Apocalypse: becoming the hidden Ruler[English]

Or maybe…

Maybe there’s no plan at all.

The thought irritated him.

If that was the case, then all this anticipation had been for nothing.

“Hard to say,” Butcher muttered. “Keep watching both of them.”

Axel was already a Level Five Awakener. That meant personal supervision. As for Zane—he could leave that to others.

“Time to head back.”

After settling the bill, Axel returned to the villa district at an unhurried pace. From a distance, Butcher watched him casually enter his room, expression dark and conflicted.

Axel needed to be protected. Closely. And yet… Butcher couldn’t help hoping the kid would do something unexpected.

“What a fucking pity.”

With a shake of his head, Butcher vanished.

Back inside his room, Axel placed the beer he’d picked up on the corner of the table. His eyes slowly returned to their usual calm indifference.

“No rush,” he murmured. “Let’s do this properly.”

He took out the Saint Sea Twig and began absorbing it, inch by inch.

In his inner vision, the twig released a strange, unfamiliar energy. Unlike primal stones or crystals, it didn’t strengthen him directly. There was no surge of power, no brute-force enhancement.

Instead, it resonated.

Deep within him, the ancient tree responded—and so did every inch of his body. Skin. Meridians. Cells.

Axel saw something bizarre.

Under the influence of the Saint Sea Twig, every Awakening Skill he possessed unfolded before him like dissected film reels. Abundant. Explosive Energy. Each one was broken down, analyzed, reassembled.

He understood them now.

For example, Abundant wasn’t just “healing”—it was a precise recombination of attribute-less elemental forces, structured in a way that restored damaged tissue.

His power hadn’t increased.

But these skills were no longer external.

They had become part of him.

Time dissolved.

His Flood-level Original Veins roared at full capacity, drawing Force from all directions like an enormous pump.

Riley sensed the change from her room—but didn’t interfere.

Even when Axel’s phone rang, he remained submerged in that strange, wordless state.

.......

Night fell.

A military vehicle rolled to a stop at the side of the road. Five men stepped out.

The one in front was short, slender, almost scholarly in appearance. Beside him walked an elderly man with a slight stoop and a gentle smile, and another—handsome, sharp-eyed, and utterly unsmiling.

“Xavier. Malachi.” The leader spoke softly. “You haven’t been to Everton in a while.”

“Five, maybe six years,” Xavier replied.

He looked around, exhaling. “Everton’s starting to feel like it used to.”

“Nolan. Sethan,” the leader said. “Change into civilian clothes. I want to walk.”

The two vanished instantly.

Soon, the group of five looked like ordinary office workers heading home late—baseball caps pulled low, faces unremarkable.

It was past midnight, yet the streets were still alive.

They walked leisurely.

Outside a livehouse, a man in a sports car tossed his keys to a waiter and was instantly swallowed by a crowd of girls. Nearby, drunk men and women squatted at the entrance, laughing, arguing, barely holding themselves together.

Jerome watched quietly, an old book tucked under his arm.

Then he felt a small tug on his sleeve.

An eight- or nine-year-old girl looked up at him, eyes bright with cautious hope.

“Uncle… want to buy some flowers?”

Her skin was sun-darkened. Her voice soft. Not far away, her mother stood with a two-year-old strapped to her back.

“Alright,” Jerome said gently. “How much for all of them?”

The girl’s face lit up. She took the money and ran back.

“Mom! We sold all the flowers tonight!”

“I still have balloons,” her mother replied. “Let’s stay a bit longer.”

Jerome walked on.

Xavier chuckled. “General, I thought you were going to buy the balloons too.”

Their pace never changed—but a few seconds later, they were already standing at the far street corner.

“General,” Xavier said quietly, “it’s already remarkable that Krythos has held together this long. Some things are immutable—ancient, universal. No nation escapes them.”

“Yes,” Jerome clasped his hands behind his back. The warmth in his eyes hardened into something sharp. “But tell me, Xavier—how long can this really last?”

“Decades of peace are an illusion,” he continued. “A bubble. It will burst. I don’t understand why those old bastards aren’t panicking.”

His presence sharpened, like a sword just drawn from its sheath.

“You mean…” Xavier hesitated, recalling last year’s beast tide—their investigation cut short beyond the walls.

“We were close,” Jerome said calmly. “Then Krythos unleashed a beast tide and forced us back. Now the Stormhold Imperium’s spies are almost completely wiped out.”

He walked ahead alone.

“We’ll have to move again sooner or later,” he said. “Haven’t you noticed?”

“It’s getting colder.”

It was already April.

In previous years, Everton would have been bursting with life by now—bare branches sprouting fresh buds, the city shaking off winter’s grip. But this year, spring was late. Unnaturally late.

After Jerome’s words, everyone noticed it.

The group got into the carriage, Sethan taking the reins.

“General,” he asked, “where to?”

Jerome rubbed his hands together, gripping the old book more tightly. “Since we’re paying visits anyway, we’ll do it properly. One by one.”

He looked ahead, eyes calm and unreadable.

“First stop—the Starcrest family.”

......

Buzz.

The ancient tree inside Axel trembled violently.

The Saint Sea Twig had already shrunk by nearly a fifth. As Axel watched, a luminous sphere formed on one of the branches, glowing with brilliant white light. A message surfaced directly in his mind.

Group Silence — Second-Tier Awakening Skill.

Uses mental power to form an interference field that greatly conceals one’s life force.

Axel froze.

“So this is what evolved?”

He immediately understood—it was an advancement of Turtle Body.

“…Why this?” he muttered. “Shouldn’t something else have advanced first?”

The Saint Sea Twig was supposed to elevate a second-tier Awakening Skill to the third tier. Anyone who mastered a third-tier skill was considered a mid-level Tier Five Awakener.

Axel had always assumed it would be Abundant or Explosive Energy that broke through first.

“Looks like I misjudged.”

Most Awakeners possessed only a handful of skills. Axel didn’t have that problem—his abilities were too many, too diverse. The Saint Sea Twig had chosen the one most deeply rooted in survival.

Just then, his phone buzzed again.

“…Someone called me?”

Only now did he notice the missed call—an unfamiliar number.

“Seven days already?”

He called back. No answer.

Instead, a flood of notifications exploded across his screen.

Axel’s pupils contracted.

Breaking News: Upper House Forum Convened — April 9 (Everton Time)

Key resolutions include:

• Under the leadership of the Havoc Division, the Awakened Forum has officially been established.

• All Awakened individuals may participate after real-name authentication.

• The official platform will provide basic combat techniques, Awakening Talent Sequence Tables, and advancement pathways—free of charge.

• To ensure fair trade, Awakened individuals may legally sell Original Instruments, training insights, and self-developed combat techniques.

• The forum will cooperate directly with the military. Awakened individuals may complete official missions to earn military merit points, redeemable for medicines, Original Instruments, spiritual plants, mutated beast remains, and more.

Axel stared at the screen in silence.

Basic combat techniques… free?

He turned on his computer immediately and found the Awakened Forum’s login page.

“Please enter your name and social ID. Prepare for facial verification.”

He expected a mountain of forms. Instead, the system completed authentication almost instantly.

Axel — Military Personnel (On Leave)

Tier Five, Lower-Grade Awakener

“Please enter a nickname.”

“Yehuda.”

“Welcome, Mr. Yehuda.”

After a barrage of system announcements, the forum interface finally appeared—blue and black, star-patterned, clean and efficient.

At the top was the merit exchange panel.

Axel scanned the numbers.

“…That’s reasonable.”

• Tier 1 mutated beast — 1 merit point

• Tier 2 — 10 points

• Tier 3 — 100 points

• Tier 4 — 300 points

• Tier 5 — 800 points

A C-grade Original Instrument cost 300 points.

A B-grade required 1200.

One merit point equaled 50,000 Krythos credits.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door.

Riley walked in and sat across from him, dressed simply. She set down milk and bread.

“Eat first.”

Axel realized how hungry he was. Without ceremony, he tore into the food.

“You’ve seen the forum?” he asked through a mouthful.

He glanced at the screen. “This is… a huge move. Completely unexpected.”