"The Child of Ruin, baptized in fire and the blood of kin. The Shepherd of Dust cursed to endure the agony of life by the love of a Goddess. They are the harbingers of destruction and a new beginning. They shall cleanse the perverse morality of this world in the purification of fire and death. The sky will fall on the Gods of old, giving birth to a new genesis."

Noah and the old crone, Granny Yaga, spoke in unison. Their voices echoed through the darkness as their words caused the vision to take shape. The scene formed to show the old world's ruined city landscape from before the System's arrival. Towering skyscrapers were now reduced to a husk, little more than rubble. They appeared as if they would collapse under the slightest strain. Various glowing plants occupied every nook and cranny as nature sought to take over.

A broken road, ridden with holes and overgrown grass, led toward a walled settlement built from the wreckage of ancient-looking cars and vans. They were stacked upon each other precariously, preventing observers from seeing within. Iron stakes were lining the road leading to a gate that denied entry to any unwelcome guests. The gate was a repurposed, rust-covered bank vault door that had been salvaged through opportunistic looting from somewhere among the ruins of the forgotten city.

All vegetation in a hundred-meter radius of the wall had been charred black to prevent the settlement from being overrun by the dangerous plants. Soulless were creeping out from the shadows to crawl along the crumbling walls of the ruined skyscrapers. Chunks of aged concrete clattered to the overgrown road below.

Standing on the broken road amid the encroaching soulless was an unusually garbed pair of survivors. One was a child, a boy, while his companion was masked, disguising their gender and identity.

There was nothing visibly noteworthy about the adult's appearance aside from the filthy ragged, stained cloak and their featureless white mask made of ordinary stone. They held a gnarled walking staff with a broken crook at the tip. A shuttered lantern dangled from the crook from a weathered leather cord, a subtle trail of smoke extended from the shutter.

The child's hair was cropped short with a single braid with a duo of unusual origin crystals woven into their hair. The first was a black origin crystal, unlike any Noah had seen before. It was black like others of its kind, but it emanated a red-light similar to an ability origin crystal. The second appeared to be a hero origin crystal of pink, containing intricate, shifting gold patterns. He wore a rough burlap cloak, overlapped by a fishing net with a collection of fishing hooks attached.

The majority of the hooks impaled small fist-sized ragdolls with carved wooden faces. Each doll was unique. Some were in the likeness of men and women, with the rest being various animals. The ragdolls glowed with lifeforce in a multitude of colours. Various ability sigils shined through the doll's cloth bodies, indicating they were augmented system-items. The child was far more dangerous than he initially appeared to many casual observers.

Barring the pair's path was a mob of survivors who scavenged through the ruins for the old world's treasures. The pair stopped travelling along the broken road as the scene in the vision focused. The iron stakes lining the path held crucified human corpses. The flesh had been flayed from their bones. Some showed recent signs of tools from the meat being removed, along with teeth marks. The mob was a group of cannibals.

At the front of the mob stood a sickly looking man with teeth filed to points. He had a leather jacket draped across his shoulders like a ceremonial trophy. There was a recognizable image of a serpent displayed on the back. The symbol for the Fallen. The man held a piece of metal pipe that had been repurposed into a makeshift magic staff in one hand, augmented with an orange ability origin crystal, while in his other hand was something that could churn the strongest of stomachs.

The man was gnawing on a severed human arm, tattooed with a wrapping snake. Orange lifeforce entered the man's body as he swallowed, transforming white as it was absorbed into his body. The pair of travellers appeared unconcerned by the man's actions as if it was expected behaviour.

The masked traveller placed the bottom of his gnarled staff into a hole in the road at his feet. Purple lifeforce became visible from beneath ragged, cut-off gloves on their exposed fingers. The masked traveller glanced around the surrounding ruins to examine the fast-approaching soulless, ignoring the mob of scavengers. Dust and chunks of stone gathered from the road and nearby buildings, causing them to become structurally unstable and collapse under the weight of the many soulless. The fragments of rock eroded as it moved unnaturally toward the restless group of scavengers.

The dust increased momentum, forming a cloud that hid the fiery sky above from view. Suddenly, the masked traveller raised their staff, commanding the dust to batter against the mob of scavengers, obscuring them from sight. Screams of terror could almost be heard echoing over the torrent of crumbling buildings as they stopped short. The wave of dust hit the unsteadily piled wall of vehicles, destroying it instantly. The reinforced bank vault gate fell without resistance, buried under sand as the ability died as suddenly as it started.

All that remained of the mob of scavengers was a collection of bones clothed in bloody rags. The leader of the cannibals bones remained standing. As orange-lifeforce faded from the makeshift magic staff in his hands, a strong gust of wind blew the ruined leather jacket away along with the fragmented remains of the cannibal and his meal.

Soulless struggled free from the rubble of collapsed buildings as the pair of travellers turned in unison. Piercing lifeforce could be seen radiating from their eyes as they both made eye contact with the observing Noah. Purple-lifeforce ringed in black shone through the featureless stone mask, indicating the unidentified traveller was cursed. The child was even more mysterious as blue-light, laced with golden patterns emitted from his eyes. His face relaxed into a beautiful smile of love and trust as he appeared to recognize Noah. His attention shifted slightly as his eyes flared brightly. The vision was cut short. The old crone screamed while clutching her eyes.