The world did not sleep that night.

  Across continents, the same question spread like wildfire.

  What was that?

  Videos flooded the internet within minutes. Millions of shaky recordings captured the same impossible moment. The sky turning crimson. The air becoming thick and suffocating. That enormous red moon hanging over the world for a few terrifying seconds.

  People argued over explanations.

  Atmospheric phenomenon.

  Mass hallucination.

  Experimental weapon.

  But deep inside military bunkers and hero headquarters around the globe, no one was arguing.

  They knew exactly what it was.

  Mana pressure.

  Ancient.

  Overwhelming.

  And terrifyingly familiar.

  In a sealed command room beneath Washington, D.C., dozens of analysts stared at glowing monitors.

  One screen replayed the crimson sky again and again.

  A man in uniform leaned forward.

  “Compare it with the historical data.”

  A technician typed quickly.

  Seconds later, two mana signatures appeared side by side.

  The room went silent.

  One was labeled:

  Crimson Moon Event.

  The other carried a name from history.

  Blue Demon Incident.

  The numbers matched.

  Perfectly.

  Someone in the room exhaled slowly.

  “That can’t be possible.”

  Another voice answered quietly.

  “But it is.”

  The man at the head of the table spoke next.

  “Alert every Hero Association division.”

  He paused.

  Then finished the order.

  “Level One Global Threat.”

  No one questioned it.

  Because everyone in that room knew the same truth.

  The Blue Demon had not returned.

  He had never been gone.

  News stations across the world repeated the same footage.

  Panelists argued loudly.

  Experts tried to calm the public.

  But older viewers sitting at home were not fooled.

  They remembered.

  Not clearly.

  Not perfectly.

  But enough.

  The Blue Demon had appeared years ago like a natural disaster.

  One city erased.

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  Not leveled.

  Not ruined.

  Simply... gone.

  As if the geography itself had been edited out of existence.

  Then the battle with Moloch.

  The fight that climbed beyond the atmosphere.

  Old footage still existed.

  Blurry recordings of the sky tearing open as two figures clashed high above the planet.

  Each collision erupted like planets smashing together.

  Even from orbit, the shockwaves broke the sound barrier in the atmosphere below.

  People on the ground had covered their ears as thunder cracked across the world.

  And yet the man responsible had vanished afterward.

  His name had once been revealed.

  Miro.

  But time eroded details.

  History forgot the name.

  The world remembered only the legend.

  The Blue Demon.

  The Doom User.

  Before that catastrophe, there had been no organized hero system.

  Just scattered mages and government forces.

  But after the Blue Demon incident, the world changed.

  Every major nation established a Hero Association.

  Organizations filled with the strongest mages each country could produce.

  Not to fight criminals.

  But to prepare for something like that ever happening again.

  And now the sky had turned red.

  At Kibou Municipal High, the morning atmosphere felt different.

  Students whispered in every hallway.

  Phones buzzed constantly.

  Videos replayed again and again.

  Nozu sat quietly in his classroom.

  He had not slept.

  His body still ached from the bank explosion.

  Bandages wrapped his shoulder beneath his uniform.

  But the pain in his muscles barely registered.

  Because something else had replaced it.

  Fear.

  The memory of last night refused to leave his mind.

  That moment when the sky turned red.

  The air becoming so heavy it felt impossible to breathe.

  The gravity hadn't changed, but his soul felt like it was being flattened.

  It wasn't just weight, it was the realization that he was breathing the air of a predator.

  Nozu lowered his head slightly.

  His hands trembled.

  Just a little.

  That power.

  That presence.

  It had not been hostile.

  It had not even been directed at anyone.

  And yet the entire planet had felt it.

  He remembered the moment clearly.

  Standing on the street.

  Looking up.

  And realizing something that made his stomach twist.

  That power could erase cities.

  Effortlessly.

  His mind whispered a quiet truth.

  You are nothing compared to that.

  His fingers tightened slowly.

  Another voice answered back immediately.

  Then get stronger.

  The first voice pushed harder.

  Stronger?

  Against that?

  Did you not feel it?

  That wasn’t a person.

  That was a catastrophe.

  Nozu’s breathing slowed.

  The argument inside his mind continued.

  What are you supposed to do against someone like that?

  What if he appears again?

  What if he decides to destroy something?

  You cannot stop him.

  You are insignificant.

  His chest tightened.

  For a brief moment the fear almost won.

  Then another memory surfaced.

  The little girl from the bank.

  Crying.

  Shaking.

  Alive.

  Because he moved.

  Because he did not run.

  Nozu exhaled slowly.

  Maybe I cannot stop someone like that.

  His hands stopped trembling.

  But I can still protect the people in front of me.

  The fear remained.

  But something stronger stood beside it now.

  Resolve.

  Elsewhere in the city, far above the noise of traffic, I stood on a quiet rooftop.

  The skyline stretched endlessly in every direction.

  Emergency broadcasts echoed faintly from distant windows.

  People were panicking.

  Hero Associations activating.

  Governments scrambling.

  It was almost impressive how quickly humans could spiral into chaos.

  Akary stood beside me near the railing.

  She looked up at the sky as if expecting the red moon to appear again.

  “It was you, wasn’t it?”

  I tilted my head slightly.

  “What makes you think that?”

  She crossed her arms.

  “That pressure.”

  Her eyes narrowed.

  “You were smiling when it happened.”

  Fair point.

  I looked back across the city lights.

  Cars moving.

  People rushing.

  Sirens somewhere far away.

  The world reacting exactly as expected.

  Akary spoke again, quieter this time.

  “Everyone looks terrified.”

  “Of course they are.”

  I rested my arms on the railing.

  “They remember just enough to be afraid.”

  She studied my face carefully.

  “Do you enjoy this?”

  I thought about that for a moment.

  Then shrugged.

  “Not particularly.”

  The wind moved gently across the rooftop.

  Down below, the city continued its frantic rhythm.

  Akary glanced at me again.

  “You didn’t do it for fun.”

  “No.”

  “Then why?”

  I watched the skyline quietly.

  The answer was simple.

  People had started forgetting.

  Forgetting what true destructive power looked like.

  Forgetting the difference between strong and unstoppable.

  So I reminded them.

  Not with violence.

  Just a whisper.

  A warning.

  Akary leaned against the railing beside me.

  “Do you think the heroes can stop you?”

  I laughed softly.

  “They can try.”

  She looked down toward the streets.

  For a moment neither of us spoke.

  Then her voice returned, quieter than before.

  “Who are you to this world?”

  I looked at her.

  Her eyes did not move away.

  “What did you do to them?”

  The city lights reflected faintly in her gaze.

  “Will you ever tell me?”

  For a moment the wind was the only sound on the rooftop.

  Then I answered.

  “Maybe.”

  I looked back at the skyline stretching endlessly into the night.

  “Someday.”

  Akary did not push further.

  She simply stood beside me in silence.

  After a moment she asked one last question.

  “Why are you still here?”

  I looked at the city one last time.

  Lights stretching across the horizon like scattered stars.

  Because of a stubborn kid throwing himself into explosions to protect strangers.

  Because the story was not finished yet.

  But I did not say any of that.

  Instead I stepped forward.

  Space folded slightly in front of us.

  “Come on.”

  Akary blinked.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Back to the normal world.”

  She followed without hesitation.

  As the city faded behind us, sirens still echoed faintly in the distance.

  And somewhere across the world, Hero Associations were preparing for a war they believed had returned.

  They feared the legend.

  They feared the monster.

  They feared the Blue Demon.

  They just didn’t realize one very inconvenient truth.

  I wasn’t even trying yet.