Faryab, Afghanistan, Shadow World
Perses, the Titan of Destruction, lay sprawled at the bottom of a massive crater.
The jagged walls towered above him.
His bruised and battered body glistened faintly under the dim sky.
Thick, dark clouds churned above, crackling occasionally with streaks of violent lightning, casting eerie shadows across the barren wasteland.
He stared upward, his vision unfocused, lost in a daze.
A faint buzzing broke the silence.
His device was ringing.
With a groan, he picked it up and held it to his ear.
“Perses? Seeing as how you picked up the call, I guess your fight with Gaia ended?” Kronos’s voice came through.
“….”
Perses said nothing.
“Don’t think about it too much. It was obvious you would lose.”
“…Why?”
“Gaia is SSS rank—”
“I’m not asking about her rank.” Perses interrupted. “I’m asking why did this happen?”
The question hung in the air for a moment before Perses continued in a bitter voice.
“Gaia is always in a semi-synchronized state with the World Core. She does that to stop the ‘world’ from causing natural disasters and wiping out humanity.”
His words carried an edge of frustration.
“She can’t exert strength beyond that of an S-rank Awakener due to it. That’s why I came to fight her. I knew I could defeat her. But why the hell did she suddenly go all out? It’s not like I was trying to kill her.”
There was a pause before Kronos spoke.
“Sunshine has disappeared.”
The sentence snapped Perses out of his daze like a bucket of ice water.
His eyes widened, and his grip on the device tightened.
“Sunshine disappeared?”
“Yes,” Kronos confirmed.
“Doesn’t that mean…”
“Neo Hargraves killed Sunshine. And probably Apollo too.”
“Crazy guy,” Perses muttered, rubbing a hand over his bruised forehead.
The Awakener Association treated their members like family, and Apollo, the youngest among them, was doted on excessively.
The thought of Gaia snapping because she believed Neo had killed Apollo suddenly made sense.
“She hadn’t gone all out because she thought Zeus would protect Apollo,” Kronos continued. “But now that she has done it, we need to move too.”
Perses gritted his teeth, understanding Kronos’s implications.
With Gaia stopping her continuous synchronization with the World Core, the balance she maintained would shatter.
The World Core would soon begin its rampage, unleashing thunderstorms, tsunamis, and earthquakes across Earth.
“Use the Space-Time Cube to teleport Awakeners to…”
Kronos began listing the locations of major cities that would be hit by disasters.
Perses needed to send awakeners there and start rescue operations.
After delivering his instructions, Kronos hung up.
Perses stared at the device.
It wasn’t hard to guess how Kronos knew the locations of the impending disasters.
“He must’ve regressed,” Perses muttered bitterly. “Damned monsters. Does it make sense that he can time travel so easily?”
He clenched his fists with a frustrated expression.
“That Gaia too. It’s too absurd to think she’s the one responsible for stopping natural disasters from destroying humanity.”
The understanding of it all made him sigh heavily.
SSS rankers were on an entirely different level.
They were Gods in the skin of humans.
…
Gap of Dimensions, Between Shadow World and Earth Dimension
“We don’t have much time to waste on you,” said A #22, her voice cold and mechanical.
The doll’s polished porcelain face was eerily expressionless as she addressed Jack.
“Tell us what reward you want, and the Shadow Supreme shall grant it. Then you shall leave.”
Jack clenched his fists, trembling with barely contained rage.
His brindled anger blazed behind his sharp glare as he stared at the gatekeeper.
He attempted to summon his legion, but no matter how hard he tried, his abilities refused to activate.
“It is useless,” the doll stated, her tone devoid of empathy. “Now tell us your wish.”
“Fine.” Jack ground his teeth.
His jaw tightened as he spat his demand.
“Send me back to the same Shadow World and allow me and Neo to leave that world whenever we want. That’s my wish.”
Silence.
The doll was surprised by his demand.
She spoke a few seconds later.
“Are you sure you want to waste your wish on such a meager reward?”
Her tone was devoid of warmth, yet her words carried a faint echo of curiosity.
“We know your world is destroyed, but you don’t need to worry about your life.
“As we’ve said, the Shadow Supreme is a generous ruler. He won’t send you to a destroyed world but instead to a different one, where life still remains.
“You should ask for a different reward—”
“I’ve said what kind of reward I want.”
Jack’s voice was sharp, cutting through the doll’s offer.
Neo could have asked for the same reward, but Jack knew he wouldn’t.
‘Neo decided to stay behind,’ he thought bitterly.
‘He would definitely ask for his Shadow element to awaken so he can survive by using mimicked Divine Energy.’
“Are you sure?” the doll pressed. “The Shadow Supreme has been generous in giving you a passing grade on the disastrous result you’ve shown in the Shadow Trial.
“If you think we would be generous again and allow you to ask for a second wish, then you are sorely mistaken.”
“Yes, I’ve decided on my wish,” Jack said firmly with clenched fists.
“Very well. Your wish shall be granted.”
The doll raised her porcelain hand and snapped her fingers.
A dark doorway formed from the surrounding shadows, its edges crackling with faint tendrils of dark energy.
Jack stared at it for a moment before stepping through.
The oppressive atmosphere of the Gap of Dimensions vanished, replaced by the thick, stifling air of the Shadow World.
Jack’s surroundings materialized, and he found himself standing next to Typhaon’s core, the spot where he had initially left the Shadow World.
A long sigh escaped Jack’s lips.
His tense shoulders relaxed slightly.
“That was scary,” he muttered, running a hand through his hair. “I was worried the Shadow Supreme might kill me for shouting at him.”
He smiled bitterly and scanned the area.
“Where is that damned team leader of mine?” he grumbled.
His irritation was evident as his eyes darted around.
“I’m going to give him an earful this time. Why the hell did he stay here without telling me what was happening?”
Jack’s complaints were cut short as he sensed a terrifying presence rapidly approaching.
The air grew colder, and an oppressive force bore down on him, making it hard to breathe.
A figure landed in front of him with a thunderous impact, shaking the ground beneath his feet.
The sheer force of her arrival sent cracks spidering through the earth.
“You must be Jack Hanma,” the woman said coldly.
Her emerald-green eyes burned with intensity as she stared him down.
Her movements were precise, almost too smooth to be natural.
Jack’s breath hitched as he realized who she was.
She was Gaia.
Her mere presence exuded overwhelming power, her aura pressing down on him like an unrelenting tidal wave.
“You have three seconds to tell me the location of Neo Hargraves,” Gaia muttered coldly.
Jack’s instincts screamed at him to fight or flee.
But his body refused to move.
Her terrifying pressure had frozen him in place, rendering him helpless against her.