Chương 108: When it rains...

Joe returned to Landradad wrapped in silence. He drifted toward his pond and tried to scrub away the stink of blood and death. No matter how hard he washed, the scent clung to him, burned into his soul. He scrubbed for what felt like hours before he was satisfied. Soon, and for the first time in months, he found himself drawn to the roots of Yggdrasil, where a small redwood carving of a lizard rested in the grass. He sat before it, head bowed in shame.

"Hey, Veda," he whispered.

"I hope you're doing well, wherever you are. I could really use your voice right now. One of your pep talks. I've gone and gotten myself in too deep again." His shoulders slumped as he looked up at the endless sky. Was she out there somewhere? Watching him? He chuckled bitterly at the thought.

"As if this is some TV show." Still, he let himself linger in the memory of her, replaying their last meeting until it ached. With a sigh, he rose to his feet, just as Corel ran up, breathless.

"You're back?" she gasped, panting hard. Alarm flickered in his chest.

"I am. What happened? Is everything okay?" Then he noticed the flashing communicator in his storage ring. Sarah's.

"It's Sarah," Corel said, but Joe had already pulled it free. He pressed the button. One word came through, sharp and desperate:"Help!" His heart sank.

"What happened?"

"She went to New Eden," Corel said, pausing as if steadying herself.

"She hasn't returned. A report came from the pillar city…" She drew a shaky breath before finishing.

"The city has fallen. It's gone." Joe's face darkened. Gone? The word echoed like a curse. His throat tightened until he couldn't even ask the questions burning in him.

"A gate broke open just outside the city," Corel continued quietly.

"A tide of undead poured in and ravaged everything. Everyone inside was slaughtered." Joe stood frozen, her words leaving a sour feeling inside him. A gate left uncleared… for a year? Why hadn't they called for help? Why… hadn't they even tried to contact him? Unless… His fists clenched. Was it on purpose?

"Where is the Divine Sword?" Joe asked, forcing his voice to stay level, though anger pressed hard at the edges.

"No one has seen him. He was there with Sarah," Corel answered softly, pulling his head to hers. She pulsed calm into him, but he didn't let it in. That last sentence cracked something inside. Rage flared, spilling out, and Corel staggered back at the force of it.

"Where is everyone?"

"They're gathering at Heliopolis. Joe, wait… calm down, think this through," Corel urged.

"No. I'm going now." His skyboat appeared beside him, humming with mana. He was still drained, both from the competition and the weight of what he had done. But this was Sarah. And Kai. He couldn't sit still. Corel seized his arm.

"Wait. Let's go together. At least see the others first, it isn't safe, we don't know what's there." He turned, his eyes raw with pain, and she froze.

"I'm sorry, Rel. I can't wait. Go to Heliopolis. Gather everyone. Tell them I'm heading to New Eden now, and to bring the biggest boats they have." His voice cracked under the weight of his emotions. Why now? After everything… Why this? He stared up at the sky, fury pouring through him. He vanished. A heartbeat later, he stood on his skyboat and set sail. The vessel streaked across the horizon toward New Eden. Two hours later, Joe saw them: three towering pillars of smoke clawing at the heavens. His jaw clenched.

The air around him crackled as he neared the city's remains. When New Eden finally came into view, he could hardly breathe. The city was gone. The bubble destroyed. Few buildings, no streets, nothing but a writhing black tide that flowed endlessly across the ruins. A sea of undead, churning through ash and fire. Joe slowed the skyboat above the devastation, standing on the glass platform at its heart. The stench rose to meet him, death, rot, and decay so thick it clawed into his lungs.

He forced Nature's Paradise into the earth below, desperate for purchase. Nothing. The tide of undead smothered everything, choking out life itself. His connection to nature was severed here. His anger spiked, consuming him whole. He stepped off the edge of his boat and dropped toward the darkness. Joe hit the ground like a falling tree, purple flames of mana erupting outward in a wave that incinerated the nearest undead. His Mana Stream blazed around him, a beacon of light at the heart of the darkness.

The swarm rushed him like locusts, but nothing touched him; every corpse that came near was reduced to ash beneath the torrent of mana he unleashed. He didn't hold back. Every strike was devastating, every burst of power absolute. By the time the air cleared, he stood alone in a ring of burning bones, silence broken only by the crackle of charred remains. He spread his hands. This time, Nature's Paradise took root. Green grass sprang to life beneath his feet, spreading outward through the black tide.

Vines burst from the soil at his call, lashing out in violent arcs, swatting undead aside like weeds. Joe stood firm, letting the grass expand, praying it would reveal something, any sign of survivors. But as the circle widened, there was nothing. No hidden shelters. No heartbeats. Just the endless tide of undead pressing against the edges of his sanctuary. Snarling, he pushed south, carving a swath through the city's ruins.

Everywhere he passed, grass flourished in his wake, a jagged trail of green splitting the ocean of black. For an hour, he fought, burning, crushing, tearing apart wave after wave until at last, something. Two things. First, he felt it: life. Faint, buried beneath the rubble of three collapsed buildings. Survivors. Second, something else. Watching. Heavy and suffocating, an ominous presence just beyond his senses. He couldn't pin it down, so he forced himself to focus on the living.

He cleared an area around the buried life-signs, pushing Nature's Paradise outward while planting seeds to form a barrier of vines. It took ten minutes of relentless battle to carve out enough space to work. His stamina strained, sweat dripping down his face, but finally, he dropped to his knees and began to dig. Another ten minutes, and the stone gave way to a basement. Joe leaned down, and his chest tightened at the sight of more than a hundred people huddled together in the dark.

Fear filled their eyes until recognition rippled through them, and whispers of the Progenitor spread like sparks. Hope took root.

"You," Joe said, pointing at a man crouched near a cluster of children. He tossed him a bag of pills.

"Give those to anyone badly injured. Anyone who can walk, come out and help me secure the area." He hauled himself back into the storm of undead, carving out a clearing. Vines wrapped into a thick defensive ring, a living wall, while grass spread beneath his boots. Within that circle, he set down plates of food from his ring, urging the survivors out into the sun. He spoke words of reassurance, but his gaze never stopped scanning the horizon.

That oppressive sense of being watched hadn't left him for a single moment. After Joe had cleared a wide perimeter around the survivors, he shaped a dome of vines over them, thick enough to hold back the undead, but also sensitive enough to serve as an early warning if the one watching him drew near. Satisfied, he moved off to search further. Two more groups of survivors were dragged from the ruins before Corel's pulse touched his mind.

'How are you?'

'Better. I've found a few hundred survivors. Where are you?'

'We're on our way. Four of our largest skyboats. Two hours.'

'Great. Look for the vine domes. I'll open them when you arrive.' He swatted another pack of undead aside, vines snapping through their ranks.

'Don't push yourself too much. Rest when you can.' Corel pulsed.

'I won't rest until every survivor is found. Sorry.' Two hours later, four massive skyboats crested the horizon and hovered over the ruined city. As they descended toward the vine domes, the living walls unfurled like flowers, revealing the crowds within. Cheers rose from the survivors as the boats settled down. Joe watched passively as rescuers spread out, gathering up those he had found. As he sat watching, a small black dot appeared on his mini-map. The watcher. He didn't move immediately.

He waited, testing to see if it knew he had spotted it. Two long minutes passed. The dot had not moved. Joe's jaw tightened. He Space-Jumped in quick succession, appearing high above the dot's position before letting himself drop. Below, seated on a fiery, smoke-wreathed horse, was a skeleton. It tilted its skull back to meet his gaze, empty sockets fixed on him. Joe landed with a heavy slam a few paces away, Jingu Bang in hand.

"Human," it croaked, voice like grinding stone.

"Horseman," Joe answered evenly.

"Did you do this?"

"No. I am not strong enough to command the hordes."

"Then who?"

"He did." You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"And who is he?"

"The apocalypse. The end of life. Death's grace. Mar Vo Droth Rath!" A wave of undead surged toward Joe. He swung Jingu Bang once, sweeping them into splinters of bone. The horseman didn't move. It only watched.

"And where is this Mar Vo Droth Rath?" Joe asked.

"Far from here, human."

"Can you tell me where he went? I have… questions."

"No!" The horseman roared, his skeletal mount shifting for the first time. Joe pulsed Nature's Paradise, and the horse shuddered, stamping in agitation. He felt a pocket of life off to his right but masked his discovery. To his dismay, the skeleton's hollow gaze turned directly toward it.

"Interesting. Your skill is… irritating. You are anathema to us. Die!" Joe had been waiting for an attack. Three thin vines erupted beneath the horse, wrapping tight and pinning it in place. The skeleton ignored the bindings, lifting a hand as a cloud of black mana poured outward. Joe moved, ducking beneath the spreading mist as he darted in. Jingu Bang hummed with power, arcing up toward the rider, only for the skeleton to vanish, reappearing a few metres away. The vines snapped as its teleport tore it free.

"Die!" the horseman bellowed again, another black cloud lashing out. Joe slipped aside and countered, sending two razor-sharp waves of mana cutting toward it. Again, the figure flickered away, untouched. The pattern repeated, blast dodge, vanish, until Joe seized an opening. He Space-Jumped mid-strike, closing the gap before the skeleton could react. Jingu Bang slammed down, shattering half its brittle frame. The horseman shrieked, flames bursting from its skull, before it blinked much farther away.

Joe tensed, ready to pursue, but then the air turned heavy. Red clouds coiled around the figure, radiating danger. Hollow sockets now burned with fire as its voice scraped the air.

"You are strong, human. We are new to this land… and not yet ready to face you. It seems the one we captured spoke true…" The skeleton vanished. This time, it left nothing, no Aura, no trace. Joe Space-Jumped skyward, scanning in every direction. Nothing.

"Fuck!" Captured? Who did the skeleton mean? Who was captured? He dropped back down, mind in turmoil as he headed back toward one of the skyboats, where survivors were being loaded. At the ramp, an unfamiliar man stepped forward and saluted.

"Progenitor, any sign of the mayor?"

"Nothing yet. I'll keep looking and clear as many undead as I can before opening the rest of the domes. Everything under control here?"

"Yes, sir!" The man pressed a hand to his chest.

"Thank you again." Joe gave a casual salute before vanishing once more. Explosions echoed through the ruins of New Eden, but beyond that, silence hung heavy. Only the groans of the undead broke the stillness. Joe searched for hours, cutting down wave after wave. With the skeleton horseman gone, the horde had lost all cohesion, reduced to mindless wanderers. He burned through them without pause, barely stopping to catch his breath.

Within three hours, every vined dome was opened, and more survivors poured onto the four skyboats. Thousands lived, but compared to what the city once held, it was nothing. Close to twenty thousand were rescued. A mere fraction of the millions who had called New Eden home. How many times would humanity suffer such immense losses? Back then, they knew who to blame. This time, there were no answers. Only questions. How had a gate collapsed so suddenly? Why had no warning reached them?

Where was the Divine Sword and his team? Where were the guardians of their city? And who had that undead horseman taken? He had no answers yet. Twelve hours after arriving at the fallen city, Joe finally slowed. He had dug survivors out of collapsed ruins, cleared every street he could find, searched every shadow. A few hundred more had been found, but that was the end of it. Exhaustion weighed on him as he sat within one of the opened domes he had created, grief gnawing at his chest. Sarah had not been found.

And the skeletal horseman's words lingered in his mind. It had no Aura, that strange black mana, its very existence an enigma. Worse still, he now had to go back. To face his friend. To admit he had failed. Corel leaned against him in silence. Neither spoke. Upon their return to Heliopolis, Joe broke the news to Kai. As expected, his friend shattered. Rage poured out of him, shaking the house as furniture cracked and walls trembled before Joe was able to restrain him.

"Did you check everywhere? What about outside the city? How far did you look? I should go, maybe you missed something!" Kai's words tumbled out in desperation.

"Kai, I searched everywhere," Joe said softly.

"I'll go back again. I'll keep looking until I find something."

"Then I'm coming too. We'll go now!" Kai moved for the door, but Joe caught his arm.

"Kai, the city needs you. Stay here, for now. Let me handle the search."

"No! She is my wife!" Kai broke down again, his anger boiling over.

"Kai, I know it's unbearable," Joe said, gripping his shoulders firmly.

"But running blindly won't help anything. Let me handle this." He all but held his friend back from bolting into the night. Kai's resistance weakened. He stopped, shaking his head.

"You're right. Sorry. I'm just… scared. What if she's… gone?" Joe had no answer. He didn't want to imagine Sarah gone. She had been there from the very beginning, the first person they met after escaping the bloodline gate. If she was gone… no. He clenched his fists. She was still out there. She had to be.

"Have you checked the pillar officials' list?" Corel asked quietly.

"What?" Kai blinked at her.

"The pillar's list of officials. If she's still on it, then…"

"Of course!" Kai slapped his forehead. His eyes glazed as he pulled up his city owner's interface, and then a long sigh escaped him. A fragile smile broke across his face.

"There she is. She's still listed as mayor. That means… she's alive." Relief poured off him in waves as he sank into a chair, shoulders trembling. Joe turned to Corel, nodding gratefully. She squeezed his elbow in return.

"Feeling better?" Joe asked.

"Yes… You're right. I'll stay here, make sure everything is in order before I go searching for myself." Joe nodded. That was as much as he could hope for. At least Kai would cool his temper first; he'd need a clear head for what lay ahead. With his friend steadied for now, Joe left and headed for Hakeem's house. He needed the map. He needed a plan.

"So that's what happened," Joe finished after explaining the fall of New Eden and his encounter with the skeletal horseman. He only left out the last sentence that it had said.

"And it called itself Mar Vo Droth Rath? Spoke of an apocalypse?" Hakeem's brow furrowed. Joe nodded grimly.

"Great. Just what we need. Did you tell all this to Kai?"

"No. He's barely holding it together as is. Dropping that on him right now would break him." Hakeem let out a slow breath and nodded.

"Good call. But still, an apocalypse, skeletal horsemen… What the hell did that idiot unleash?" Joe knew Hakeem was talking about the missing Divine Sword. He pulled up the world leaderboard, which listed the top five hundred by level. The Divine Sword's name was still in the top five. Which meant he was alive out there somewhere, just like Sarah.

"I remember Alice and Felicia mentioned a gate when they first arrived in Landradad," Joe said, turning to Corel.

"Could you contact them? Ask if this was what they were talking about?" Corel nodded.

"I can go now. I also need to contact my cousin. We can get the clans to help with the search."

"Would they help us?" Joe asked.

"Yes. I'll make them." Joe chuckled.

"Thanks, Rel. Every set of eyes we can get out there will help. We don't even know where to start yet." She tapped him lightly on the chest before leaving.

'Get some rest,' she pulsed.

'Yes, ma'am,' Joe replied.

'Kakakakaka, ses vo gath Voldura,' Uriel muttered.

"Gah, not you too," Joe grumbled.

"What?" Hakeem asked, giving him a strange look.

"Nothing, just ignore me," Joe said, waving it off. Hakeem raised an eyebrow but let it go, turning back to the map.

"So, what's the plan? Start at New Eden and spread out?" Joe stared at the parchment. If he were an undead horseman, where would he go? North, hiding in the snow? West, toward the desert and the sea? What kind of environment would suit a skeleton? As he brooded over the map, something odd caught his eye. He pulled up his mini-map and scrolled to the far south-western tip of the continent, where the land met the ocean.

That entire section was clouded over, yet Hakeem's drawn map clearly showed grasslands and a solitary mountain range. Joe leaned closer, tracing the lone peak.

"What's up? What did you see?" Hakeem asked.

"This area," Joe said, pointing.

"On my mini-map, this whole section is hidden."

"That doesn't make any sense. I remember everything clearly, let me check." Hakeem pulled up his own mini-map, comparing it to the one he'd drawn. His brow furrowed in confusion.

"Mine is also clouded over now. But how? It wasn't like that when I drew the map." Joe's thoughts turned grim. There was only one reason a place he had visited before became hidden suddenly.

"Is New Eden also obscured on your map?" he asked. Hakeem checked, eyes darting before he nodded.

"It is. Because of the undead?" Joe nodded"Then that means…"

"I think we just found where they went." It took a full day before the group was ready to move. Corel had insisted Joe rest before dashing off into the unknown, and what was meant to be a short nap turned into six hours of dead sleep. He had been far more exhausted than he'd realized. When he woke, rested and with full mana bars, he was ready. Hakeem, Vanessa, Corel, and two Voldura scouts joined him, specialists in reconnaissance. None of them knew what they were heading into.

The plan was to gather information, nothing more… unless they found Sarah. Then all bets were off. A part of Joe still clung to the hope that this was a misunderstanding, that she would walk into Heliopolis any moment. But as the hours dragged by, that hope grew thinner. The six of them set out, flying south-west toward the shrouded corner of the continent. After three hours, they finally saw it.

A strange, swirling mass of cloud towered ahead, a spiralling storm that stretched so high it disappeared into the upper sky. Ten more minutes brought them close enough to see the truth: the vast tornado encircled the lone mountain at the continent's tip, wrapping it in an ever-churning barrier.

"Where did this come from?" Joe mused. He activated Mana Sight and immediately cursed, clutching at his temples as searing light nearly blinded him.

"What happened?" Corel asked.

"No one use any sight skills," Joe warned, forcing his eyes shut until the pain faded.

"That storm is packed with mana. Too much to even look at."

"There's no doubt anymore," Hakeem said grimly.

"This is the place." Vanessa's voice was quiet, almost swallowed by the wind.

"How are we supposed to get inside that?" Joe stared at the storm-wrapped mountain. He had no answer. But they had to try.

"I'll take us down. Maybe there's an entrance somewhere." The group searched the perimeter of the tornado for hours. The Voldura scouts tried every reconnaissance skill they had, but each attempt was repelled, bouncing harmlessly off the wall of wind. Joe planted seeds, cast Nature's Paradise, and even tried coaxing grass to sprout on the other side so he could step through, but the storm rejected everything. In desperation, he attempted a blind Space Jump into the funnel itself.

The skill fizzled, failing to even activate. He was shaken. Nothing outside of a skill blocker had ever stopped his Space Jump before. That revelation left him humbled. After another fruitless circuit, the two Voldura bowed out, returning to Relashra. Hakeem jogged back to Joe's side after running the circumference of the storm. His expression said everything.

"Nothing. No breaks. No entrances. Just endless wind and cloud." Joe exhaled slowly. He hated feeling powerless.

"What now?" Hakeem shook his head, then pulled his massive broadsword from his ring.

"Only option I see is brute force. Ready to work up a sweat?"

"Seriously?" Vanessa cut in, folding her arms.

"You two and your egos, do you really think swinging at a tornado is the answer?"

"She's right," Joe admitted, pulling Jingu Bang free. His Aura flared as he stepped toward the roaring wall of wind.

"What is that little sword going to do to a tornado? I got this." Hakeem chuckled darkly. In a swirl of black smoke, his form became encased in pitch-black armour.

"Let's see whose swing makes it shake first. Mine or your sticks." Vanessa and Corel shared a long look, unimpressed.

"Boys," Vanessa sighed.

"Come on, let's get a drink while they blow off steam." Corel smiled and followed. Hours later, drained of mana and no closer to an answer, the four regrouped. The storm remained unscathed, a wall of secrets. With no path forward, they returned to Heliopolis, still at a loss.