The sky was on fire.

  A monstrous shadow loomed over Manila, growing larger with every passing second. The asteroid was here. Humanity had tried everything—missiles, nuclear detonations, desperate prayers—but nothing worked. Their fate was sealed.

  All around the city, chaos reigned. Sirens blared. People screamed, their voices lost in the rising panic. Families huddled together, clinging to each other as if love alone could shield them from the inevitable. Some prayed. Others drank, laughed, kissed—embracing the end however they saw fit.

  But Nero sat alone beneath a tree, watching.

  His fingers traced the leather cover of the book on his lap—a stolen treasure from the national museum. A catalog of Earth's creatures, filled with detailed sketches, preserved fur, scales, and even fragments of bone. A book that once documented life… now nothing more than a eulogy to a dying world.

  At twenty-one, he had dreamt of becoming a biologist, of studying life in all its forms. But there would be no graduation. No career. No discoveries. Just fire, ruin, and extinction.

  Then, the sky ignited.

  A massive shockwave ripped through the air as the asteroid breached the atmosphere, setting the heavens ablaze. Nero stood, his breath steady, his eyes locked on the incoming doom. He had no one to run to. No family to hold. No one to share his final moments with.

  The earth trembled beneath his feet. Deep, violent quakes split the streets apart, swallowing cars and people alike. The towering skyscrapers that once stood as symbols of human ambition now crumbled like sandcastles.

  Then came the first impact. A deafening explosion rocked the city as a massive fragment of the asteroid crashed miles away, sending a towering wall of dust and fire into the sky. One by one, more pieces followed, breaking off from the main body but still large enough to bring the world to its knees.

  Humanity—once masters of the earth—was now nothing more than ants beneath a falling boot.

  Then, in an instant, everything ended.

  A blinding light swallowed Nero's vision. The force of the impact struck him like a hammer from the gods.

  Pain.

  His skin burned. His bones shattered. His mind screamed—

  Then, nothing.

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  Darkness.

  Silence.

  Nero's eyes fluttered open.

  The scent of dust and something sterile filled his nose. He wasn't beneath the tree anymore. He wasn't outside, waiting for his end. Instead, he was lying in a room—dimly lit, unfamiliar. A simple ceiling loomed above him, cracked and discolored, as if time had already begun eating away at it.

  Was he dead?

  Had he met God? Was he going to?

  He remained silent, his mind struggling to catch up. He didn't know what to feel. Should he mourn the Earth? Should he grieve for the billions lost? Should he weep for the life that was ripped away from him?

  Yet, as he lay there, all he felt was… nothing.

  Perhaps because, in the end, his life had always been a sad one.

  He had worked tirelessly, pushing himself through college, scraping together every peso just to continue his studies. Not because he wanted to be rich, not because he wanted glory—but because he wanted to understand life, to explore the side of the Earth he never experienced.

  And yet, none of it mattered now. He didn't fail because of bad grades. He didn't drop out because of hardships.

  The world simply ended.

  Seven years ago

  The world had first seen the asteroid—a distant, insignificant speck among the stars. Many laughed, brushing it off as just another doomsday conspiracy. Others ignored it entirely, too lost in their own lives to care.

  Even Nero didn't care. He has problems on his own, he has goals he prioritizes.

  But as the years passed, that speck grew larger. Scientists watched as its trajectory shifted, drawn toward Earth like metal to a magnet.

  Three years later, the predictions changed.

  The chance of impact was higher—but still not high enough to send chills down to the spines of humans.

  Then, one year ago, the world received the final blow.

  International space agencies, the very people who had assured humanity they would find a way, made the announcement:

  Impact was inevitable.

  Extinction was at hand.

  Panic spread. Governments collapsed. Society unraveled. Some fought for survival. Others welcomed the end with open arms.

  And through it all, there was Nero.

  An orphan with nothing, a boy who had dreamed of changing his fate.

  But fate was the cruelest joke of all.

  Nero sat in silence, his thoughts drifting like ghosts.

  Was this where people went after they died? A quiet, empty room, free from suffering?

  He had always feared death—or so he thought. But sitting here, in this surreal stillness, he realized something:

  If this was the afterlife, it wasn't so bad.

  No more pain. No more struggles. No more disappointment.

  Maybe this was his mind's way of coping. A dreamlike illusion to keep him from truly accepting the end.

  Then, everything changed.

  A shift in the air, like the room itself was breathing. The walls darkened, slick with something viscous. A thick, glistening substance dripped from the ceiling, pooling onto the floor.

  Blood?

  No… it was purple.

  It oozed, pulsed, almost alive.

  Nero's heartbeat quickened. His body tensed. He rushed to the door, gripping the handle—locked. He pushed, pulled, but it didn't budge.

  Then he stopped.

  What was he doing? Why was he running?

  He was dead. Wasn't he?

  A bitter laugh escaped his lips, dry and hollow. He slid down, leaning against the door, his chest rising and falling with uneven breaths.

  And then, the tears came.

  Hot, unstoppable, spilling down his cheeks.

  Not because he was afraid. Not because he regretted dying.

  But because, deep down, he was disappointed.

  Disappointed in life. Disappointed in fate.

  He had fought so hard to carve a future for himself, only to have it stolen before he could even grasp it. His dreams, his ambitions—nothing more than dust now.

  Then—

  A deep, violent tremor.

  The entire room shook.

  Smoke. Dust. Heat. A familiar scent filled his lungs.

  Pain.

  Nero gasped as a searing sensation tore through his body. His vision swam, the world around him warping—

  Then he opened his eyes.

  He wasn't in a room.

  He was lying on the ground, his back pressed against shattered concrete. His chest ached with every breath, and when he tried to move, a sharp pain shot through his leg.

  A fallen tree had collapsed over him, pinning him down.

  His hands trembled. His mind reeled.

  He could smell the burning air, feel the weight of debris pressing against his body.

  This wasn't the afterlife.

  This was real.

  "Huh…?" His voice was hoarse, barely more than a whisper.

  "I… I survived?"