Chapter 332: The Golden Aftermath
[Some Minutes Later.]
[Somewhere in Brooklyn.]
The suffocating, chaotic noise of the apocalypse had suddenly ceased. The constant shrieks, the heavy tremors of giant beasts, and the oppressive hum of corrupted energies were completely replaced by an eerie, profound silence.
"Are they gone?" Andrew asked, his voice barely a whisper as he was peeping out from a ruined brick corner, his eyes frantically scanning the destroyed, empty streets of Brooklyn. There were no corpses, no blood trails, no signs of retreat.
"All the monsters vanished?" He asked himself in genuine surprised, lowering his shattered weapon.
"No, they were all erased." Jessica said, slowly opening her eyes. She leaned against a crumbling wall, her body still aching from the residual energy that had hijacked her core.
Andrew and the remaining nine students turned to her in deep confusion, their minds struggling to comprehend the scale of such magic: "Erased? How?" He asked, knowing that even their strongest combined attacks only left charred remains.
"Can’t you feel the energy in the air? Look at the clouds." Jessica said, raising her arm and pointing a trembling finger at the sky.
The group looked at one another, their combat senses finally recalibrating, and slowly raised their heads to the sky. They stood in awe, watching as the thick, toxic black ash clouds slowly moved out, physically pushed away by a lingering, conceptual golden energy, revealing a darkening, natural evening sky for the first time.
"You mean?" Honky was shocked, the realization hitting him like a physical blow. The absolute disparity in power was staggering.
Jessica slowly nodded her head, her face a mask of bitter acceptance mixed with profound relief: "Yes, the Dragon team completed the third objective." She pushed herself off the wall, forcing her legs to steady as she stood up. The role of a captain demanded she keep them focused on survival.
"We should all place this in our minds, we already lost this competition, we should try our best to get the second position." She said, her voice stripped of its former arrogance, and walked out of the dark alley, staring up at the clearing sky with a calculating gaze: