Investing in My Harem in the Apocalypse Makes Me Stronger

Mo Xuanye nodded in agreement, while Aurelia returned her sword to its sheath.

Viktor gave several brief instructions to the members of his group who would remain behind, and Ron retrieved his spear from the broken ground.

Cain had already begun walking when he remembered something and stopped.

His gaze shifted back toward the crater where Serath’s corpse remained.

He jumped into the crater and approached the Youngest Prince’s body before waving his hand casually.

Serath’s corpse disappeared into his inventory, leaving only the shattered ground beneath it.

Cain climbed back out and glanced toward the others.

“Let’s go.”

The World Gate Core was not located inside any of the massive structures visible throughout the Central Base.

From what they had learned while fighting through the fortress, the World Gate Core had been constructed deep beneath its central region, protected by the surrounding defenses and the Spatial Anchor Network that had stabilized the entire Invasion Corridor.

With all four Spatial Anchors already destroyed, most of those protections had lost their purpose.

Cain’s group entered through a broad passage behind the remains of the central command structure.

The path descended beneath the fortress at a gradual angle, surrounded by dark walls made from the same unfamiliar material that appeared throughout the Central Base.

Faint violet lines had been embedded into those walls. Some still released a weak glow, while others had already gone dark.

The sounds coming from the surface slowly faded as they descended.

At first, Cain could still hear people moving through the ruined Central Base as they collected Cores and Blood Crystals from the corpses left behind.

Those sounds eventually disappeared beneath the ground until only the footsteps of their group remained inside the passage.

Before reaching the end, Cain could already feel the energy waiting beneath them.

It was different from the pressure released by another living being as there was no clear source that his senses could immediately follow because the energy seemed to permeate the passage itself, growing denser with every step they took.

Mo Xuanye’s expression became more focused as he felt the same thing.

“You feel it?”

“Yeah. That’s definitely the World Gate Core.”

Cain continued downward without slowing his pace.

The passage eventually widened before opening into an enormous underground chamber.

Everyone stopped when they saw what waited inside.

Even Cain remained silent for several seconds as he took in the sight before him.

The World Gate Core dominated most of the chamber.

A gigantic crystalline structure floated above a circular platform that had been built into the floor.

The crystal rose several stories high, yet its surface never appeared completely stable. Dark violet energy moved underneath the translucent exterior in continuous streams, sometimes brightening before sinking deeper into the structure.

Black metallic supports surrounded the Core. Some extended from the platform and curved toward the crystal without touching it, while others connected directly to the walls of the chamber and carried narrow streams of dimensional energy away from the center.

The space surrounding the World Gate Core was distorted badly enough to be visible.

Whenever Cain looked through the energy surrounding it, sections of the opposite wall seemed to bend before returning to their proper positions.

Thin spatial fractures formed near the crystal from time to time, remaining visible for several seconds before sealing themselves again.

Something about the area behind the Core was even stranger.

Cain could clearly see the wall of the underground chamber, yet the space there appeared deeper than the physical distance should have allowed.

His eyes told him that there was solid stone behind the structure, but his senses insisted that something stretched far beyond it.

The World Gate Core was not simply storing energy—it was maintaining a connection.

This was the structure the Zombie Race had protected throughout the entire invasion, the foundation of the permanent passage they had nearly established toward Earth.

Ron stared upward at the massive crystal.

“So destroying that thing ends everything?”

“That’s the idea.”

Cain resumed walking toward the Core.

His footsteps echoed through the chamber as the others followed at a slight distance.

The closer Cain moved, the more clearly he could sense the energy circulating through the structure.

Enormous quantities were still moving toward pathways that no longer had anywhere to go because every Spatial Anchor connected to the network had already been destroyed.

The World Gate Core was unstable.

Cain could somehow feel it now.

The energy circulating inside the structure was no longer moving with the consistency expected from something functioning properly, as several currents collided beneath the crystal’s surface, and the spatial distortions surrounding it appeared more frequently than before.

Even if nobody touched the Core, Cain doubted it could maintain the Invasion Corridor permanently anymore.

He stopped several dozen meters away.

His golden eyes narrowed.

Something had changed behind the crystal.

Cain initially believed that another spatial distortion had appeared, but the darkness beyond the World Gate Core began moving in a way that had nothing to do with the unstable energy surrounding it.

His attention sharpened.

The violet currents inside the Core seemed to slow as something gradually became visible beyond them.

Cain’s expression changed.

A massive human-like eye opened within the darkness.

Its iris was a deep violet, surrounded by a pale surface that made the completely black pupil at its center appear even more unnatural.

The eye did not belong to anything physically present inside the underground chamber.

It was looking through the connection.

Cain had no idea how far away the owner of that eye actually was, but the instant its gaze settled on him, his body stopped responding.

His consciousness trembled violently.

A powerful pulling sensation appeared inside his mind, yet his physical body had not moved at all.

Cain immediately understood that whatever was happening had nothing to do with his body.

Something was dragging at his soul.

His golden eyes widened as the underground chamber faded from his awareness.

The others disappeared along with it, and even the enormous World Gate Core became difficult to perceive as the violet eye filled his vision.

Cain tried to move his arm, but his body did not respond.

The strange force continued pulling his consciousness toward the darkness inside the pupil.

His thoughts began slowing down.

An instinctive sense of danger spread through him as the distance between his consciousness and the enormous eye seemed to shrink.

Then something stirred inside his body.

A deep sound echoed through Cain’s consciousness.

It resembled the irritated snort of an ancient beast awakened by something that had wandered too close.

The force dragging Cain’s soul stopped.

The enormous violet eye trembled.

Then Cain’s consciousness returned to his body before he staggered backward and sucked in a heavy breath.

“Haah!”

His heart hammered against his chest, cold sweat covered his forehead.

Elara was the first one to notice.

“Cain?”

Ron turned toward him as Mo Xuanye’s attention immediately shifted from Cain toward the World Gate Core.

Cain did not answer them.

His golden eyes remained focused on the darkness behind the crystal.

The purple eye had moved farther away after whatever had reacted from inside his body, but it had not disappeared. Its gaze was still fixed on him from the other side of the dimensional connection.

Cain had no intention of allowing it another opportunity.

True Ruin erupted from his body.

The people behind him moved farther away as dark gray energy rushed through Cain’s arm and gathered in his palm.

He continued supplying Mana until the concentration became dense enough to distort the air surrounding his hand.

Cain did not bother testing the World Gate Core’s defenses first.

Whatever was watching him through the connection had already given him enough reason to destroy the structure as quickly as possible.

More True Ruin gathered above his palm until faint fractures began appearing in the nearby space.

The enormous violet eye narrowed.

Cain stared directly back at it.

“Keep watching, you fucking rat!”

He thrust his palm forward.

The condensed True Ruin erupted across the chamber and crashed directly into the World Gate Core.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The underground chamber shook beneath the impact.

Cracks immediately spread across the crystal as the violet energy circulating within became chaotic.

True Ruin penetrated through the damaged surface and continued destroying the power maintaining the structure from inside.

Several of the black supports surrounding the Core began trembling before breaking away from the platform.

Spatial distortion intensified throughout the chamber, sending violent pressure across the platform and forcing everyone behind Cain to brace themselves.

The cracks covering the World Gate Core rapidly widened until several reached the center of the massive crystal.

Through the damaged structure, Cain saw the enormous violet eye one final time.

Its gaze had changed.

Before Cain could determine what that change meant, the dimensional connection collapsed.

CRACK!

A massive fracture split across the center of the World Gate Core.

The crystal broke apart as the violet energy contained within erupted through the opening.

For a moment, the entire chamber became strangely quiet while the surrounding space distorted around the collapsing structure.

Then the accumulated energy erupted.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The World Gate Core shattered.

Fragments of crystal were consumed by the True Ruin still spreading through the structure before they could scatter across the chamber.

The remaining dimensional energy surged upward from the broken Core before dissolving into violet particles.

The underground complex continued trembling beneath their feet.

Cain slowly lowered his hand, but his eyes remained fixed on the place where the enormous eye had disappeared.

There was nothing there anymore.

Then the familiar sound of the System echoed inside his mind.

[Ding!]