The Best Opening I Did Nothing With

`2024-10-16`

It’s been a long, grueling fight. Twenty-five years of fighting the invaders, losing ground the entire time. Monsters and creatures and beings from places people once thought were fantasy coming to the real world was seen, at first, as a boon. A new… wave of power and fields to exploit… yet it clearly wasn’t that.

At first, it was tenable. Enough awakened to fight the portals, even guilds and organizations popping up around the world, growing into the new industry. Ten years of… relative peace. Even countries formerly seen as enemies were unified against this threat, and for this new economy.

Things started to change when, practically overnight, South America was overrun, fifteen years after things begun. To the horror of everyone, things only got worse. The monsters’ reach grew and grew, nobody able to stop the reign of terror that it brought with it.

You… were one of the last alive, only because of your power. It’s this power that had saved millions, probably billions. A power that you wield for the good of others, ‘Sanctuary’. As long as you’re alive, anyone within the radius cannot die or be fatally injured, except for yourself of course.

However, you never really lived your life. The moment the power was found out about, you’d been entrapped in an endless maze of doctors, scientists, and wardens. Enshrining you within a tower at the center of a new city, ‘Breakwater’. Trapped in a machine that keeps you alive, force-feeding you and ensuring your vitals remain unaffected. Boosting the range of your power to so widely cover the city, and claiming that it was an invention called a ‘Sanctuary’.

You were the invention. Forced to keep the ability active at all times, you did grow from it. But that growth was wasted. Experience points rolled in almost daily, from you saving lives and healing the sick and weary. You never got to see any of the level-up prompts, though. Never once did they appear, never once could you use the system to level up again, to try to break free.

You aren’t sure how they managed this, but you don’t really care. When the lights faltered, you knew your time was up. With what willpower and ability you had, you tried to disable the ability, to turn off the shield that Breakwater so desired, to ensure their demise at the cost of your own. A final resistance, since you knew it didn’t matter anymore.

The last place on earth was crushed by a tidal wave of monsters the moment their barrier fell. The spire at the tower’s center, the Beacon of Breakwater, lost its light as the walls around the city broke. Its luster waned as the city fell.

The world shifted, and you felt your body accelerate. And then… nothing. Darkness, death, or unconsciousness. It didn’t matter which.