Chapter 1000: Fall of The Academy
BOOOOMMMMM!!!
The world cracked open.
The beam touched the ground—and the world overturned. Everything exploded.
A shockwave erupted outward in a perfect sphere, vaporizing the ground beneath and peeling away the surface of the entire island like skin being flayed. Buildings—towers, dorms, arenas, even the massive spires of the Grand Library—were ripped from their roots and hurled skyward like feathers caught in a hurricane.
The very land shrieked. A wave of force cracked the bedrock beneath the academy, sending it lurching. Fault lines split open like jagged wounds. Hills flattened. Craters bloomed. Forests were torn from the earth, trees reduced to airborne splinters.
The academy’s central dome—once a monument to knowledge and power—vanished in a flash of light. Entire sectors were crushed before anyone could even scream.
Instructors and students who once stood proud became frantic shadows, fleeing across a collapsing world. Some were incinerated on the spot, their bodies vanishing in white fire. Others were flung like dolls, disappearing into the churning haze of destruction.
Monsters—both the crimson ones and the feral beasts that roamed the forest surrounding the island’s wide chasm—turned wild with terror. Wings tore through the sky. Tails whipped against falling stones. Screeches filled the air as beasts fought one another in panic or clawed at the walls of reality itself, desperate to escape.
A crimson haze, like blood mist, rolled across the broken land. Where it touched life, it twisted it. New abominations were born from corpses, stitched together by the Leviathan’s influence. The dead did not rest—they rose, limbs jagged, eyes void-like, pulled back into battle by the mist’s command.
The sea beyond the island reacted too. Waves rose like mountains around the island, pulled in by the unnatural gravity of the impact. The island’s edges collapsed. What was once stable ground began to sink, entire districts devoured by the churning ocean as the earth groaned beneath the weight of reality’s unraveling.
From the skies, burning fragments of the shattered defensive towers rained down like meteors, crashing into what little remained of the outer perimeters. Explosions danced in every direction—a symphony of ruin.
And in the center of it all, a scar had been carved into the land.
A vast, blackened crater hundreds of meters deep and kilometers wide now existed where once stood the heart of the academy. The edges glowed with molten stone. The very air above it shimmered, broken. Heat waves rippled like ghostly hands reaching up to the heavens.
Northern, barely upright, felt his body trembling.
Void Force had never collapsed like that.
He had seen destruction before. He had even caused it.
But this... this was annihilation.
And the Leviathan wasn’t even done.
It hovered high above, smoke curling from its torn wings, molten ichor dripping from its jaws. It looked down—not with hunger, not with malice, but with the cold light of judgment. As if this was merely the beginning of what it had come to do.
Behind Northern, Burning Storm struggled to his feet, face smeared with blood and ash.
"Did we just lose... everything?"
Northern didn’t answer. He simply stared at the crater and the sea of fire surrounding it.
And in the distance, the land kept falling apart.
Northern glanced around, trying to find Titan’s Reckoning, but the clone was nowhere to be seen. Still, Northern was certain he was alive.
His clones were strong enough to survive such catastrophe—this was the boon of an SSS class talent.
All his clones were as strong as he was. The only thing that could kill them was running out of essence or damage that could probably kill even him.
But everyone else? Northern wasn’t sure. Titan’s Reckoning had been saving some people. Annette and Vida were fine—they had even managed to save certain students amid it all.
Nyssira was alright too, though she was currently trying to help Shae’s leg out from under a large stone. Everyone was scattered around and hidden from view. But Northern could count clearly because of his spatial awareness.
He looked at the Leviathan hanging in the sky, brows furrowing.
"It seems I really underestimated how strong a Leviathan can be."
He exhaled slowly, cold air streaming from his mouth. His expression hardened and turned dark.
Then he extended his hand, two fingers raised before his face.
"First of all... I’m gonna have to fight you while sealing all your damn abilities."
Northern didn’t know if Oblivion’s Mark worked on monsters. He guessed it would work on higher monsters with stronger wills. Lower monsters didn’t really fall into its radar because their abilities weren’t active.
Northern’s eyes glowed, and a red light blinked out, quickly spreading across the entire landscape.
At that moment, Northern’s voice rang out. But it wasn’t the same Northern.
Titan’s Reckoning was gathering people to a safe spot at the edge of the crater.
As he dropped Eleina, who was covered in soot and dust, he looked at them all and spoke.
"All of you better not try anything stupid. Within five kilometers of us right now, I am the only one who can use his talent. None of you can."
Annette, having arrived at the safe spot a few seconds ago, frowned.
"What do you mean? You are the only one..."
She looked at her palm and tried to summon fire. There was a fragile flame that immediately disappeared. The next time she tried, nothing came. It felt like she couldn’t reach her abilities anymore.
Her brows furrowed with confusion as she looked at Northern standing before them. Her lips trembled.
"H–how?"
Everyone else was as confused as she was. They tried using their abilities but got no response.
"Did he really lock down all our abilities? What is that? How is that possible?"
"Please! Sir, you need to find my sister—she’s not here!"
"Holy stars, is the world coming to an end? We don’t care about our abilities, we are weak anyways, please just save us."
"Save us, Rian. Please save us."
"Save us!"
Different voices rippled among the crowd. The importance of what Northern was trying to convey quickly fell on deaf ears. All they needed was a savior.
’I guess the thought of death really makes people desperate.’
Northern exhaled and spoke through his clone.
"Anyone who knows someone is missing should speak up as soon as possible. I will make another round and save everyone to the best of my abilities."
While that was happening, he was also looking at the Leviathan with a dark and defiant gaze.