49 Apocalypse Rules

「Largan Country. Within the Mist.」

THUD!!!

A colossal foot descended from the sky, crushing three of the Soloma Empire’s armored vehicles into metal pancakes. All personnel inside were killed.

The surviving soldiers were on the brink of collapse. "Captain, this Nightmare Beast is too powerful! We have to fall back!"

"Negative!" the Captain’s voice crackled over the radio. "Your mission is to delay the giant Nightmare Beast. Anyone who retreats without orders will be court-martialed!"

"But—"

"It’s coming again!!!"

THUD!!!

The colossal foot descended from the sky once more. A dozen or so Soldiers of Soloma who failed to evade in time were instantly crushed into a mist of blood.

The remaining twenty or thirty men couldn’t take it anymore. Even if they had to face a court-martial, it was better than waiting to be trampled to death.

Ignoring their captain’s orders, they began to fall back. At that moment, the giant foot lifted once more and began to descend upon them.

"No!"

HMMMM—

A ripple, invisible to the naked eye, seemed to vibrate through the air.

The giant foot froze in place directly above the soldiers, as if constrained by some invisible force, unable to fall.

The soldiers stood frozen on the spot, their blood running cold, not knowing what was happening. In that last moment, their lives had flashed before their eyes, and they never expected to survive.

"You can all retreat. Leave this to me."

A voice snapped the soldiers out of their stupor. They looked over and saw him—Adam!

Having escaped death’s door, the soldiers immediately retreated. Only then did the colossal foot come crashing down.

"Please search the vicinity for the Fog Gate," Adam said to the four women. "I’ll deal with this big fellow."

"Adam, be careful!"

Even though the four women knew how strong Adam was and how special his abilities were, they couldn’t help but worry when he faced such a gigantic enemy.

The four split up to search for the Fog Gate. Adam watched the giant foot lift again, took off his protective helmet, and looked up with a smile. "Friend from an alien star, I know you are guarding the fragment. Let me prove to you that I am worthy of receiving it."

As he spoke, he raised his palm, and all the surrounding Mist began to part in a strange way, moving to either side. It was as if someone had sliced a block of tofu down the middle and pushed the two halves apart.

As the Mist parted, the owner of the colossal foot was revealed: a gigantic creature, dozens of meters tall.

If Guan Tong had been there, he would have recognized it instantly—this was the creature that appeared in the mural of fragment 3, one of the largest Exotic Beasts depicted on it.

Adam looked up at the Giant Beast. When he saw its face, he smiled slightly. "It seems my guess was correct. Just like the other giant creature near the Fog Gate in the Soloma Empire, you are not a Nightmare Beast."

At this moment, the super Giant Beast with the colossal foot was also looking down at Adam. It had a single blue eye the size of several basketballs, and its gaze held a hint of scrutiny, as if it possessed a degree of intelligence.

Looking at Adam, it lifted its giant foot again and brought it down on him.

Adam raised both hands. The invisible ripples appeared again, catching the giant foot the moment it descended.

The giant foot stopped less than three meters from Adam, unable to advance any further. Both sides held their positions, seemingly locked in some kind of intense, invisible struggle.

The standoff lasted for about a minute before the Exotic Beast lifted its foot and set it aside, seemingly abandoning its attack.

Adam lowered his hands, a few beads of sweat on his forehead. He smiled and said, "It seems I’ve earned your approval, my friend from an alien star?"

"Adam!" Amanda’s voice came from nearby. "I’ve found the fragment!"

The Giant Beast turned and walked away, quickly disappearing into the Mist.

Adam thought for a moment, then went to find Amanda. She was clutching a fragment.

"I just found it on the ground. It’s so strange," she said, handing the fragment to Adam with a puzzled look. "Shouldn’t it be inside the Fog Gate’s cave?"

Adam took it and looked at the fragment. "Someone must have retrieved it from the cave but failed to hold onto it after they came out."

Amanda was stunned. "Adam, are you saying the person who got the fragment was trampled to death by that giant-footed Nightmare Beast?"

"I suppose so. But that Giant Beast is our alien friend, not a Nightmare Beast assimilated by the Mist."

"...The Mist seems to be dissipating. Congratulations, Adam! Now you have two fragments!"

Holding the fragment, Adam sensed the locations of the others. "I’m not the only one with two fragments. The holder from North Star Country should also have two now—or, of course, it could be the holder from the Andai Kingdom who has two. Regardless, those two fragments are now concentrated in one person’s hands."

Just then, the other three women arrived and looked at him with concern.

"Did you get the fragment?"

"Adam, are you alright?"

Adam smiled. "You all know what I’m capable of. Is there really any need to worry so much?"

The four women exchanged glances. It was true. Adam’s "Force Field Manipulation" ability was the strongest they had ever known or witnessed, and his mastery of it was sublime.

"But getting the other three fragments definitely won’t be this easy," Adam sighed softly. "We’ll have to leave it to fate."

The four women nodded in unison.

The Soloma Empire was able to land troops so easily this time because Largan, a small country, was already finished, with no military or national defense to speak of.

But the countries of the other fragment holders, like Sakura Prayer Country, definitely still retained significant armed forces. The Soloma Empire wouldn’t dare to act rashly.

And that’s not to mention the other one, North Star Country. Before the era of the Apocalypse Rules, North Star Country’s national power could go toe-to-toe with the Soloma Empire. After entering the era of the Apocalypse Rules, they managed to preserve a large portion of their population thanks to the government’s swift response.

In this situation, the Soloma Empire was lucky that North Star Country wasn’t looking for trouble with them. The idea of the Empire sending warships anywhere near North Star’s borders was completely out of the question.

「Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, in Banzhen, the Capital of the Andai Kingdom.」

In a small town in the north, at Ba Song’s manor, a large number of people were digging through the ruins of the bombed-out buildings.

At first, they unearthed large quantities of supplies and weapons, making them think it was a secret armory where an accidental discharge had caused the massive explosion.

But when they dug up a body covered in dust and ash and realized it was the owner of the manor, Ba Song, they were all stunned.

"It’s the Boss?!"

"What’s going on??"

Several of Ba Song’s lieutenants stared at their boss’s body, unable to believe what they were seeing.

After the explosion, they hadn’t been able to contact their boss, and his room was empty, which had worried them. But they never could have imagined that their boss would actually die here!

’Who did this? How?!’

No one knew.

"An enemy! It must be an enemy!" one of the lieutenants shouted. "The people who killed Marla are here! They want to—urgh—!!"

Before he could finish, he suddenly felt himself suffocating.

The others looked over and clearly saw a black line tightening around the man’s neck.

"Att-attack!"

"The enemy!!"

"Urgh!!!"

The crowd descended into chaos as they saw countless black lines spreading across the ground, crawling onto their bodies and wrapping around their necks to strangle them.

Some tried to run but couldn’t escape. Others opened fire in desperation, only to end up shooting their own men, causing no harm to the dense swarm of Shadow Lines.

In a matter of moments, all the armed personnel in the manor had been strangled to death by the Shadow Lines. Not a single one survived.

Guan Tong manipulated the shadows to release the prisoners. After they had all left, he set the manor ablaze, burning the evil place to the ground.

Conveniently, Ba Song had kept the area around his manor clear of other houses for his own security, so Guan Tong didn’t have to worry about the fire spreading to innocent people’s homes.

As he watched the blaze form a fiery cloud in the sky, his mood lightened considerably.

After the fire had been burning for more than ten minutes, long after Guan Tong had left, the Andai Kingdom’s officials and fire trucks finally arrived late to the scene to begin their firefighting efforts.

After the fire was extinguished, personnel from several intelligence agencies began an investigation.

Although Ba Song was just a minor warlord, his manor was located in Banzhen. And with Banzhen being the Capital of the Andai Kingdom, the daytime slaughter of over a hundred people and the razing of a massive manor was a huge embarrassment for the Andai government.

The officials who had been secretly colluding with Ba Song were particularly enraged. Having lost their financial backer, they flew into a rage and demanded a thorough investigation.

Before entering his safe room, Ba Song had made a phone call. He called his contact within the government to inform them that a team from North Star Country had infiltrated and was coming to cause trouble for him.

At the time, the official hadn’t taken it seriously. But now, with Ba Song’s entire force wiped out, they finally realized the gravity of the situation.

When the news was reported to the highest echelons of the Andai Kingdom, the handful of top decision-makers were both furious and humiliated.

Banzhen was their Capital, and Ba Song and his men were all citizens of the Andai Kingdom. Now, for a person or team from North Star Country to infiltrate and go on a killing spree... even if the Andai Kingdom was not as powerful as North Star Country, they could not tolerate such a humiliation.

These few decision-makers also felt a sense of fear. If the infiltrator could wipe out Ba Song’s forces so easily, what if they were the next target?

The Andai Kingdom’s top leadership immediately ordered a detailed investigation into the matter, sealed the borders, and dispatched numerous special agents to find the perpetrator from North Star Country.

The intelligence department quickly came up with a result, concluding that the perpetrator was very likely the Legendary Ascender, "Shadow." This judgment was based on the condition of the many bodies found at the manor.

The investigation revealed that Ba Song’s men had all been strangled, while Ba Song himself had been killed by some kind of sharp object piercing his heart. Combined with the dozen or so bodies of Ba Song’s men previously found near a construction site—also killed by a sharp object to the heart—the two methods of death combined were characteristic of Shadow’s signature killing style.

Furthermore, it was now widely known among all nations that "Shadow" was most likely from North Star Country. So, as soon as the intelligence report came out, the Andai Kingdom’s diplomats immediately contacted their counterparts in North Star Country to demand an explanation.

After receiving the message, the diplomatic department of North Star Country was baffled but forwarded the information to other departments.

Soon enough, the relevant files were laid out on the conference table of the Strategy Research Room.

The meeting began. Once the attendees had familiarized themselves with the situation, they all wore rather peculiar expressions.

"So, Shadow crossed the border, went on a killing spree in Banzhen, the Capital of the Andai Kingdom, killed over a hundred people, and burned down a manor?"

"What... was the purpose of all that?"

"The problem now is that the Andai Kingdom is pursuing this through diplomatic channels, hoping for an explanation from us, North Star Country. After all, the whole world assumes Shadow is one of ours."

"This is tricky... How are we supposed to explain this? Are we going to issue a domestic warrant for Shadow’s arrest on charges of premeditated murder?"

"That’s out of the question!" someone objected. "Wouldn’t that just push Shadow away? He’s one of the most powerful Ascenders in the world right now!"

"But the evidence in these files does indicate it was Shadow’s handiwork. If we, North Star Country, don’t take a stance, won’t it cause problems in our diplomatic relations with the Andai Kingdom?"