Four months.
One hundred and twenty days since the sky turned black and the earth cracked open. One hundred and twenty days since a ten-year-old boy amplified the kinetic force of human railguns to shatter a cosmic hive-mind, and a seven-year-old girl wove a four-dimensional labyrinth to swallow a planet-sized entity of pure entropy.
One hundred and twenty days since the world ended, and we built a new one from the ashes.
I stand on the observation gantry overlooking Sector 4 of the Global Resonance Initiative (GRI) construction site. The autumn air is crisp, carrying the sharp scent of pine and the faint, metallic tang of ozone. Below me, the landscape is a breathtaking synthesis of human engineering and Blackthorn magic.
Massive cranes swing tungsten-steel girders into place, their d
