Apocalypse: becoming the hidden Ruler[English]

“Hiss—!”

The Awakened watching nearby sucked in sharp breaths. Even Ferdinand’s mouth twitched.

“Where the hell did these monsters come from?!” he blurted.

Luke finally understood. “They’re at the final stage of deep awakening…”

He stared at Axel’s back, stunned. Where did he find people like this?

“Phew. That was close,” Nigel said, wiping sweat from his brow as he reverted to human form. He looked down at the pile of corpses around him, clearly satisfied—then turned away, his smile turning strange. “That’s it?”

“You lost,” Terrence said calmly, wiping blood from his knuckles. “You only killed seven or eight.”

He and Kenneth had each taken down more than twenty level-five mutated beasts. Sergio had killed over a dozen.

The rest?

All Axel.

“Axel, you’re getting more and more fucked up,” Terrence said, clicking his tongue. “Don’t you ever run out of Force?”

Axel didn’t answer. Instead, he walked leisurely among the corpses, his expression… greedy.

Nigel leaned toward Kenneth and whispered, “Don’t you think Axel’s gotten kinda sleazy lately? I’ve never seen him like this.”

Kenneth snorted. “Tch.”

This wave alone netted Axel ninety-six life crystals. He personally finished off every beast still clinging to life.

“They’re Level Six?” someone whispered.

“No,” Luke said slowly, his expression complicated. “But ordinary Level Six Awakeners wouldn’t last against them. Especially Axel.”

He exhaled deeply, then asked, “You’re from one of the Five Great Families?”

“You guessed it,” Nigel said, puffing out his chest unconsciously. “Let’s rest a bit before leaving. I’m beat.”

“Axel,” Sergio asked quietly, “you’re not at your limit yet… are you?”

Axel smiled.

He’d only used about half his Force.

His Original Veins had strengthened again, allowing him to recover Force during combat. With Return to Origin and Burning Fighting Spirit active, his recovery speed was downright abnormal.

“Let’s go,” Axel said. “Time to get out. I can’t wait to break through to Level Six.”

He was eager to see what changes the Ancient Tree of Heaven would bring once it fully materialized.

By then, the mutated beast horde had completely dispersed.

Two Level Five Awakeners rushed toward them.

“Cameron? Adrian?” Luke called out.

Cameron, tall and broad-shouldered, nodded. Adrian, thin and sharp-eyed, added, “So you were here after all. And Axel’s group is safe too—thank god.”

“What happened?” Luke asked.

“You entered Abyss before the blizzard, didn’t you?” Cameron said, staring at them in disbelief. “You really don’t know what’s going on outside?”

“The mutated beast tide has returned. Countless beasts have surrounded Krythos. All forty-eight newly built cities have been evacuated back inside the main territory.”

“Humans and mutated beasts are in a standoff. The city walls have activated their shields—no entry or exit unless the shields open. The military’s fully mobilized along the borders.”

“A full-scale war could break out at any moment.”

Adrian continued, voice tense. “We’re here for reinforcements. Every Level Five Awakener in Abyss has been ordered to return and support the defenses.”

“What?!” Several people gasped.

Mutated beasts… besieging cities?

“You came for help?” Sergio frowned, exchanging a glance with Axel.

“It’s a direct military order,” Cameron said. “We’ve been in Abyss for over twenty days ourselves. Things escalated fast.”

“Alright,” Axel said decisively. “We’re leaving now.”

But Cameron’s expression tightened. He pointed into the distance. “We should go immediately. Abyss space is collapsing.”

“Collapsing?” Luke’s face changed. “How is that possible?”

“No idea,” Adrian replied. “We’ve already pulled out several other Level Five Awakeners. We barely made it back ourselves.”

“Something big happened. Multiple powerful forces collided, and the space couldn’t take it anymore. It’s tearing apart.”

At that moment, Kenneth walked over, his mechanical eyes flickering.

“Hiss… confirmed. Spatial collapse detected from multiple directions.”

Axel’s expression sharpened.

“Move,” he said. “Now.”

......

Spatial collapse…

With so many drastic changes happening in Abyss over the past year, Axel couldn’t help but connect it to Victor.

But he didn’t have the power to interfere.

A spatial collapse was no joke. It meant either being ripped apart by chaotic space—or thrown somewhere unknown, with no guarantee of survival.

“Damn it—it’s too late!” Adrian’s expression shifted sharply.

As a spatial Awakened, he could clearly sense the collapse accelerating. The distortion had already spread to within tens of kilometers of them.

At his warning, Axel and the others immediately felt it.

The trees in the distance twisted unnaturally. The once-flat sand dunes rippled and buckled. Entire patches of land collapsed without warning, swallowed by invisible fractures.

“Move! Get out of here—now!” Axel shouted.

The group fled at full speed.

“Don’t leave us!” The ordinary Level Five Awakeners cried out in panic as Axel’s group surged ahead at speeds far beyond their limits. Despair filled their eyes.

The collapse was spreading too fast. Even at maximum speed, they could feel the spatial turbulence closing in.

“This is bad…” Sergio muttered.

He unleashed a roaring hurricane that wrapped around the twenty-plus people, hurling them forward over a vast distance. At the same time, Axel activated Burning Fighting Spirit and Return to Origin, their auras enveloping the group.

“Axel… thank you!” Mario sobbed, barely holding it together. Many of the other Awakened were on the verge of tears.

“Keep moving!” Axel shouted. “The mutated beasts have gone berserk!”

The roar of disaster swallowed the land.

Sensing impending annihilation, the mutated beasts of Abyss—of every level—fled in blind terror. Hundreds, thousands of them stampeded across the land, shaking the earth and kicking up choking clouds of dust.

Some weren’t fast enough.

They screamed as they were dragged into the dark spatial turbulence, vanishing forever.

At that moment, an unspoken truce formed between humans and beasts. Even when separated by mere tens of meters, neither side attacked. Survival came first.

“Almost there!”

Just as the expanding rift was about to swallow them whole, Axel and the others reached the edge of Abyss.

Without hesitation, they leapt.

—WHOOSH—

This escape was different.

A searing pain tore through Axel’s body. His vision went black.

Where am I…?

Darkness surrounded him, broken only by scattered pinpricks of light.

A dozen seconds later, Axel slammed into solid ground.

His clothes were shredded, and the howling northern wind instantly frosted his eyebrows.

“Is everyone alright?” Axel asked, forcing himself upright as he scanned the area.

Aside from Sergio’s group, everyone else looked miserable—blood streaked across their bodies, as if they’d been slashed by invisible blades.

“Return to Origin.”

Axel’s awakened technique spread out, restoring some of their stamina.

“So cold…” someone muttered.

They stood in an endless frozen wilderness, buried under thick snow. Without Force reinforcement, they would have sunk straight into the drifts.

“For every three hundred kilometers north, the temperature drops by one degree Celsius,” Sergio said grimly, feeling the wind while staring south. “We’re still caught in residual spatial turbulence.”

“We’re no longer in Krythos,” he continued. “We’ve been thrown into the wilderness.”

Mario’s face drained of color. “What?! Then—then we’re surrounded by mutated beasts, right?! Let’s go back!”

His panic spread instantly. Even seasoned wilderness hunters felt a deep, instinctive fear of what lay beyond the city walls.

“The good news,” Sergio said steadily, “is that we don’t sense any mutated beasts nearby.”

“The bad news is that we’re at least a thousand kilometers away from Krythos.”

Silence fell.

“Everyone, suppress your auras,” Sergio ordered. “We move south. Don’t panic—there are a lot of Level Five Awakeners here. Even in the wilderness, that’s a powerful force.”

His calm tone steadied them. The fear in their eyes eased slightly.

“Let’s go. It’s snowing,” he added. “Snow won’t hide tracks. That makes scouting easier.”

When Axel glanced at him, Sergio gave a nearly imperceptible shake of his head.

As the main group began moving, Axel and Sergio walked at the front, calling Luke and Ferdinand over.

“What do you think?” Sergio asked quietly, brow furrowed.