“Those who possess power must use it for society and humanity.”

Arin grew up hearing those words.

Both of her parents were supernatural ability users who had spent half their lives fighting monsters on the frontlines. The weight of their words carried a meaning far deeper than most could understand.

Having parents with supernatural abilities didn’t guarantee their children would inherit them. Abilities weren’t passed down through bloodlines.

But Arin was born with an ability.

Her parents always told her the same thing—great power comes with great responsibility.

Arin couldn’t easily accept those words.

What did power have to do with responsibility? Power was just power. It wasn’t something she had asked for; it was simply something she had been born with.

So why was she supposed to bear responsibility for it?

Back then, when she was still a child, Arin grew tired of her parents’ repeated lectures.

She felt like their words had been etched into her ears, worn down by endless repetition. She had heard it so many times that she eventually began to rebel. Sometimes, she’d deliberately act in opposition to their words.

Arin was a supernatural ability user.

But she didn’t understand the weight carried by the term “supernatural ability.”

To her, it simply meant that she was stronger than most people. That was all it was—nothing more, nothing less.

She wouldn’t come to understand its true weight until she turned twelve.

It had been an ordinary day.

She finished school, ate ice cream with her friends, and waved goodbye at the crosswalk, promising to meet them again tomorrow.

They’d met yesterday and today, so of course, they’d meet again tomorrow.

People take their everyday lives for granted, assuming they’ll continue without interruption.

Without any specific reason or evidence, they simply believe tomorrow will be just like today.

And yet, the peace they believe in so firmly is nothing more than a fragile illusion that can shatter at any moment.

The first to notice something was wrong that day was Arin’s supernatural ability.

Her power—Danger Sense—was designed to detect any threat against her.

Twelve-year-old Arin froze in place and looked up at the sky.

Her ability was sounding an alarm louder than it ever had before.

Why?

What was causing this?

She had no idea.

But Arin trusted her instincts.

She ran.

She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, desperate to escape the range of danger.

But no matter how far she ran, her ability didn’t stop.

Even when her lungs burned and her legs felt like they would give out, the alarm continued to blare.

Eventually, Arin realized the truth—

The entire city was in danger.

Her ability’s warning grew louder, so deafening that it drowned out all other sounds.

The noise in her head became unbearable, making her ears ring and her heart race with terror.

Then—

At the very moment her ability’s alarm reached its peak—

The sky cracked.

Like glass shattering, a rift tore through the heavens.

Even now, Arin vividly remembers the single word that slipped from her lips in that moment—

“Ah…”

And then—

Like raindrops falling from the sky—

Monsters poured out.

How could she ever forget that day?

The horror. The catastrophe. The apocalypse.

Screams filled the air.

Blood splattered everywhere.

People died.

People were eaten.

People were torn apart.

Walls crumbled.

Buildings collapsed.

Utility poles toppled.

People fell.

People shattered.

People died.

People died.

People died.

That was the day Arin first felt the true weight of the word “supernatural ability.”

That was the day she finally understood what her parents had always been trying to tell her.

She survived.

Arin survived that hell.

And in surviving, she came to understand.

She finally realized why her parents had always said that power came with responsibility.

She finally understood why she had to shoulder that responsibility.

She grasped the weight of power.

On that day, the girl with supernatural abilities awakened to the truth.

Once she understood it, Arin could never go back to who she used to be.

*****

The eighth and final chimera golem collapsed.

Arin steadied her spear, breathing heavily.

Using her Danger Sense, she had predicted the golem’s movements and struck preemptively.

Her combat style had no flaws.

While she didn’t possess overwhelming firepower, her defense was solid.

Every action her opponent took fell within her predictions, leaving the flow of the battle firmly in her control.

Having defeated all eight golems without sustaining so much as a scratch, Arin felt more frustration than accomplishment.

She knew this was her limit.

No matter how well she could anticipate and counter attacks, there was no escaping the limits of her stamina.

If she pushed herself, she might have been able to take down a few more golems.

But at the cost of compromising her own safety.

“That’s enough. Stop there. Good work, Arin.”

At Angelica’s call, Arin bowed slightly and returned to her seat.

It was a result she couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed by.

‘Thirteen golems, like that guy… it’s just not possible for me.’

Eugene.

The first to step up in the evaluations.

She bit her lower lip as she recalled his performance.

Having trained under her parents’ guidance from a young age, Arin had secretly believed she might be the strongest in Class A.

But now, she felt her face flush at her arrogance.

What had given her that confidence?

Surely others had trained just as hard as she had.

Why had she assumed she was special?

Though she hadn’t voiced these thoughts to anyone, her cheeks burned with embarrassment.

Sighing, she fanned her face with her hand.

This was the Academy, after all.

She had just been a frog in a well, too blind to see the world beyond.

Eugene, who cut down chimera golems in a matter of seconds.

Leo, whose punches came in rapid-fire bursts, too fast to follow with the eye.

Anastasia, who multiplied herself into dozens of clones.

Aris, who destroyed five golems at once with a single searing heat beam.

Each one of them was exceptional.

Even compared to Arin, they weren’t lacking—in fact, they might even surpass her.

Arin carefully observed every student’s performance.

These were her classmates for the next year.

And after graduation, they would be her comrades, fighting side by side against the Beasts of the Beyond.

It was better to gauge their capabilities now.

And as she watched them one by one, there was only one student left.

A girl with blonde hair, her soft and cute appearance at odds with the heavy weapon she wielded against a wolf golem.

Her movements were large, leaving plenty of openings.

But there was weight behind her strikes.

While her performance wasn’t outstanding, it wasn’t bad either.

At best, she seemed average—maybe a little above.

But it was too early to judge.

Arin’s eyes followed her every motion, even the smallest ones.

The girl took down the wolf, then defeated the gargoyle, and even shattered the knight golem.

She made it to the chimera—an opponent faced by only a few students.

And that’s when it happened.

Crunch.

Arin’s vision turned red.

“…What?”

Blood splattered.

Even from a distance, Arin felt like the droplets had landed on her skin.

Her body reacted instinctively, bending over and covering her mouth.

The girl’s face twisted in pain.

And Arin recognized that expression.

She had seen it before.

That day.

In that city.

When monsters poured down from the sky.

When enormous beasts devoured people whole.

Crunch. Crunch.

She heard the sounds again.

No—hallucinations.

She forced her mouth shut, swallowing back the nausea.

Don’t panic.

This isn’t the same as back then.

I’m strong now.

Don’t be scared.

Why do you think you came to the Academy?

She struggled to lift her head.

The chimera golem was gone, and Angelica was checking on the girl.

Fortunately, the girl was unharmed.

Rapid Regeneration.

That was her supernatural ability.

The evaluation ended.

But the image of the girl’s shattered shoulder wouldn’t leave Arin’s mind.

*****

Supernatural abilities related to regeneration heal any injury.

They always restore the body to its perfect state.

But fast healing doesn’t mean the absence of pain.

It still hurts like hell.

Wounds still torment you.

And when a shoulder is shattered like that, the pain is beyond imagination.

The girl—Lucia—spent the entire class drenched in cold sweat.

Even now, she was pressing against her fully healed shoulder, her breath shallow and uneven.

Was it phantom pain?

Arin glanced at Lucia several times, her concern growing with each look.

She couldn’t forget the sight of Lucia collapsing in a pool of blood.

She couldn’t erase the pained expression contorting Lucia’s face.

It must have hurt—a lot.

It must have been unbearable.

Arin knew because she had felt the same before.

Students at the Academy were always expected to be prepared for injuries.

You couldn’t become a great warrior if you feared getting hurt while learning to fight the Beasts of the Beyond.

But being mentally prepared didn’t mean reality followed your expectations.

No one liked pain.

Arin sighed.

Deep down, she knew her concern for Lucia wasn’t purely out of kindness.

Seeing Lucia injured had dragged up her own buried trauma, making her heart ache in sympathy.

Still, that didn’t make her worry a lie or her feelings insincere.

When class ended, Lucia—pale and shaken—practically fled the room.

Arin had offered to walk home together, but Lucia declined.

Watching her retreating figure, Arin’s expression turned bitter.

“I hope she’s okay…”

It was hard to let it go.

Even if the wound had healed, the pain would linger.

Pain always did.

Arin knew that from experience.

In the end, overcoming it was up to the person who suffered it.

There wasn’t much Arin could do to help—maybe offer an ear if Lucia needed someone to talk to.

“Not that I’m in any position to talk…”

Arin shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts.

Crunch.

She froze.

It sounded like something being chewed.

No—it was just her imagination.

A hallucination.