Chapter 24: The end of the world, the end of human suffering

Nova gripped the black, two-meter-long hammer with both hands and positioned it at his waist, one face aimed behind him. Channeling power into his arms, he triggered an explosion from the rear-facing side of the hammer, propelling himself forward toward the boss. He triggered it multiple times, closing the distance between him and the boss.

A few seconds later, Nova arrived close to the boss, just as the dust from the rubble explosions surrounding the boss began to clear.

Afterward, Nova pulled his hammer back to his right side, building momentum for a powerful slam. As the boss was within his range of attack, he swung the hammer with both hands to the left, putting all his strength into the blow—aiming it straight at the boss, who had already taken a stance, ready to counter with a punch.

The hammer and the boss’s fist collided, but Nova didn’t wait. He unleashed a rapid barrage of explosions, all within the span of a single second. The boss couldn’t block them; each explosion forced him to lean backward slightly.

By the time a second had passed, and multiple explosions had hit, the boss was thrown backward along the road, propelled far away by the immense force. His armor had a noticeable dent from the impact.

Taking advantage of the inertia from the swing, Nova didn’t stop. He spun to the left with a smooth motion, swinging the hammer with all his strength. The hammer then morphed into a two-meter broad sword, its length extending as Nova swung it. Soon, it reached a length that allowed it to slice deeply into the first skyscraper. It continued to grow longer, cutting the second skyscraper in half horizontally. As the broad sword sliced through the third skyscraper, its length had already reached the boss, who was still flying backward after being slammed by Nova’s hammer.

The boss was hit again by Nova’s powerful swing. The blow sent him flying fast to the left, tearing through multiple skyscrapers along the way. His front and side armor cracked after the second hit, but there was no hint of pain on the boss’s expression.

In contrast, the cracks on Nova’s body spread to his chest and cheeks.

But Nova didn’t stop there. He quickly absorbed the black broadsword back into his hand. In three seconds, the sword shrank and vanished.

Without hesitation, Nova surged downward and stomped the ground. Black energy spread from his foot in a straight line across the ground, shooting toward the path the boss was flying.

At that moment, the cracks on Nova’s body expanded once again.

As the black energy within the ground reached below the flying boss, an earth spike emerged beneath him. It struck the boss hard, arching his back deeply as it expanded, lifting him to a height of thirty meters. The impact caused the boss to cough up blood.

The boss was then released from the spike and shot upward at incredible speed toward Nova, who was surrounded by the slow sphere he had prepared beforehand.

All the Severer candidates, the thousands of people trying to suicide who watched the battle through Nova’s stream, and people all around the world were struck in awe.

Cheers and shouts erupted from the crowd. As for the Severer candidates, their smiles were wide and their eyes gleamed, touched by the scene. They couldn’t utter a single word, completely amazed by what they were witnessing.

However, they didn’t notice the cracks on Nova’s body, as the camera only recorded what Nova saw and couldn’t capture him directly.

“The power isn’t strong enough after all. I need time to adjust to this,” muttered Nova to himself.

Even now, Nova continued to compress the surging energy within him.

This overwhelming energy was the result of him forcing massive amounts of energy into his body, energy that his body could barely contain. As a result, cracks had appeared, and his body was slowly being destroyed from the inside.

There was also another side effect of using the Overtake skill. For a period of time after activation—at least during the first few months after Nova had just received the skill—he couldn’t use any of his other abilities.

The reason was simple: Nova was focusing all his concentration on compressing the energy throughout his entire body. It was like juggling twenty or thirty objects at once—given his current capability. Thus, he couldn’t add any more objects—couldn’t use any additional skills—as he was already juggling too many things at once.

However, aside from the five boss skills, he still had one additional asset—his own abilities, honed and sharpened over time: his martial arts, battle experience, trained reflexes, and sharp mind. It was a small advantage, but one he could rely on. If used properly, it could even make a significant difference in battle.

At this moment, the boss was already close—just two hundred meters away from Nova.

No fatal injuries could be seen on him. His expression didn’t even show the slightest hint of pain. Only his bulky white body, with broken pieces of armor dangling off, and his furious red face were visible. He was glaring hard at Nova.

It wasn’t surprising. Ever since the boss had killed the original final boss with a single strike, everyone—including Nova—had understood just how strong he truly was.

As the boss drew closer, Nova formed a fist-sized black orb in his hands. Still rooted to the ground, he channeled his black energy into multiple lines that spread out in a fan-shaped pattern toward the approaching boss.

From those lines, earth spikes began to erupt randomly—starting from the farthest point and progressing toward Nova. Even after he lifted his feet, the spikes kept emerging automatically. Some were caught by Nova’s slow sphere, but it didn’t matter—plenty more continued to emerge.

The boss weaved through the spikes, evading them by bursting energy from his hands to change direction mid-air—all while still being propelled forward from the earlier thirty-meter spike hit. He glided swiftly, releasing blasts of energy toward Nova.

Nova evaded all these blast by using his hammer’s explosions, gliding left and right while keeping the black orb in his other hand.

As the boss dodged the rising spikes, Nova hurled his black orb into the boss’s evasion path. The orb expanded mid-air, rapidly advancing and, together with the spikes, cutting off all possible escape routes. The orb slammed into the boss, hurling the boss backward toward the field of emerging spikes—the orb shattered and vanished afterward. The boss was then immediately struck again by one of the randomly emerging spikes.

The boss’s face was crimson with rage as he began channeling all his energy into his hands. Without hesitation, he surged forward, propelling himself by firing powerful blasts from his palms.

In response, Nova repeated his tactic—unleashing spikes beneath the boss and hurling an orb into the boss’s escape path. But this time, the boss was ready. He had already gathered energy in his hands and fired a concentrated blast forward, shattering the orb and clearing a path to close in on Nova.

Nova kicked off the ground and leapt backward as the boss closed in. He threw another orb, but this time it scattered mid-air before reaching the boss.

The boss tried blasting the fragments away, but a single burst from his hands wasn’t enough to destroy them all. One shard struck him, searing a burn mark into the white skin of his shoulder.

But it was too late—he was already within range to strike Nova. Without hesitation, the boss swung his fist at Nova—fast, powerful, and merciless.

Nova used his hammer to propel himself backward, trying to evade the blow. But, betraying his expectations, the boss's attack came faster—grazing his shoulder. Blood dripped from the wound.

This happened because Nova wasn’t in peak condition. He still had to focus on compressing the unstable energy inside his body while enduring intense pain, which made it difficult to dodge the boss’s close-range attacks. On top of that, his mastery over the mechanics of his new skills was still lacking. He needed more time before compressing the energy would come as naturally as breathing, and before he could fully control the new skills. Right now, using them felt like trying to score a basket with unevenly weighted basketballs—or like playing a new game with completely different mouse sensitivity.

Nova, shoulder still bleeding, extended his broadsword and swung it horizontally toward the boss. The boss dodged. Then as the boss closed in, Nova activated his fifth skill. From the edge of the sword—tracing the motion of the swing—a flat, one-meter-wide rectangle of ice formed just a meter in front of him. It created a sudden barrier, blocking the space between him and the boss.

However, the boss ignored the ice barrier and continued charging forward, punching through it.

His hand froze solid as he punched through it, but the boss pressed on, undeterred by the frost.

Seeing an opportunity with the boss losing one of his mobility tools, Nova quickly swung his broadsword downward, extending it as fast as possible toward the ground.

Of course, the boss could still evade.

But after the broadsword sliced deeply into the ground, Nova widened the blade, anchoring it there. Then, by shrinking its length, he pulled himself forward, using the motion to kick the boss along the way.

Caught off guard, the boss couldn't react in time. His evasion grew sluggish after one of his hands was frozen.

The ice around the boss’s hands began to melt as he fell, and from experience, Nova knew it would fully melt within three seconds

Thus, Nova halted himself mid-air as the boss continued to plummet downward. With his black broadsword still embedded in the ground, Nova released lines of black energy, which shot out in all directions, quickly spreading hundreds of meters across the ground.

Nova immediately summoned spikes from the lines of black energy, causing sharp protrusions to emerge from the ground, creating a dangerous pavement of spikes between the skyscrapers. Many of the spikes collided with his slow spheres, causing their growth to be delayed, resulting in them becoming shorter than the others.

Nova deliberately did it, knowing in his training, that his own skill would not break the slow sphere if he hadn’t allowed it. He planned to set a trap for the boss later using the slow sphere.

Also, some of the spikes, Nova deliberately lined some of the spikes along the left side of the road, all within his slow spheres, leaning to the right. Beside them, on the right side, he placed another row of spikes—also inside slow spheres—leaning to the left. Nova was preparing for something.

One sharp spike, rising the highest and fastest, shot toward the falling boss. It struck the boss's back, causing him to arch backward. The spike shattered upon impact, causing the boss to hover momentarily in mid-air at the point of impact. White blood splattered from the boss’s back.

Nova’s attack on the boss was possible because his mastery over both his skills and energy compression had steadily improved over time. This was evident in his ability to release vast numbers of spikes and even manipulate some of them independently. With continued progress, it was clear that Nova was on the verge of achieving true mastery.

The boss regained his balance shortly after. He surged forward, releasing a burst of energy behind him as he began to transform. His body grew to a towering four meters in height. His upper body became oversized and bulky, with two sharp, long horns sprouting from his head. His legs shrank to skeletal forms, and a skeletal tail emerged from his lower back.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaa…!” the boss screamed at the top of his lungs as he charged toward Nova.

…

In a hospital room, panic and chaos were unfolding. All the medical devices—and even the people—were levitating in midair. In fact, it wasn’t just the hospital; the same phenomenon was occurring across the entire world.

Cyre, who had just woken up from the sudden shift in gravity, was now floating in place, watching a levitating television alongside her levitating uncle. The crack on her body was already closing, leaving only a red mark behind.

Cyre’s uncle had already called for a doctor when she woke up, but he didn’t expect much, since chaos had taken over the hospital. The doctors and nurses were already overwhelmed, rushing between emergency call in other hospital rooms.

He had also taken the time to explain everything to Cyre, not expecting that she would wake up just as the television began broadcasting her brother.

“As you can see, dear viewers, it’s been a tough battle ever since the alien boss transformed into an unknown creature. But the new severer is clearly giving it his all,” said the levitating TV presenter, who had previously fallen from a helicopter. Somehow, he had managed to find his camera again and was now broadcasting the intense battle unfolding behind him—Nova versus the boss.

The expressions on people's faces had turned to worry since the boss transformed, but after hearing the presenter’s words, they clenched their fists and returned to watching Nova’s fight with renewed determination in their eyes.

…

Nova was struggling to fight the boss after his transformation. As a result, he was now hiding within the levitating rectangular ice blocks and slow spheres he had created, his body covered in scratches and injuries.He had placed his rectangular ice skills around himself at three-meter intervals as the fight with the boss progressed. He had also set many spikes inside the slow spheres surrounding him, spaced at random but with a minimum distance of five meters between them.

As a result, the tide of the battle shifted, putting the boss at a disadvantage. He couldn’t touch the ice directly and was forced to destroy it from a distance. However, every time he focused on doing so, Nova—or the spikes launched from within the slow spheres—would seize the opportunity to strike. The same applied when the boss targeted the fragile slow spheres. In a high-level battle, even half a second delay could be the decisive factor between victory and defeat after all.

'Skill is about how you use it, not just how strong it is, huh…' thought Nova, pausing mid sentence. ‘The skills that at first I thought were weak… turns out, it can be this useful.’

Even though the slow sphere couldn’t actually slow the enemy due to how easily it broke, Nova found a way to make it useful. By releasing spikes from within it at the right moment, he turned it into a surprise attack. He also made clever use of the ice maker skill, which originally only created ice. By shaping it into shields and using it to stall for time, he gave it real combat value—especially in this zero-gravity zone, where the ice no longer just fell to the ground and became useless.

Tired of breaking through Nova’s defenses, the boss snarled, "If this is the case, I’ll kill all of those humans first." He glided away, moving in the opposite direction from where Nova was.

But Nova immediately began channeling his energy. He formed an orb in his palm, using it as a container to compress and concentrate the power he was gathering.

Feeling the orb grow stronger with each passing second, the boss stopped gliding and surged toward Nova with all his power. As he closed in, he unleashed a blast of energy toward Nova.

Nova was forced to evade, and in the process, he halted the energy gathering for the orb. He couldn’t juggle any more tasks—compressing energy while evading was simply too much. Even if he wasn’t juggling multiple tasks, the orb skill was complex enough that he couldn’t perform it while walking or gliding.

“Looks like it’s time…” muttered Nova, a small grin forming on his face as he glanced at his cracking body. The cracks had already covered two-thirds of his body, leaving only the vertical middle part unaffected.

“And somehow, I’ve mastered it just in time,” he added.

Nova had mastered all five skills and had found the compression of his overtake skill much easier to use.

"Now, I can use everything I have."

What he meant by “using everything” was that he could now push his body to its maximum potential. He hadn’t done it before because mastering the skills and learning how to compress energy had to come first. After all, enhancing his body to maximum would push it to its limits, and it could only be sustained for a short time once activated.

“It’s time to get serious!” declared Nova. He enhanced his body to the maximum. The cracks spread once more, now covering his entire body.

However, feeling the intense pain spread throughout his body, Nova's grin instead grew wider. He conjured his hammer and immediately began detonating it in rapid succession, propelling himself forward. He weaved through the floating ices and slow spheres, charging straight toward the boss.

Meanwhile, not far from the battlefield, the presenter continued broadcasting the fight, his camera fixed on Nova.

"The Severer has shifted from a defensive strategy to an all-out attack. It seems he wants to end this battle," said the presenter, unable to hear what Nova said as he was watching from afar. He couldn’t watch the live broadcast himself either, as he was working. "Although I’m worried about the cracks spreading across his body, but let’s keep watching and supporting him until the end.”

People who watched the broadcast began to cry, sensing something unspoken. They knew the crack was no trivial matter. With injuries that severe, who knew if he could still fight properly? The chances of losing were higher. And even if they did win, their savior might not survive.

The crying, which started with a few, quickly spread. Hearing the sobs of loved ones nearby, others felt their hearts tighten as tears streamed from their eyes. Some even dug their nails into their palms until they bled.

Cyre, who was also watching, was sobbing uncontrollably. She turned to the levitating doctor beside her—he had come to check on her after her uncle called him earlier.

She shouted to the doctor, "Hey, Doctor... why is the color of his crack darker than mine? It's bigger too... it covers his whole body. He's going to be fine, right? It’s not like he’s going to die, right? Even I was already halfway to death with fewer cracks than him... so he’ll be fine too… right, doctor?”

The doctor said nothing. He simply lowered his head in response.

"I'm going to Big Bro’s side! You stopped me before, but I won’t listen this time!" shouted Cyre, louder.

…

Nova was now right in front of the boss. He swung his hammer relentlessly toward the boss, each strike followed by an explosion. After one explosive swing, he detonated the other side of the hammer and immediately reversed the motion, launching another attack without pause. Caught off guard, the boss was struck hard and sent crashing into the skyscraper.

At times, Nova used the hammer's explosions to reposition himself. Whenever the boss moved out of reach, he triggered a blast to instantly close the distance. Whenever the boss’s blast attack nearly hit him, he used the hammer as a pivot, swinging his body along with the hammer’s explosion to evade.

Sometimes, when the boss overextended—like swinging his arms too hard and failing to stop the momentum—Nova would take advantage of the opening. Mid-swing, he transformed his hammer into a reverse broadsword, its blade facing downward instead of up. Then, with a sudden extension, he launched a surprise attack from an unexpected angle.

Also, at other times, when the boss left an opening but was too far away, Nova would use the hammer he’d already swung. He’d aim at a levitating piece of ice positioned between the hammer and the boss, then explode the hammer to launch the ice toward the boss.

He did all of this while smiling and laughing, a wild grin never leaving his face.

Those who watched couldn’t hold back their tears. To them, it felt like witnessing someone giving everything in what might be their final fight.

“Come here!” Nova shouted through his laughter.

With each passing second, he moved faster, struck harder, and flowed with greater precision—his every motion more refined than the last.

Nova then released a two-meter-sized compressed orb behind the boss, scattering it around him. Even the boss, with all his strength, found it difficult to evade an attack coming from behind. The scattered black energy hit him, scratching his bulky flesh. Though the attack only left shallow wounds, it was enough to stop him from evading backward.

Nova used this to his advantage, releasing spikes from his slow sphere to further restrict the boss’s movement. Spikes thrust toward the boss from below, the right, and the left—trapping him. At the same time, Nova charged in from the front, his hammer ready to strike.

With the front blocked by Nova, the boss's only escape route was upward. So, the boss fired a blast at Nova. But Nova swung his black hammer and slammed the attack, reducing it to nothing with ease.

This was possible because both the boss and Nova were now at similar power levels, after Nova had enhanced his body to the maximum—cracking his body entirely. As a result, the boss could no longer attack recklessly and had to wait for an opening.

But this time, before the boss could find an opening, he had to escape first. However, just as he tried to ascend, Nova made an unexpected move.

The cracks across Nova’s body widened as he started absorbing energy from the surroundings, on top of the unstable power already within him. Then, in a burst, he unleashed a series of hammer explosions—stronger than any before—multiple times in the span of a single second. The hammer shot forward with incredible force and speed, striking the boss with unexpected timing. The impact sent the boss hurtling through the air, crashing through multiple skyscrapers and bringing them down in a chain collapse. White blood splattered along his hurtling path. He then came to a stop, embedded in the last skyscraper.

The boss tried to escape from inside the skyscraper immediately, but his bruised body made it difficult. He needed a few seconds to break free.

And as he finally emerged, Nova was already there—waiting, his extended broadsword poised right beside the boss’s neck.

The boss leaned backward at the last possible moment.

As Nova’s broadsword sliced through the skyscraper behind the boss, he released black energy through the blade, channeling it into the building. A moment later, large spikes erupted from the skyscraper, aiming straight for the boss. The boss dodged sideways, bursting energy from his hands to propel himself out of danger—but he didn’t realize that Nova was herding him directly into the field of ice and spikes within the slow spheres.

As soon as the spikes could no longer pursue him and the boss was surrounded by ices and slow spheres, the skyscraper that Nova had sliced earlier came crashing down toward the cornered boss.

The boss chose to escape through the ice at the last second. He remembered that the ice only froze him for three seconds, whereas the spikes had made him cough up blood.

As a result, parts of his body began to freeze. He chose this option because he knew that even if he were frozen, after his transformation, the ice would take even less time to melt than before. Besides, Nova was still far from him, so a few seconds seemed short.

However, Nova appeared in front of the boss almost instantly, grinning widely and laughing. The cracks on his body had grown even larger than before.

The boss’s eyes widened because of it. In a panic, he tried to escape but crashed into the ices instead.

Ignoring the boss's antics, Nova surged forward. In less than a second, he appeared in front of the boss and swung his hammer hard, layering multiple explosions into the attack. The boss couldn’t dodge—his movements had grown sluggish because of the frozen parts of his body.

Nova’s strike sent the boss hurtling toward the rows of slow spheres he had set up long ago.

Moments later, a spike from the center of the rows emerged, aimed directly at the boss. As it strike the boss, it shattered on impact but successfully stopped the boss between the rows of slow spheres.

Nova immediately triggered the release of the spike rows, starting with the ones closest to the boss—from right to left, one after another. Each spike launched higher than the one before it.

The boss was struck repeatedly, thrown left and right as each spike hit, his body rising higher with every blow. The boss couldn’t do anything as his body was partially frozen and severely injured.

While the boss was being tossed around like a ragdoll, Nova began channeling all his energy into his broadsword. Nova’s smile and the crack on his body widened.

Probably because the crack had widened to around five centimeters, the energy gathered in his long, black, shining broadsword was massive—far beyond any of his previous attacks. Saying it was a hundred times stronger wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

Nova, already satisfied with the amount of energy gathered—and unable to push it any further—pulled the broadsword back with both hands, then swung it forward and down, extending it with all his might toward the boss, who had just been struck by the final spike.

The broadsword extended rapidly as it swung downward toward the boss. In an instant, the tip collided with the boss, driving his body violently toward the ground.

As the boss slammed on the ground, the earth cracked in a five-hundred-meter radius, launching massive chunks of debris skyward. Skyscrapers and buildings within the area crumbled and collapsed in all directions after briefly sinking into the shattered ground, unleashing a chaos unlike anything seen before.

After that, debris, skyscrapers, and building alike hovered mid-air, leaving behind a lake-sized crater on the ground. The boss’s body lay motionless at the center, sinking into a pool of his own white blood.

Nova’s wide grin softened into a smile of satisfaction at this moment.

But neither he nor the people around the world were cheering—not even the presenter. Instead, a heavy silence hung over everyone. Doubt gripped their hearts. Was the boss truly defeated? Or would something even worse emerge from the aftermath?

Summoning his courage, the presenter steeled himself and began making his way toward the center of the crater, determined to confirm the boss’s status.

At the same time, Nova—his body weakened and his energy nearly drained—let his fading smile shift into a serious, weakened expression as he glided forward, slowly absorbing the surrounding energy. He thought that even if the boss wasn’t dead, he shouldn’t be able to move right now—so there was no need to rush.

With a little energy he absorb each time, he used his hammer’s explosions to propel himself only when his momentum faded or when debris blocked his path. He weaved through the floating debris and levitating skyscrapers.

A few seconds later, Nova reached the center of the crater where the boss lay.

“Big brother!”

From hundreds of meters away, Cyre’s desperate voice rang out.

Hearing her voice, Nova’s serious, drained expression softened into a gentle smile as he turned toward her.

Moments later, Cyre arrived, and Nova opened his arms wide to receive her hug. The force of her soft embrace pushed them both backward, gliding slightly toward the center of the crater.

“Big brother, let’s go to a doctor—right away! Your body’s in really bad shape!” Cyre said urgently, her words quick and worried.

“Hehe… wait a little. Let me check on the boss for a second… Look, we’re already here,” Nova replied, his voice low and weak.

In the center of the crater, two men—one holding a camera and the other, a presenter with a microphone—were slowly approaching the boss.

Cyre, still hugging her brother’s chest, released a burst of wind to glide forward, passing the two men. They looked startled, but she ignored them, her attention fixed solely on the boss as she and Nova already arrived beside the boss's body.

“Yeah… he’s dead. I can’t sense any energy left inside his bo—” said Nova, smiling. His voice was weaker than before. But, before he could finish his words, he collapsed, leaning against Cyre, who was still hugging him.

In a sudden, Cyre froze, a wave of goosebumps running across her skin.

With a blank gaze, she muttered, “Big brother…”—her voice was soft. It was as if she had surrendered to fate and helplessness. It had no energy in it.

She then lowered her head. She gently embraced Nova, her arms wrapping a little tighter but still tenderly around him. She couldn’t feel a pulse from Nova’s body.

The two men—and the entire world—heard what Nova had said, and even the faint, weak voice of the little girl afterward.

The two men were already nearby as the moment unfolded.

People were silent in response. If there had been a way to record everyone around the world at that moment, the sight of a billion people biting their lips at the same time would have been extraordinary.

Silence reigned across the entire globe.

Moments later, the noises of the world faded, allowing clatter of shifting rubble and clinking metal in the distance to be heard.

The silence lingered, with no one knowing when it would end.

Until...

An alien had suddenly teleported in front of Cyre.

A shadow fell over her, and she instinctively lifted her head.

Before she could even react, a metal syringe shot past her eye and embedded itself in Nova’s flesh. In a second, it injected a liquid automatically into Nova. Cyre’s hand moved on reflex, almost grabbing the syringe—but it had already fallen and dropped on its own before she could grab it.

When she looked up again to see the alien, the shadow had vanished, and in the spot where the alien had stood, a single piece of paper floated in the air.

Cyre snatched the paper and read it.

*

From your dear little sister, Lyn.

I succeeded in threatening the aliens—together with some of the other Severers—by putting our lives on the line.

It turns out they already had a solution for people whose hearts stopped due to energy overuse.

Soon, big brother, you’ll wake up. You’ll be healed—at least, to some extent.

We also have a message for everyone around the world. Ten Severers have already been chosen. Because of that, the children will be returned.

And —

Earth has stopped both its rotation and revolution because of us. That's why the gravity has become zero. And because of that too, in a few months, Earth will be destroyed from a planetary collision.

Because of this, we’ve decided to accept the rest of humanity aboard our main spaceship.

That’s all.

Be well, big brother. I’ll be waiting for you here.

*

“Wooooooo!”

Cheers erupted in an instant as Cyre finished reading the note. The whole world was in euphoria.

The cheers were as loud and long as they could be.

…

Then suddenly, a low, weakened voice mixed in with the cheers. Hearing it, people fell silent once more. They remembered this voice.

“Cyre, I want to eat meat and dessert. Let’s eat it right after this, okay?”

“Wooooooo!” the crowd erupted in joy once more.

Nova had woken up.

The presenter spoke up. “Hey everyone, what do you think we should call our newest savior? That’s right—let’s let his little sister decide. Young miss, what do you think is the best title for your brother?”

Nova and Cyre glanced at each other.

“I want something funny,” said Nova.

“Hmm… since big brother always seems to have fun when he fights and likes to play around with his enemies, then… The Playful One?” Cyre answered.

“Wooooooo!” The cheers exploded again. The world was in a frenzy.

…

And yet, at the same moment, peace had settled.

The world was finally at peace. Even though gravity was gone, even if the Earth might one day perish—many had survived.

The future still lay ahead, silent and unmoving. And even if they had to live under alien management from now on, it wasn’t without hope. Life still existed, and humanity had regained the will to live and fight against the adversities after witnessing Nova’s battle and sacrifice.

A bright future awaited them and despair could no longer hold them back.

…

“Woooooooo!”

The chain of cheers was endless. The one-year struggle had finally ended. People continued shouting, dancing, and singing. Their smiles were so wide, they couldn’t stop smiling even if they tried.

This included Nova and Cyre, who were now smiling as well—hovering as they watched the beautiful, levitating rubble and skyscrapers in the distance.

"Later, we have to build a fun home or playground using all these amazing features—like rubber fields and floating gravity, right, Cyre? Sounds like it’ll be fun," said Nova, rubbing Cyre’s head.