The ceiling of my room stared back at .
I lay there for a mont longer.
My clone was dead. I’d felt it the instant the connection severed—a clean snap, like a thread pulled too tight finally giving.
No pain on my end. Just absence, and then the mories bleeding back into like water finding its level.
I sat up slowly and rested my arms across my knees.
Everything went into that final strike. Bloodline. Magic. Qi. Every reserve burned dry in a single push.
And I still lost.
If he was already that strong, what were the ones who subdued him like?
Shaking the negatives thoughts away, I checked on my team first.
Fortunately, everyone was able to evacuate in ti.
When Alexa heard the noise thundering across the sky, she ordered everyone to fall back before things got worse. Which was a very smart move.
For now, I decided to leave that tower alone.
Tackling it in my current state would be pointless. I needed more strength—and more than that, I needed to solidify my bloodline
Only then would I have a real chance against him.
As for the revelations I received, I pushed them to the back of my mind.
Whether I was an Irregular or not, it didn’t change the fact that I only reached this level because of the system.
It wasn’t hard to see which side I should be on. The side that gave power.
The weeks that followed were quieter than I was used to, which suited fine.
Quiet, in my experience, was rarely the absence of things happening—it was just the absence of things happening loudly. Underneath the surface, everything was moving.
I redirected the team first. No more circling that particular tower like moths around a fla we weren’t ready to touch.
There were other towers within range, smaller and less dangerous, and I sent Alexa and the others to work through them thodically while I focused on the things only I could do.
The monster cores ca first.
Shadow’s maturity was the key to stabilizing my bloodline.
As she grew stronger, I was able to extract her blood and use it as a supplent. It fed the dragon energy inside and helped it settle.
Next, I focused on cultivation.
I began positioning myself near the towers regularly— to absorb the dense concentration of energy they radiated. proximity to that kind of pressure accelerated growth in ways that conventional training simply couldn’t replicate.
Just like that, ti passed the way it tends to when you’re too busy to watch it.
***
***
***
The screens in the lounge flickered all morning. Every channel showed the sa stage, the sa raised hand, the sa oath spoken beneath a gray sky.
Crowds filled the streets below the capital , flags waving as the new president stepped up to the podium.
Applause rolled like distant thunder.
By nightfall, the first wave of reforms hit. Ergency etings were called. Markets dipped, then surged.
But that was the least of anyone’s problems.
The real big news ca from a city four regions over. Multiple towers, destroyed simultaneously—not cleared, not conquered, simply gone.
Monsters flooded the nearby city before anyone could respond, and by the ti Seekers arrived, large parts of the city were already lost.
Everyone else scrambled for explanations.
I read the reports quietly and felt no confusion at all.
The Architects, were accelerating the pressure. Humanity wasn’t evolving fast enough, and they were done being patient about it.
Over the next few days, the sa headlines kept flashing across every screen.
Another city. Another cluster of towers collapsed from the inside, another flood of monsters through streets that had no business becoming battlefields.
The footage was worse this ti—broader destruction, higher casualties, the kind of images that burned themselves into public mory.
Governnt reached out to Hayes and ordered him to bring Chase in. They wanted help, and they wanted it fast.
Unfortunately, my clone was declared dead weeks ago.
So when the summons ca, no one remained to answer it.
As the public grew more wary, worse things began happening beneath the surface.
I got call from Samantha.
"They’re close. The plan is nearly complete."
I listened carefully as she outlined the broad strokes. What caught my attention wasn’t the progress—it was the clarification she offered near the end almost as an aside.
Their plan had nothing to do with the Architects"
The ssiah they served was moving toward sothing of his own.
It ant at least two massive forces were reshaping the world at the sa ti, and neither cared much about saving lives.
I stared at the wall after the call ended.
Things were getting complicated.
***
***
***
[One month Later]
click!
I pushed open the heavy iron door and stepped into the observatory, located at the highest mountain.
The room was circular, as all observatories tend to be, but the ceiling here wasn’t dod in the traditional sense—it was paneled glass.
On a clear night, the sky sat right on top of . Tonight the clouds were low and heavy, pressing their gray bellies against the glass.
I didn’t co for the view.
"I’m close to finishing it." I muttered aloud.
In the center stood a machine that was both industrial and magical at once.
The tal rings had settled further into alignnt on their own, the way a machine finds its equilibrium once all its parts are finally seated correctly.
From my point of view, it looked like a ball made of large rings, gears, and other components—like watching the inner workings of a massive clock in 3D way.
But this thing wasn’t keeping ti.
It was a field generator.
Once fully calibrated, it would create a zone of controlled spatial pressure.
Anything entering that layer would lose montum. Bullets would slow. Energy attacks would scatter. Force would break apart before reaching its target.
But this thing wasn’t perfect. A single overwhelming strike could still drain it dry.
Still, having a secret weapon like this gave so relief.
And it wasn’t my only safeguard.
If anyone ca looking for trouble, I’d make sure they didn’t leave in one piece.
My phone rang. I picked it up and let out a long sigh.
The voice on the other end was tense and urgent: the country declared a state of ergency. Towers were disappearing faster now, one after another, and the losses were massive.
They even ordered the public to head to evacuation centers—any city near a tower could be next.
Decision made, I started contacting the people who mattered—those I thought could actually help.
Of course, I didn’t forget to order the rescue of beautiful celebrities; they would be a rare commodity in a ti of war.
And in the off chance I needed to repopulate the planet with my genes? I’d rather do it with a harem of nines and tens.
Convoys rolled out. Ergency transports filled highways. People abandoned hos with whatever they could carry.
The Blackwood contacted first. They asked for sanctuary. Access was granted.
Others followed. Wealth ant nothing if I didn’t trust them. So were ignored. So were accepted.
At the sa ti, I tightened security. S-Rank guards lined the main gate. Checkpoints ford layered control zones.
It was a delicate balance—saving lives without letting chaos inside. And I intended to keep it that way.
Just as I barked orders across the room, the phone rang.
The caller ID showed the guild Hai-Yen worked for. When the line connected, their leader spoke first.
She asked if I could offer refuge to them if necessary.
I didn’t hesitate to answer. "I can only take won and children. I can’t afford more people flooding in right now."
There was a quiet pause, then a soft acceptance.
"Understood," she said, relief and disappointnt mingling in her tone.
Given the situation, my choice wasn’t harsh. Prioritizing won and children was the smart move in an ergency.
Few days later, the thing everyone feared happened.
One by one, the towers near the city began to collapse.
As expected, the first tower to fall was the one that held the Monkey God.
If that monsters was loose, the monsters flooding the streets would be the least of the city’s problems.
He wouldn’t need an army. He could tear the entire place apart on his own.
To manage things better, I headed to the main control room.
We had installed long-range drones around the city weeks ago. Quiet units. High altitude. Hard to detect. They were ant for scouting.
Now they fed us a full view of a city at war.
"Patch all active drones to the main display," I ordered.
The central screen shifted.
Aerial footage filled the room.
Smoke rolled through entire blocks. Fires spread across rooftops. Streets that once held traffic now crawled with monsters. So moved in packs. Others tore into buildings alone.
One drone dipped lower.
An S-Rank from Phoenix guild stood at an intersection, blade flashing in clean arcs. Every swing cleared a path. Behind him, evac transports pushed through the gap.
Another feed showed a barrier specialist reinforcing a defensive line. The shield shimred under repeated impacts but held.
"They’re holding pretty well," one of my analysts said.
"They won’t be for long," I replied.
A new alert flashed across the lower screen. A cluster of high-level signatures moving near the inner district.
Then another operator spoke up.
"Sir... priority transmission from the governnt"
"They’re requesting refuge," she continued. "Executive branch and senior officials. They’re asking for imdiate clearance to enter our periter."
"Deny the request," I said.
The operator hesitated only a mont before transmitting the response.
I already got more people than planned inside the periter.
My goal here was never about saving everyone.
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