Thomas's gaze followed the wall. To the left, more wall. To the right, same as above.
Just how big is this damn wall?
He has seen pictures of the Great Wall of China, but even that didn't look as long or as high as the wall here.
Aura Whisper
Beyond the wall were numerous dots of red aura. It must be the city.
"At least you're not lying," Thomas said.
"I swear on my mother-in-law's dearly departed soul, I would never lie to you!"
"See, you lied just now. It's okay. I forgive you."
While it's good that the city isn't too far, maybe only a few kilometers away from where Thomas stood, he couldn't see any entrances or ladders that would allow him to cross the wall. Seeing such a wall made him wonder what could possibly be on the other side. He decided to come closer, but for now...
Thomas continued interrogating the hermit for anything useful. He didn't know much. It didn't matter how much haki he exuded; the hermit knew nothing. Needless to say, it was a waste of ten minutes.
That settles it, I have to go to the city.
"Oi."
"Yes?!"
"I get that you never meet any people out here, but I'll give you a warning anyway. Don't cause me any trouble, got it?"
"No need to tell me twice! I won't tell anybody!"
"Good." He set his sights on the city once more.
Become Ethereal
Whirlwind Sprint
The Thu'um embraced and yanked his body forward for just a moment. When he came to, Thomas stood inches away from a window.
He had passed straight through the wall like a ghost, made possible when he's in his spectral form.
The woman inside the house saw the ghostly Thomas suddenly appear on her windowsill and jumped back in surprise, dropping the flowerpot she was holding. Naturally, it shattered.
Oops.
A beat later, the woman screamed in horror. "GHOOOOST!!!"
Thomas didn't plan on getting exposed as he immediately bolted away, the Thu'um quickly retreating and leaving him flesh and blood.
While hauling ass, he took in his surroundings.
This place...
The houses were densely packed together, constructed of pale stone and concrete. They weren't tall, around two stories at most, and the paved walkway linked everything together. The architecture was poor, giving off an apocalyptic feel, but that's just his impression.
*Beep!* *Beep!*
Thomas stepped aside for a wagon with a crudely-made engine pushing it forward. The smoke it emitted made Thomas scrunch his face. He didn't mind the smell too much and instead made his fingers twitch. I want to just take that apart and study it...
Apart from houses, other structures such as watchtowers and stalls were scattered here and there. They were of equally poor quality.
Then, there was the wall.
His neck hurt just from trying to see the top that was easily hundreds of feet above the ground. Thomas tried to recall a Level with such a wall, but he came up blank.
Big ass wall, big ass area, maybe Level 150 could fit the description, but if that was the case, the houses should be a hundred times bigger as well, not just the wall...
More than that, the people here don't look like the wanderers I know.
Thomas passed a few children chasing each other. That was already strange. Kids usually didn't survive long when they got no-clipped, unless an entity like the Keymaster did so on a whim.
The people also seemed to fit the setting of this Level, as if they had been born here. He concluded that this Level must be safer than most.
Strangely enough, they remind me of people from my previous world. It's like I'm in the capital of Earlshide Kingdom again.
Nostalgia hit Thomas like a truck, a feeling he pushed down.
Now's not the time.
Thomas began asking around. He asked laborers, farmers, knocked on doors and asked the residents, chatted with children and their parents... but, just like with the hermit, no one knew what he was talking about.
What kind of Wanderers are these people? They're clueless. They've been living here too comfortably. Well, I guess that's a good thing, not worrying about other Levels.
There was a staggering amount of people. Perhaps Thomas was just unlucky with who he has been asking. He thought so, at least, so he kept going.
His investigation slowly led him closer to the wall. It was then that Thomas saw what appeared to be local law enforcement.
Men in matching military attire were guarding the lower portion of the wall. Steel fences, barbed wire, and warning signs deterred anyone from getting too close... with the sole exception of Thomas Wolford, of course.
Since asking random people left and right wasn't working, these men looked very promising. As Thomas approached them, a guard called out to him first.
"You, back off!"
Thomas stopped where he stood. "Officer, I have no ill intentions. I am no more than a man who's trying to find my way back home."
"I said back off! This area is off limits! Turn back around, now!"
The guard drew his gun. Thomas didn't feel threatened by such weapons anymore. Is it really necessary to point that at me? Geez, chillax.
"Alright, alright. Guess I'll ask somewhere else."
Thomas clicked his tongue yet did a 180 as instructed. No point in sowing trouble. Clearly, they didn't want his nosey ass nosing around.
Another guard, however, called out to him.
"You with the weird hair. Hold it."
Only Thomas had purple hair around, so it was clear who the guy was talking to.
"What?" His brows furrowed, seeing this other guard approach instead. It was immediately apparent from the tone of his voice that the guard wasn't friendly.
When they stood face-to-face, Thomas detected alcohol on his breath. He felt his eyes water.
"Stop bothering the folk around here. I've seen you go all over the place. Over here, over there, over bloody everywhere. It's obnoxious!" The guard scrunched his face to look imposing, each stressed word sending spit flying.
Thomas wiped his twitching face, more than a little disgusted. "Understood," he said, quickly turning to leave to get away from the stench.
However, the guard wasn't satisfied with letting him go so easily. Look at him trying to scurry away. Not so fast now.
The guard reached out to pull Thomas by the collar.
*Smack!*
Thomas smacked the guard's encroaching hand without looking.
"What else do you want?" said Thomas, facing the guard once more.
The guard blinked, a flicker of surprise flashing before he buried it. "I didn't say we were done here, punk."
Thomas narrowed his eyes. You've gotta be shitting me.
A sneer crept up the guard's face. "Are you lacking common sense, lad? You got too close to the wall. That's enough in my books. Unless you want to spend a week in the slammer, you'll get down on your knees and apologize."
"Yeah, no. I'm not doing that."
Right before Thomas unleashed his haki.
*CRACK!*
A flash of blinding light, followed by a deafening sound, came from beyond the wall.
Thomas covered his ears. His legs wobbled from the tremors shaking the ground. He barely kept himself standing.
"What the hell?!"
"An explosion?!"
"Men, assume your positions!"
The disturbance sent the guards into a frenzy. They completely forgot about our protagonist who was now staring at a section of the wall with unease.
His instincts told him to escape the area as soon as he could. He wasn't one to doubt himself.
"Wuld!" (Whirlwind Sprint)
Thomas reappeared in the middle of a crossroads in the city. Despite his new position, he didn't feel all that safe. His guard remained high.
"Over there!"
The city bustled with a neverending stream of citizens trying to get somewhere. But after the loud explosion, every person looked to where Thomas was standing a few moments prior. Unlike the guards running around, the citizens were just staring, rooted to the floor like deer in headlights.
Multiple fingers rose to the sky, pointed towards a pillar of smoke ascending from beyond the wall. There was little difference between it and the dark clouds overhead.
It felt all too ominous.
I hope I'm wrong, but if I'm not... something massive is coming.
*Boom!*
Another tremor, as if a colossal weight had plunged from the sky. The rising smoke thickened, and under its cover, Thomas spotted a vast shadow behind the haze.
Then, the smoke parted.
The entity leaned forward.
A face emerged. Thomas held his breath for the entity was skinless. Raw muscle and bone formed its chiselled, menacing face, which glowed like an open flame. Its expression was inhumane.
It wore a wide, terrifying smile.
The entity easily towered over the wall and overlooked it. Its gaze wandered for a brief moment, as though studying the ants below.
Everyone, including Thomas, felt an otherworldly fear.
"It's one of them! They're real! It's... it's...!"
"ROOOOOAAAAARGHH!!!"
The entity screamed out into the world.
Thomas covered his ears as the power of its scream rattled his entire body. What the fuck is that?!
Luckily for him, a well-timed squeal answered the question in his head.
"It's a Titan!"
********
The titan was incredibly uncanny. I got the heebie-jeebies the moment I saw its face. Ew and Ah!!! at the same time.
Despite being on the other end of the city, it still looked massive. You're telling me that that thing is taller than anything I've ever seen and it's alive?!
Actually, Ddovaah's pupil alone is easily bigger than whatever that entity is.
"AHHHHHH! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! THE TITANS ARE COMING!"
Pandemonium is a fitting word as everyone fled in every single direction. The appearance of the titan energized the crowd as they scrambled for anywhere but here.
I weaved across the crowd, climbing up onto the roof of the nearest house to escape the panic.
The titan continued to scream, its grubby hands now gripping the wall tight enough to damage it. Every part of its body emitted thick smoke like burning charcoal, embers drifting in the air.
*BOOM!*
With a powerful bang, the lower wall exploded, sending dust and debris airborne. The titan had kicked the wall and created a hole. Parts of the wall were thus sent flying towards the city.
My eyes shrunk. The smallest piece was the size of a horse. If hundreds of those fell on the panicking city...
Whirlwind Sprint
Reaching the center of the city, the debris that was raining down like meteors were seconds away from impact.
I uttered a single word while facing the sky.
"Yol!" (Fire Breath)
The air in my chest escaped in the form of fire and fury.
The dark clouds covering the sky was eclipsed by the raging dragon fire. Meteors licked by the climbing flames melted like snow—those that bathed in their entirety became ashen powder.
In one move, the imminent threat was annihilated.
*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*
"Are you kidding me?!"
The root of the problem remained. The titan kicked the wall repeatedly to make a bigger hole. Even more debris came soaring in. While I knew next to nothing about what a titan was, letting it destroy the wall and letting it enter the city sounded like a big mistake.
Big daddy over there is priority Numero Uno. I'll deal with him first.
The words for Unrelenting Force settled on my tongue. I aimed at its exposed head.
Before I could speak, the words got caught in my throat. I clutched my head as a familiar yet sudden pain stabbed into my mind and body.
Not now!
Dropping to my knees, foreign knowledge came barging in, along with the feeling of ants biting all over my skin and insides. A faint trail of smoke seemed to escape my pores.
It was my ability taking place, changing me. However, this metamorphosis was painful to a surprising degree. Usually, it doesn't hurt, and if it did, not this much.
It was a brief moment of vulnerability. I couldn't think straight. Ideas that weren't my own filled my head. The pain that came with the transformation was a rotten cherry on top.
By the time I regained my bearings, I came face-to-face with a smouldering piece of wall the size of a house.
It was headed straight for me, and it was already here.
I had very little time to react. I willed my magic power to protect me.
Confusion set in as a crushing weight slammed into my body.
Only then did I remember that I lost my ability to use magic.
A heavy darkness overtook me once more.
*******
With a groan, Thomas quickly jumped to his feet.
"Shit, that really hurt!" he said while rubbing his aching arms.
"Ahraan Gove—huh? Where am I?"
He scanned his new surroundings.
The apocalyptic sight of a city about to go into ruin had been replaced by a never-ending corridor, stretching out endlessly.
Seeing this corridor seemed to scratch a corner of his brain. Have I been here before? No, I'm sure I haven't. So why does this place look so familiar?
Thomas tried to chalk it up to the fact that Level -1 was similarly an endless corridor, but that explanation felt lacking.
Forget that. How did I even get here in the first place?
For now, all Thomas knew was that he had been transported into another weird place again via what amounted to a meteor.
Either he no-clipped into another Level, or that house-sized boulder finished him off.
Am I dead? Shit, I'm totally dead. That flying piece of wall must have weighed two tons. I'm definitely dead.
Where am I then? This sure doesn't look like heaven or hell. Purgatory then?
And why the fuck does it feel like I've been here already?
He spent some time idling around. Usually, when a person dies, there's something that comes to take them away, like an angel or a grim reaper.
...they sure are taking their time. Don't mind me then...
Curious, he studied the corridor. It was smooth like polished marble yet black like the emptiest corner of the universe. The corridor stretched in two opposing directions with no sign that one differed from the other.
Despite that, he could clearly tell which direction of the corridor was forward and which one was backward. It was a gut feeling. The fact concerned Thomas, for the familiarity of this new realm was out of place and entirely unexplained.
No, I've definitely been here before. I just don't remember. Does that even make sense, though? How could I have been here already when I've never died before—heeeey, does getting hit by a truck count? It has to.
I don't remember going through this when that happened.On the off chance that I'm not deadyet...
"Ahraan Govey." (Remove Wounds—Improvised Shout)
Thomas thought that maybe he was simply unconscious, or that he was experiencing the phenomenon of his life flashing before his eyes, without his life actually flashing before his eyes. Healing himself might wake him up.
Nope, I'm still here. I'm dead. I'm surprisingly calm about this...
While pondering, a faint flutter reached his ears. Thomas chalked it up to the wind, but then he heard it again.
Turning around, Thomas spotted a small blue butterfly about an arm's reach away. It was the size of his thumb, and its vibrant colour was enchanting in the dark corridor.
"That's totally normal," he said sarcastically.
Butterflies couldn't talk, so it only continued flapping its wings. Flap, flap, flap. Intentionally or not, it flew closer and closer to our him.
Sensing no danger from it, Thomas held out a finger.
The butterfly ignored it and landed on his nose. Because of their proximity, Thomas was seeing two overlapping butterflies instead of one.
"This afterlife is depressing."
When he finished speaking, the butterfly took flight once more.
"...Wake up," the butterfly spoke.
"What the—you can talk!"
"Wake up, Thomas. You need to wake up!"
The urgency and the panic in the butterfly's voice reached him loud and clear. It was a familiar voice speaking to him, one that he heard before, and not all that long ago.
"...Es? Is that you?! Where am I?!" Realising that he might not be dead yet, Thomas regained his energy.
"This is no time to be idle! Wake up!"
"Even if you say that, I don't know how to. I think I'm dead."
"Fine, I'll do it myself."
After Es's declaration, Thomas heard the sound of a book being snapped shut. The feeling of falling through the floor lasted for only a second as his consciousness was pulled away from the corridor.
"EEESSSSSssssss!..." he shouted as he was dragged back to reality.
Seeing that Thomas has been successfully sent away, the butterfly fluttered about anxiously.
******
Before I could even comprehend where I was or what fucking weird Backrooms shit might have happened to me, I heard what sounded like artillery fire.
I'm alive? I'm alive!
I opened my eyes, yet couldn't see. I tried to move my limbs but a heaviness lay on top of me, pinning me down.
I was stuck under the rubble.
"My legs...!" Now that I was coming to, I felt an excruciating pain come from all over my lower body. I'm not Sherlock Holmes, but I'm pretty sure my legs are now spaghetti Bolognese!
Somehow, I'm not dead. I'm lucky I survived the initial hit, but this isn't any better...!
I could feel myself losing more blood, and my head felt faint. I shouted hurriedly.
"Fus!" (Unrelenting Force)
The debris squeezing down on my chest shot up to the sky.
Oh crap, they're coming back down.
"Fus Ro Dah!" (Unrelenting Force)
The Thu'um pulverised the falling debris just as they started descending. The resulting dust descended on my face and irritated my throat and eyes.
While coughing like a guy with tuberculosis, I got up and checked my legs. They healed at a rate visible to the naked eye.
A few seconds later, I stood up.
No injuries anywhere.
I remembered the recent metamorphosis I had undergone and felt half-grateful and half-annoyed. While it caused me to lose focus at a crucial time, I wouldn't be alive without the new powers I obtained.
"This isn't good..."
I don't know how long I was out for, but the city was in shambles. Most of the houses have been redecorated into ruins or crushed into the ground, as though pummeled by a horde of monster trucks.
People were running in the distance, too far to hear. As for the subject of their fear, they were very eye-catching.
Are those things Titans?
Although much smaller than the smoking titan earlier, these ones were still taller than the still-standing houses. They were deathly pale, naked, and wore disturbingly wide smiles on their uncanny faces.
One titan shoved its hand into the rubble before pulling back out. In its hand was a person, beaten and bruised.
"Save me! Somebody save m—!"
I prepared to speak.
But I was too late.
The titan's mouth snapped shut, and the pleas for help halted. The person's struggling body went limp in the titan's hand.
Never would I have thought that I would live to see a scene as horrific as this.
And that wasn't even the worst part. That death was only the prologue.
People were dying all around me.
My stomach burned seeing the massacre taking place. Hundreds of titans. Thousands of people. Those that couldn't run fast enough were scooped up and devoured. The greedy creatures stuffed their mouth full of people, chewing as they replace those they swallowed.
It was sickening.
Just then, a warning entered my mind. I jumped out of the way of an overgrown hand twice my size.
I rolled across the rubble, earning myself scratches here and there.
A titan had found me.
"That stings." The sensation only lasted for a moment. The scratches I got were already closing with a trace of smoke.
This time, the pain helped me focus on the entity before me.
I detected no killing intent from the titan, yet its actions were just that—fully for killing. Through haki, I was sure that it was alive, but only about as alive as a tree is. It possessed no feelings I could discern. The mind was vacant, yet the body still functioned with clear purpose.
Large, droopy eyes tracked my movements. The titan salivated as it stared at me. If I were to make light of the situation, I would say that I was a dinosaur chicken nugget in a world full of hungry, creepy toddlers.
"Guuuuh!"
The titan swiped at me. It was fast, but nothing impressive.
Unrelenting Force
The Thu'um ripped the titan's head off its shoulders. Without its head, the humongous body fell to its knees with a dull thud.
One down.
However.
"?!"
I watched as smoke erupted from its shoulder blades, followed by strands of flesh that quickly formed another head.
The titan stood up as its grin returned.
I was even more creeped out. "I should have known you had it too!"
Inhuman regeneration was one of the things I received from my most recent "injection." That tall titan gave it to me. It's not surprising that the smaller ones had the same ability.
Describing it as regeneration is actually underselling it. From what I could tell, it was more like immortality.
What a fucking ability to receive, and it wasn't even the main dish.
Unrelenting Force
I shouted at the titan once more, sending the torso crashing against another titan behind it, leaving behind the head and it's limbs. Once the smoke flared up from the open flesh, so too did their missing body parts.
Is it actually immortal? This is fucking unfair.
While the titan was regenerating on the ground, I shouted harder.
Unrelenting Force.
My voice was more akin to a growl. The titan's entire body stood no chance against the Thu'um as the shout pulverized it into a dark red paste splattered against the rubble.
Time ticked by.
"...no going back from that, huh." Not even my haki detected any remaining aura. I found their limit. As for my power... if my regeneration was only to this extent, then the piece of wall that hit me should have killed me. I was crushed into a pulp too, yet here I was. My immortality is clearly better.
Now that I know I can kill you all, I'll make this quick.
Slow Time
The world slowed to a crawl.
I walked over to the nearest titan and shouted. Then again. Then a hundred more.
One by one, I shouted the invading titans to oblivion, coating the ruined city in blood and smoke.
.
.
.
.
(??? POV)
.
.
.
.
"My liege, we have successfully returned."
"Good work."
The screams of thousands of souls filled the ruined mountainside. Surrounded by corpses was a man in jet-black armor.
Returning to this battlefield after chasing the two residents of the dimensional gap was a time-consuming journey. Without a perfect sense of direction, it was easy to lose one's way in the cracks between dimensions.
However, the man couldn't say it was a complete waste of time. On the way back, he encountered more soldiers to add to his army, either through stragglers from the enemy or residents of the dimensional gap.
That anomalous creature as well...
The man opened his palm. A black aura shot up and formed an intricate dagger. After flourishing it, the man, seemingly satisfied, let it go. It fell on his shadow and was swallowed by it.
She gave me a few ideas to use against the King of the Dragons. Her abilities were a hassle to deal with. If I can replicate it...
The man imagined manipulating his power in a similar manner and felt that the fight against the last Monarch would be decided then. Perhaps... it would have been better to have added the key guy and the distorted entity to his army for more centainty.
No. I've prepared enough.
He shook his head. In the end, what truly mattered was his strength. His soldiers won't be the ones fighting Antares—he is.
The man turned his attention to the corpses. Their monstrous souls begged him from beyond the grave, restless and unfulfilled, for in his presence, there is no heaven or hell.
Only rebirth.
The Monarch of Shadows answered their prayers.
"Arise."