The Anomaly Beyond The System

Chapter 175: No Internet

It took him a few long seconds before Lucian finally managed to calm himself.

There was still a lingering sense of dread, a strange oppressive feeling he didn’t understand in the slightest. But after closing his eyes for a second and taking a slow breath, his thoughts gradually regained their clarity.

Even though he still had no idea what had just happened, nor whether he could truly be the reason behind this ruined city...

He pushed those thoughts aside for now.

After reassuring his mother—who still looked worried after seeing him suddenly stagger—Lucian briefly glanced toward Kanna.

Then, without another word, he turned around and looked at the broken remains of his house, at the fallen door and the collapsed entrance before him.

He stepped forward.

Before Seraphina could understand what he was trying to do—

Lucian bent down, gripped a large concrete slab, and with one hand—

He lifted it up and casually threw it aside.

The heavy block of concrete crashed into the surrounding rubble with a loud, dull thud.

Without slowing down, he continued clearing the path, lifting one slab after another and tossing them aside as though they weighed nothing.

Seraphina wanted to say something, but the ease with which he was lifting those massive slabs of concrete left her at a loss for words.

So she simply watched in silence.

After a few quiet moments, both she and Kanna followed behind him.

Only after reaching the basement door—or rather, what remained of its bent metal entrance—did Lucian finally stop.

"Fuck, even the basement is destroyed," he cursed under his breath, kicking another slab aside in frustration.

The reinforced entrance leading to the basement had been twisted beyond recognition, half-buried beneath the debris, just like everything else surrounding them.

Behind him, Seraphina let out a small, helpless sigh.

After silently taking in the ruined bunker entrance, she slowly turned her gaze toward her son.

"What are you going to do now?"

The question came quietly as she noticed him standing there, staring blankly ahead with his fists tightly clenched.

For several long seconds...

Lucian didn’t answer.

Then—

"Step aside."

His voice came out heavier than intended, causing Seraphina’s brows to knit together ever so slightly.

Still...

She did as he asked and stepped back.

Lucian gave her a brief glance.

"Kanna... protect her if something happens."

Seraphina’s frown deepened.

But before she could ask what he meant—

She suddenly felt it. Her expression slightly changed.

The surrounding temperature rapidly began to rise, and heat spread through the air.

After looking at the collapsed bunker entrance...

Lucian slowly raised one hand.

Tiny sparks crackled into existence above his palm.

Within seconds, the sparks erupted into blazing flames, spiralling around one another before rapidly compressing into a condensed sphere of fire.

The fireball wasn’t particularly large—only slightly bigger than a basketball—yet the heat radiating from it alone was more than enough to scorch flesh.

At Lucian’s command, the flames spun faster...

Brighter...

Then—

The blazing sphere shot forward.

BOOM—!!

A deafening explosion echoed throughout the ruined neighbourhood—if it could even still be called one.

The condensed fireball slammed into the blockage sealing the entrance, detonating with enough force to blast open the buried staircase.

Chunks of shattered concrete were hurled in every direction along with a massive cloud of dust, prompting Seraphina to instinctively shut her eyes and raise an arm before her face as debris swept past her.

Kanna stepped in front of her.

Dark shadows surged from beneath the maid’s feet, effortlessly batting away every larger piece of flying debris before it could reach either of them.

Lucian didn’t wait for the dust to settle.

He immediately stepped forward, disappearing into the blasted opening he had created.

The passage was barely wide enough for a single person, so he told them to remain outside before continuing deeper down the rubble-covered staircase.

Seraphina and Kanna remained standing atop the shattered remains of what had once been their home.

The smell of dust and pulverised concrete lingered heavily in the air, mixed with the lingering heat left behind by Lucian’s flames.

Almost a minute passed.

Unable to simply stand still, Seraphina slowly began moving through the rubble, carefully searching the ruins, hoping to find something... anything of value beneath the mountain of shattered concrete.

She knew it was unlikely she would find anything.

After another minute, she let out a faint sigh and eventually gave up.

Slowly, her gaze drifted upward.

The sky above was dimly lit, painted in a dull shade of pale grey.

It had looked that way from the moment they returned, and beyond the drifting clouds, scattered rays of sunlight filtered through, forcing her to narrow her eyes before quietly looking away.

By the position of the sun overhead, it was most likely daytime...

Almost the same time Kanna and Selthia had first taken Lucian and Lia to Bloodveil.

Seraphina shifted her gaze toward the blasted bunker entrance.

Seeing that her son still hadn’t returned, she slowly turned toward the maid standing a short distance away, completely motionless—almost like a statue.

"Kanna..."

The moment Seraphina’s voice reached her, the maid immediately turned her head.

"Yes, Lady Seraphina?"

"Do you have the Scarlett Bloodline as well?"

Kanna blinked at the unexpected question, but quickly understood why Seraphina had asked it.

She had been standing beneath the sunlight this entire time, yet there wasn’t even the slightest burn on her pale skin.

"Yes... but ours is only a lesser branch of the original Scarlett Bloodline."

By "ours," she was referring to the other maids who resembled her, all of whom carried the same bloodline.

The greatest—and undoubtedly the most practical—boon of the Umbral Scarlett Bloodline was that it still granted complete immunity to both sunlight and fire.

Alongside that...

It naturally strengthened one’s connection to the shadows, allowing its bearer to manipulate them with far greater ease than an ordinary shadow user.

Seraphina gave a small nod, silently taking note of the information.

Once again...

A deep silence settled between them.

Neither of the two women was particularly talkative.

Holding a conversation with either of them was already difficult, since you could barely get more than a few words out of them.

And holding a conversation between both of them...

It was nearly impossible.

It was almost like leaving two introverts alone in the same room after the only person who usually kept the conversation going—in this case, Lucian—had walked away.

Though... in Seraphina’s case, she could easily spend hours talking to her son without ever growing tired.

Far in the distance...

A few growls echoed through the ruined city.

Kanna’s black eyes briefly shifted toward the source of the sound, as she was the only one who could hear it with her heightened senses.

But she didn’t react.

She simply turned her gaze away.

A few more minutes quietly slipped by, and just as Seraphina was beginning to worry—

Footsteps echoed from the destroyed entrance.

Lucian finally emerged, a dark expression lingering on his face.

For a brief moment, seeing his current demeanour, Seraphina hesitated, wondering whether she should even ask.

But...

"What happened?"

Lucian slowly lifted his head toward her.

Then, after letting out a long, frustrated sigh—

"Everything down there is destroyed too.

The food... the storage containers...

Everything."

His teeth clenched tightly as the anger bubbling inside him continued to grow, further intensified by the emotions naturally amplified through the Scarlett Bloodline.

He lowered his head and took a deep breath.

Then another.

Slowly, he forced himself to calm down.

’I wasted so much money... for absolutely nothing.’

The thought echoed bitterly through his mind.

At that moment, he genuinely felt like burning the already ruined house into ashes.

Seraphina quietly nodded.

Though she understood his frustration, she didn’t know how to comfort him.

Even after parting her lips—

No words came out.

But then—

Lucian suddenly raised his head, his expression noticeably calmer than before.

"Well...

I did find something."

He raised one hand, revealing a smartphone resting in his palm.

"My phone...?"

Seraphina stepped a little closer, recognising it almost instantly.

Lucian nodded before letting out another quiet exhale.

"This is the only intact thing that I could find."

He looked down toward the screen.

"...Though I can’t exactly call it completely intact."

The display was covered in multiple cracks, though fortunately they were only on the screen protector, which could easily be replaced later.

He turned toward his mother.

"Do you want it?"

Seraphina softly shook her head.

"Because I need it right now," he finished, understanding her answer.

Lucian pressed the power button, and to his relief, the display lit up almost instantly.

But after a minute...

He clicked his tongue.

"Tsk, no internet."

It seemed the network problem still hadn’t been resolved.

But before he could dwell on it—

"Young Master Luc—"

"Just call me Lucian," he almost snapped as Kanna tried to speak.

After a brief pause, the maid nodded.

"Master Lucian..." she said, stubbornly keeping the honorific.

Lucian simply rolled his eyes.

Though he didn’t argue any further, allowing her to continue.

"You won’t receive any network signal here."

Hearing her words, Lucian glanced around the devastated city once again.

’...Of course.’

There wasn’t even a single functioning building left nearby.

Expecting a network signal here had been far too optimistic.

But then—

His expression subtly changed.

His crimson eyes narrowed as he caught faint, unfamiliar noises—more like animalistic howls—being carried through the ruined streets by the silent wind.