Chapter 176: Has the World Been Destroyed?
Chapter 176: Has the World Been Destroyed?
The sky had become a burning sea of fire, while the earth below was swallowed in thick, murky darkness. Massive fragments tore through the molten clouds one after another, plummeting toward the tainted ground. With every passing second, the world twisted further into chaos and collapse.Amid the apocalyptic scene, a lone figure stood on the edge of a cliff, draped in a dark crimson gradient trench coat. He watched the meteor shower from afar. In his right hand, he held a wine glass, as if the apocalypse unfolding before him were a spectacle worth celebrating. Who was he? What had brought the world to this?
Suddenly, a woman in a black skirt appeared amid the falling flames. Her hair blazed red. Within her eyes, a river of blood seemed to churn, and in her hand rested an exquisitely engraved sword. As she stepped forward, the lethal intent of her blade seemed to split the sky in two. Even a mere glance at her sent a sting through the eyes.
Sensing a gaze upon him, the mysterious figure shifted slightly. He tilted his head, ready to reveal the truth of his identity.
Iger struggled to force his eyes open, straining to capture even the faintest detail of the figure.
"Cough... cough, cough!"
The sudden sound of coughs snapped Iger awake. He shoved Ashe's hand away and wiped his damp lips. "What are you doing?"
Ashe looked at him, perplexed. He raised the water bottle in his hand. "Giving you water. What else? Should I dunk your head in the toilet and see if you survive? I would, but there's not a drop in there. Don't want it? Fine. Harvey, do you want some?"
"I don't want to use the toilet here," Harvey murmured, slumping against the wall. Even his dark complexion couldn't hide the exhaustion weighing him down.
Ashe paused, thinking over Harvey's words. After a moment, he tightened the bottle cap and put it away. "Then let's save it. Maybe they'll bring food later."
Iger finally took stock of his surroundings. The three of them were cramped into a small room, barely ten square meters in size. The walls and floor were padded, with light seeping in only through the seams between the cushions. In one corner stood a combined toilet and sink unit. The room lacked windows. The only break in the ceiling was a lone vent that released a warm white mist, which dissipated almost immediately.
He checked his equipment. His knife, sidearm, and multifunction keychain were gone, save for the metal headpiece. Once bent straight, it could serve as a crude metal spike. It was enough for self-defense, but only under very specific conditions. The enemy would need to be off guard and completely unprotected. In other words, it would only be lethal if the target were in bed... or on the toilet.
Iger tried to stand and block the vent but felt weak and powerless. He collapsed back to the floor in front of Ashe.
Ashe said lazily, "That's anesthetic mist. Haven't you noticed we all sound drained?"
"You always sound like you're constipated. How could I tell?" Iger muttered.
He pulled back his sleeve and was surprised to see the graze from the sniper round already scabbing over. While it wasn't as effective as a healer's work, it had clearly done more than ordinary first aid. The mist wasn't just a sedative. It clearly had healing properties, mending his physical wounds even as it sapped the strength from his bones.
"Do you know the date and time?" he asked suddenly.
Ashe replied, "May 2nd, 1 a.m. We slept for less than an hour. But with time zone differences, it might not be 1 a.m. outside."
Iger didn't question how he knew without a watch or chip. He pressed his hand to the floor, feeling faint vibrations. "We're in a moving vehicle. Probably a truck. But I've never seen one with this level of soundproofing and shock absorption."
He tapped the collar around his neck. "Have you tested this thing?"
Harvey answered flatly, "If you channel mana into it, it delivers a strong electric shock. If you want to test it, you'd need to pull down your pants and sit on the toilet. But even then, the pads absorb moisture so quickly that no trace remains."
Iger glanced at them both with a strange expression. "I won't ask how you found out about that detail... Anything else?"
After a pause, Ashe spoke, "Before I blacked out, I heard someone say, 'I could only pick up three outlanders.' This wasn't an ambush for adventurers. It was specifically for us. They even knew Ronald and Ronna wouldn't come."
Iger said calmly, "A Miracle from the Prophecy or Fate Class. What happened to the werewolf and his prey?"
"Ronald died saving Ronna. I didn't see what came after," Ashe replied concisely.
Iger raised an eyebrow. He didn't seem surprised and merely gave a quiet "oh."
A sudden intuition struck Ashe. He asked softly, "You already knew Ronald would do that, didn't you?"
Iger said with a smile, "Strictly speaking, I taught him to do it. I sympathized with him, so I planned to secretly work with him and ambush Ronna together after the jailbreak. He wasn't interested in that, though. He wanted 'true revenge.' I happened to uncover some information about Ronna, so I told him the real way to achieve it."
"You deceived him?"
Iger replied, "I never lie. I simply fulfill other people's wishes."
"How amusing. Is another name for a liar... a god?"
The cult leader and the fraudster locked eyes coldly, while the necromancer spoke up suddenly, "Even if Ronald and Ronna didn't come, why haven't the other adventurers arrived? The hunting festival wouldn't stop for us. If anything, there should be extra bounties on our heads."
Ashe spread his hands. "Did you see how badly we scared the other adventurers? They're probably still cowering in the Battle Zone, demanding that Gerard sign a guarantee not to arrest them before they resume the festival. With that delay, they'll be efficient if they can resume work by tomorrow night."
Iger speculated, "Or perhaps the Virtual Channel has been sealed. If they could predict our arrival so precisely, they may have also prepared a way to seal the passage."
Harvey sighed softly. "So we can't count on adventurers to rescue us..."
A complicated feeling settled over the three of them. To escape the Blood Moon Kingdom, they had endured countless hardships, like frightening adventurers and deceiving Gerard. When they finally crossed the Virtual Channel into a new world, they had not even taken a single breath of freedom before being captured again. Now, their greatest hope of escape might be the very pursuers from the Blood Moon Kingdom.
Iger shook his head, casting aside the flicker of regret and resentment. He turned to Ashe. "What about your Slash Me Miracle?"
Ashe replied, "I tried it, but this collar counts as an external object, and it's like a sorcerer constantly casting a spell. Slash Me can remove the abnormal state for one second, but as long as I'm wearing the collar, the effect returns immediately. We have to remove it physically."
Harvey added, "And a device that can discharge electricity at any time won't take kindly to being dismantled."
He tugged lightly at the silver collar. It immediately glowed a dangerous red.
Iger murmured, "Restraint collars, padded anti-suicide transport, anesthetic mist... It wouldn't be strange if we were ambushed and captured. What's strange is how professional their transport setup is. If they didn't prepare this specifically for us, it means their usual clients also require such measures."
Ashe frowned. "What kind of people are transported with equipment like this? Death row inmates, lunatics, slaves?"
Harvey replied, "For all you know, it could even be corpses."
"Don't be ridiculous. Corpses are transported in body bags."
"Ashe, as a cult leader, how could you not know? Fresh corpses have value, especially their lingering warmth. It's the final echo of life. Watching a warm body gradually turn into a meaningless lump of flesh... that exquisite sense of witnessing. Surely you can appreciate it?"
"Who'd understand something like that?"
Iger, mentally exhausted, felt the instinct to stop their aimless chatter. Then he noticed something odd. Ashe and Harvey looked pale, like painted beast-tribe dancers. They were neither fully awake nor able to fall asleep.
The anesthetic mist did more than weaken them. It suppressed sleep while keeping their bodies awake, grinding down their mental and physical states. Compared to direct sedation, this method was more effective for handling sorcerer prisoners. Given enough time, it could erode their mental clarity and make them more likely to divulge information if interrogated. Iger had learned this from Mind Class manuals on interrogation techniques.
Ashe and Harvey did not understand what was going on, but once they realized they could not fall asleep, they instinctively kept talking in an effort to stay mentally active.
Iger quickly gathered his thoughts and assessed their situation. Their circumstances were far from the worst. Had they been ambushed by a foreign army, they would either be undergoing forced memory extraction or already be one of Harvey's preferred warm corpses. He wasn't judging other nations by the ways of the Blood Moon Kingdom; it was simply common sense that outsiders might have entirely different intentions.
He did not know who had used Prophecy Class Miracles to predict their arrival with such precision, but the one thing he was certain of was that they had value. They could serve as research material, or they could be destined as slaves. Either way, they still had a chance to survive.
Additionally, if this nation turned out to be civilized, a place where social rules restrained the strong, Iger felt he could carve out something for himself. For a Mind Class sorcerer, rules and human nature were their greatest weapon.
Thinking of the Prophecy Class reminded him of the dream he had just experienced. It had been triggered by the Revelation spirit during his sleep. This was a rare phenomenon that even he could not fully comprehend. He had received dreams from the Revelation spirit before, but most were meaningless images.
The only useful dream he had came after he first met Amy during the Lust and Gambling Apocalypse, when he suddenly foresaw Shattered Lake Prison. He hadn't taken it seriously then. In hindsight, it might have been a premonition of his imprisonment.
But this latest dream had been far too exaggerated. Had the world truly been destroyed?
Iger did not doubt that the world could end. What he doubted was himself. As a complete novice of the Prophecy Class, far from Silver rank, what right did he have to glimpse such a distant, monumental future? Even Four-Winged Legendary Prophecy Class sorcerers might not foresee the fate of the world. And who was the mysterious figure watching its destruction?
Perhaps Revelation had inhaled the anesthetic mist as well and was merely replaying past events for me.
Meanwhile, Ashe and Harvey had stopped their chatter. They tried to resist the mental fatigue, but their dopamine seemed suppressed. The more they spoke, the more exhausted they became, until all they wanted was silence.
No. I need something stimulating.
Ashe willed it silently, and the familiar game interface appeared before his eyes. The current time glowed in the upper-right corner.
Time to draw some cards.