Prolog

July 6th, mere two days after Independence Day, the sky above the country—no, above the whole world, was covered in thick dark clouds as if there was going to be a huge storm coming. Occasionally, lightnings could be seen streaking from behind the curtain of grey. On the part of Earth that had been enveloped by nighttime, the sky was even darker than the darkest of nights.

Back in southern Illinois, it was early in the morning when Greg Woods woke up from his meditation. His eyes snapped open and he looked up to the ceiling of his cell. The being that had been keeping its eye on him for the past year now felt a lot closer, as if the veil that had been separating their worlds was slowly starting to disappear.

Greg grinned, the rows of yellowed teeth adorning his mouth. The look on his eyes gleamed with thrill.

"Come! Give me power!"

It was time for the notorious big bad wolf to come out of his hiding and bare his fangs once again.

---

Back in the Kanagawa family mansion, Akira had called his daughter to his office. They were currently standing in front of one of the walls in the room, just behind his desk. The middle-aged man then pressed his five fingers on the seemingly empty surface of the wall. A second later, a muffled beep could be heard before a door-sized section of the wall slid open to reveal a secret compartment.

Inside it were rows of shelves containing a variety of firearms and explosives.

"You can choose whatever you want, Michelle," Akira said to his daughter. "The storm is coming today. So be ready."

Looking intently at each of the weapons on the shelves, Mika's mind was half-occupied by the intensifying sensation of the pervert from above. It had been stubbornly locking its gaze on her for the past year. Some days the stare vanished, just to appear again a couple of days afterward. The pattern kept repeating over and over, to the point she was sure she needed professional help. That was, until this morning, her father had explained to her about the premonition he'd had. It had started a year ago, around this time of year. And this morning, he somehow knew that whatever it was that was to come into the world, would come today.

Mika's eyes were drawn away from the shelves and toward a pair of twin handguns mounted on the far wall of the compartment. They were slightly tipped diagonally, with the muzzles facing each other and upward. "I'll take them," she pointed and told her father.

"The Bullseye Janes," said Akira. "They suit you."

Mika nodded in approval; she liked the name. Under the watchful gaze of her father and the perverted bastard, Mika entered the compartment and walked up to the twin guns. The closer she got, the more she felt as if the guns' name would somehow be tied to her own from now on and forever. The Bullseye Janes, the name that certainly suited her.

---

The dreaded day had come. With his forehead glued to the window, Magnus observed as the grey clouds rolled and grew thicker in the sky. He could feel the electric tingling in the air as the hairs on his body stood. Danger alarm was blaring in the back of his mind, and he could sense the familiar sense of Divinity coming from above. He knew they were searching for him, but right now he had the anti-god membrane activated.

"I've locked the basement. Mom and dad haven't grown suspicious since you stashed all those supplies early this morning," TJ's voice entered Magnus' ears, drawing his attention away from the sky.

Magnus moved away from the window and turned to look at his friend. "Thanks. I've also sent the invitation to everybody. Hope none of them is gonna be late." He glanced at the final rows of boxes in his Inventory. They were now empty after he'd put away all the things he'd bought the last few days. "Honestly, I'm not really looking forward to having to take in so many people, but there's no way I can just exclude their families. It's a good thing none of them have siblings."

TJ stared at his friend for a moment, seemingly wanting to express his opinion, but decided not to say anything. He hadn't experienced what Magnus had been through, so he couldn't really sympathize. "Anyway," he said, diverting the subject, "they must be really confused. You invited them to your birthday party, in MY house. Not to mention, four days late, just before graduation."

"Whatever, dude. As long as they're all coming, I don't care how ridiculous this invitation's timing is."

About two hours later, the front doorbell rang. Suddenly, TJ could feel a faint invisible wave brushing past him and out the door of his room. "What was—"

"It's Summer," Magnus said. He immediately stood up with a nervous smile on his face.

"How did you know?"

"I used a skill of mine, called [Sonar]," he answered while opening the door to head downstairs. He rushed down the flight of stairs and zoomed past his and TJ's parents. TJ's mom was already approaching the front door. "Don't worry, Mrs. Haysmith, I'll go get it."

He quickly opened the door and saw his girlfriend standing next to her dad, Patrick Murphy. Behind them stood Mrs. Wang and her twin daughters.

These past few days, Magnus had been drowned in anxiety. He didn't know how Summer was going to react to him knowing all about the Prolog and everything that would come after that. He wasn't sure if she could forgive him for keeping all those huge secrets. However, seeing her smile right now, Magnus wanted to reassure himself that she might actually understand. "Welcome, Summer, Mr. Murphy. You too, Mrs. Wang, Lisa and Luna. Please come in," he said while making way for them to enter the house.

"Happy birthday, Magnus! Again!" Summer said before giving him a peck on the cheek. She had already told him happy birthday during the morning of his actual birthday, hence the 'again' part.

"Thanks, babe. Again," replied Magnus. His gaze then landed on Summer's dad, who watched as the couple interacted. He had never been opposed to their relationship from the very beginning, which was a big relief for Magnus. In fact, he seemed to already approve of Magnus since the first time they'd met.

"Happy birthday, boy," Patrick said with a warm smile on his face. "Summer has been excited to see you since four days ago. Why are you celebrating your birthday so late?"

Magnus could only bitterly smile. He didn't know how to answer that question and he didn't want to lie to his girlfriend's father. But before he had to make an excuse, Mrs. Wang chimed in.

"Patrick, would you move it? These steamed buns are gonna get cold before you let me enter the house," the restaurant owner scolded the man. In her hands was a round bamboo container.

"Oh, sorry," Patrick apologized before making way to the lady.

"Happy birthday, kid. I know you like the dumplings I made in the restaurant, but you haven't tried my steamed buns, yet. Now, where's the kitchen?" Mrs. Wang immediately asked while looking around the house.

"Here, let me help you," Mrs. Haysmith suddenly popped out of nowhere. She offered to take the container from the Chinese lady's hands.

"Thanks," said Mrs. Wang. Both women then quickly disappeared to the kitchen.

"Happy birthday, big brother Magnus!" Lisa and Luna, Mrs. Wang's daughters, shouted at the same time before trailing behind their mother.

The next half an hour was spent with Magnus snuggling next to Summer on the sofa, while the older group of people chatted with each other. TJ, unsurprisingly, remained in his room.

However, Summer could clearly see something was weighing down on her boyfriend. His face couldn't really hide it, after all. "Hey," she said softly, placing her hand on his. "What's wrong?"

Magnus hesitated for a bit, before he smiled wryly and said, "Remember the day I confessed to you?"

Summer nodded, a slightly puzzled expression growing on her face. "Of course. But what does that have—" she paused, seemingly predicting what Magnus was going to say next. "Is this about your secrets?"

Magnus' smile widened. His girlfriend really was quick on the uptake. "It is. There's a reason I had to delay my birthday party, and why it had to be held here in TJ's house, and not mine. In fact, the party itself isn't my main concern for today. It's…" he stopped, trying to weigh his words. "It's better if you see it for yourself. It's gonna start this afternoon, and everybody will be able to witness it happening. But, Summer," he said, facing her and looking into her eyes, "I promise I'll be next to you the whole time, and that all of us are gonna be safe in this house. Also, I'm sorry I had to keep it a secret all this time. You see, you wouldn't have believed me even if I told you. I mean—"

His speech was interrupted by another ring from the doorbell. He glanced away and muttered, "Everybody's finally here."

Entering the house after that were his three friends, Matt, Garrett, and Katja. There were also Matt's mother, Mei; Katja's father, Nikolai; and Garrett's parents, Henry and Gina. They all lived in the same neighborhood, so they had come here together.

With that, the people were complete. All that was left was for Magnus to do something about the house itself.

A few hours passed before suddenly, rushed footsteps could be heard coming from upstairs. TJ had finally got out of his room. The teenager then quickly scanned the house before his eyes landed on the blond boy who just got up from the sofa with a serious expression on his face. Their eyes met and they immediately understood: the Prolog had come.

"The sky's opening!" TJ announced to the whole room.

Everybody's eyes were now focused on the black-haired boy, wondering what he was on about, before suddenly the room got darker. The weather had been dark since early morning, but this was dark on a level of nighttime. It was as if the sun was suddenly setting. And setting, the sun truly was.

"What's happening?" Garrett asked, looking out the window. "The sky is…are those stars?"

Outside, as the sun set, the sky gave way for stars to show up brighter than ever. The sounds of car crashing could be heard from the distance, along with a few screams.

The dark room was suddenly lit up; Mrs. Haysmith had flicked the light switch. "The power's not out," she mumbled.

'System, start the universal syncing now,' Magnus ordered the system. Prior to this day, the system had notified him of the need to sync the two systems—the original and the copy. It was called universal synchronization, which would let the two systems sync the time and scheduled events, as well as the database of all the Protagonists' Aliases. That way, all the people currently connected to his system, in this case TJ and Summer, would be able to get the same system messages as everybody else, at the same time.

Magnus then walked over to the center of the big living room. "Everybody, please gather around me," he said loudly. "And don't worry, we're gonna be alright. But please keep the curtains open. I'd like you to see it to believe it."

Everyone looked hesitant for a moment, before they saw TJ walked closer to his friend with firm steps. Summer too, had already been by his side to begin with. Unexpectedly for Magnus, his parents looked as if they weren't surprised that he'd taken charge. It was as though they had known that he'd been aware this moment would come.

Seeing the four people approaching Magnus, the others followed suit. They made a rough circle around him while stealing glances out the windows.

Magnus then got down on one knee and casted [Earth Manipulation], which was immediately reinforced by [Unbreakable]. Nobody could notice the first skill being used. However, through the windows, they could see a transparent blue barrier rising up all around the house.

Just a few seconds after the [Unbreakable] dome finished forming, the houses outside the boundary of the dome started shaking violently. Everybody could then see the ground beneath those buildings moving up and down like a series of waves.

Many houses were getting wrecked, while cars and people on the streets ran around frantically. There were screams and car horns that shrilled from every direction. It was chaos. However, in the middle of the earthquake, TJ's house stood still. Everybody watched in both awe and terror as the quake lasted for a full minute, before it stopped as abruptly as it had started.

"The Arc Towers have been erected," Magnus finally said after a few moments of deafening silence.

Everyone looked at Magnus as if they wanted to immediately bombard him with a million questions. Except for TJ, Summer, Markus, and Fiona, who understood that they needed to be patient before getting any answers from him.

All of a sudden, their phones rang. Magnus didn't need to see it to know that it was a national emergency alert. However, before they could pick up their phones, a sound akin to book pages flipping was heard in everybody's head. Immediately after that, a holographic screen flared to life in front of their eyes. On it, written only a few lines.

[Prolog

This day marked the opening of their stories, as they realized they were no longer alone in this Universe. This was the start of their journeys, their adventures worthy of legends, and their tales across multiple worlds.]

Magnus looked on as everybody around him read the same message on the system screen. "And so, it begins," he muttered.