Chapter 446: Echoes of the Cataclysm (3)
They were all in a pitiful state... but alive, thanks to their SS tier vitality.
"What happened to them?!"
Turning sharply, Sir Alon questioned Mist Umbra.
"How long have they been trapped in here?!"
In response, Mist gave him the exact number.
"Counting today, it’s been 58 days inside the cube."
Fifty-eight days...
"They had plenty of supplies... and that amount of time isn’t enough to bring SS-ranked warriors to this state. That’s impossible!"
But in that moment, Sir Alon’s eyes fell on the wall Maekar had been leaning against earlier.
What he saw made him freeze.
The wall was covered in carvings.
Tally marks. Day after day, one after another.
So many... far too many, covering the entire surface of the ship.
This was no mere 58 days.
"...Two years and 231 days."
With great effort, Iris Sunlight spoke, his hollow eyes meeting Sir Alon’s gaze.
Hearing the words of the aged Iris, the terrible truth finally sank in for everyone.
It had been 58 days outside the cube.
But the passage of time inside the cube was entirely different.
For those trapped within, 58 days had stretched into two years and 231 days.
Days turned to weeks, weeks to months...
They exhausted all their supplies and were left to be devoured by hunger and thirst.
It broke them to the point where, eventually, they began to consume one another.
The flesh of those who died first... just to survive.
They ate human flesh. They drank blood...
They became monsters .. the very kind they once despised .. just to cling to life.
This was the witch’s game.
Gazing into the distant horizon...
Sir Alon finally began to understand his enemy, even if only a little.
He could almost swear he heard her laughter.
The laughter of Beatrice.
She was toying with them.
Everything, to her, was nothing but a game.
And that alone made the Iron Emperor’s blood boil.
"The witch’s game, huh? ... Fine then. Let’s play."
With his body radiating intense light, Sir Alon Valerion stood at the forefront, igniting his thirst for war.
"We’ll play... but this time, by my own rules."
The Ultras wanted war.
And war is exactly what they will get.
There was no turning back now.
"This will be a war of annihilation."
He would spare neither young nor old,
Neither men nor women.
Sir Alon had sworn ..
He would slaughter them all.
By the end of this war, either the Ultras or the Empire...
One of them would vanish from the face of the earth.
Catastrophe was inevitable.
And as Sir Alon Valerion turned away, leaving with those he could still save—
The sky above them cracked open, answering his will with a terrifying cry, a dreadful omen.
A warning that hell itself was all that awaited them.
On that day, at that hour ..
The whole world looked up at the sky...
And saw creatures descending from the void, screeching without end,
As if the end of the world had arrived.
They looked like colossal black ravens, their immense wings blotting out the sky as they soared through the air, crying endlessly.
Their screeches were terrifying, carrying countless emotions within them.
At times, they sounded mournful, at others joyful.
Sometimes furious, sometimes ecstatic.
The world trembled beneath their cries.
Yet they did nothing... simply circling the skies without purpose, crying without end.
Massive black birds, as if they had crawled straight out of hell.
Reactions varied, but among them ..
Frey Starlight gazed at the birds, his face shadowed with darkness.
From his lips, he whispered their name—
"...Chaos Eaters."
The disaster was inevitable.
...
...
...
The world continued to change with every passing second.
As shocking events tore through everything, one after another...
Meanwhile, within the Human Empire ..
Emperor Maekar Valerion was returned to his castle, completely withdrawn from public view.
He was in a miserable state, driving away anyone who dared approach him, demanding to be left alone.
His body was frail and weak after all he had endured.
And so, he found himself staggering between the walls of his castle, his steps faltering as he wandered through one corridor after another.
The deeper he went...
Maekar Valerion finally reached his private sanctuary ..
A place he had never allowed anyone else to approach.
Opening the door to that secret room,
Maekar stepped into a chamber completely frozen over.
An empty room, filled with nothing but ice.
And within mere moments, he collapsed, leaning against a massive ice coffin that stood at the center of the room.
The moment he fell, he began laughing like a madman, his body trembling violently.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it!!!"
He cursed over and over, sobbing all the while.
Everything had fallen apart for him overnight.
"Why... why did it all come to this?!"
He cried out, then burst into hysterical laughter once again, turning his gaze toward the coffin behind him.
"If only time could turn back... to those days... back then, everything was fine."
Times when he had lived in peace, and everything had been as it should.
"Why did you leave me?!"
Maekar continued sobbing like a madman as he clung to that coffin.
"Everything was fine when you were here..."
With a trembling body, Maekar stared at the coffin.
And within it... the face of a man was revealed.
A man who had long since closed his eyes to this world.
...
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A.N :
"Chaos Eaters"
Among the many strange creatures of this world, the Chaos Eaters are seen as harbingers of doom .. omens of an approaching disaster.
They resemble giant birds with massive wings, their forms an eerie fusion of various bird species, covered in black skin and bearing glowing white eyes.
Chaos Eaters emerge from the void, doing nothing but soaring through the skies without interacting with any living creature. Yet, no matter where they appear, a terrifying catastrophe inevitably follows shortly after.
Over time, the races of the world came to understand their meaning, recognizing that the appearance of Chaos Eaters marks the arrival of calamity.
They have appeared countless times before .. during the Pantheon Massacre thousands of years ago, caused by Agaroth and Crimson...
Or during the extermination of the ghouls and the downfall of the nation manipulated and destroyed by Wesker.
Every time they appeared, disaster struck soon after.
In truth, despite their numbers, the Chaos Eaters are but fragments of a single entity... one of the mysterious Great Ones whose nature no one has ever been able to comprehend.
If you ever see them soaring in the skies...
fr.eew eb novel..com
Prepare yourself ...disaster is inevitable.