Chapter 52- The Rise (Part 9)
Chapter 52- The Rise (Part 9)
"Rein!!!" Violet was the first to react as she quickly ran toward him with a wide smile on her face. Leaping into his arms, Rein received her with his working arm as he squinted. But, he didn’t push her away.
"I’m so relieved you’re ok... I almost had a heart attack *sniff*..."
"I told you I would be fine. That wasn’t that big of a deal anyway." He replied. ’Well, it was a bit tricky, and I almost died, but she doesn’t need to know that.’ He thought to himself with a calm look.
After killing Virgo, Rein rushed back down the stairs, jumping down to the second floor before he escaped through one of the windows on the other side. It was extremely close, and Rein thought he wouldn’t even make it in time.
But it seemed his luck worked in his favor at that moment, and he was just in time before the entire building turned into dust.
"Rein, you’re alive!"
The rest of the group approached him in a hurry with happy looks on their faces.
"Thank you for helping us. You put your life at risk without even hesitating. We owe you greatly." Cain said. "I don’t know how I could truly pay back such a favor."
"Don’t worry about it, Mr Cain," Rein replied. "You don’t owe me anything."
Rein really didn’t care about getting this favor back, simply because there was truly nothing they could give him that he would need. In such a world, the things that most people would want are useless. Money, connections, or anything luxurious, it’s all meaningless or close to meaningless.
Rein needed power more than anything at the moment, and he knew that very well. Power is the only currency this world is working with.
Patting Violet’s back, Rein looked up. In the far distance, the clouds were starting to clear, and the torrent of rain had decreased in intensity considerably. For the first time in many hours, they saw glimpses of the sun peeking at them from the horizon.
’It seems the storm and earthquakes finally calmed down. What was that earthquake... It has to be one of the strongest this world has ever seen, and it happened so suddenly without any warnings.’ Rein thought to himself.
Something didn’t make sense about that. Rein naturally didn’t need to say why that is very odd. Aside from the fact that the city he was living in wasn’t coastal and that such earthquakes usually happen in coastal cities and islands, but the fact that it also instantly started without any slow buildup made him believe that its cause is not natural at all, like the movement of tectonic plates.
’What could be the reason? What changed about this world now?’
"Hey! Look there!"
At that moment, Rein heard Teo speak as he pointed his finger into the far distance. The look on his face was extremely wide and shocked, as if he was seeing something ridiculous.
"Hm?"
Everyone turned around, only to be surprised like the others.
Rein’s eyes squinted as he stepped forward and stared closely. "That..."
"Am I going crazy, or does that look like... a building?"
What they were seeing in the distance was an immensely large structure, one that stood far above and beyond the rest of humanity. It looked like a tower that was hundreds or even thousands of meters tall, which seemed to pierce the sky. The reason they didn’t think it was some sort of natural occurrence was how incredibly consistent and smooth it was.
Even though they could only see its rough shape since it was still dark, and that thing was extremely far away. The sun rose from the ground, slowly illuminating the tower before them.
"What the hell is even that?" Alex asked as he frowned deeply, a worried look flashing in his eyes.
"Beats me..." Violet said. "Did that appear out of nowhere when the earthquake began? How is that even possible, and... How big is even that? It looks so far away, yet we can all visibly see it."
"It’s at least a few thousand kilometers away," Rein said. "However, somehow... It’s still visible. That thing should be at least several thousand meters high and immensely wide too."
There was no need to mention that humanity could never create such a structure, and their tallest one was way smaller in size. That only left one explanation... That structure was created by the system or someone else that isn’t human.
’It emerged out of the heart of the earth. I would like to believe there aren’t creatures who live underneath our feet, but at this point, that possibility is very likely.’ Rein rubbed his head.
"I don’t like how that thing looks... It gives me a very creepy feeling." Victoria said as she hid her daughter. "It looks so evil."
"Mommy..."
"What do you think, Rein?" Violet turned to Rein.
Rein frowned for a moment before he looked at her. "For now, let’s get out of here. I want to see it better when there is more light. I reckon this tower isn’t something we can just ignore."
’Far from. Perhaps my prediction was right after all, and that everything that happened to Earth so far is a buildup toward some sort of goal. Could that tower be the goal? What could it even be? Are there people inside it? Maybe some sort of strong monsters or crazy, powerful items and weapons?’
Everything felt possible, and Rein didn’t want to confuse himself even more, so he turned around to the group.
"We will be moving out of here and back to the city. I don’t think there are many intact buildings left, but we should be able to find a safe spot for the time being."
"Finally... I’m so tired and in so much pain." Teo said as he grunted.
"You did great, Teo. Thank you for helping me. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you." Violet smiled warmly at Teo. The man was stunned for a second before he blushed and looked down, adjusting his glasses.
"I-I didn’t do that much..."
Rein rolled his eyes at the weird man before he walked ahead of the group. "We will need to jump over certain places, so I want you to listen to me, or you might fall into these cracks."
With his eyes, Rein mapped the entire area, searching for the optimal route for the group. Eventually, he located one and started moving.
The family looked at his back before they nodded and started moving after him. With that, the group started retreating away from the incident’s spot.
With Rein’s guidance, they navigated the large, seemingly endless abyss beneath them. Rein noticed that the cracks were so deep that even when he dropped a rock inside them, he couldn’t hear it hitting the bottom of them, even after waiting for several moments.
’These pits reach the core of the earth, or what?’ He clenched his teeth. ’What a nasty earthquake... As if people who survived weren’t struggling enough already. This might’ve killed everyone left.’ He thought to himself.
The first filtration process was the invasion of the mutated monsters and the Undead. Now, the second filtration process was this earthquake and violent storm.