The World after the Fall

Chapter 111: Kind of a fall (1)

[We still remember him.]

Euren Chiver - Chancellor of Carpediem Fortress

A woman was dreaming. It was when she was still a [Product]. Countless people died around her as they fought against monsters rushing in.

-You witch! You killed us all!

-You lured those monsters!

Hidden skill [Lure]. Her cursed passive skill made people around her dangerous. She didn't want the skill, but there was no use. Life didn't change even after she arrived at <Great Lands>.

'Why do I have to go through this?'

She thought countless times of killing herself - and she really did die eventually. She just didn't know there was another life after it.

Why am I here? What did I do wrong?

And after 10 long years of training to become a 3rd stage Adapter, she finally found out. The world was twisted. Becoming more powerful didn't help her at all.

It was during the day when she woke up. Warm sunlight touched her through the window and she felt numb.

'I should get up.'

She tried hard to get up from her bed. She felt like she would not get another chance to get up next. She began to feel the pain and the first part she felt was from the right hand. She thought she was going to cry. She had been waiting for this feeling, the feeling of movement. Then she felt something weird. There was something in her right hand. It was the feeling of a cold, durable object.

'A stone?'

She felt something familiar, but a longing feeling overwhelmed her. In the next moment, when the door to the room opened, people rushed in.

"Doctor! Doctor!"

"She's awake!"

And with the excited shouts, the machine made an announcement.

[Treatment is now complete.]

[Corruption level below 1%.]

And her heart began to pound. She began to remember all that had happened.

When all doctors nearby rushed into the room, the windows to the room were opened.

"You're awake."

She was sitting on her bed.

"…Mino?"

With her long strands of hair moving about on the breeze coming through the window, her beautiful eyes turned from the window to the doctor.

"…Where am I?"

It had been 3 months since Jaehwan left Chaos. The first woman he met when he arrived had finally opened her eyes.

A few moments later, Mino was allowed to leave the hospital. It was Claire, her assigned guardian, waiting for her outside the hospital.

"…Are you kidding me?"

"No I'm not."

"YOU are the head of the finance department?"

"How many times do I have to tell you?"

Claire sighed. Mino had been sleeping for over 6 months.

"What has been going on?"

"Ugh… so…"

It was hard for Claire to explain all that had happened.

"…What do you mean? There's a King in <Chaos> now?"

"Yeah."

Claire regretted bringing that up to begin with.

"Who's the King?"

Upon hearing the answer, Mino looked at Claire dumbfoundedly and began to laugh.

"You think I'm a fool? 'HE' is the King?"

"He 'WAS' the King. Not anymore."

"…Hahaha. Why don't you just say Dead Man and horned monsters are now our friends? That would be more believable."

Mino laughed but Claire sighed. In next moment, Mino suddenly stopped.

"C-C-Claire? W-wh-what is that doing here?"

Mino began to shake. She seemed terrified and Claire looked at the direction where she was looking. There was monster walking calmly through the city.

It was a monster with 7 horns.

Mino was beyond terrified. She was within the fortress and it was under bright daylight. How was a Dead Man walking in the city like it was nothing?

"Whoa, relax."

The one-armed man who was dragging the horned monster quickly caressed the seven-horned monster a few times as if it was his pet. Mino couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"…Claire. Tell me I'm looking at an illusion. Am I being drugged?"

But it was only the start. After the monster disappeared, Mino then found tentacle monsters following her from behind. She felt like she was going to faint now.

"D-d-d-d-de-dead Man?!"

The tentacle then touched her left cheek and hours after she woke up, she fainted again.

Two hours later, Mino was sitting down on an outside bench and was talking with Claire.

"So, tell me if I understand this correctly."

"Yeah."

"A man destroyed the [Palace of Reincarnation] 3 months ago."

"Right."

"And the 4 fortresses of Gorgon were united."

"Right."

"…And the united <Chaos> then built a new fortress at the place of the old [Void Factory]."

Mino then looked around the streets and continued, "The name of the fortress is Carpediem, which is here. And in this place…"

There were Dead Men, horned monsters, and humans. Some excited Dead Men were giving high fives to passing humans. Mino continued, "Humans, horned monsters, and Dead Men are living together in harmony. Like they're friends."

"Right, you got everything right."

Claire nodded and Mino became silent. Then she stood up and yelled, "…That's not even possible!!"

And it took her a day to understand it was exactly how she understood it. <Chaos> was now an entirely different place. With the Carpediem Fortress as its symbol, the three races of Chaos were now united under one. It was all thanks to the treaty between the King of Humans, the Overseer of the Void Factory, and the Sole-King Catastrophe.

-Three races will undergo a peace treaty until our war against the Lords is finished.

And between all that was the man in the center.

'…What have you done?' Mino thought as she looked at the statue at the center of the fortress. It was a statue of Jaehwan with raising his sword up into the sky. The statue was created by the Vice Chief of Twilight's Fall. The man had become stronger than all those Clan Leaders, Masters of fortresses, and even killed the Generals of <Great Lands> and became the King of <Chaos>.

'…You're now stabbing at the sky?'

Mino smiled. There was some writing beneath the statue.

-The Last King of Chaos

There were no more Kings in <Chaos>. Chancellors of Carpediem, Euren, and Cayman refused to appoint a new King. To all of the people, the only King was the one who left. Some even started calling him a 'Sole-King'.

"…Wasn't that supposed to mean Catastrophe?"

"It isn't anymore. It means 'him' now."