The Apocalypse Grinder - Chapter 319

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Brown hair that fell just above his eyes, pale skin that was just a shade darker than a sheet of paper, and glistening amber eyes that seemed like a drop of infinite honey; the face of death.

Ronan stared at the man who had just torn open reality and stepped out in front of him. The world was frozen. Nothing could move in the presence of the new arrival. Ronan could barely breathe. His mere presence was suffocating.

Ronan glanced at the tag that floated above the man. It was just question marks. No name, no level, nothing. However, his power was obvious from the state of the situation. No ordinary being could cause the entire world to freeze just from standing still. He remembered what Serenaeth had said just before the world tore open. ‘You should flee.’

It’s too late for that, tree. Ronan stared at the man. Even in this helpless situation, he wasn’t scared. Death was only temporary. If that was what was going to happen here, then he would accept it and not make the mistake of contacting the tree again. Or he would just tell it not to connect with the other tree that had apparently caused this situation.

He was thinking about that when the man spoke. “So, you are the threat the system detected. I wonder what makes you so special? Just because you’re one of them doesn’t mean you’re actually dangerous. You feel… weak.”

Ronan opened his mouth to reply, but found that even his jaw muscles were suppressed. It took him almost ten full seconds to even push open his mouth, during which the man stared at him like he was a monkey in a cage. When he attempted to speak, nothing happened except a strange gargling in his throat.

The man sneered. “You can’t even talk in my presence. Such a waste of time. Why did I even bother agreeing to be the judge this time? Now I won’t have the chance to play if something truly interesting appears.” A long-suffering sigh escaped his lips. He took a step towards Ronan and raised a hand. Reality seemed to compress around the man’s open palm, forming a tiny singularity floating above the skin. He turned his hand to face towards Ronan. “I like that look in your eyes. You think you’ll die and your pathetic heritage will bring you back. The last Chronos clan member I killed thought the same, but unfortunately for you, being unaffected by the natural flow of time doesn’t mean you can’t be permanently put down. Idiot.” The singularity exploded towards Ronan, and in an infinitely tiny fraction of a second, he experienced endless pain as he spiralled towards death.

Then it stopped. He blinked. His mind slowly returned from the brink, and Ronan looked up to find a woman standing in front of him. Her back was wider than him, and her hair tumbled down to just above her ankles. It was a mix of black and neon purple, every strand glistening with sparkling mana. One arm was outstretched in front of her, between her body and the man who had almost killed Ronan, the other holding a sword that was unreasonably large over her shoulder. Both were bare, exposed by the ripped sleeves that ended at her shoulders, covered in runic tattoos that glowed in the same neon purple as her hair. Every muscle in them bulged, and as he watched, her grip on the sword tightened.

It was only when she turned around that he realised he no longer felt the crushing pressure from the strange man. Then he saw the tag floating above the woman’s head. It felt like a divine coincidence.

[Karazor the Obliterator Lv.????]

She had a sharp jaw, neon purple eyes, and a devilish grin on her face. “So, you’re the latest brat that grandpa brought into the fold? Tch. I was enjoying my vacation. Why’d you have to go and get so much attention?”

Ronan was speechless. This woman appeared out of nowhere, stopped an attack that felt as though it could erase a universe with her bare hand, and then had the gall to complain that he had nearly died after being attacked by some overpowered maniac who’d torn his way into existence out of nowhere? He didn’t even have a chance to reply before she turned back around to face her foe.

“Never mind. At least you don’t seem to be completely useless. Your progress isn’t bad, but you’re slower than I was. Try being better. Only when you can put up a good fight will I bother finding you again. Until then, I’ll keep these annoying bastards off your back. I needed something to do, after all. I was getting kind of bored in the void.” She closed her fist, and the singularity vanished as though it had never been there in the first place. Then she swung her sword, leaving a fizzling trail of purple mana in its wake.

The man grunted and narrowed his eyes at the incoming attack. “Do you have no respect for the system? You will erase half the planet if that attack lands here!” He seemed panicked, which was both terrifying and amusing to Ronan at the same time. “Damn it. At least this is more interesting than that useless shit over there. Come, Karazor, let us fight somewhere we can go all out.” With that, he flung one arm and tore open reality once more, revealing a world of endless amber and honey. He jumped backwards into the opening, taunting Karazor with a wink.

She sighed as she stared at the retreating man. She raised her free hand and pointed a thumb over her back, directly at Ronan. “Don’t forget what I said. If you waste your time while I’m fighting, you’ll be the last one I kill, little cousin.”

Then she leapt into the world of amber, and a dozen bouncing lines of purple neon mana exploded outwards from her body, corrupting the world around it. The opening in reality closed, and the last thing Ronan saw was her gigantic sword being swung overhead as though it were as light as a feather.

What the fuck just happened? He had regained the ability to move a while back, but he couldn’t do it yet. That had been the strangest experience of his life—lives. If that guy was telling the truth, I almost just died for real? Holy shit. And the woman who saved me was the one that Serenaeth just told me about. That’s insane. I wonder what the tree is thinking right now? He turned to face the Tellen. It was impossible to judge how the tree felt, given that all he could see was its trunk and branches, but he suspected it was similar to his own feelings about the situation.

But, despite the terror he had felt, he was now nothing but exhilarated. He had believed he had seen a crazy level of power that would take him a while to match in the bosses of the nightmare difficulty tutorial, but the stranger and Karazor had shown him an even greater peak. One that he might take a million lives to get to. Now that he had seen it, however, he was more willing than ever to pour effort into getting stronger. It was time to take down the nightmare tutorial, and then see just how far he could get into the integration.

Not only did he need to be strong enough to punch the damned system, he had to evade the notice of overwhelmingly powerful beings until he was strong enough to kill them too. Life was tough, but he was tougher.

Still, that was crazy. I still can’t breathe properly. I’m drenched in sweat. It was scary as hell. That woman was so grumpy. Who did she mean by ‘grandpa?’ Surely not Azathere? He had endless questions in his mind, but even as he stood there, he was reminded of Karazor’s parting words. He couldn’t waste a single second, even if he could return from death.

I believe it would be unwise for me to meet you again in future. When I know I can handle the fallout, we can talk again. Thank you for what you have taught me, Serenaeth. Ronan felt nothing over the link for a few seconds, then a wave of acceptance and anxiety. It was confusing, but he took it as his sign to leave the tree to figure its own shit out.

He walked out of the grove, wondering what he should do. He needed to be stronger in order to take down the nightmare tutorial, and the best way to do that was probably to just attempt it over and over again until he won. But he also wanted to see what happened further down the line with the integration on his homeworld. There would surely be opportunities to learn and grow here on his own planet, and not just in the tutorial.

But, I don’t think it would be faster than taking down those overpowered monsters. I also wonder what comes after the nightmare tutorial. The harder difficulty had the Path of the Gladiator. Is there something even tougher than that? He was burning to find out. He had spent some time on his masteries, and the process of learning how to forge had been therapeutic, but ultimately it made him realise that equipment was just a crutch. In the end, his greatest weapon was himself, and the only way to forge himself into a stronger blade was to keep fighting.

It was time to head back to the ancestral grounds, and turn his mismatched collection of skills into something better. Then, he would destroy the nightmare difficulty tutorial and everything that followed.

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