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  “Hahh… I’m so tired.

  Yanisse sighed as she fell from the skies, falling unscious. The darkhat engulfed her mind every night as she slept absorbed her once more, as she felt like she was falling, not from the skies but towards an endless abyss.

  “This dream again...”

  She looked down into the abyss and then hit the ground with a loud thud. She opened her eyes, rubbing her face as she looked around her surroundings. Ruins aru were everywhere; the sky turned red, houses were burning, and people were screaming.

  “Hahh… This…”

  It was that dream again.

  Or that nightmare.

  Nizhny Novgorod was the Russian city where Yanisse was born and raised.

  She had woken up like any other day back then, eleven years ago.

  Yet everything ged forever on that day.

  An explosion of bd red fmes erupted from below her foot; the edifice where she and her family were living was pletely destroyed.

  An explosion of fmes ed everything, including herself.

  And this moment, which she was reliving now, was after that.

  “Mom… dad…”

  Yanisse had seen this nightmare many times now; every time she went to sleep, she would relive this trauma that had marked her entire life.

  The charred bodies of her mother and her father were in front of her as she sat over a pile of rubble and burned corpses.

  She was the only survivor out of a hundred people who lived in that building.

  A pale, purple-colored aura covered her body, proteg her.

  The moment her family died was the moment Yanisse awakened her powers, accepting Mana into her body.

  The power of the Void protected her, but it couldn’t protect what recious to her.

  Tears flowed from her eyes as she heard the loud roar of a monster far away.

  “How many times will I have to see this?” She sighed, standing up and grabbing ashes and dirt, c the corpses of her parents, as her tears kept falling over them. “For how long?”

  She tinued walking across the bzing ruins; the bodies of children could be seen littering everywhere. Right o her building, there was a kindergarten.

  Naturally, everyone died.

  “ROOOAARR!”

  A gigantic, scaled monstrosity desded from the skies, over fifty meters tall, covered with bd red scales, looking down at her as if she were nothing but a meal.

  “GRRRHHH…”

  Its draic jaws opened, bck fmes surging from within, and it spread out its wings, gring at Yah anger!

  Why was she alive?

  How could she have survived that?

  “You again…”

  She gred at the giant bck dragon, her eyebrows furrowing in anger as she kept g.

  “RAAARRRGH!”

  The monster roared, rushing towards her to eat her with a sie.

  “SVOLOCH’!”

  As she screamed while g, her hands were poi the beast, a wave of Void Essence surged from them, and a purple beam pierced the monster’s head, leaving behind a rge, bloody hole where its brain was.

  BOOOM!

  “…”

  The dragon was uo respond; it was uo do a sihing, dropping over the floor and dying on the spot.

  Yet Yanisse wasn’t happy.

  “Hahh… Why? WHY?!”

  She fell to her knees, g and hitting the ground.

  The monster had already killed half of the city’s popution in just an hour, and as one of the few survivors, she felt utterly heartbroken and alone.

  Everything she loved was gone.

  Everything that made her daily life was gone.

  Gohe days when she would walk out of her house to pick up her cousin, who was in kindergarten.

  And long gohe days when she would e bae from high school to eat her mother’s delicious karjanpaisti.

  Or when her father would return home after an arduous day at the factory, tired but always smiling and greeting everyone happily, telling jokes, ughing, and then falling asleep on the couch.

  Yaood up at that moment, looking at the distahere were still smaller monsters roaming around, and people were screaming and g.

  She quickly began moving; there was no time for her to stop. She couldn’t grieve yet; she couldn’t cry yet. Not yet. She had to save as many people as possible before everyone was to die.

  As she fought and rescued whoever she could, she saw tless orphaned childre pletely alone, g as they tried to take the corpses of their parents out of piles of rubble and ash.

  Not long after, news about the capital of Russia, Moscow, being pletely destroyed arrived in the loews.

  The try was in shambles like never before; mostly all politis were dead, the president was dead, and the military was struggling to even survive.

  No ons worked, and atomibs were quickly thrown at several cities to elimihe S-rahreats.

  “No, what are you doing, you fool? Stop!”

  Yanisse’s nightmares shifted as she saw herself screaming and g as she saw the insane people in the military throwing atomibs at areas where there were still thousands of people, just to kill the moheir modern ons couldn’t.

  “NOOO!”

  As she screamed and saw the destru, the military men ordered her to shut up, calling her a useless bitd f themselves on her, attempting to restrain her because of her dangerous powers.

  “Leave me! I won’t let anybody touch me! You bastards! You greedy pieces of sh*t! You know nothing else but to destroy! You’ve been ruining people’s lives all this time, and when your damyrant is dead, the only thing you do is bomb our cities?!”

  As Yanisse screamed and pointed her hands imbued with Void Esse them, the men walked back, fully aware of what she could do with such a power.

  Yet the surprises didn’t end at that moment; reports of the bombs not w reached them as quickly as they exploded.

  The giant S-Rank dragons they attempted to kill with atomibs were alive.

  Their bodies were barely covered in any damage.

  Their furious, fiery eyes gred at the cameras and theroyed them.

  “B-Bombs don’t work...”

  “W-What?!”

  “Nevozmozhnyy!!”

  “What do we do now?!”

  “Chert voz'mi!”

  Yanisse gred at the men screaming in frustration as she stood in the middle of it all, ihe military base they had called her to restrain. However, it ended up being impossible to do so, and she was simply roaming the area freely.

  “I told you it wouldn’t work... You never listen; this try was already being ruined by all of you!” Yanisse furiously said. “I’m leaving; I won’t help any of you anymore! I will go where it truly matters; I will protect my people, the citizens, the children, the elderly... Not you, you’re not my people!”

  “Yanisse! You damn whore! e here!” Roared the general. “You’re a woman! You should listen to men and not fight back, you fug bitch-”

  BOOOM!

  Yanisse waved her hand as a shockwave of void reached the man, throwing him away.

  “Uwaagh!”

  He fell to his butt, shocked and afraid, gasping for air.

  Yet he was not dead.

  “I won’t go easy a sed time. Leave me alone… If you ever dare chase me again, I will not have mercy!”

  She broke through the military base ceiling a, flying towards the city, where her people still needed her.

  Yanisse tinued w for years after years without stopping or resting, stantly pushing herself to her limits and beyond.

  She fought dozens of S-Rank dragons, the primary invasive species of mohat made Russia into a hellhole.

  It was only after six years of fighting without stopping that she was finally able to kill the st one, closing the cursed red gates that opped p more and more dragons.

  “Hahh… Hahhh…”

  She stood over the corpse of the S+ Rank Bck Fme Dragon King, Abyss, as she gasped for air. Her body was in tatters, barely alive. She drank an Elixir and looked into the skies, gray-colored from all the ashes.

  “Mom… dad…”

  She smiled a bit, although tears quickly began streaming down her face.

  “I… I did it…”

  At that moment, she thought that this nightmare would finally e to an end.

  But she was wrong.

  The nightmare never ended.

  Monsters kept appearing everywhere, and people kept dying.

  And an accursed tower ected Earth to tless other worlds.

  Her world had ged pletely, and she was never going to go back to how things were once again.

  “I’m so tired…”

  As she struggled a fighting, she realized that Russia would only bee worse as the ey of the try pummeled to the ground.

  With most of their produ farms burned, half the popution goy pert of all politis’ dead, seventy pert of the whole military destroyed…

  There was no other option than to bend the ko someone else, another try that was in a much better position.

  She made a deal with the Uates of North America.

  In exge for being the guardian of their try (as well as Russia), her try would receive eic help, food, and everything necessary for everyoo survive after the terrible cataclysm that took half of the popution’s lives.

  Back then, most of her patriots criticized her decision. The TV called her a sellout, some called her “America’s new dog," and many Russian servatives called her a traitor to the mothernd.

  Yet she did all of this for them, despite how harshly they treated her and how bad her reputation became. She kept struggling.

  “I’m so tired…”

  And she tinued feeling tired and exhausted.

  “When is it all going to end?”

  As she kept fighting, she only felt hollower inside.

  The more she used her void powers, the more she felt oh them.

  And with that came her emotions, slowly fading away.

  It felt as if her heart was being ay hole.

  “Hahh… Mom, dad… I want to meet you again…”

  Maybe dying wasn’t so bad.

  If she fell from the skies and had her head crushed, she would definitely die.

  “Bing Xue is here now, so maybe... I finally take a breather…”

  Her suicidal thoughts blossomed from her as naturally as breathing.

  For years now, Yanisse has been sidering killing herself.

  She was so tired of everything.

  “Bing Xue…”

  As the darkness ed her, she still remembered someone who had appeared only retly but who had impacted her life for the better.

  “I wao know you more.”

  She remembered her charming smile and her bright, rainbow-colored eyes.

  She was so mysterious and incredible, yet she also hid behind that cheerfulness a deep darkness.

  A past even more terrible than hers, perhaps.

  “I…”

  FLASH!

  Yet a bright golden light surged from the darkness, sing it.

  The light embraced her as she felt a f warmth enpassing her entire body.

  “Yanisse…”

  And her voice resonated across the darkness.

  Yanisse opened her eyes, looking at her.

  She was being carried like a princess by Bing Xue as she slowly desded from the skies.

  “Bing… Xue…”

  “Are you okay? It seems you’ve overexerted yourself again.”

  “I’m… I’m fine.”

  “You’re not fi all; let me heal you.”

  That bright, warm light covered her entire body. Even that hollowhat ed her mind faded away as she felt her mind beuch clearer than ever before.

  As they reached the ground, Bing Xue gently let Yaand back up. She realized the woman carrying her wasn’t a doppelganger either.

  “I-Is it really you, the real you?”

  “I’ve e here, yes. I decided to shift my schedule a little bit and visit Earth again.”

  “Bing Xue!”

  Yanisse hugged Bing Xue tightly, rubbing her fa her chest.

  “Oh my! I didn’t know you would be so happy to see me again, fufu,” Bing Xue's giggles only made Yanisse feel even weaker before this woman.

  Yanisse opened her eyes wide, and as the Russian girl realized she was ag out of character, blushing, she pushed herself away from the beauty in front of her.

  “S-Sorry… I was too excited for no reason.”

  “It’s fine! I know how hard it has been for you; don’t worry.”

  “You came at the end, but your doppelgangers could…”

  “I know, but I simply couldn’t ignore what happened here, so I forced myself to e back. I’ve brought my entire family as well. There’s a lot to do, actually. Let’s go.”

  “A-Ah, yeah…” Yanisse nodded as she saw Bing Xue hold her hand. “Y-You’re…!”

  “Hm?” Bing Xue wondered, looking back at her.

  “N-Nothing…” Yanisse smiled a bit more as she tightly held Bing Xue’s hand.

  For the first time after the Apocalypse, she felt forted and protected.

  Her heart was beating, and she felt so warm and embarrassed.

  These feelings she had weren’t just for a friend.

  “Bing Xue, wait…”

  “Oh?”

  Yanisse walked towards her and looked at her in the eyes.

  “Hm?”

  Yaood up from the tip of her toes and kissed Bing Xue’s cheek.

  “Thank you for everything…”

  As the Russiay smiled, Bing Xue blushed ba response.

  “It’s nothing, I did what I had to do.” She smiled. “Yanisse, I want to ask you something now.”

  “Yes? A-Anything…” Yatered, thinking that she might invite her to a date.

  “Yanisse…” Bing Xue said as Yanisse’s heart tinued beating faster and faster in anticipation. “Would you like to join my Sect?”

  “Eh?”

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  Pach