The entire sky was being devoured by a rift.
Those who looked up at it fell to their knees in despair.
No one had ever witnessed such an unprecedented phenomenon before—
And yet, everyone instinctively knew exactly what was happening.
‘The world of the Evil Gods has connected with the present world…!’
The foretold destruction, spoken of in the legends of every race.
As the dimensional gate opened, the whole world became drenched in darkness.
The Evil Gods crossed over and smashed the world as if playing with a toy.
That prophesied apocalypse was now unfolding before their very eyes.
[Kuhahaha…! Why don’t you all try experiencing annihilation for yourselves!]
The Ancient One burst into uncontrollable laughter.
They had obtained the coordinates of the Evil Gods’ realm long ago.
But opening the dimensional gate had always been deemed too dangerous and was kept top secret.
Now, at last, was the time to open it.
‘There may be another like me who transferred their consciousness into a machine and is lying dormant. I’ll be destroyed here, but I’ll pass on the next opportunity to them!’
The automated interception system had already been destroyed, his limbs torn off, and the battery nearly drained.
There was no hope of victory anymore.
All he could do was pin his hopes on another Ancient One buried deep underground like himself.
But the problem was this: the savages, whose technology he thought barely medieval, were far too strong.
So, he’d reset their civilization.
When the Evil Gods descended, whether magic, Aura, or anything else, everything would be shattered.
Humanity would be thrown back to the primitive age.
After that, the awakened Ancient One would easily unlock the time capsule.
“Yuri! Smash that tin can right now!”
“Ah, understood!”
The Ancient One’s gaze remained locked on the sky, unmoving.
It seemed maintaining the open dimensional gate required full concentration.
Aslan’s command came as soon as he figured that out, and Yuri lunged forward, swinging her sword—
But the alloy of the head casing deflected the longsword with ease.
“Ughhhh! I’m exhausted but—Furious Stabbingggg…!”
Charlotte, collapsed from mana exhaustion, painfully crawled over and barely managed to generate a tiny bit of Aura, slamming her sword down.
But even so, she couldn’t pierce the alloy of a past civilization.
Even when Vanessa hobbled over to join in, the result was the same.
They had dismantled and pulverized the limbs and torso, but the head—the true core—remained untouched.
“Why… why won’t it break…!”
To make matters worse, all their weapons were now bent or shattered.
Their mana and stamina depleted, all the fighters collapsed where they stood.
The only one still standing was Yuri.
Thanks to her healing ability, she couldn’t even collapse despite wanting to.
“Ahh…!”
Before long, from the sky, a massive hand began to reach down.
One, two, three…
They multiplied rapidly until countless hands blanketed the sky, reaching toward the earth.
From those enormous hands, no emotion or intent could be felt—
But everyone instinctively understood.
The moment those hands touched the ground, everything humanity had built would be utterly destroyed.
Just when it seemed like the true end had arrived—
[…!?]
A grinding groan echoed from the darkness.
Then, one by one, the hands were sucked back into the void—
As if being dragged away by some force.
[The Evil God ‘Kali’ will buy time &%$!&@%$…]
Seeing the message appear before him, Aslan shivered.
It was Kali.
Kali was blocking the other Evil Gods from crossing over into the present world.
‘That buys us time. But while Kali holds them off, we must destroy that tin can…’
And yet, the situation remained grim.
The Ancient One’s head casing—despite being scratched and stripped of its paint—was still wrapped in undamaged metal plating.
Neither sharp blades nor powerful Aura had any effect.
Would Charlotte’s Super Super Strong Sword work?
Hard to say.
Now that Charlotte’s mana was fully drained, that was no longer a viable option.
If no form of force could penetrate it.
Only one method remained.
Aslan called out to Yuri, who was furiously pounding on the Ancient One’s head.
“Yuri. Stop for a moment.”
“It’s urgent! We have to break this now…!”
“I want to discuss a method of breaking it, so calm down for a second.”
“Haa, haaa…!”
Yuri turned to Aslan, her expression visibly frantic.
In her eyes—rushing emotions: desperation, fear, guilt.
Her reason was completely paralyzed.
Which is why she needed to breathe and collect herself, even just for a moment.
“You calm now?”
“…Yes.”
“Listen well. It’s clear that with our current strength, we can’t penetrate that alloy. Right?”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
“Then, aside from brute force, the only option left is your special ability.”
“I already tried it. Just in case, I placed my hand on its head, but the plating’s too thick. It seems my ability can’t reach inside.”
“‘Can’t reach inside’? So it doesn’t work… but not that it’s ineffective?”
“…?”
Aslan gave a meaningful smile.
Yuri tilted her head in confusion.
Yuri’s ability only worked on living beings.
But the definition of “living being” was ambiguous.
It didn’t only work on humans—animals too.
You’d think it only affected organic life, but it also worked on spirits.
Aslan’s conclusion: “If it has intelligence, regardless of form, it should work.”
A vague and ambiguous standard.
But if that was true—
That Ancient One, whose consciousness had transferred into an inanimate machine—
Yuri’s ability should still work on him.
And that prediction proved to be correct.
“Yes. That’s right. But even if it does reach, what difference would it make…?”
“He’s someone whose memory is so severely damaged, he’s forgotten even himself.”
“Memory…?”
“Just think of it as his recollection. If your ability can restore all his memories, he’ll be in a state akin to rebirth. At the same time, he’ll lose focus and no longer be able to keep the dimensional gate open.”
“I understand that much, but… the range of my ability is too small. I can’t reach through that thick plating. What exactly am I supposed to do?”
“Well. That’s something you’ll have to figure out now.”
“…Huh?”
Aslan gently placed a hand on Yuri’s head and smiled.
Yuri was left dumbfounded.
Didn’t he call her over because he had a method in mind…?
“What exactly are you saying, Count?”
“I don’t know either. When you first awakened your ability, no one taught you how to do it, right? It was something you discovered on your own. This time is no different.”
“Are you saying I need to awaken my Aura?”
“Whether it’s Aura or something else, I have no idea. Assuming it must be Aura will only hinder your awakening. That’s the one piece of advice I can give you.”
“No, seriously…!”
Yuri felt like she was about to explode.
Catastrophe was raining down from the sky and time was running out—and this was turning into some kind of riddle?
Grinding her teeth in frustration, she glanced around and—
She found Sylvia quietly watching her. The weight of that gaze made her breath catch.
And it wasn’t just Sylvia.
The Empress. The Archduke of the North. The collapsed Charlotte. Irene. And even in the distance—Julia.
Everyone was watching her.
Pinning their last hopes on her.
‘I still don’t get it. What exactly am I supposed to awaken…?’
The stares were overwhelming.
So much pressure that it felt like she couldn’t breathe—like her chest was caving in.
But it wasn’t a new sensation.
She had always fought under this kind of weight.
Carrying the heavy burden of Charlotte and Julia’s lives in her hands, she had always moved forward.
Now, the object of hope had simply shifted—
From Charlotte and Julia… to all of humanity.
Her role, fundamentally, hadn’t changed.
With that thought, her narrowed perspective widened, and her ragged breathing began to steady.
‘Honestly, I still don’t even know why I awakened a healing ability in the first place…’
Her first awakening had been entirely unexpected.
A healing power, of all things?
She was someone who only knew how to fight, to break things—what healing?
She had barely ever used it, other than to regenerate her own body.
Her next awakening would likely be an extension of that healing power.
But imagining what form it would take was nearly impossible.
“I don’t know… I don’t know anything, but…!”
Even so—
Yuri gripped the hilt of her broken longsword and stepped forward.
Her first awakening had come about in a daze.
Just a vague thought—I want to heal that wound on Aslan’s neck—and suddenly, her ability had bloomed.
So then, this second awakening didn’t need to be so complicated either.
‘I want to save everyone…!’
If the need was there—
If her will was sincere—
If fate allowed it—
Then the power would come to her naturally.
“Still, I’ll do everything I can!”
Yuri rubbed her engagement ring, took a step forward, and swung the broken blade.
From the hilt of the shattered sword burst a brilliant white Aura.
An Aura that pierced stone, flesh, and earth—stretching endlessly in every direction.
As Yuri swung the sword wide, the Aura swept across the land.
Where it passed, the ruined desert vanished without a trace—
And in its place bloomed green grass and wildflowers: a land of life.
[…!]
It looked like a manor just before a war broke out—
A scene from a time when civilization and nature still coexisted.
A vision the Ancient One thought he’d never see again filled his view—
And then, the Aura struck his head casing.
Instead of slicing through the plating, it gently soaked into it, permeating inward.
This was not an Aura of destruction, but of healing.
It restored the corroded memory chips, reviving every memory the Ancient One had long forgotten.
‘Ah. That’s right. I started studying science… to restore the broken natural world…’
Old memories flashed by like a reel of light.
Hopes and dreams from childhood, back when his intentions were pure, returned to life.
And then, an unknown error occurred.
His head casing trembled once—
And then, it powered down completely.
“Ah! The sky…!”
KURURURUNG—
The rift torn through the heavens began to rapidly close.
Soon, the sky, once stained in darkness, regained its clear blue hue.
“…Hah.”
The sky looked almost too peaceful—like nothing had happened at all.
But looking down revealed a drastically altered landscape.
Aslan let out a dry laugh at the unbelievable sight before him.
Could this really be the Demon Realm?
