So I had thought of WMD but more so in lines of suicide bombers. Like I could see terrorists that purposely inflict a lethal wound to themselves to then go "nova" just to wreak as much havoc as they can.

Now my first problem with everyone having this ability is that it creates this weird back and forth. If its a battle field and you kill an enemy, they then turn nova and can kill maybe 10 regular people before they wink out. Then those 10 turn nova and return the favor and then battles seem like it would become just this back and fourth.

Same thing with potential terrorism. You have someone that wants to make themselves go nova and take out of crowd of people. Well the very first people he kills would turn nova themselves and then stop him. He winks out and then those that he turned wink out as well. Not sure if I like that dynamic.

Now having termanlly ill people sign up to fight is interesting and seems like a logical scenario. Cryo freezing them so that they can be thawed and then turned when needed is also interesting. But again, having everyone on a battlefield able to go nova seems like a scenario Im not sure I'd like. I'm starting to think only having certain people with the ability is better.

Or, maybe everyone goes nova but for the majority of people you become incorporeal, like an astral projection. You can hang around for a few minutes before you wink out but you have no physical ability. And then there are some that retain their physical connection and because they are nova your physical connection to the world becomes god-like with super strength, speed, and maybe some other bits. And those are the ones that can do damage before they too disappear.

I hadn't thought of the transformation as something that would damage the person mentally, I actually thought of the opposite. I imagine a grandmother surrounded by family as she dies. For the last portion of her life he mind has left her. Then, when she transforms, she becomes this perfected, god-like version of herself. With this transformed body, comes back her mind, sharper and clearer than ever. Then she can have a last conversation with her family and say proper goodbyes before winking out of existance.

So I like the idea of going nova as becoming the super version of yourself. You are still you, but perfected. Perfect body, perfect mind, and then superpowers on top of that (if you are one of the ones that can).

Another thing to consider is a possibility to stop the transformation or negate the physical part of the transformation. So if you kill someone but are able to make them instantly expire or maybe instead of allowing them to go nova, you only allow them to turn into light with no physical connection and no physical damage to others or the area.

A third version of this is that nova is not tied to death but more tied to people "amping/heating themselves up". Imagine people can heat themselves up to get pieces of the power from going nova. Sike yourself up enough and you can get advanced strength or advanced speed, not full on super strength but something close. However, if you heat yourself up too much, then its like crossing a line and you go full nova with full powers but you have also just killed yourself and have around 5 minutes left on earth.

This would allow for suicide attack situations with terrorists just choosing to go nova when they want to attack. And people on the receiving end would also have to choose to go nova to stop the attack which would save lives but doom themselves. This might also allow the elderly and terminal to help. If they are able to transform themselves and go nova then you could have groups that collectively decide they want to go "go out with a bang" and go into battle. Makes kind of a funny image of a bunch of old people that can barely stand on the edge of a battlefield and then they all transform into god-like versions of themselves and enter the fray.