The Apex Obelisk was more than thirty meters tall and the endless power contained within it was palpable.Adrian gazed at it and saw a glimmer of hope. He asked, "Have you been to the top of the monument, Rozi? Do you know what's up there?"The top of the Apex Obelisk was broad enough to house a few people. Wonder had surely left a way for others to retain their memories if he knew how everything would play out, so maybe there was something at the top of the monument. Meanwhile, Rozi was stunned. She had not thought of that before. She realized she had neglected a very important point."No, I’ve not been up there. I don't know what to expect at the top.""Excellent. The secret to everything might be up there. I'm going to go and take a look," Adrian said."Be careful, sir. We don't know what sort of dangers are up there. Don’t let your guard down," Oliver warned. “I won’t,” Adrian said, then asked Cian, "Do you have a rope?"Cian nodded and took out a rope and hook from his b
There were more than five hundred corpses lying about!"What's the matter?" Rozi asked. "I was mistaken. It's not just twenty corpses, but more than five hundred. They all died a long time ago too."Adrian's reply shocked everyone once more.Rozi asked, "How did they die?""I'm trying to find out right now.” Adrian carefully examined the corpses and found they all had one thing in common. Though the degree of their decomposition varied, it was clear all of them had one burnt arm. Their burned arms were charred black, and some of the newer corpses even had burn blisters on them. They had either been electrocuted or burned with something extremely hot. "All of them have one burnt arm.""A burnt arm? What happened to them?"Everyone started discussing, but nobody could figure out what could have caused the burns. Rozi then asked, "Are you sure about that?" Adrian nodded. "I'm sure. They all have the same injuries. They must’ve grabbed something and then died. The rest of t
All of the pieces were coming together. Adrian finally made the connections after seeing the corpses and the stone with runes engraved onto it. "Rozi, you've recovered your memories, so were you the one who took the stone in the coffin?""Yes, I swapped the stone with a fake and took the real one. But my memory of what happened to it is blank. I can't remember where the real one is."Adrian smiled. The stone Rozi had switched out had ended up in his possession. This stone before him was similar to the one Mya found at St. Elmer's Church. At the time, he thought it was something his ancestors had forged, perhaps even containing extreme powers. The runes on the stone looked like human blood vessels. Although it was all only his assumption at the time, he could now prove both that and the stone before his eyes were similar. "I found that stone you lost, but it's not in my possession right now. It's in a locker back at Swallowston's Battle Warrior Department."Really? But I don't kn
Rozi said, "Why don't you let me do it instead, Adrian? You're the pillar of your country, someone who’s even more influential than me, and I've lived for more than a thousand years, so—""What?! Y-You're more than a thousand years old?! A-Are you kidding me?" Cian interrupted before Rozi could finish. Everyone’s eyes went wide with shock. After all, this was something impossible.Rozi shot Cian a glare after being interrupted and furiously said, "Keep your mouth shut."Cian quickly covered his mouth but continued to gaze at her in shock. Rozi continued, "Me dying now won't cause any impact, but you're different. You're still young. You should come back down here and let me do it instead."Adrian silently looked at the stone for a few seconds before carefully picking it up, completely ignoring what Rozi said. When he grabbed it, he silently waited to see if anything would happen. Yet after five minutes, nothing happened.The stone sat in Adrian’s palm like an ordinary stone.
Adrian nodded.Rozi then said, "It's getting late, and there's no need for us to stay here any longer. We should head back. We have to be extra careful. Those monsters at the palace will be waiting for us.” Everyone climbed down the Utopia Stairwell. Cian and the others were discussing what had happened throughout the journey, while Adrian and Rozi silently led the way. Rozi did not ask Adrian about what he had seen back at the lake, but his mind was filled with the image he had seen. The sky had been covered by a giant shadow, causing darkness to blanket the whole world. Moreover, the city had turned into a huge wasteland with monsters lurking about every corner. The surviving humans teamed up to try and find a way to retaliate as more of their kind died with each passing second.Most importantly, Adrian felt that the future he saw was not far from the present. "Is something on your mind?" Rozi asked when she noticed Adrian's expression. Adrian glanced at her and did not ans
Oliver was in a daze.From the top of Mount Gremont, all they saw was an endless sea of dark clouds. It was as though a raging storm was about to hit them. On top of that, a gigantic shadow covered the sky.The Mount Gremont Railway worksite was completely destroyed. The scaffolding around the base was about to crumble at any moment. The place was dead silent and there were a few monsters lurking about. The sky was gloomy and it looked like it was about to pour. This scene looked exactly like the one in the drawings. The shadow had countless eyes as it overlooked what was puny humans to it. "Wh-What happened…"Cian took a few steps back from shock, while Padraig and the others stood there dumbfounded. They all looked in disbelief as they were now looking at the same scene depicted on the canyon walls back in Wonder's world. "Impossible… This is impossible…" Oliver said in a trembling voice. They were all shocked and nervous, while Adrian silently stood overlooking the destro
None of them had ever imagined something so terrifying to happen. In less than ten days, half of the world's population had been purged while Adrian’s group was trapped in the palace. To make matters worse, the Creator had sent out his monsters to kill the remaining half of humanity.Everything was about to be reset, and the only silver lining throughout this tragedy was that Cian and the others had retained their memories. If they had lost their memories, there would be anyone alive who knew about the Creator. "Now that everything's happening earlier than we expected, we're going to have to team up to fight him if we want to survive. We’ll have to do it like the immortals of the past," Rozi said. She already knew that history was going to repeat itself, but she was not expecting for it to happen so soon. The group was thrown into despair and overwhelmed by fear.A young man said, "Sir, are my parents and siblings still alive? Half of the population has disappeared in the blink
"We have no choice but to stick with you, sir. Thank goodness you're still around, or we'd be sitting ducks," Cian said as he heaved a sigh. "What are your orders, sir?" Padraig asked. "Let's go to the base and take a look around first. We have to see if there are any survivors left before we move on to Novemton. We can build a safe zone with everyone's help before we think of a way to defeat him, but if Crystal is dead, we'll have to think of another plan. Come on."Adrian led everyone down the mountain. Cian and the others wiped away their tears before following him.Rozi walked next to Adrian and asked, "We don't know if your wife and daughter were affected by the reset. Do you want to go home and take a look before we regroup and plan?""It wouldn't help our cause if I went and found that they've disappeared. If they're still alive, they've probably gone somewhere safe. There’s no need for me to look for them right now.""Are you sure?" Adrian nodded. Ivy, Eira, and the