Chapter 41: Apocalyptic

I moved my hands in front of me and began pooling Mana from both of them, rapidly charging up an orb of lightning as the Zombies closed in on me, less than a hundred and fifty meters away now, the torrential downpour growing stronger and stronger as the sun set, the sky darkening.

I can't afford to cut off my hands right now, so I'll fire it the normal way. The ball of lightning between my palms crackled as sparks streaked out from it, growing stronger and stronger as I pooled more and more Mana into it.

This blast was taking about thirty percent of my total Mana.

As the gap between me and them shrunk down to around fifty meters...I braced myself and fired out the compressed ball of lightning, taking a step back to make sure the recoil didn't upset my balance.

"Take this, you bastards...Lightning Incineration Canon!"

With a hiss and crackle, the large mass of lightning blasted through them like a massive drill, eradicating most of the ones in front in an instant.

"Heh...you've gotta be kidding...that probably took out around a hundred of them at the most...their numbers sure don't look any smaller though," I grinned wistfully, firing out all my remaining poison needles.

To my surprise, they actually worked, the Zombies they struck lifelessly dropped to ground immediately. I soon ran out of needles, drawing my blades and bracing myself as I entered Bloodlust Mode and triggered Lightning Boost at x2.5...

...they were just twenty meters away now...

As slivers of moonlight crept out from behind the heavy rainclouds, dimly illuminating my rainy surroundings, a Zombie at the front of their charge sprang at me, his jaw wide open.

I sidestepped his chomp and slashed down, taking off his head, as the literal tidal wave of undead reached me.

I was maxing out my perception as much as I could, dangerously close to my eyeballs exploding...but even with that I couldn't follow the movements of all of them. There were too many...

I can't let them get past me...I need to stay alive for as long as I possibly can...so long as I'm still human, they'll stick around me...but the moment I get scratched or bitten and begin turning into one of them, they'll lose interest in me and could go after the others.

So I evaded and dodged, attacked and counter-attacked....

It was like a blur of countless rotting teeth and bony hands reaching for me, and it was all happening so fast that I was barely able to breathe or think, I was purely reacting and moving on instinct. If I let up and stopped moving for even a fraction of a second...it'll be over for me.

I dodged a Zombie to my right, before jumping over a wave approaching in front of me, stepping on their heads at an angle that would break their necks.

As I landed, two more sprang up from my left, they were of similar height so I slashed off both their heads in one strike...and then from behind them, five more appeared.

I dealt a swift kick to the midsection of one of the ones I'd just taken down, knocking back two of the approaching Zombies. Before I knew it, a bunch more appeared behind me.

I flipped myself and stood on my hands, fluidly rotating my waist to swing my legs around in a rapid arc, knocking back the Zombies crowding me.

The amount of room I had to move was shrinking fast, as more and more Zombies gathered around me.

There was no end to them...I could cut off ten heads, but a hundred more show up to take their place.

Adrenaline and instinct were keeping me going, as the margin of my evasions shrunk with every passing second, my blades slick with their half-coagulated blood, making it harder and harder to slash them with each one I cut down.

As I finally ran out of room to evade, Zombies plunged at me from every angle...reacting instinctively, I jumped up, using them as stepping stones and springing up off of their heads into the air.

As I reached the peak of my jump, I realized that was a huge mistake....

...the sight below me was a truly bone-chilling one.

Zombies as far as the eye could see...a sea of arms reaching up, and groaning, emotionless and lifeless faces with mouths hanging open hungrily.

I had nowhere to land...the Zombies had converged towards me, meaning the area directly below me had the heaviest concentration of them right now.

This...might be it for me.

I aimed my foot to step on the head of a particularly tall Zombie as I dropped back down. My foot landed on his face, but before I could jump off it, several bony hands grabbed my ankle firmly, pulling me down before I could even think of cutting it off.

My back slammed into the ground as they swarmed me. I tried to struggle, but too many of them were holding me down. I tried to look for an opening, but there were so many above me that I couldn't see a thing besides their snarling faces.

I could barely breathe...Zombies were covering me from head to toe, as the heavy rain pelted down on top of them...it was almost like I was being buried alive.

As they continued to pile around and above me, I felt a rising sense of panic and urgency, my breathing turning ragged as I felt a vicious chomp on my shoulder, before feeling several more all over me.

...I didn't want to die...

It felt like...each bite was injecting something into me. Something.. heavy and toxic. It's only a matter of time now...

...

...

...why weren't they stopping? They were relentlessly biting and scratching me, showing no signs of slowing down or stopping, as I felt on the verge of passing out, the air in my lungs running out.

I soon realized why, as I felt my body...healing itself. My Healing Factor...it was working against them!

No, wait...it was only half-working.

I could clearly feel it...

Each Zombie bite injected two things into my body...the first felt like some kind of toxin or virus, which was what my Healing Factor was able eradicate. The second thing injected into me felt...kinda like Mana, but...heavier.

I'm not sure how to explain it, but it felt stifling, like there was something lingering in my body, weighing me down...

However, it didn't feel like it was taking over my mind or sanity or anything.

And the fact that they were still biting me proves that I'm still human, which means the toxin that my Healing Factor was eradicating was the part of their bites that turns a human into a Zombie...I'm not sure what the heavy Mana-like stuff is, it was a bit painful, but it didn't seem to be affecting my humanity.

In other words, while it wasn't perfectly so, my Healing Factor was Zombie-proof...I was definitely concerned about the heavy substance that was being injected into me, but at least I don't have to worry about becoming one of them.

A flicker of hope lit up in me, before I snapped out of it as I realized that it doesn't help me in my current predicament.

I still couldn't move...I wasn't turning into a Zombie, but at the rate they were chomping down on me, it's only a matter of time before one of them damages my heart or neck beyond repair, killing me.

No matter how much I strained or struggled, I couldn't move, I was completely helpless. And the heavy Mana-like stuff inside me kept increasing with every bite, and the more it increased, the more I felt like it was choking me and destroying me from the inside out.

Well...I guess I'll take some comfort in the fact that I won't be turning into a Zom- my thoughts were then interrupted by an earth-shattering, nuclear-esce explosion...as an insanely bright red light shone through the barely existent gaps between the Zombies above me.

What the...?

A few seconds later, a powerful shockwave burst out from the explosion point, strong enough to knock off a bunch of the Zombies above me. That was all the opening I needed...

As their grips on me weakened and the mass of weight about me grew lighter, I discharged and fired as much lightning outwards as I possibly could, from every part of my body that I could fire from.

Right before I did, the heavy Mana-like substance inside me sent a vicious wave of pain across my body as I attempted to use my Mana...and as I fired out the lightning...it burst out many, many times more powerful than I can usually manage, instantly incinerating the remaining Zombies piled above me.

Was it just my imagination...or had my lightning been black instead of the usual blue just then?

I took in a sharp and deep gasp of air, before turning back towards the direction of the explosi-...

...what am I looking at?

No way...

It took a second to sink in, as I stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

The nation of Goldway...was gone.

Literally, just gone.

It had been completely wiped off the face of the Earth by the explosion.

How big a Blood Crystal had they used to create such an explosion? And how many people had they sacrificed to generate that much explosive power to trigger it? All that was left was a large, smoldering pile of ashes, everything from the outer walls to the buildings were completely gone.

I was stunned speechless...but I don't have the time to gawk, I can wrap my head around it later.

Before the Zombies could swarm me again, I activated Lightning Boost and- woah!

My speed was several, several times faster than usual, so fast that I couldn't even see where I was going...but it also felt like it was rapidly destroying my body, my internal organs were getting more and more damaged by the second.

I ignored the pain, sheathed my blades and shot in the direction of the road leading back to the Rustlands. I had moved only about fifty meters before losing control of my speed and crashing to the ground. As I did, I felt my insides breaking apart, as I coughed up a large puddle of blood.

This heavy Mana-like stuff...was it destroying my body? I had been bitten and injected with so much of it by the Zombies that my body couldn't handle it...

I deactivated Lightning Boost and ran forward without it.

Even without it, my body was moving really, really fast, I'd say a good five or six times faster than normal. I quickly began nearing the start of the road back to the Rustlands, my speed getting me there in no time, as I expanded the gap between the Zombies and myself.

However, my internal damage was extremely severe, my Healing Factor was completely overwhelmed and unable to keep up, and using Mana only further speeds up the rate of damage it causes.

My body was now deteriorating at an alarming rate...

Damn it, can I expel it from my body?

I tried getting rid of it by trying to discharge it through my Mana circuits, but the moment I tried that, I felt one of my kidneys explode, along with several nerves and muscles rupturing, as I coughed up more blood, a wave of dizziness hitting my head.

No good...it won't leave my body.

That's when a bright blue light began shining above the area that had once been Goldway, before what looked like translucent blue glass spread out from it.

Is that...a barrier?

Yeah...a massive, massive barrier.

The reach of the barrier continued to grow, expanding past me before finally closing down right in front of the start of the road leading back to the Rustlands...the entirety of Goldway, and several kilometers of its surrounding area, were sealed inside it.

...what is this?

First off, it was blocking my escape route...

Second off...how much ground was within this barrier!?

It was a round barrier, like a semi-circle lid enclosing Goldway, or what used to be Goldway, along with an additional radius of five to ten kilometers.

Was this...to contain the Zombies? Who activated it?

...no,it doesn't matter, I need to get away from them as fast as I can...but with my escape route blocked, for now I just need to get out of their reach, I can't fight while my body is in this state.

I shook my head as a sharp ringing sounded through it, my barely functional legs stumbling back.

Shit, I'm starting to get light-headed, I can't afford to keep losing any more blood. Most of my internal organs were starting to fail.

Damn it...I'll completely fall apart in a matter of seconds if this keeps up.

I need to get this stuff out of me, or at least contain it or- wait, that's it...I can contain it!

I spotted a small tree and made a beeline towards it, quickly climbing it as the Zombies began closing in on me again.

I almost slipped and fell off as one of my legs suddenly stopped working, the rain had also made it a bit harder to climb. I quickly wedged myself firmly between the branches, I was only a couple of meters above their reach, and the tree wasn't very strong and would probably fall soon, but...I don't exactly have too many options.

I pulled out my dagger, cutting open a slit in the middle of my chest. I then took out one of the empty Mana Orbs and forced it into the opening. I hadn't been able to expel the heavy Mana-like stuff, but I had been able to move it along my Mana circuits, it was just that I couldn't discharge it out of my body through them.

If it can move along my Mana circuits, then it probably is a similar substance to Mana, in which case...I should be able to channel it into a Mana Orb.

I closed my eyes and focused, ignoring the swaying of the tree as the Zombies tried to climb it to get to me. Using my Mana, I guided and forced the heavy stuff lingering inside my body into the orb at the center of my chest.

An excruciating pain spread out across my entire body as I did, blood flowing out of my nostrils, eyes, ears and even my sweat glands.

Fuck...even the Pain Amplifier was nothing compared to this. I bit down on my lip and ignored the pain as best I could, focusing on channeling all the heavy Mana-like stuff into the orb.

Almost...done- I opened my eyes as the tree suddenly began to fall, the weight of all the Zombies pressing against it having uprooted it.

Damn it, I wasn't done, and I hadn't even had a chance to heal myself yet-!

My thoughts were interrupted as black flames engulfed the Zombies below me, burning them to ash.

I used my one working leg to spring off of the falling tree, avoiding the dark flames and landing on my shoulder a few meters away from the burning pile of Zombies .

What was going on?

As more black flames appeared, so did Blood Crystal explosions, eradicating hundreds of the Zombies in a matter of seconds.

"What do you know, someone actually survived going up against these things, and solo no less! Huh, you're dressed all in black...you wouldn't happen to be the guy who pissed off Hacte, would you?" A voice came from behind me, as a small barrier, the size of a small room, formed around me and the person who had spoken.

Did he say Hacte?

I turned around, to see a buff guy around my age, with an amused grin. He was shirtless, with a white coat tied around his waist, and two rings on his fingers, one was the curved X symbol, the other had the number six on it.

He was a bit taller than me, quite muscular, his only weapons appearing to be gloves with metal-plated knuckles. He had medium length black hair that was pretty curly, and pushed back from his forehead using a plain red cloth headband.

His eyebrows were on the thick side, and his eyes were a deep shade of orange. His Anima appeared to be...a turtle, maybe? His abdomen looked like the underside of a turtle.

"Who are-?" I began.

"Hold that thought, bro...give me a sec, I'll get back to you in a bit! First, I've got a job to do!" He interrupted, as black flames sprouted and burst out from his hands, scorching away the Zombies that were now gathering around the barrier he and I were in.

Another one-way barrier...at least I'm on the inside this time.

So, his job right now was to take out these Zombies, huh? Based on the rings on his hand and the white coat around his waist, he was clearly with the Magic Research Group.

Why release the Zombies only to then eradicate them a few hours later?

That's when I recalled what Hacte had said earlier.

"...and so, we will destroy this nation, and then rebuild it for ourselves."

So, that's it...they used the Zombies to mow down the population of Goldway, and once that was done and they had no more use for the mindless monsters, they swooped in and eradicated the Zombies. All so that they could rebuild what was left for themselves.

I glanced at him warily, but I wasn't sensing any hostility from this guy, so I cautiously sat down, in order to recover and rest a bit, forcing the last of the heavy Mana into the orb, while also healing the extensive injuries in my body, as he incinerated the horde Zombies bit by bit using his black flames. He used a Mana orb after a while to replenish himself, before continuing his extermination efforts.

About two hours later, the thousands upon thousands of Zombies that had nearly consumed me were reduced to nothing but a smoldering pile of ashes.

The heavy rainstorm had eased into a light drizzle now.

"Whew, finally done! It legit felt like there was an endless amount of them for a moment there! I'm totally beat!"

This guy was pretty loud, almost obnoxiously so.

"Uh...excuse me?" I tried to get his attention.

"Hm? Oh, snap! I totes forgot you were here, bro! I'm Rion Xester."

The way he spoke...he sounded more like a person from my old world than this world.

"Oh, uh...I'm Kuro. You're...not from around here, are you?" I inquired, intentionally keeping it vague since I did make a deal with not-God about talking about the whole reincarnation thing.

"Hm? Er, I'm not from Goldway, if that's what you mean-."

"Uh, no...okay how about this, do you recognize the word 'Isekai'? If not, forget I said anyth-."

"Oh, damn! You got your previous memories too, bro!? That's a sick coincidence! It's always a cool moment when I run into someone else with that in common! There really aren't that many besides me in the Magic Research Group!"

So that means...there were others.

Actually, now that he told me...I realized that I didn't really care. So what if he was also from my old world or a similar one?

This guy's demeanor was throwing me off, but...I can't let myself forget that he's with the organization that caused all this.

Still, I guess I'll play nice for now since he seems willing to talk.

"That ring...are you part of the, uh...Restoration Tier of the-."

"It's Retribution Tier!" He corrected me, "Yup, I'm number six...of six, admittedly, but as you saw, I'm super friggin' strong in my own right!"

So, there were six of them, and by the way he said that, it looks like the number on their rings ranked them by strength.

"So, that Hacte guy is the fourth strongest in your organization, huh."

His expression soured as I mentioned that name.

"Ugh, that guy's superiority complex is such a pain to deal with. Gotta give props to ya for pissing him off! Well, he's technically the fifth strongest, our leader in the God Tier is ridiculously OP, way stronger than the six of us in the Retribution Tier."

Interesting.

"I see. So, tell me...why did you guys go to the trouble of releasing the Zombies if you had a Blood Crystal on the level of a fucking nuke at your disposal?"

"That's easy, the initial Blood Crystal explosions we set off were shards of the big one we used for the final explosion. We rigged the crystals so that they would break into pieces and scatter when they explode, so tiny pieces of Blood Crystals were embedded amongst the corpses of the people who died in the explosions. When we teleported the main Blood Crystal to the middle of the country for the final explosion, it absorbed all the scattered Mana left in the countless dead bodies and then, as you saw, exploded. Heh, creating that mass of Blood Crystal apparently took decades, and today, we used every last bit we had...which unfortunately means that we won't be using Blood Crystal's again anytime soon."

This guy was really enjoying explaining their plan to me. Monologuing villains really are a thing...

"I'd say it was a waste of infrastructure, but building them back up probably won't take that long with Earth Magic."

"Exactly! Oh, I bet this'll surprise you...King Aurich isn't dead! We kidnapped the dude before we set off the explosion in the castle. He's the only person in existence with Light Magic after all, it'd be a waste to let him die! The Research Tier will probably brainwash him or something...I don't really know, I'm not too involved in that part of the organization."

That did surprise me.

The king was still alive? This guy was now just telling me important information without me even asking. Guess he just really wanted to brag about their plan that had turned out to be a success.

"So he's still alive...he's probably going to go through hell though," I gritted my teeth, hiding my frustration, "So...now what? Are you gonna kill me or something, or can I go?"

"Hm? Well, I guess we could use someone to spread the news of our victory, and since no one else seems to be alive around here, I guess I'll let you go back," He said, deactivating the one-way barrier after thinking about it for a moment, "Oh, by the way, since we're going to build our own nation in place of where Goldway used to be, we ain't goingst to be called the Magic Research Group no more, from now on, we'll be known as the Valaque Empire! That's the name of our leader, by the way. Lord Tirayze Valaque, of the God Tier, our leader."

"Huh...no offense, but that name sounds kinda made up."

"Hah! I know, right! It's so extra! But if you think about it, all names are technically made up," He laughed cheerfully.

Man, this guy's attitude was seriously throwing me off, he was nothing like any of the previous members of this organization that I'd run into. I could sense no bloodlust or hostility from him, at all.

He just...seemed to be having a good time.

"So, uh...what about this big-ass barrier, it's kinda blocking my path back home, could you take it down?" I inquired, pointing at the barrier that was enveloping Goldway and most of the surrounding area.

"Oh, sure! I have a scroll that'll create a small opening in the barrier when it touches it, I brought it in case some Zombies had managed to escape past the barrier, but it looks like that's not an issue. Here, catch! I don't need it anymore," He replied, tossing me a Spell Scroll.

"Uh...thanks," I replied, turning and beginning to head for the part of the barrier wall that was blocking my path.

I should leave before he has a chance to change his mind or something.

"Oh, wait! I almost forgot to ask you, how exactly did you survive against the Zombies?"

I would prefer not to answer that, but there's no telling how he might react to that, especially since he had literally told me everything I'd asked for and even more on top of that.

"Hacte probably mentioned that I can heal myself, my Healing Factor rendered the Zombie bites ineffective," I replied, leaving out the fact that it had only been half-effective.

"Dope, that's a useful power to have! Hey, I know! Since you can heal yourself, fight me! Just for, like, a couple of minutes! Don't worry, I'll try not to kill you!"

Seriously? I was really drained right now, I had a bit of Mana left but my stamina was running on fumes, despite having rested while he had been exterminating the Zombies.

That heavy stuff had taken a pretty big toll on my body, I may have healed the damage but I was completely worn out and exhausted.

"I'm, uh, really not in any condition to fight right now."

"Oh, don't be like that! Fine, just one minute! You can even have the first move!"

Ugh, seriously...what is with this guy!?

Fine, whatever! I'll give in and entertain him for a minute...it's better than arguing with him.

"Alright, one minute. Starting...now," I shot at him as I activated Lightning Boost, drawing my sword and slashing down at his head as I reached him.

He swiftly raised his left fist in a rapid uppercut, the metal knuckles of his gloves deflecting my slash. I began to step back to regain my balance, when he quickly moved his right hand in front of him and those black flames sprouted out, blazing towards my chest.

I was in the middle of stepping backwards, so I couldn't evade...in that case...I kicked the back of my right heel with my left foot, tripping myself backwards, adjusting my center of gravity so that I'd hit the ground faster.

The flames flew past the top of my head, as I just barely avoided getting burnt.

I quickly rolled out of the way as he sprang towards me, throwing a rapid punch at where I'd been. It clipped my shoulder, but I managed to avoid the brunt of the impact, his fist slamming into the ground and shattering it.

I got back on my feet and began to step back to regain my bearings, but in the blink of an eye he was already in front of me.

He was more than just keeping up with me...he was way faster than me, even with my Lightning Boost at x2.5.

He dealt a swift punch to my gut, sending me flying back several meters, as my body slammed onto the ground.

...he had some serious strength too.

I had some internal damage, along with plenty of scraped off skin on my back and shoulders. I got back on my feet, as he rapidly shot towards me, an excited grin on his face.

I put away my dagger and began charging lightning in my left hand, blocking a powerful punch with my sword as he reached me. I began to fire the lightning in my left palm at him, but before I could discharge it, he slammed his other fist against my left hand, instantly breaking my palm and snapping my forearm in half like a twig. He then delivered a roundhouse kick to my side, sending my flying again.

I crashed onto the uprooted tree atop the pile of smoldering zombie ashes, most of my ribcage in pieces.

Ugh, I'm getting destroyed, he must be at least twice as fast as I was...let's see, there's about ten-.

"Ten seconds left, here I come!"

Well, at least he's keeping track of the time.

Damn it...I don't want to end this without landing at least one solid blow on him. What if...I use a bit of the heavy stuff, just for a second?

In my frustration at the one-sided beating I was receiving, I didn't think twice as I extracted a fraction of the heavy Mana-like substance in the Mana Orb that was still embedded in my chest back into my body. A wave of pain struck my entire body as I did, but it was a lot more bearable than before since I'd just extracted a little bit.

I then put away my sword and began charging lightning in my right hand, firing it forward at him as he neared me.

Huh, what the-?

The lightning that blasted out of my palms was not only fairly stronger than usual, and not only had I been able to charge it up a lot faster than usual, but it was black in hue instead of blue.

I thought I'd imagined it before, but...

The black bolt of lightning shot at Rion's head, as he screeched to a halt and quickly attempted to step out of the way, unable to fully avoid as it grazed his right cheek, blasting past him.

He touched his cheek in surprise, as a streak of blood dripped down from it.

I felt a ringing in my head as a line of blood flowed down from one of my nostrils, I shook my head and wiped away the blood as I forced the heavy Mana stuff back into the Mana Orb, before focusing on healing myself.

"Holy...I did not expect that! Your Elemental Magic turned dark! And that's some Healing Factor, I'm so jealous!" He exclaimed with an intrigued grin.

Turned dark?

"I...don't know what that means," I replied.

"Oh, I get it! The Zombies must have leaked their Dark Magic into you! Haha, you look confused...let me enlighten you! All monsters are fueled by Dark Magic, which isn't compatible with humans. About three years ago, the Magic Research Group carried out an experiment with the goal of finding ways of drastically increasing the natural physical and magical abilities of a person. They did this by injecting test subjects with the Dark Magic they extracted from monsters...most of the test subjects died from the pain and damage caused by the Dark Magic, since once it's put into your body, it can't be taken out, ever. Of the hundreds of test subjects that went through it over the course of two years, only six survived the experiment...and those six gained incredible boosts to their abilities, both physically and magically speaking. As you might have guessed, that'd be the six of us in the Retribution Tier! It also turns our Elemental Magic black, except for Earth and Wind Magic, for obvious reasons. I never expected to see black Elemental Magic used by anyone outside of the six of us!"

Now I get it...so that's what the heavy substance that the Zombies injected into me was.

"So, this stuff that's now inside me is called Dark Magic, huh?"

"Well, that's the technical term, but during the experiment both the researchers and test subjects all referred to it unofficially as Karma, and the six of us continue to call it that even now. The experiment is still ongoing, but I was the last successful test subject...its been over a year since I survived it, and the experiment has only yielded failures since then. Oh, in case you're wondering, I actually volunteered to be a part of the experiment, the idea of a power boost seemed so appealing and cool! Three of the other five Retribution Tier members were also volunteers, only two of us were regular old kidnapped test subjects."

Karma, huh...I guess that sounds sorta cool.

"You actually survived having Karma injected into you, that's so incredible! You're already pretty strong, you were able to take multiple blows from me and still remain standing, I'm getting excited thinking about how strong you'll be once you get the full hang of the power boost that Karma generates!"

He was probably assuming that it was currently flowing in my body, and I'll let him keep that assumption...I had no reason to tell him that I had only survived the Karma getting injected into me because I had managed to transfer it into a Mana Orb.

"So, I want to confirm something...you guys were able to remotely activate Spell Scrolls on targets from a distance...I was taught that Spell Scrolls can only be activated on a target they're touching...I didn't know remote activation was possible."

"Oh, that's the work of the Retribution Tier's number one! Like us, he also has his previous memories, and he was apparently great at coding...he is so incredible with Spell Scrolls, his skills are practically superhuman! The remote activation feature he invented and added to our Spell Scrolls is quite the game-changer, huh?"

I see...so they really do have another talented Spell Scroll user. I think that's enough information for now, I was done sticking around here.

"Well, that's about all I wanted to know. Uh, can I go now? I fought you for a minute like I agreed to."

"Sure, go ahead! I need to be getting back too, anyway. Well, see ya! I look forward to seeing how much you improve the next time we meet, the best part of this world is definitely finding strong opponents to fight! The Valaque Empire has no plans for the Rustlands for the moment, but that could change anytime!"

"Does that imply that you guys are planning something against the other countries?"

"Yup! We're allied with Platinberg, that probably won't change. Silvland and Bronztan haven't been seeing eye to eye with us lately, so we'll probably cut ties with them so that we can invade them or something later. Don't take my word for it, I don't really know anything for sure...I'm not too involved in the scheming side of things!"

Yeah, I can see why...I doubt he was supposed to spill this much information.

"Uh-huh," I replied, as I used the Spell Scroll to create an opening in the part of the barrier blocking my path, walking through it, "I'm leaving now."

...time to go back.

"Cool, later! I'm off, too!" He yelled back, very loudly.

I let out a huge sigh as I turned around and began walking, finally back on the path that would lead me home.

It was finally over...this hellish day was finally over.

It had been...apocalyptic.

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