Prologue. (Edited)
Seated in a hospital bed, a man with jet-black hair and lifeless eyes was completely engrossed in an untitled crimson book. He had been reading for so long that he had lost track of time. Eventually, he reluctantly tore his eyes away from the captivating pages and gazed out the window at the rising sun. As he closed his eyes, he let out a soft murmur, his exhaustion apparent.
"This book is truly fascinating," he muttered to himself.
Taking a short break from his reading, he noticed an envelope that had fallen from the pages of the book. Curiosity piqued, he reached for it and opened the envelope. Inside was a piece of black paper with a crimson-red message written on it.
The man was immediately struck by a sense of horror as he read the contents of the note. He had to pause for a moment to catch his breath before reading it again to make sure he had understood it correctly. As he tried to calm himself, he contemplated the source of the information and its significance.
The book he was reading had belonged to his former girlfriend, an accomplished S-Rank hunter who had lost her life defending him during a gate outbreak against an SS-Rank monster. The information in the note was deeply disturbing and brought back painful memories of his loss.
***
In this world, gates are chaotic spaces that connect to the human world and house hordes of monsters led by powerful leaders. The gates remain open until the leader is defeated, and then they close on their own after about an hour. To minimize the loss of human life, it is crucial to clear the monster gates as quickly as possible. Failure to do so will result in a gate outbreak, which allows the monsters to cross over to the human world and wreak havoc on innocent civilians.
To combat these monsters, humans with magical abilities known as Hunters were assigned to fight them. The emergence of Hunters coincided with humanity's discovery of gates, as they were the only ones capable of killing monsters and closing the gates. As a result, a multinational industry was built around them.
Hunters are ranked on an international scale from E to SS, with SS being the strongest and E being the weakest. They have a wide range of skills and can be divided into two types: combat and non-combat. Additionally, there are six subtypes of Hunters: warriors, assassins, mages, guardians, rangers, and healers.
SS-Rank Hunters are exceptionally rare and valuable because their "Soul Force" levels are so high that they cannot be measured by Soul Force Level meter technology.
Only a few dozen per country and a few hundred worldwide exist due to the extreme difficulty of achieving such power.
However, battles between SS-Rank Hunters and monsters can leave the surrounding area in ruins, making it challenging to hold them accountable for any crimes they may commit.
This also applies to the current battle between SS-Rank monsters and hunters, which is taking place, and poses a significant threat to humanity if not dealt with quickly and efficiently.
The enormous monster they were battling was a Magical Beast, a type of magical monster that resides within a monster gate. Because they are controlled by the gate's leaders, the vast majority of them are hostile toward humans.
Despite their appearance as irrational creatures, Magical Beasts possess varying levels of power, making their threat levels categorized from SS to E within the ranking system, similar to the Hunters who fight them.
In addition, Magical Beasts are also capable of crafting their own equipment and are as intelligent as humans, with some even able to speak human languages. They also have their own language, referred to by humans as either "beast language" or "monster vocabulary."
The SS-Rank Magical Beast they were battling was able to understand human language, demonstrating a level of intelligence that far surpassed what many humans thought possible for a monster.
***
Ares survived the devastating attack of an SS-Rank Magical Beast thanks to his girlfriend's heroic selflessness. She sacrificed herself to deflect the beast's attack and save him, even though it was impossible for her to stop it completely.
Despite surviving the attack, Ares was left disabled and his beloved passed away in his arms.
An SS-Rank magical beast used its devastating power to destroy the area it attacked, leaving nothing but rubble in its wake. He was fortunate to have lived at all.
The monster had already sustained injuries from fighting many S-Rank hunters, and the reinforcement that eventually showed up slain it.
However, for him, the price was too high.
He lost someone dear to him throughout that process, and the saddest part was that she passed away as a result of him getting in the way of her.
It's unpleasant to witness the person you treasured beyond all else die before your very eyes.
Even though Ares survived, he now has to live with disabilities, and the anger, guilt, and hatred he had toward himself, as well as a host of other emotions, broke his mental health.
Ares would not have lived if it hadn't been for his beloved, who had given up everything for him. So, he didn't want her sacrifice to be in vain.
If it weren't for that, he would have long before, put an end to his miserable life.
As he read the information on the black piece of paper, his breath caught in his throat. It contained his name, birthday, and date that made his heart skip a beat - today's date, marked as his death day.
"The date of my death? Today?"
He felt his head spin and his vision blur as a wave of dizziness overcame him. He closed his eyes, feeling his consciousness slip away, yet a small smile crossed his face.
He thought that the pain and suffering he had been through were finally ending, and he could now finally rest in peace, and soon he lost consciousness, and ultimately he DIED.!!!
At least that's what he thought...