I reached out to the guillotine above.
The guillotine recognised my mana. Although I wasn’t a great user of mana, I was able to learn a unique formula from being killed by the Monarch of the Highest Heavens.
[Overload]
I ignited the guillotine a second time.
The pillars quivered. Forcing down the fixed mana capacity, I poured more mana and compressed those down again. The unstable clusters of mana were compressed to a dot and were pressed down again as the golden sword aura in charge of the guillotine’s blade explosively wriggled and increased in size.
With the overload in place, the guillotine will be destroyed after being used once, but that compressed outburst of power will definitely be able to kill me. When I disable my authorities, it will crush through my bodies and pierce deeper to erase my existence that has been intertwined into Providence.
Definitely.
Was this good enough?
No.
Let’s put a time limit as well – 30 days.
It was the time it would take for the cruise ship to reach Askalifa after travelling through the dimensions. In about 15 days, the cruise will start merging into the ‘outer dimension’, and the true body of Vintage Clock will perceive the disappearance of the hazard and undo the curse of regression from my body.
The reason I placed a time limit was in case this sense of crisis that was right beneath my chin made me hesitate and postpone the death. I had to push myself to the corner.
In other words, it was like this…
I will definitely die in 30 days.
.
.
.
.
.
.
A snowy season.
Night came fast to Neryungri (Нерюнгри?) at this time of the year and the sun did not last for long.
That day was one of such days.
The sun disappeared over the horizon as darkness slowly started covering the sky like a drop of ink in a bucket of water. Under the darkening sky, the nearby city sparkled brightly and peacefully like a starry night.
However, the hills and the mountains near Neryungri were in a different state. The camouflaged soldiers were holding their breaths adapting their eyes to the darkness. They could become targets of the flying monsters the moment they used any sources of light so they embraced the darkness while gazing at the sky.
Someone looked down at their watch.
The clock was showing 5 o’clock. At last, the day of prophecy was here.
The allied superhuman forces including the Association were all gathered at Neryungri, Russia. Carrying her unwell body, Valentine the Witch rested near Olyokma River and used her spells as sublime and earth-quivering mana gathered at the fingertips of the one who had once been living as a sovereign.
Kugugugung–
Her gestures were followed by trembling clouds, making one wonder if this would be how it looks for an earthquake to happen in the sky. And as for the sound, it sounded as if clouds of thunder were roaring in the distant night sky.
Even though the thundering roars were resonating at a distant place, they were loud and fierce enough to shake one’s heart.
While feeling the goosebumps on their arms, the soldiers gulped in nervousness.
Something was coming…
However, they started finding it odd as more and more time passed by.
The night deepened with nothing coming to them. In truth, even the observation devices that they brought in dumps were unable to find any signals. As they waited in tension with a strand of doubt appearing in their minds, the clock continued ticking and it became dawn, and later became morning.
Sitting at the world that was still dark, they suddenly felt odd as the soldiers raised their awareness once again.
It was currently 9 am. Things were even stranger.
The night at Neryungri was not coming to an end.
Something gigantic was already occupying the sky.
*
Waiting for something to pop out from the sky, while tension was slowly rising to the surface,
The start of everything happened at a very different place.
There was a Grade 2 agent of the strategy council. She passed the night without any sleep at the temporary command centre and up to there was fine, because superhumans could survive without sleeping for a few days. However, her stomach slowly starting to ache from tension at the face of her first ever battle was a different issue altogether.
Even though she desperately tried holding it in for a few hours, she was already at her limits. Her stomach that had been turning heavier was now uncontrollably insisting on something.
Receiving the glares of the commander, the agent dashed to the bathroom. After dealing with the urgent matter, she cleaned everything up and was trying to wash her hands when something strange entered her eyes.
Beneath the dark lamp, there were dark dots at the tip of her fingers and after pointing at it with a light source, she realised they were purple.
She frowned. Were they bruises? They did not wash off no matter how much she rubbed them with both water and soap.
It was strange. They weren’t bruises but they weren’t coming off either.
“Nn? Uhh?”
Suddenly in an instant, the purple dots increased in size. Riding up the fingers to the back of the hand, it went up to the wrist. “Uhh?” the agent widened her eyes in shock.
Her next action was done solely on reflex. After immediately judging that there was some type of monster inside her body, she hurriedly tied a firm knot around her arm with her magic.
However, it was futile. The dark thing travelling up her arm started permeating around her body.
“Kuhuk, uahhk! What is…!”
She drove her head into the wall and collapsed to the ground. The dots were now covering her entire body. Travelling up the chin, they went past the lips, over the nose and at last reached the eyes and—
“…”
The agent stopped as if she was frozen.
When she next opened her eyes, the whites of her eyes were covered with purple dots that made her look hideous.
She stood up with a stagger and walked out of the bathroom.
Her eyes looked for someone. She was hungry.
There was another agent coming to the bathroom just in time. In a flash, she dashed towards her like a lightning bolt and pounced at the opponent.
“Ahk! W, what are you doing, Joanna!”
She inserted her fangs that were now doubled in both size and length into the neck of the opponent.
“N, no…! K, kuhaaaakk!”
Blood splattered.
The struggling body stopped its retaliation. The neck of the bitten agent turned purple and before long, the whites of the agent also turned purple as her fangs started protruding out.
Soon, the two monsters lifted their bodies. They then turned their heads at the same time looking at the next intruder.
Yu Jitae was on the other side of their gaze.
*
The incident suddenly started occurring simultaneously all over the allied forces. The Long Night began from the inside.
Even though the allies hastily dealt with the situation, subjugating them was not easy. Humans turned into monsters and attacked other humans. In the middle of a close combat, new monsters would suddenly be born.
After several encounters, Zhuge Haiyan fully analysed the state and sent her message to everyone’s ears.
– Their characters are similar to ‘zombies’!
– They use magic germs to infect an organism, and they get transmitted through mana contact. It takes control over the brain and the nerves and paralyses people’s consciousness!
– Plus, they instigate the instinctive impulses of the host!
Their intelligence was lower than an animal’s. They could not turn a tap to drink water and did not know how to open a container of food, but they continued moving from the endless hunger and thirst.
However, there was no need for them to open a food container, because there was food all around them – humans. It was simple because all they had to do was go up and bite.
Despite the simplicity of the phenomenon, it was difficult to resolve it.
– The infection of the germs cannot be stopped.
It was difficult because of their strong infectiousness,
– It is impossible to stop them with normal immunity. Also, the germs can use almost 95% of the host’s abilities.
And their potential.
– Their numbers will rise exponentially the longer we fight them!
This was one of the supernatural abilities held by an adult black dragon, and was one of the abilities black dragons used to destroy worlds.
Yu Jitae knew what these were called.
He put an end to his silence and interjected into Zhuge Haiyan’s report.
– These will now be referred to as [Apocalypse Bringers]
– As of this moment, immediately kill anyone no matter who they are, the moment you see purple dots on them.
– There is no cure for it.
Ending his words, Yu Jitae crushed the head of one of the Bringers that was running in at him.
*
The germs of the Bringers of Apocalypse started spreading like embers on a dry mountain. Because the soldiers were hiding in a small piece of land, the inability to deal with the situation promptly before the full analysis costed many lives.
The allies were in chaos.
“N, no! Wake up Balone! It’s me! I’m your mate!”
“Oi. You are the one that’s supposed to wake up! Does that guy still look like Balone to you?! Hurry up and run!”
“What do you mean! He is my colleague Balone! I can’t leave him behind and… kuhukk…!”
Screams and gasps of the ones that had been turned into purple-dotted monsters, the clashing sound of steel, the explosions of spells, gunfire and bombs – all those noises mixed into one. It was like a pandemonium on earth.
“We lost contact with the B-13 squad! Make an investigation squad right now! Quick!”
While the commander of a nearby troop was shouting out commands, Yu Jitae swung his Shapeless Sword and sliced the head of an infected soldier.
A whole troop had already been turned into Bringers of Apocalypse. He went there to kill them before the thirty of them could spread out to the surroundings.
Every superhuman learned movement skills alongside body-strengthening spells – they were both strong and fast. Those 30 infected soldiers simultaneously rushed in towards Yu Jitae with revealed fangs the moment they discovered him.
Yu Jitae similarly sprinted towards them. Swinging his sword he crushed their heads. Even though they lost their intelligence, some of them instinctively defended their bodies so he sliced off their arms along with their heads.
Like a lunatic, he attacked them. He destroyed, stabbed, smashed and bisected them. His feet moved the same way ever since he started attacking them as he continued massacring those former-soldiers like a machine.
The last entity instinctively tried to escape but did not have the chance to do so. Gathering his killing intent, Yu Jitae elongated it into the shape of a javelin and tossed it as the spear of killing intent travelled in a straight line and popped the head of the remaining one.
Until now, killing and destroying the enemy was a boring task but it was now different. Yu Jitae wanted to move faster and kill as many enemies as possible.
He was feeling a bizarre sense of pleasure. Like building up experience points in a game, he was getting the feeling that he was going closer towards his objective with each kill.
After building up experience points, one would level up as a reward. It was the same for him – at the end of this Long Night, he too would receive a reward.
As his mind continued that line of thought, he found a path appearing in his head.
That path was the road to happiness.
O Vintage Clock.
Did you say I will definitely become happy?
Happiness – freedom was at the end of this path. Looking at it like that, he became too anxious to stay still.
Yu Jitae started to run;
Towards happiness that was bound to be further down this path.