I never liked to walk the streets at night. I can’t say that I lived in a criminal area right there, but getting to the house in the dark was definitely uncomfortable, and not at all due to the autumn coolness. But hardly at that time I imagined that I was waiting for me on a day when the train was late by almost half a day due to an accident on the tracks.

Thus, I came to my city from a nearby one almost after midnight. It's amazing how I managed to squeeze in the last minibus from the station and finally get to my native quarters. Otherwise I would have to call a taxi, spending a good third of the scholarship, which I certainly could not afford.

In the native district, the lanterns burned through one. Loudly, as if from the last forces, cicadas cracked. The last week at the university was not very successful - I did not manage to retake two tests that were not closed in the summer session, and as a result, the deduction did not seem like a vague prospect.

However, I understood perfectly well that the fascination with Japanese cartoons hardly contributes to learning. But I couldn’t force myself to stick over abstracts instead of a new series with cute chants richly flavored with fan service. And now I was paying for it with a sucking feeling under the spoon and with the anticipation of a retake with the commission, which I will most likely fill up. And there is only hope for the favor of the dean ... From the second year they are dismissed in bundles, I knew that for sure.

Therefore, my mood was not so hot. And when I, in addition to everything, heard the hellish roar and screeching behind my back, the first thought was “Earthquakes were not enough!” But this was not an earthquake. When I turned to the noise, I saw something that made me doubt my own sanity.

A creature descended from nightmares stood and screamed in the middle of the street. Fanged maw, scaly paws, horns on the forehead and bright scarlet luminous pupils - one would imagine that this is a carnival costume, if the monster was not three meters tall, and did not squeeze a certain apparatus in its front limbs, the acid-green beam from which burning a hot hole in the wall of the house. Stones and pieces of overlap fell from the edges of the hole. They created the roar.

I looked dumbfounded at this horror. From the squeal, in some places passing into the ultrasound, it laid the ears and smarted teeth. The first reaction of any normal person would be to run out of there, headlong, but it seemed as if all the nerve endings had failed, I just stood rooted to the spot and watched the demon incinerate the house.

Finally, the building collapsed completely, lifting tons of dust into the air. Monster stopped screaming, turned and looked at me, raising his machine. He is about to pull the trigger and incinerate me. I could not even close my eyes, numb with horror. And at that moment salvation came.

She appeared out of nowhere, as if materialized in the air - a miniature blonde girl of eighteen, in a tartan skirt, high white socks and a blouse with a blue collar. In a few steps, clattering his heels on the asphalt pawed by the monster's paws, she reached him, stretched out her hand and folded a figure resembling the letter “V.” with her small graceful fingers. Lightning flashed from the fingertips of the girl, which struck the demon right in the stomach, closed with bony plates.

The monster staggered, its sharp marsh-green claw flew off the trigger, and he was unable to press the trigger. Turning in the direction of the girl, the demon gave a powerful roar, not at all like the screeching that he was making a minute earlier. From this roar the earth shook. A beam exploded from the socket of the apparatus and slashed along the wall with a bright, steaming strip. A second back there was a girl, but she flew in a fantastic way into the air and from there began to water the demon with fire and lightning.

Small fireballs and sparkling charges literally drowned the monster.He stopped growling and again switched to a scream, but now no longer triumphant, but desperately evil. One of the aptly launched charges knocked the device out of his clutches and he flew off in my direction. Every time when electric bunches beat on the demon's body, he shook his head in a bewildered voice, losing speed and strength more and more. Smell of ozone and burnt skin.

- What are you standing? - suddenly exclaimed the girl. She turned out to be an unusually pleasant ringing voice.

- Uh ... what to do? - I asked puzzled, looking at the girl hovering at the height of the third floor. Suddenly, I realized that the short skirt of the cute chan allows me to see the very edge of her panties.

- Grab a blaster soon! He's under your feet.

I immediately executed her order. The device was still warm and comfortable in the hands.

The girl sank down beside her.

- We need to leave before he wakes up! Rather!

- Uh ... Well, just explain ... - but I did not have time to finish the phrase - the girl grabbed my hand and lifted me into the air. And then we jerked for several blocks from the discouraged and stunned monster, who continued to growl softly and trample on the spot, waving away sparks. The city seemed to be extinct, not a single siren of the emergency services was heard, which should have already left for all this confusion.

- Why so quiet? - I asked her. We flew in complete silence, neither cicadas, nor the noise of cars, only the whistle of the wind in our ears.

She did not answer, only squeezed my hand with her palm, which she had just been making fire and lightning from the air. Meanwhile, my rescuer raised her other hand to her ear and said:

- Tinny Center, I repeat, Tinney Center - cell one hundred six fraction four hundred twenty lost. The cyclicality is erased, all the entities in the cell, except for one, are destroyed. The Destroyer is localized by me, but not for long. I'm leaving for a base for reinforcements.

Finally, we sank to the ground, against the wall of an abandoned factory far beyond the city. She waved her hand and a silvery cloud separated itself from her fingers. Then it sank into a narrow strip from the ground to the sky, faded a little and disappeared.

- What does it mean “destroyed all entities”? What did you mean? Where did all go? - I blurted out questions one by one, not hoping to get answers. Tinney, and, apparently, her name was exactly that, only squeezed my hand and looked at me closely.

- What ... what's with my family? - slowing down the tone, I asked.

- They are not. Your whole world, or rather what you thought was the world - its ring is broken.

- How is it not? What other ring? What are you talking about? Yes, explain already finally! - I almost broke a scream.

- What's your name? She suddenly asked.

“Nikita ...” I said more quietly.

- I'll explain everything later, Nikita ...

Tinney paused again. She looked at me with a sad smile and snapped her fingers. From the ruins of the plant, a vehicle emerged sedately, which simultaneously resembled a flying saucer and an ultramodern aircraft.

A hatch opened in the vehicle, and a ladder crawled out of it slowly with a soft rustle. Tinney gestured for me to rise.

- You still have no other choice, understand. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although, this is still a question, perhaps, just that, because all the other people you knew were, in fact, destroyed.

- destroyed? How can you destroy all the people without affecting the city? - I pointed to the city blocks, brightly lit streets and windows of houses.

“Well, he was also going to destroy the city.” For this he needed a blaster, - she pointed to the piece, which I continued to squeeze by the handle.

- Wait, what about the police, weapons, soldiers? Why no one defended, all just disappeared?

“Understand, everything that you were told from the school bench about the device of the world, the Universe, the cosmos - how can I put it more softly ...” she wrinkled her little forehead, choosing a word.

“All this bullshit if you just talk,” the girl continued. - The most complete with it. You think that there is a huge piece of stone flying in space among other similar pieces around an even more huge hot ball, the so-called star, right?

- Uh, well, yes. You don't want to tell me that geocentric ...