Days passed, and with each day Asfaria became quieter... and more hopeless.
But it was not as if the world were kind enough to leave things at that.
In the city hall, around the table where dozens of leaders had sat over the past years... only a few people remained to hear this sentence.
"A huge rift has opened outside the maze." Elias’s words echoed in the meeting room.
Rem swallowed audibly. "How far?"
The old man exhaled as he recalled what he had seen. "Perhaps enough for entire hordes of monsters to pass... or an Ancient one."
"But for some reason... even after I got close, I didn’t see or notice anything coming out of it."
At the head of the table, Arthania clenched her fist unconsciously.
’No... not now,’ she thought.
"Old man, can you keep your eyes on that place... and during this period I will stay here in case anything happens." Her beautiful and calm voice echoed through the place, while Elias chuckled lightly.
"I do not know whether I should be happy or sad to see you sitting there."
...
Days passed quickly, and with every passing day the atmosphere around the city grew heavier.
On a quiet night, Arthania sat on the edge of the maze wall, staring downward.
Just as she used to do when she was little with her father.
She watched the city that had shrunk and retreated as she murmured, "Strange."
All she had felt these days was strangeness. The monsters had become quieter and the attacks on the city had decreased... to the point that they had enjoyed some rest for years.
Her thoughts returned to the huge rift outside the maze, but that place had been under watch all the time.
"So what is it?"
With doubt surrounding her, Arthania closed her eyes, giving up her sight and focusing on that new sense every Awakened had acquired.
The feeling of essence.
A sense that allowed them to feel the world in a new way.
Her perception was not as detailed as Caius’s... one could say it was more like intuition compared to his.
She remained like that for a long time while the breeze struck her face and her hair swayed with it,
until she felt something.
Above the city, essence was gathering and reacting unusually.
She opened her eyes wide.
’Why didn’t I think of that?’
At that moment she realized why they had not seen anything come out of the rift.
Because it had been above them the whole time.
’And how... how the hell did I not notice that?’
Her heartbeat quickened as she rose to her feet like someone ready to pounce and fight immediately.
Essence surged through her body in immense amounts while gathering and forming on her hand, ready to tear the sky apart.
But in the end, she did not act. Instead, she remained standing there, staring upward.
’It is not attacking.’
And she did not feel anything strange in the city, not yet.
If it wasn’t attacking, then they still had a chance... a chance to leave without any losses.
The essence faded and Arthania calmed herself.
’No, actually, this is the right time.’ With the monsters’ strange behavior, perhaps it was the right time to leave.
No... they had no choice, they had to leave now before that thing above moved.
Arthania was certain, whatever that thing was that had come out of that huge rift without anyone noticing, it was strong.
Stronger than her.
She moved toward the edge, looking up before stepping into the void and letting gravity do its work.
Her body fell downward rapidly, her clothes fluttering with the wind while her hair flew upward.
The fall took only a few seconds before her foot struck the ground heavily.
The ground shattered beneath her and the sound of impact echoed through the place.
This alerted the nearby guards and made them run over there, only to find Arthania after the dust had settled.
One of them sighed in relief, the one responsible for this side. "It’s you, Lady Arthania, you scared us."
She looked at them calmly and firmly. "Sound the alarms and make all the residents gather in the center of the city... I have something everyone needs to hear."
Another man hesitated. "Why, did something happen?"
She gave a short answer as she walked between them. "Do not worry... you will know soon."
...
In that hall sat the same people who led this city, staring at Arthania.
"So you are saying that something is hiding above us... and it might be the thing that came out of the rift without anyone noticing." Adam summarized what he had just heard.
Arthania nodded at his words. "Yes, and that might be why the monsters around us have decreased, except for those that come out of the rifts directly."
"And why doesn’t it attack... why does it just stay there?" Rem’s voice trembled slightly.
Arthania clenched her hand. "I don’t know... I really don’t know, maybe we are just insects in its eyes... but what can we do except try to leave now."
"I don’t know, but maybe we can protect everyone until we reach the colony on the northern coast."
Her plan was to head toward the nearest colony in the north, which was about 1500 kilometers away from them, before continuing toward the rift leading to the other side.
But in the next moment all her thoughts were cut off.
"The northern colony no longer exists."
Those words echoed calmly, just as he always did... or perhaps it wasn’t calmness.
Just a person who had lost all hope and all reason long ago.
Everyone turned their heads to the old man leaning indifferently on the chair, while Arthania’s voice echoed shakily without her realizing it. "When did that happen?"
"Years ago," he answered simply.
"But... just a few days ago you were informing us about the status of other places," Adam asked, his voice filled with shock.
"I was lying. Most of the settlements disappeared years ago, and we are one of the few that remain."
"Why... why were you lying?"
Elias shrugged. "You were drowning in despair, and I didn’t want to make you drown more."
"But it seems the opposite has happened now."
In the next moment Elias felt pressure pressing against his body while two hazel eyes stared at him.
Arthania opened her mouth, but no words came out.
So she closed her mouth, controlling herself. "It doesn’t matter, we will begin preparing to leave as we planned before."
She rose to leave while the others followed her, but unlike them Elias leaned back on the chair, resting his head and looking at the ceiling.
"If we weren’t stubborn... if we weren’t fools..." His tone was regretful and filled with remorse, unlike usual.
He remembered that time when he first heard this idea about abandoning this world and mocked it... back then they could have moved all those people easily and survived.
But now everything was over.
"Come on, old man, you’re not planning to hide there." Arthania’s voice sounded, bringing him back to reality.
Elias smiled before lifting himself and walking toward the others near the door. "Do not worry, you can make them blame me if you want."
But contrary to his expectations Arthania shook her head. "No, you were right in what you did... you are always right."
Elias raised an eyebrow, but Arthania had already stepped forward, opening the double door and revealing the scene outside.
There, in front of the city hall, stood tens of thousands of people... all the residents of the city except the guards at the borders.
The sound of their gathered whispers was very loud.
But the moment the door opened, everyone fell silent at the same time and fixed their eyes on the person at the front... Arthania.
Their promised hope.
One of the few who had reached Rank 5.
One of the strongest humans at this time... perhaps the strongest.
Without hesitation, Arthania stood before everyone.
But deep inside, she knew... this was not the smartest thing to do, especially since there was some creature above them... perhaps.
But what... what was really left?
She looked at the crowd before her and received all those hope-filled gazes.
Where should she begin... she didn’t know.
Should she tell them that they were all about to gather their supplies and embark on a journey of thousands of kilometers among hungry monsters... a journey from which none might remain.
Or that there was an ancient threat looming on the horizon, and they didn’t even know what it wanted.
Would it even allow them to leave in the first place.
So for a few moments and under the stars that had begun to fade, a deep silence filled the place, even with tens of thousands of people in this small area.
But silence did not last forever, and it was broken already.
Not by Arthania, nor Elias, nor even the crowd before them.
But by the sky itself.
A cracking sound
At that moment a sound like breaking glass spread throughout the entire world.
Arthania raised her head, and so did every person in that place... no, in the world.
There before their eyes, the sky itself shattered into pieces and fell apart.
It was something the human mind could not accept... how could a sky shatter like glass.
Pieces of the sky fell away, revealing the flowing darkness.
A darkness darker than the void of the universe... as if it had come from the abyss itself.
It flowed like a viscous and malicious liquid while everyone stared in silence, their knees no longer able to hold them, crashing to the ground without a sound.
All sounds vanished from the world... there was no screaming, no panic, no anything.
Arthania was no exception.
With her knees on the ground, the shattered sky and the darkness flowing outward reflected in her eyes while tears fell without stopping.
’Yes... yes, let everything end, let this hell end.’
But as if the world did not want to answer her prayers, the creature above the city finally moved.
A thin thread passed over Asfaria and space itself opened, revealing what had been hidden behind it.
From there thousands of ethereal threads descended and wrapped around every person in this miserable city, taking control of their minds and souls that had already been shattered by looking at that darkness.
’No... no... just let it end.’ Arthania screamed inside her mind, but her mouth refused to move.
And there, above this grotesque creature and before the darkness devoured the world, she saw something else emerging from the shattered sky.
It was not a strange creature... nor a monstrous being of immense proportions living at the edge of the universe,
but a woman.