Chapter 172: The Revelation

The entire rift issue had exhausted her more than she thought, and she fell asleep very early, leaving the rest of her work to Anna.Nonetheless, the moment she drifted into deep sleep, a revelation, one she had grown quite accustomed to, began once more.

This time, it was sharper, clearer, fiercer, and far more realistic than it had ever been.

In the memories, the world she knew was being torn apart from the inside.

She saw monsters of forms and sizes unimaginable, devouring humans like mere candies. She saw towering buildings dwarfed before these abnormalities. Children left orphaned and parents left childless.

The world was plunged in red. Rivers overflowed with the blood of the unfortunate, and their stench filled the atmosphere.

As the revelation continued, her body shivered in the real world.

She twisted on the bed.

Her eyes and lips quivered, and tears fell freely from her eyes.

The revelation continued for an untold amount of time before she was abruptly woken up.

She lifted her upper torso quickly and scanned her room, her eyes still trembling and her body tense.

Then she slowly settled down.

She could still recall everything she had seen vividly. The gore. Everything.

Unlike the other times she had this revelation, something within her told her that this one was more serious. Like a divine warning.

Immediately, she left the Hunter Association and went to search for her brother, the only one who would understand and believe her revelation without questions.

She found him quickly at the mountain area in the heart of Eldertree City, where he usually stayed isolated and meditated. He had always visited this place often, but after the situation with the Lunaris, he made it his home. Hiding away from everyone, including his own son.

She knew her brother very well. He hated defeat and had always strived never to taste it.

As a father, the defeat struck even harder.

He failed to protect his son. He failed to protect the people who placed their hope in him.

And isolating himself from the world was his way of dealing with it.

She could have let him be, since he had not bothered to come see her. But this revelation was serious.

She arrived there.

It was evening, and the sky still shone brightly.

She flew over the vast and beautiful mountain range, observing the movements of small animals beneath her.

She scanned the wide area for her brother, using her vision skill.

And then she spotted it, a cave with dense energy emitting from it.

She flew toward it.

Before she even drew nearer, Norian had already perceived her and flew out of the cave.

The two of them floated midair and observed one another.

Norian wore his signature stoic expression as he studied her, then a smile blossomed on his face.

"Little sister."

Nonetheless, before he could complete his words, Crimson closed the gap swiftly and wrapped her arms around him tightly.

She began weeping.

She had thought about this moment many times. She had even planned to hit him for isolating himself and abandoning his sister.

But seeing him, hearing his voice, it all changed.

She missed him.

Norian hugged her back and consoled her. Then he flew her to the peak of a nearby mountain, where the view of the entire scenery lay bare.

She wept even more in his embrace, and after some time, she wiped her tears and asked about his well being.

The two of them talked.

As they spoke, Norian noticed the behavioral pattern of his sister. It was one he knew well.

"What is bothering you?" he asked in a calm voice.

And she opened up.

She told him about the revelation and the vividness of it.

He listened, and his stoic expression slowly crumbled.

"Tonight is the night."

Norian stood up and spoke with a frown on his face, lifting his head to stare at the evening sky as it gradually darkened with the approaching night.

Crimson stood up as well, observing him with confusion.

"What do you mean?"

Norian turned to her.

"Another cataclysm. A far stronger one, fiercer than the first cataclysm and the visit. One where human extinction is highly possible."

His voice was stern and firm, without a single hint of jest. And knowing her brother, he never joked about such matters.

She shivered.

Everything she saw in her revelation was going to happen.

She could not fathom it.

Nonetheless, before she could ask how her brother knew, the entire world was rocked by something of impossible magnitude.

A violent earthquake erupted, causing every mountain in sight to tremble.

It took all their power as powerhouses to maintain their balance.

"What’s..."

Her voice caught in her throat as she watched the sky gradually turn blood red, while an ominous presence descended and spread across the entire world in a single moment.

"Find Marlon. Call all the hunters. Prepare."

Norian did not wait for the transformation to complete.

In a voice completely different from his usual stoicism, he warned her.

Without sparing another second, his body emitted thick red energy, and he blasted away.

Crimson stood there, terrified.

The sudden earthquake. The reddening of the sky.

They were exactly what had taken place in her vision.

Those deaths. That gore. They were about to begin.

She had to try to stop it, even though her mind told her it was not possible.

She snapped out of her thoughts.

And blasted toward the direction of the Hunter Association.

=====

The sudden change shattered the semblance of peace that had settled over Arden in the past few weeks.

Civilians stepped out of their houses, staring at the unexplainable changes unfolding before them.

The ominous presence that had appeared weighed heavily on them.

They were weak. They did not possess the natural defenses against such power, and as a result, they felt all of it.

Some fainted.

Others shivered uncontrollably, their eyes lifted toward the sky.

Chattering filled the streets.

Fear had already cemented itself in their hearts, and unfortunately, this was not even the true beginning of the chaos that would befall them.

While they trembled and questioned the absurd change, the true danger began.

Towering portals appeared.

They emerged on every street across the world.

Millions of such portals, radiating immeasurable energy, took over the entire Arden in a single second.

The portals were red and brimming with power, indicating that they were nearing a break. The abnormalities hidden behind them would soon emerge.

Fear gripped the onlookers even harder.

The kind of fear that froze the body.

The kind that made the heart scream danger and cripple the limbs.

The kind of fear that made one seek death.

The streets descended into mayhem.

Those who could still move began to flee.

Parents grabbed their children and ran.

Children who were still conscious cried as they tried to drag their frozen parents away.

Some locked themselves inside their homes, shutting every door and window, as though it could prevent the inevitable.

Screams rocked the streets as the portals surged with increasingly chaotic power.

Then seventy percent of the newly appeared portals exploded violently.

The unknown horrors hidden within them began to emerge one after another.

On a random street, the feared fire dragon, known in records as the Lava Devourer, appeared.

A being that had only ever been recorded in A-rank danger zones.

Its massive body blocked an entire street from the sky.

Everyone turned to look at it.

Some collapsed.

Some lost control of themselves.

Some knelt in defeat.

Some cried.

Everyone reacted to the fear in different ways.

With a terrifying roar that froze every living being, it opened its massive mouth, lined with teeth as large and sharp as blades, and spat out a torrent of liquid flame.

The flames descended upon the streets.

They devoured everything they touched.

Houses melted instead of burning.

People struck by the cursed attack melted away.

Even the tarred road was not spared, as dents several inches deep formed within it.

The street, once lively, was reduced to nothing but ashes.

The stench spread rapidly through the area.

Yet this was merely the beginning.

The dragon continued to spit liquid flame in fury, even though no humans remained alive.

It did so for pleasure and freedom, as though its power had been restrained for a very long time.

But this was insignificant.

The dragon of darkness was the least of what was happening.

Humanity needed no one to tell them that it was over.