Chapter 193: Adam’s Reflection (2)
"Everyone! Activate your shields! Now!"
"Adam’s" voice rang across the battlefield, piercing through the deafening explosions and the cries of battle.
Clad in a crimson robe embroidered with ancient sigils, he stood at the forefront, his staff crackling with violent red energy.
His gaze remained locked onto the sky, where an enormous meteor, wreathed in ever-burning blue flames, descended towards them like a divine execution.
The team obeyed without hesitation, each member immediately raising their strongest defensive abilities.
[Obsidian Mana Shield]!
[Steel Aura Defense]!
[Divine Protection]!
A series of barriers erupted in shimmering hues of black, silver, and gold.
Layer upon layer, the shields overlapped one another, forming a massive protective dome just as the meteor crashed into it.
The world trembled.
Of course, their struggles were futile.
Even the shields they had painstakingly conjured could not withstand the ever-burning flames. The blue fire consumed everything it touched, burning not only the air, but even the mana that sustained the barriers themselves.
"Adam" and his team immediately attempted to change their strategy, abandoning defense in favor of other methods.
Yet...
No matter what they tried, it all proved futile.
Just then, a towering figure slowly approached.
It stood upon six elongated legs ending in razor-sharp talons.
Its upper torso was vaguely humanoid, but grotesquely elongated, its pale skin stretched tightly over bones that barely resembled those of a human.
A dark staff lingered beside its head, surrounded by a crown of twisted horns that seemed to grow in uncanny directions.
Its mere presence filled the battlefield with an indescribable sense of dread.
Then... It opened its mouth.
If one were to look closely, they would notice that countless tiny hands replaced its teeth, endlessly twitching within its mouth.
In place of a tongue, a massive wriggling worm twisted and squirmed as though it were alive.
It then "spoke."
Its voice was cold.
"Death."
The single word echoed across the battlefield.
"Adam’s" teammates collapsed to the ground within seconds of hearing it.
Some fell to their knees while others simply stopped moving.
Even "Adam" could not withstand it as his own legs gave out beneath him.
[Knight of Rose is panicking.]
[Sadist of Sufferings: Hahaha! Struggle more!]
[Inheritor of Dust: How disheartening. I guess this is the end of your livestream.]
’Dammit...! Humanity has made a mistake...!’
The Tower of Yxthar...
We never should’ve gone against it...
A violent tremor ran through the battlefield as reinforcements finally arrived.
A massive platoon of warriors, mages, and summoned beasts charged forward, clashing against the encroaching horde of monstrosities in a desperate attempt to buy everyone more time.
"Adam" watched the countless figures rush past him.
Then, in a low and trembling voice, he muttered,
"Save me... Please... I can’t... die here..."
[Streamer, Crimson Mage, begs for help!]
His eyes instinctively drifted toward the livestream notifications.
But no viewer from across the multiverse responded.
"Adam!"
A knight clad in gleaming armor sprinted towards him.
It was his brother, Raiden.
He held a sword firmly in his hands, but "Adam" knew it wouldn’t make much of a difference.
After all...
That was never Raiden’s original weapon.
Raiden was no knight.
His true weapon had always been his lantern, but after sacrificing it in an attempt to save his sister, Miya, he had been left with nothing but a sword.
He possessed none of a knight’s instincts.
None of a knight’s experience.
And because of that...
He never noticed the pillar of blue fire descending from above.
It engulfed Raiden in an instant.
"Brother..."
"Adam" muttered weakly, agony filling his voice.
His trembling gaze slowly lifted toward the colossal dragon-like entity soaring high above them, its six massive wings blotting out the sky itself.
Then his gaze wandered farther.
Across the city.
No...
Across the world.
Ancient entities.
Cosmic horrors.
Existences that should have never been able to walk within reality itself now roamed freely.
Because of the level of his state of existence, "Adam" could perceive most of them.
And because he could perceive them...
He understood...
This was the end of humanity.
Or perhaps... This was the end of their universe.
The end had come.
’God... please... Anyone... help us...’
"Adam’s" final plea vanished into the silent void.
His body slowly grew still as his blood ran cold.
However...
The world remained silent.
Only the distant screams of humanity echoed across the dying world before they, too, gradually faded away.
"Adam" lay motionless amidst the ruins.
His body no longer responded to his commands.
Even breathing had become difficult.
The towering six-legged creature slowly walked past him.
Its massive talons crushed the broken earth beneath every step, yet it didn’t spare "Adam" or his fallen teammates a single glance.
To an existence like that...
They were no different from corpses.
"..."
Then—
"I can save you."
A soft feminine voice suddenly whispered beside his ear.
It was calm and gentle, completely out of place amidst the destruction surrounding them.
"Adam’s" dull eyes slowly shifted toward the source of the voice.
A woman stood quietly beside him.
Long black hair flowed down her back, untouched by the raging winds or the burning embers drifting through the battlefield.
She possessed a face of almost unnatural elegance.
One eye shimmered with an eerie silver glow.
The other burned with a deep crimson light.
The two colors contrasted one another so perfectly that merely looking into them filled "Adam" with an indescribable unease.
She stood amidst the battlefield as though the destruction around her had nothing to do with her.
Almost as if she did not belong to this dying world.
"Adam" wanted to speak.
However, he found himself unable to.
His lips refused to move, and even gathering his thoughts felt like an impossible task.
His gaze instinctively shifted toward the six-legged creature that had just walked past.
How...
How did this woman bypass that strange creature without drawing even the slightest bit of its attention?
Or perhaps...
It had noticed her and simply chose to ignore her?
"Adam" tried his best to analyze the situation, but the strange state his body had fallen into made even the simplest thoughts difficult to process.
Everything felt sluggish as his mind refused to work.
"Do you want to be saved?"
The woman asked once more.
Her voice remained calm, still gentle.
As though she wasn’t standing in the middle of humanity’s final moments.
"Adam" fell silent.
Did he truly want to be saved?
He had just watched his own brother disappear before his eyes.
Raiden was gone.
His father... There was no way he could still be alive.
His sister had already left this world long before today.
His family... Was gone.
Then there were his companions.
The people he had fought beside, and the people he had spent time with.
The countless companions who had climbed the Tower of Yxthar alongside him...
Every single one of them would disappear.
Because this... This was the end of humanity.
The end of their universe.
If he survived... Then what exactly would be left for him?
A world without his family or friends.
A world without anyone to return to.
Did he truly want that...?
However...
For some reason...
When he tried to reject her offer...
The words never came out.
It wasn’t because he couldn’t speak.
Rather... Somewhere deep within himself...
He still wanted to live.
Even after everything... Even after losing everyone.
That instinct, buried beneath all the despair and hopelessness, still refused to disappear.
In the end...
"Adam" slowly nodded.
Comments