varied wildly. Some used it to save lives. Others used it to trample them.
The state classified the latter separately. Villains.
Villains were far more than ordinary criminals. Some could paralyze an entire city. Others made threats on a national scale. Many formed organizations. After all, superpower-related crime couldn’t be handled by regular police.
And it wasn’t just Villains. Cults emerged claiming the change was a divine revelation. They called non-Awakened “inferior species,” worshipped powerful Awakened like gods, and even performed human sacrifices.
The world had changed completely.
Yet even so, righteous heroes still existed. People who entered Gates to hunt Demonic Beasts, protected cities, and saved lives. Children admired them. Adults relied on them.
Fifty years passed in a world like that.
Aaaaaaaaang—!!
A piercing siren tore through the entire neighborhood.
A Gate Break has occurred. Demonic Beasts are currently roaming the area. Citizens in the vicinity, please follow the instructions of nearby heroes and evacuate safely to the nearest shelter. I repeat—
The siren and announcement kept repeating, echoing across my entire neighborhood.
“Mom… I’m scared…”
“It’s okay, Eun-ran. Hold Mommy’s hand tight, alright?”
Little me clutched my mother’s hand as hard as I could. People were rushing in one direction, a chaotic stampede. Screams and sobs mixed together. The roads around us had split open, building walls had crumbled. The familiar street I knew was nowhere to be seen.
BOOM!
A massive impact thundered from somewhere, shaking the ground violently. Everyone screamed at once.
“W-what the hell is that?!” someone wailed.
At that moment, a building behind us collapsed, and a dark silhouette emerged. A Demonic Beast. It was a colossal wolf-like monster standing three stories tall with glowing red eyes. The instant it spotted us, it charged forward without hesitation.
People began running in blind panic. I was shoved and fell.
“Kyaaaah!”
My mother’s hand slipped from my grasp.
“Eun-ran?! Eun-ran!! Where are you?!”
Mom tried to reach for me again, but the surging crowd pushed her farther and farther away.
“Mom…?”
There were only strangers around me. Someone stepped on me. Someone else shoved me. I couldn’t get up. Other people who had been knocked down like me lay scattered nearby.
Then a huge, dark shadow fell over my head.
When I looked up, the monster was right in front of me. Its hot breath washed over my face. The giant wolf stared down at me, grinning hideously.
I was going to die. Even my young mind understood that. Tears poured down my cheeks.
“S… save… me…”
The wolf opened its jaws. Hot breath poured out between blood-red fangs.
Just as it was about to devour me—
KWAAAAAANG!!
An invisible force slammed the beast into the ground as if it had been crushed by something enormous. Asphalt shattered into pieces, but not a single fragment flew toward me. Instead, the debris reversed direction and hurtled back at the wolf, as though drawn to it.
The monster roared and tried to rise. But it couldn’t move. Its massive body remained pinned to the earth, trembling faintly.
And above it, a woman was floating.
There was nothing beneath her feet, yet she stood as if on solid, invisible ground. The beast howled in rage and forced itself upright. At that moment, the unseen power pressed down again. The wolf’s body sank even deeper. A dull, bone-cracking sound echoed loudly enough to be heard from afar.
But it wasn’t over. Shattered pieces of asphalt around the beast slowly rose into the air, then rained down on it like a violent storm.
The monster staggered back to its feet, bleeding. With eyes full of madness, it leaped toward the woman.
She slowly raised her hand.
“That’s far enough.”
With those words, she drew her finger straight down through the air. The entire space seemed to collapse. The beast plummeted straight down from midair.
KWAAAAAAAAANG!!!
The ground caved in, forming a massive crater. When the dust cleared, the beast no longer moved.
She descended slowly from the sky and turned to look at me. Her gaze was astonishingly gentle.
“Are you alright, little one? Did big sister come too late? Are you badly hurt anywhere?”
The terror I had just experienced left me trembling and speechless, tears still streaming down my face. She glanced around briefly, then lifted me as lightly as a feather.
“You’re safe now. I’m here.”
Rescue teams were rushing in from a distance. Cheers rose from the crowd. Someone shouted her name.
S-rank Hero, Polarity.
“I’ll leave the injured here to the rescue teams!”
Still holding me, she flew toward the nearest shelter.
“What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“Eun-ran… My name is Eun-ran…”
“I see. Eun-ran. Big sister will take you to your parents.”
When we reached the closest shelter, she gently lowered altitude and landed. Outside, citizens who had already been evacuated were gathered.
“Excuse me, are the parents of a child named Eun-ran here?”
“Eun-ran… Eun-ran!!”
“Mommy!!”
I slipped out of Polarity’s arms and ran toward my mother. Tears burst forth again. Mom came sprinting, her face covered in dirt and dust, expression desperate as if she might faint any second.
“Don’t worry, ma’am. She isn’t seriously injured. She seems to have only suffered from shock.”
Polarity watched the reunion with a warm smile, then turned to leave and help with rescue efforts in the surrounding area. That was when my small hand grabbed the hem of her clothes.
“Um… Miss…!”
She bent her knees slightly to meet my eyes.
“Yes?”
“Miss… Are you a real hero…?”
“Yes. I’m a real hero.”
“Then… do you save everyone?”
“As many as I possibly can.”
“Can I… Can I become like you?”
A breeze blew, scattering dust. In the distance, rescue sirens wailed.
Polarity slowly reached out and gently stroked my head.
Those words sank deep into my young heart.
At that moment, another hero shouted from afar.
“Polarity! We have additional Gate reactions!”
She looked up.
“I’m on my way!”
She turned back to me with a smile.
“Take care of yourself and listen to your mother, okay?”
With those words, she shot up into the sky.
From that day on, I began to admire heroes.
I want to be like that too. I want to be on the side that saves people.
After that day, I had only one dream.
To become a hero.