Chapter 257

In the convention center, dimly lit, the girl fidgeted with her fork and then pushed aside her paper plate.

A middle-aged woman, watching her, asked anxiously, “Is it not tasty? If you don’t have an appetite, it’s okay not to eat. We’ll be going out soon, so let’s have dinner outside.”

“That’s right. This is emergency food, after all. You don’t have to force yourself to eat if it doesn’t taste good.”

Nodding at her parents’ words, the girl set down her meal.

The combat ration distributed by the Federal Army soldiers and rescue team was fascinating, but for some reason, she just didn’t feel like eating it.

“Are you alright? You bled from your nose earlier…”

“I’m, I’m fine.”

Her parents looked at Ariel with worried expressions, but she forced a smile in response.

While her parents discussed the limitations and hygiene of instant food, Ariel leaned against the wall, looking lifeless.

‘I’m dizzy…’

Her parents were mistaken. The reason Ariel didn’t have an appetite was simply that she was feeling light-headed.

After bleeding about a bowl’s worth, the nosebleed finally stopped, but her head wouldn’t stop throbbing.

Her mom touched her forehead and declared she had no fever, but it still felt like there was some fever remaining.

However, that wasn’t the only problem. Something else was tormenting Ariel.

A strange noise had been echoing in her ears for a while.

The noise grew louder, as though someone had crammed a microphone into her head and was shouting continuously.

The whispers were completely unintelligible and beyond her comprehension.

But Ariel knew instinctively.

It was a kind of command.

It felt like her mom nagging her to clean the room, magnified a million times.

‘Please stop…’

Ariel covered her ears in agony, but the noise kept reverberating, as if searching for an escape inside her head.

“Commander, why did they issue such orders? Is it really right to follow this?”

Outside the command vehicle, the deputy mobile unit leader, standing next to Major Klein, asked with a puzzled expression while they were setting up a defensive line.

They were just preparing to open the exit outside the barrier.

The deputy mobile unit leader was a reliable officer and junior who had fought alongside Klein since the latter graduated from the military academy.

Klein was taken aback by his sudden question.

“Well, it’s an order…”

Klein’s attempt to silence his subordinate failed. The junior officer assessed his superior’s expression and continued speaking.

“But isn’t this strange? You must have felt it too, Commander. It’s a reasonable command to cooperate with the rescue team. That is our mission. However, I can’t understand the priority criteria.”

“The manual states that priority goes to academy students first when entering a dungeon or erosion zone.”

Klein turned his head to indicate he should continue. The deputy mobile unit leader let out a short sigh and spoke, looking dissatisfied.

“There are principles that take precedence over that. According to the principles, the highest priority targets for rescue are typically non-awakened ordinary people. After all, awakened ones can endure extreme environments longer due to their physical conditions. But this…”

Klein recalled the explanation he had given to the girl from the Ariel Group earlier.

“I don’t understand how we can place non-awakened people at the lowest level of evacuation priority. Is this right? You saw the criteria and the temporary list, didn’t you? The prestigious academy students are first on the list, followed by students from smaller academies, and then awakened individuals among the ordinary people. Non-awakened being at the bottom? Is this correct?

Not to mention the one-star idiot who took over from the previous special operations commander. What a fool. I hear the Restraid sprinklings are moving their strings to parachute him in. That idiot must be out of his mind!”

“Shut up; someone might hear you.”

Major Klein restrained his agitated subordinate with a firm voice.

He too understood that there were many incomprehensible aspects, but in the end, it was his duty to follow orders.

“Hah…”

A sigh escaped him without his knowledge. What on earth was upper command thinking?

Suddenly, they were deploying tactical nuclear weapons. They were giving evacuation orders based on such absurd criteria.

If the Ariel Group hadn’t alerted him, he wouldn’t have been able to comprehend the anomalies within this city.

“Deputy mobile unit leader, don’t get too worked up and focus on the situation at hand. We need to establish the defensive line, and there are many tasks to coordinate with the rescue team and the others inside. For now, follow the orders but use discretion depending on the circumstances. If problems arise, I’ll take responsibility.”

“…Understood.”

The subordinate reluctantly acknowledged and fell silent. As they continued their work, they received new contact from the Exhibition Hall.

“A patient? Got it. I’ll report to the higher-ups, but first, show them to the military doctors and have the other medical personnel at the scene respond. Emergency patients need to be prioritized—”

Patients complaining of headaches and dizziness were on the rise.

Was it a temporary phenomenon due to not adapting to the erosion zone?

First, they need to spread the information to other mobile units and contact the command post outside the barrier to request additional support from the emergency medical team.

Klein returned to the command vehicle. As he picked up the receiver of the large communicator filling the car, a sharp noise pierced his ears.

“What is this? Why—”

“Is it broken?”

At that moment, the internal lights of the command vehicle flickered and turned back on.

“…?”

A chilling premonition crept down Major Klein’s spine.

The Violets had been defeated.

Within the enclosed barrier, the Violets were tightly bound by black chains springing up from the floor.

“Ugh… Uaaaaaah…”

Just as a Violet attempted to retrieve her body and escape, an Apostle’s hand gently patted the head of the Violet.

In that moment, her magical power temporarily halted.

“Ugh! Hyaaaah!”

The dark brands embedded in her body.

The Violet realized that her consciousness could no longer escape this place.

She could not even reverse her body to make it vanish.

“What, what is this! No! I can’t leave!”

“Ugh!”

Of course, even if she wanted to leave, she couldn’t.

In front of the chained Violets was Levi, bound tightly.

The Violet’s eyes widened in horror.

“Hey, what are you doing! Not her! Don’t do it!”

The Violet screamed, but it was meaningless. The Apostle’s malicious touch now wrapped around Levi.

Levi, who had been hanging limp, suddenly opened her eyes wide and screamed so loudly that it could shake the very world of Asteria.

“Kyahhhh! No! I don’t want to! I’m sorry…”

With painful cries, Levi’s eyes rolled back and turned black.

“No, please! Va, Violet. Don’t, don’t abandon me! I don’t want to! I-I’ll listen well…”

Levi’s condition now resembled that of a broken doll.

Unable to bear the sight of her friend’s bizarre wails, the Violet shouted.

“Hey! Give my friend back! She’s become weird! Fix my friend!”

Without answering, the Apostle turned to the Violet.

Once again, a wave of overwhelming pain and sensation poured over the Violets, causing them to grit their teeth to the breaking point.

Barely regaining her senses, the Violet gasped and muttered.

“Wh-why are you doing this…! You damned fiend!”

With a rare sarcastic grin, the woman muttered.

“Is there a reason to harvest grain? Is there a need to embellish slaughtering livestock?”

Though she was usually unaccustomed to displaying emotions in human skin, it felt far from awkward when mocking her enemy.

The man standing beside her interjected with an expressionless face.

“Enough.”

The man spoke with a hint of impatience.

“Save the research for later, and take action first. While it’s admirable that they’ve started to develop a rudimentary collective consciousness, it’s almost time to make our move. Our fake gods have just finished opening the gate.”

With that welcome news, the woman stopped her torment and turned her head.

“Our true army has arrived.”

“Yes. I must now go to fulfill my tasks. Don’t forget to quickly turn them into familiars and participate in our main operations.”

The man vanished once more. The Violet glared at the woman and her friend, who was deteriorating in real-time.

“You! I won’t let you get away with this! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill all of you! I don’t know where you came from, but—”

However, her furious shout was quickly stifled by fear.

The woman gripped the head of one of the Violets with overwhelming strength and forced her to meet her gaze.

The surrounding scenery warped. The city became blurry and shrouded in darkness.

A sneer crept across the Apostle’s lips.

These audacious pests.

The potential of humans was astonishing, but for detailed research, it was necessary to turn them into familiars.

To do so, they would need to break their spirits.

The Apostle initiated fresh measures.

Now, this existence called Violet would face the cold truth.

The merciless truth beyond the depths.

A new scene unfolded before the Violet’s eyes.

“Where is this…”

The scenery of a strange planet flickered before Violet’s eyes.

She saw being-sized entities screeching in terror as they scampered above the vibrating ground.

As the sky began to groan and rip apart, the variously clad alien tribes were engulfed in terror.

Giant, ominous gates gaped open like the jaws of a beast, blotting out the sky.

Amidst them, countless enormous ships of unknown shapes and numerous flyers crossed the burning sky.

The vast land was consumed in black flames, turning to ashes. Rivers, lakes, and seas bubbled into crimson poison.

The flesh and bones of fleeing tribes boiled in agony.

Another scene opened. Green-skinned humanoid creatures with long ears curled up in terror.

The earth cracked, and from the deep, dark fissures extending to the horizon, ether of red and violet gushed forth like a spring.

The atmosphere darkened like the abyss, and the forces pouring onto the surface immediately consumed the planet.

In horror, Violet glanced around. Now she saw the alien city made of crystal.

Between the enormous grandeur of cities, temples, and towers were beings screaming while bound in chains.

The yellow-scaled reptiles’ gazes turned black for an instant before warping into grotesque shapes that could not be expressed in language.

They were monsters.

Nightmares continued to unfold before her eyes.

The fleets of enormous ships blotted out the sky. A storm rained down like hail.

A flash comparable to a supernova melted mountains and hills indiscriminately.

Countless grand and magnificent civilizations of various races were engulfed in flames and collapsed. Many races and ecosystems became twisted servant beings drowned in ether.

The sight of all life on the planet melting into green slime and rotting away sprawled before her.

Then, from within the immense gate, a gigantic hand reached out and clasped the continent.

‘….!’

The planet’s surface shattered and twisted under colossal force.

Torn and tangled peaks of rock shot up toward the sky, revealing jagged fangs.

The continents tore apart like a distorted puzzle, shooting skyward in mantle-sized pieces.

Three-legged beings with blue skin could be seen. They struggled to escape the encroaching ether and the forces of monsters.

Silver-shining spacecraft reached out desperately as if seeking a foothold beyond the abyss but realized too late that the sky was blocked by a barrier.

Having lost their escape route, they fell into the gaping maw of darkness below.

Violet’s thoughts froze amid the endlessly unfolding scenery.

“Who are you?” the girl asked.

The Apostle answered.

“We are Aedos.

We are the singular and the universal.

We are those who have inherited the right to monopolize.”

The ruins of civilization, mountains of corpses, burning earth, and the cries of countless terrified races consumed the girl’s mind.

“Our numerous civilizations have knelt before us. Countless intelligent beings have resisted us but perished instead.”

The Apostle’s voice resonated.

As Violet retreated in fear, lifting her gaze, a gigantic eye from beyond the universe was staring at her.

The red and green, as if floating in the abyss, glowed with dozens, hundreds of pupils moving wildly.

“There is no chance for your kind, who have barely awakened to magical powers. Resistance is futile.”

The overwhelming shock of information washed over Violet. She realized that there were things in this world that could not be expressed in language.

“So become one. Kneel. This is a categorical imperative descending from the majestic Monad’s throne.”

As the Apostle touched Violet’s head, she whispered,

“Did you see? Your race is feeble. Subjugation and simply accepting death is the natural order.”

Violet’s body trembled involuntarily at the cruel truth witnessed from the endless abyss of the universe.

“Do you know why I showed you these things in person?”

The Apostle revealed that if there was a singular truth spanning the cold universe beyond the abyss, it was only annihilation.

“Your talent seems a bit trivial compared to our race, but among the humans seen on this planet, you are quite impressive. I will offer advice. If our majestic overlord is pleased with your heart, he will grant you a degree of autonomy and preserve your self-identity when you join our army.”

The Apostle extended his hand, as if it were the only choice.

“Do you want to see your friend suffer more? Surrender quickly and come into our army.”

Violet, even in fear, forcibly denied it.

“No! I won’t surrender! I will fight!”

The Apostle sneered, like an adult watching a child’s tantrum.

“Futile words. Stop your whining. Destruction is inevitable.”

The Apostle of Aedos declared fiercely.

“You are the most wretched and lowest beings in this universe.”

Black claws wrapped around her head. Soon, Violet opened her eyes wide.

“You are a bug.”“You are a bug!”

Violet rediscovered herself in the network, standing alone.

Within the white realm of consciousness, formless colors approached her. As it reached out, dark nightmares like tar began to stain her.

“Ugh, uuaaaah!”

Leaving behind the writhing Violet, the woman spoke once more to her companions.

“It’s over. Let’s begin. Lure Restraid in.”

As the man received the ripple, he instinctively reached out with his right arm.

The sleeping monsters within the darkness raised their heads and began to advance.