A young man carried an injured stranger away from a collapsing building, even as pieces of concrete fell around them.
Several civilians worked together to lift an overturned car after hearing a child crying from underneath it.
Elsewhere, a group of survivors opened the doors of their shelter and allowed frightened families to enter.
"Quickly! Get inside!"
"There's still someone out there!"
"Then help me get them!"
Even as the world collapsed around them, these people refused to leave others behind.
Some shared their remaining food and water.
Others guided injured survivors toward whatever medical facilities were still operating.
There were even those who sacrificed their lives trying to save strangers.
Unfortunately, as the disaster continued, such people became increasingly difficult to find.
For countless survivors, the greatest danger was no longer limited to the destruction falling from the sky.
It was also the people standing beside them.
Meanwhile, far above the chaos, the missile that Faust had launched continued ascending through the atmosphere.
Unlike the thousands of nuclear missiles traveling toward their targets, this missile carried something entirely different.
It had almost reached the highest point of its trajectory.
Then, without warning, it exploded.
BOOOOM!
The missile broke apart, releasing an enormous quantity of strange, purplish liquid.
Instead of falling immediately toward the surface, the substance spread across the upper atmosphere.
It continued expanding, covering larger and larger areas until an unusual purple layer began forming high above the Earth.
From the ground, the change was barely visible at first.
Then the sky began taking on a strange color.
The purple substance gradually descended, mixing with the radioactive particles spreading through the atmosphere after the nuclear explosions.
As the two came into contact, an unexpected reaction occurred.
The surrounding clouds began glowing.
Soon, the strange light spread across the sky.
And then something happened that no one had ever witnessed before.
Rain began falling across the entire planet.
It was a worldwide rainfall.
Every continent, every country, and even the oceans were covered by the strange phenomenon.
The droplets glowed with a faint purple light as they descended.
Mixed with the radioactive fallout, the liquid continued falling upon the ruins of the old world.
No one knew what the substance was.
And with civilization already collapsing, there was nobody left capable of investigating it.
Somewhere within a ruined city, a young man named Nex was desperately trying to protect the woman beside him.
"Leslie! Stay close to me!"
He held her tightly as another tremor shook the street.
Around them, people were running in every direction.
Several buildings had already collapsed, leaving the road covered in shattered glass, concrete, and abandoned vehicles.
Nex looked toward the distant horizon.
Another enormous mushroom cloud rose into the night sky.
KABOOOOOM!
The explosion illuminated the surrounding buildings.
"Shit!"
He quickly pulled Leslie behind an overturned car as debris fell from a nearby structure.
Leslie clung to his arm.
"Nex..."
"It's okay. Just stay with me."
He looked around, searching for a way out of the street.
That was when he noticed several men approaching them.
There were four of them.
Their clothes were dirty, and two carried makeshift weapons. Instead of fleeing from the disaster, they were moving through the abandoned vehicles, searching for anything they could take.
When they noticed Leslie, their attention shifted toward her.
One of the men smiled.
"Hey, look what we found."
Another looked her up and down.
"Not bad."
Nex immediately stepped in front of Leslie.
"Stay back."
The men stopped.
The one in front glanced at Nex before laughing.
"What's wrong, buddy? We're just trying to talk."
"I said stay back."
The man's smile disappeared.
"Who the hell do you think you're talking to?"
Before Nex could respond, the man rushed forward and swung his fist.
Nex reacted immediately.
As an experienced boxer, he was used to reading an opponent's movements. He shifted his body, avoiding the attack before driving his fist straight into the man's jaw.
CRACK!
Blood sprayed from the man's mouth as he stumbled backward and collapsed onto the road.
"What the fuck?!"
The other men froze for a moment.
Then one of them shouted.
"Get him!"
The second man charged forward, swinging a wooden bat with a sharp piece of broken glass attached to its end.
Nex stepped aside just as the weapon passed his head.
He caught the man's wrist and twisted his arm.
CRACK!
"AAAAARGH!"
The man screamed as his arm broke, dropping the weapon onto the ground.
Nex shoved him away before turning toward the remaining attackers.
One of them tried grabbing him from behind.
Nex lowered his body and drove his elbow backward, striking the man's stomach.
As the attacker doubled over, Nex turned and landed another punch against his face.
THUD!
The man fell.
The last attacker hesitated.
His eyes moved between his fallen companions and Nex.
"Y-You..."
Nex raised his fists.
"Come on, then."
The man cursed and charged at him.
Nex moved forward to meet him, slipping past the incoming punch before striking him twice in quick succession.
The first blow hit his stomach.
The second struck his jaw.
BAM!
The attacker collapsed beside the others.
For a moment, Nex remained in his fighting stance, breathing heavily.
When none of the men got back up, he finally lowered his hands.
"Leslie!"
He turned toward her.
"Are you okay?"
Leslie nodded, although her face remained pale.
"I'm okay..."
Nex walked over and gently held her face.
His knuckles were bleeding, and there was blood on his clothes, but he ignored the pain.
He leaned forward and kissed her forehead.
"It's okay, Leslie. I got you."
Leslie looked into his eyes.
Before she could answer, the ground suddenly trembled.
RUMBLE!
A deep cracking sound came from beneath the street.
Nex immediately looked down.
Several cracks were spreading across the asphalt.
"Not again!"
He grabbed Leslie and pulled her away just as the road split apart.
CRAAAAACK!
A large section of the street collapsed, swallowing an abandoned car.
Dust rose into the air.
Nex stumbled backward, holding Leslie against him.
"Are you hurt?"
"No..."
"Good. We need to get out of here."
Just as he prepared to move, something landed on his shoulder.
A raindrop.
Nex looked up.
"What...?"
More droplets began falling.
At first, he thought it was ordinary rain.
But when he saw the strange purple glow spreading through the clouds, his expression changed.
The entire sky had taken on an unnatural color.
Purple rain fell across the ruined city, mixing with the dust and smoke rising from the destroyed buildings.
Nex held out his hand.
A glowing droplet landed on his palm.
"What the hell is this?"
Before he could examine it, another explosion echoed from the distance.
KABOOOOOM!
Then another.
KABOOOOOM!
Several red mushroom clouds rose along the horizon.
The explosions illuminated the sky, revealing even more destruction beyond the city.
Leslie stared at the scene with trembling eyes.
"Nex..."
He quickly lowered his hand.
"We can't stay here."
He crouched in front of her.
"Get on my back."
Leslie hesitated.
"What about you?"
"Don't worry about me. Just get on."
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and Nex lifted her onto his back.
"My house isn't too far from here," he said. "There's an underground shelter. If we can reach it, we should be safe for now."
He looked toward the road ahead.
Several buildings had collapsed, blocking their usual route. However, there were still narrow passages between the ruined structures.
He could make it through.
At least, that was what he hoped.
"Hold on tight."
Nex began moving, carefully avoiding the cracks in the road.
Behind him, Leslie looked toward the glowing sky.
Her green eyes reflected the strange purple rain.
"Nex..."
"What?"
Her voice trembled.
"This... this is just the beginning."
Nex slowed his steps.
Leslie tightened her arms around him.
"Things are going to become even worse soon."
For a moment, Nex said nothing.
He looked toward the distant mushroom clouds, then at the strange rain falling around them.
He did not know what had happened to the world.
He did not know whether his house was still standing.
He did not even know if they would survive the night.
But there was one thing he was certain of.
He would not give up.
"Then we'll deal with it when it comes," he said.
He adjusted Leslie's weight on his back.
"Right now, we just need to get home."
With that, Nex continued moving through the ruined streets as the purple rain fell around them.
***
October 7, 2083.
That was the date when the world as humanity knew it came to an end.
Within a single day, nuclear weapons had devastated countless cities, governments had collapsed, and billions of people had been thrown into a desperate struggle for survival.
The disasters that followed claimed even more lives.
Those who survived would never forget that day.
Some called it the Dawn of the Apocalypse.
Others named it the Commencement of a New Era.
As the years passed and new settlements rose from the ruins, the survivors gradually began building a different civilization.
The nations that had once ruled the world disappeared.
New powers emerged.
And the people born into this new era grew up knowing little about the world that existed before the disaster.
In the distant future, historians would give the catastrophe another name.
The Faust Apocalypse: The Cleansing of the Unworthy.
They would describe it as the final result of humanity's greed and endless desires, a disaster that brought an entire civilization to destruction.
Yet despite everything humanity would eventually learn about that day, one mystery remained.
The strange purple rain that had fallen across the entire planet.
Few understood what had happened when Faust's missile exploded.
Even fewer knew what its contents had done to the world.
And beneath the ruins, where everything had begun, something was finally starting to move.
November 15, 2083.
More than a month had passed since the apocalypse.
Deep underground, within the remains of a destroyed facility, a strange silvery cocoon stood motionless inside a dark chamber.
The surrounding walls were cracked, and broken machinery lay scattered across the floor.
There was no electricity.
No working equipment.
Only the occasional sound of water dripping from the damaged ceiling disturbed the silence.
Then, suddenly...
CRACK!
A thin line appeared across the cocoon's surface.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then another crack formed.
CRACK! CRACK!
The cocoon began trembling.
Its smooth, silvery shell slowly broke apart as something inside pushed against it.
A pale hand suddenly emerged through the opening.
The fingers moved slightly, feeling the cold air outside.
Then the hand gripped the edge of the shell.
CRACK!
A large piece broke off and fell onto the floor.
A young man slowly pulled himself out from within.
He appeared to be in his early twenties, with an unusually pale complexion and long gray hair that fell past his shoulders.
His body trembled as he struggled to breathe.
"Haa... Haa..."
He placed one hand against the ground, trying to support himself.
His amber eyes slowly opened.
For a moment, he simply remained there, staring at the darkness around him.
He looked at the broken machinery.
The damaged walls.
The pieces of the strange cocoon lying beside him.
Confusion filled his eyes.
He tried to remember what had happened, but his thoughts were a mess.
His breathing gradually steadied.
Then, with a hoarse voice, he finally spoke.
"What happened...?"