The Anomaly Beyond The System

Chapter 177: Awakened Association

As soon as the monsters appeared across the world without any warning...

Humanity had been thrown into absolute chaos.

Everyone had been overtaken by shock, fear, and horror.

And for some...

Even excitement.

After all, countless people had dreamed of an apocalypse where they would awaken extraordinary powers and become heroes.

But that excitement...

It didn’t last for long.

Their entire world had been turned upside down within a matter of days, leaving no time for anyone to adapt or understand what was truly happening.

The monsters gave humanity—or at least ordinary humans—virtually no chance of surviving their relentless assault.

Many of them tried to fight, only to meet horrifying deaths.

Others survived...

But only after suffering life-altering injuries.

For a while...

It truly felt as though humanity stood on the brink of extinction.

If not for the hidden awakened—the people who finally stepped forward.

The people who became humanity’s shield, giving ordinary civilians somewhere to run.

Somewhere they could finally sleep without fearing that monsters would crash through their homes in the middle of the night.

Massive defensive walls were erected.

Cities... states... even entire countries gradually established secure zones.

High-ranking awakened hunted down nearby monsters, reclaiming territory piece by piece.

Then, after nearly a month of relentless struggle...

Some regions had finally begun to stabilise.

Countless people had died... far too many.

But...

That didn’t stop life from moving forward.

And that was exactly what Lucian was seeing before him.

The surrounding buildings still bore visible cracks from the earthquakes caused by the monsters, though they remained standing, having been repaired well enough to be habitable once again.

The roads weren’t perfectly clean either, but they clearly reflected how much people had changed.

Lucian slowed his pace for a brief moment, quietly observing the streets around him.

His gaze then lowered toward his own hand as his fingers slowly curled into a fist.

’...I feel weaker,’ He muttered internally to himself.

As soon as he had returned to Earth...

His body had felt subtly weaker than before.

At first, he hadn’t noticed the change all that much, but after using his flames and sprinting all the way here...

The difference in his strength had become far more apparent.

Initially, he had assumed it was simply because vampires were naturally weakened by sunlight.

But after thinking it through for a while, he quickly realised the real reason.

It wasn’t that he had suddenly become weaker.

He had merely lost the boost granted by one of his traits.

[Night Sovereign]

A trait inherited from his Progenitor bloodline that granted a tremendous enhancement to his senses and physical abilities beneath the night sky.

And since he had spent so long in Bloodveil, he had gradually grown accustomed to it—

Almost to the point where the enhancement had begun to feel like his natural strength.

Now...

Standing beneath Earth’s daylight, that effect had vanished.

The sudden difference naturally made his body feel slower and heavier, even though he had merely returned to his normal strength.

Shaking those thoughts aside, Lucian glanced toward his mother, who was lightly covering part of her mouth with her palm, a faint trace of discomfort visible on her face.

The moment she noticed his gaze—

She narrowed her eyes at him ever so slightly, a subtle hint of annoyance hidden within them.

"I already warned you.

Don’t bite your tongue."

"You s-should’ve told me a little sooner."

She clicked her tongue softly before turning away, directing her gaze toward the streets ahead.

Before entering the city, they had passed through a massive defensive wall that stood between civilization and the outside world, built for the sole purpose of keeping the monsters at bay.

And thanks to Selthia’s ’blessing’, they had been forced to enter through that very wall.

The moment they approached the entrance, several guards immediately stopped them.

Some raised their firearms, while others tightened their grips around swords and spears, watching the two of them with unmistakable caution.

Lucian, already exhausted and irritated after seeing his destroyed home, didn’t even bother trying to explain himself.

He simply activated Charm.

Within moments, the guards’ resistance crumbled beneath its influence, allowing both him and Seraphina to enter the city without any further trouble.

As they walked through the streets, both of their gazes gradually drifted toward the nearby alleys.

People sat silently against the walls.

Some wore little more than tattered clothing, while others wandered through the narrow alleys, begging for food...

For money...

For anything.

The sight made Seraphina’s icy-blue eyes narrow.

Not out of pity... but because she understood exactly what kind of people they were.

These weren’t people who had lived their lives as beggars. They had simply been forced into becoming them after the apocalypse.

A few other people walked through the streets dressed far more normally, their healthier complexions showing that not everyone had fallen into the same circumstances.

And many of those people...

Were looking at them.

"I think we’re attracting too much attention," Lucian murmured under his breath, sweeping his gaze across the pedestrians who kept turning their heads toward them as they passed.

Almost every expression subtly changed the moment they noticed Lucian and Seraphina.

Before long, quiet murmurs spread through the street.

Though with his heightened vampire senses, Lucian could hear every single word as clearly as if they were standing right beside him.

"Wow... is there a movie shoot going on?"

"Do you really think people would be filming movies at a time like this?"

"Then why are they dressed like they’re going to some fancy party? And just look at both of them..."

"They look like foreigners."

Lucian felt a strange prickling sensation from being stared at by so many people.

Even though he didn’t care about their whispers, it was gradually becoming irritating—especially since he could hear every single one of them.

Though...

They weren’t entirely wrong.

Both he and Seraphina possessed unnaturally pale skin and flawless features, making them stand out effortlessly among the crowd.

Even the clothes they wore looked expensive, perfectly tailored to fit them without the slightest wrinkle.

Thankfully...

Kanna had already slipped back into Lucian’s shadow.

Otherwise, the sight of a Japanese maid quietly following behind them would’ve caused an even greater commotion—especially in a world where wealth had practically become a luxury reserved only for the strongest after the apocalypse.

Seraphina glanced at her son once more before speaking.

"It’s a good thing you wore those glasses," she muttered softly.

Hearing her voice, Lucian turned toward her and smiled faintly, lightly adjusting the black sunglasses resting over his crimson eyes.

"I don’t know whether people know about vampires yet... and there’s no telling how they might view the other races."

’Especially when people can barely tolerate differences among themselves, let alone an entirely different species.’

Of course, he kept those last thoughts to himself.

"I don’t know about the others," Seraphina muttered softly, making sure only Lucian could hear.

"But the people of the Church despise the vampire race even more than the other races."

As she spoke, her icy-blue eyes swept across the people who continued staring at them, a faint trace of annoyance flickering beneath her otherwise calm expression.

Some of them were even trying to take pictures of them—especially the women, for some reason.

A few had even gathered the courage to approach...

Only to suddenly freeze halfway before hurriedly backing away with terrified, bewildered expressions.

Even though she couldn’t feel anything herself, she naturally understood that her son was doing something.

He was merely releasing his killing intent—

Just enough, and with enough precision, to frighten those bothersome pests away.

"Why only the vampires?" Lucian couldn’t help but ask curiously, his gaze continuing to wander around the city as though searching for something in particular.

"Vampires are creatures more closely aligned with darkness, whereas the Church represents the holy affinity.

It’s not only because of the hatred born from past conflicts.

To them, vampires are something unnatural...

Something that shouldn’t exist.

At least... that’s what I read."

She deliberately emphasised the last part, since she wasn’t completely certain whether it was true.

But from what she had learned through the books, vampires despised those who possessed Holy Affinities...

And the feeling was mutual.

"Oh..."

A brief look of realization crossed her face as she remembered something else.

"There are demons too. They hate the demons just as much."

"Demons?" Lucian’s eyes widened slightly behind his sunglasses, genuine surprise flickering across his face.

"Demons exist too?"

Seraphina gave a small nod.

After walking for several more minutes, both Lucian and Seraphina finally came to a stop before a large building, the one that looked much cleaner, much more expensive compared to the surrounding structures.

Even the entrance appeared heavily reinforced, making it stand apart.

According to our dear emotionless maid...

After the apocalypse had hit the world, there had been countless high-rankers and many hidden awakened families—who had started revealing themselves and began gradually establishing their own territories and headquarters.

And it wasn’t only those ancient families who possessed information about the awakenings.

The Government had acted quickly as well.

To organise awakened individuals, nurture new talents, and provide a controlled way to enter dungeons...

They had established a central organisation.

The Awakened Association.

And the building standing before Lucian and Seraphina...

Was one of its local branches.