One year.
In a mere year, the world had turned into hell.
“……”
At least, to Antipus, it was hell.
There was no hope in sight.
What should he have done? How should he have done it?
He could swear he had done everything he possibly could.
He had pulled every connection he had on Earth and even forced laws to change in preparation for the apocalypse.
He had spared no expense in researching Abyss energy.
He had never slept more than three hours a day.
He had used every form of media to push his Fame Points to the limit.
After gathering a hundred skills through his Ruler trait, he had stopped counting.
Three highest-tier skills.
Dozens of high-tier skills.
“And yet……”
Even so, he had failed to stop it.
Five failed raids in one year.
The latter two of them had been because the Empire had given up on the raids themselves, but the first three had been undeniable failures.
What had gone wrong?
They had enough force.
There was Vitalianus, and he and the other highest-tier Possessors had supported the Imperial Army as well.
He had relayed information and actively taken part in the raids by making use of logout more than a few times.
And yet the result had been failure.
There were excuses he could make.
After all, this had been a horrifically unreasonable fight from the very beginning.
A fight where succeeding dozens of times meant nothing if a single failure dealt a devastating blow.
But he could not make excuses.
Antipus Praman.
He was now one who bore the weight of the world.
Because he was the one who had to kindle the light of hope in a world shrouded in utter darkness.
Because hope was something that could not be allowed to go out, not even for a single moment.
It was a relief that the social system had not collapsed.
That had only been possible because they had deliberately blocked information about Abyss energy.
They had desperately hidden the fact that merely coming into contact with it meant slowly dying, with no way to heal or respond to it. That was the only reason order had been maintained, however barely.
It was why people still held on to hope despite the immeasurable number of deaths caused by Abyss monsters.
Not knowing that it was false hope.
They had survived, gritting their teeth, believing that if they somehow held on, a brighter future would come.
But now even that had come to an end, had it not?
— The world is over.
Antipus’s gaze fixed on the small phone screen in his hand.
On the screen, a man was surrounded by countless cameras and microphones.
— The bastards at the top among the First Awakened are hiding secrets.
The man on the screen saying those words was also one of the First Awakened.
He was not a high ranker, but as one of the First Awakened, he was an enormous celebrity on Earth. He was also one of the First Awakened who had suddenly vanished from public view roughly two years ago.
— Antipus…… no, Phil Knight! Daphne! Nam Taemin! I’m saying those bastards are holding all the information behind the scenes and refusing to release it!
The man cried out as if wailing, with dark circles under his eyes and a gaunt body unbefitting an Awakened.
He was in despair.
He was raging on behalf of those terminally ill people living day by day on false hope.
He was weeping on behalf of those who did not even know they were dying.
……Was that truly for their sake?
Antipus could not arrive at an answer.
— The Supreme Heavenly Demon is dead! There isn’t a single First Awakened who doesn’t know how horrifying that is! But I only barely found out recently! Why? Because the bastards at the top, led by Phil Knight, were controlling everything!
Antipus took his eyes off the screen for a moment and looked around.
Tall skyscrapers and flashing lights could be seen here and there.
The scenery of a metropolis they had desperately protected, even while abandoning smaller provincial cities.
An order that must never be broken.
And the hope that had to be maintained for that purpose, even if it was false.
— The Supreme Heavenly Demon? Among the First Awakened, he’s practically a religion. Someone who can’t even be compared to the likes of Phil Knight, Daphne, and Nam Taemin combined…… But as if hiding other information wasn’t enough, they concealed his existence and even his death! Why? Because they have to be the ones at the top of the world! Because they have to shape the world however they please!
The man’s voice, filled with rage, was enough to make one imagine what expression he wore even without looking at the screen.
Of course, most of what he said was true.
Antipus, Daphne, and Nam Taemin had hidden information from everyone except their closest aides.
They had forced through all sorts of bills to prepare for the Abyss and secretly spent vast sums of money researching Abyss energy.
They had swiftly abandoned and sacrificed any city where an Abyss Gate appeared, concentrating all their forces only in major cities.
There had been fierce opposition, but what could powerless, helpless ordinary citizens do?
Even if they armed themselves with guns, gathered together, and protested, the metropolises had Awakened.
And behind them were the First Awakened.
In the end, the residents of the abandoned cities pointed those guns at the Abyss monsters that came pouring out…… but there was no way they would work.
They simply died like that.
Cruelly, miserably, helplessly.
— I understood it until the very end. We knew this world was facing an enormous crisis, and we agreed when they said power had to be concentrated for that purpose. But…… naturally, I thought the Supreme Heavenly Demon would be with them, above them!
The scenery of this city, which seemed peaceful at first glance, had been built atop their blood.
Other cities without First Awakened were surely spending another hellish day even at this very moment.
— But in truth, the Supreme Heavenly Demon had been acting alone, and had even been in conflict with Phil Knight! And that very Supreme Heavenly Demon stopped the Abyss alone more than a year ago and died! How could they hide even that from us!
From the looks of it, there was a whistleblower inside.
That was not information a man who was not even in the top hundred could have known.
— Therefore, I intend to reveal every truth they have been hiding here and now.
Who was it?
Who had spread the information?
Several faces came to mind, but he soon erased them from his thoughts.
Because it no longer mattered.
— All of you are going to die.
The camera shook violently.
He could feel that the already noisy place on the screen had become several times more chaotic.
— You all know that black gates appeared and became the disaster we now face. Then, the black energy that comes out of them……
The man on the screen truly exposed it.
About Abyss energy.
That anyone who came into contact with it, and even anyone who unknowingly breathed in so much as a single mouthful, would all die without a single exception.
That the First Awakened had foreseen this and researched it for years, but had ultimately failed to find even a countermeasure.
And so not only those present here, not only the citizens of the metropolises, but most of humanity across the entire world were facing imminent death.
That they would die even faster than if they were killed by monsters.
With those words as the last, the video briefly showed the press conference hall descending into pandemonium before ending.
The man who had once been one of the First Awakened.
It was not difficult to imagine what consequences his exposure would bring.
No, there was no need to imagine it. It began appearing before his eyes at once.
Kwaaaaang!
An explosion erupted in the middle of the city.
Startled screams and angry shouts.
When they learned that their lives were almost over.
When the symptoms were actually beginning to appear, what emotions would they feel?
Even that was easy to imagine.
Perhaps it would be the same as back then.
Back when he had lost his abilities day by day, crushed beneath the name Supreme Heavenly Demon.
Would they not be just as angry?
Would it not be just as terrifying?
Thus, the riot now unfolding was fear.
The explosion was a scream torn out by terror, and the gunshots were the sound of order collapsing.
False hope crumbled all too easily the moment its true nature was exposed, and the system that had barely held on came crashing down in an instant.
The city burned, and people screamed.
There was no beautiful end, with people embracing their families tightly or whispering final words of love to their lovers.
The end was chaos, screaming, and despair.
Originally, he should have stepped forward at once to explain or suppress it, but Antipus did not.
Daphne and Silbert, who were likely busy protecting several metropolises, would not do so either.
As stated earlier, it had all become futile.
「The raid on Abyss Floor -70 has failed.」
Because true hell would soon arrive.
In Antipus’s vision, the collapsing Gate began to appear.
「The Abyss surges in.」
「Aberrations are appearing.」
The Abyss began to swallow the city plunged into chaos.
* * *
「Skill - ‘Blink’ is activating.」
Using Blink in front of Kreutzwald was practically taboo, but there was no helping it.
Kwaaaaang!
「Skill - ‘Heavenly Sky’ is activating.」
「Skill - ‘Thunder Emperor’ is activating.」
Almost simultaneously with Blink, he had no choice but to wrap himself in Heavenly Sky and kick off again using Thunder Emperor.
Kwaaaaang!
Kreutzwald’s attacks, which had begun pouring down in earnest, were that insane.
There was no time to catch his breath, not even the slightest gap to think.
How should he dodge? How should he endure?
Just by focusing on those thoughts, he was already pouring out power close to his limit.
Kwaaang!
He had awakened Intent and learned how to imbue it into magic and skills, but that did not mean he could defeat Kreutzwald immediately.
He was the master of the Abyss, one who freely wielded the Abyss and controlled aberrations like his own limbs.
A mage whose limits of mana could not even be guessed, and a monster who cast several high-circle spells simultaneously.
He could see mana with his eyes, and his skill in handling Intent was undoubtedly a step above.
A black hand suddenly rose up and tried to seize Hio.
Hio had already sensed the movement of mana and tried to turn into lightning and leave the spot, but what blocked his path was a curtain of black.
Lightning imbued with Intent collided with a barrier imbued with Intent.
Kwaaaaaang!
Even with the impact shaking his body, he had to regain his senses immediately.
Acid capable of melting even bone was clinging toward his legs.
And a monster with its entire body engulfed in hellfire was reaching out to tear off both his arms.
「Skill - ‘Blink’ is activating.」
「Skill - ‘Heavenly Sky’ is activating.」
He dodged with Blink and, at the same time, wrapped himself in Heavenly Sky.
Then another impact came crashing in.
Kwaaaaaang!
「Skill - ‘Explosion’ is activating.」
「Skill - ‘Wind Blade’ is activating.」
「Skill - ‘Wind Blade’ is activating.」
「Skill - ‘Wind Blade’ is activating.」
He counterattacked whenever he found an opening.
Three wind golems appeared and swung their swords.
The blast from Explosion, with an enormous effect loud enough to split one’s eardrums, advanced toward Kreutzwald, but despite its dazzling effect, it had no effect whatsoever.
“Tch.”
Kreutzwald waved his hand as if shooing away flies.
The pale green rock golem that had risen to the sky shattered to pieces, and the smoke from the explosion receded in an instant.
「Skill - ‘Blink’ is activating.」
「Skill - ‘Heavenly Sky’ is activating.」
The magic aimed at Hio continued to pour down without tiring.
Even while doing so, Kreutzwald extracted mana separately and summoned another subspace.
He was the master of the Abyss, the pioneer of black magic, and a great necromancer.
The greatest masterpieces among the undead he had created and collected over thirteen hundred years were about to appear.
Tear—
The sky split open with a sticky sound.
From the black space torn open that way, a massive head emerged.
And a body even more massive than that.
Along with it leaked a chill cold enough to freeze the body.
It was the most dignified of living creatures, now reduced to bone alone.
The guardian of a dead world.
— Grrrrrrr.
It was a Bone Dragon.
A total of three Bone Dragons came bursting out in a line from the split space behind Kreutzwald.
That alone made it feel as though the sky had been filled.
A deep shadow was cast over the ground, and the breath they exhaled was thick with cold and death.
They had lost their intellect, leaving behind only powerful bodies, but those bodies had met Kreutzwald’s necromancy.
Their speed would rival Thunder Emperor, and ordinary skills would not even make them flinch—and there were three of them.
“Bring me Pavlenko.”
At Kreutzwald’s command, the Bone Dragons moved.
They surged toward Hio at a speed impossible to believe from bodies the size of fortresses.
He could not meet all three head-on at once.
But if he dodged with Blink, Kreutzwald, now given an opening, would reduce him to pulp with magic this time for certain.
The same went even if he dodged with Thunder Emperor.
In an instant, a Bone Dragon arrived and swung a foot as large as a house toward Hio.
But as if he had been waiting for it, a green radiance soared upward.
「Skill - ‘Dragon Summoning’ is activating.」
The last dragon remaining in this world answered Hio’s call.