Chapter 45 — A World That Watches
Far from Abyss, the world was still learning how to survive.
Cities that once defined nations now stood hollowed out by gates and the monsters that followed them. Entire districts had been abandoned, their mana saturation too unstable for anyone to live there safely.
Military checkpoints blocked highways that no longer led anywhere safe.
Civilization still existed.
But it was thinner now.
Fragile.
Always one disaster away from collapse.
The plaza had once been a commercial center.
Restaurants.
Shops.
Glass towers reflecting sunlight across crowded streets.
Now it was a battlefield.
Half the surrounding buildings had collapsed months earlier when the first gate appeared nearby. What remained had been converted into barricades and containment lines.
The survivors had tried to turn the district into a fortified defense zone.
For a while, it worked.
Then the gate expanded.
Now the distortion hovered in the center of the plaza like a wound torn through reality.
Dark mana spiraled slowly inside a circular tear nearly twenty meters wide. The air around it vibrated with pressure strong enough to make even trained soldiers uneasy.
Monsters had been pouring out for hours.
Creatures shaped like oversized wolves, their bodies covered in layered bone armor. Jagged protrusions scraped sparks from the pavement as they ran.
Military units fired from barricades made of overturned trucks and portable shields.
Gunfire echoed without pause.
But every creature that fell was replaced by another emerging from the gate.
The line was beginning to break.
Then someone on the radio said a single word.
“William.”
The name spread through the command channel instantly.
Soldiers looked up.
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Down the shattered avenue leading into the plaza, a man walked calmly toward the battle.
No convoy.
No escort.
Just one figure moving steadily through the ruins.
Most of the soldiers had never seen him in person.
But they all knew the name.
William.
One of humanity’s strongest awakened.
S+ rank.
A monster spotted him first.
The creature leapt over a wrecked transport truck, claws tearing into the asphalt as it accelerated toward him.
Several soldiers raised their rifles.
William lifted one hand.
The air changed.
Gravity bent.
The creature slammed into the ground before reaching him, crushed against the pavement by invisible force.
The impact cracked the concrete beneath its body.
Before it could move again, William stepped forward and drove his fist into its skull.
The bone armor shattered instantly.
The monster stopped moving.
The remaining creatures hesitated.
William moved.
What followed was fast.
Precise.
Controlled.
Every motion carried overwhelming force, but nothing was wasted.
One monster collapsed under crushing gravity.
Another was thrown sideways into the wall of a ruined building.
A third froze mid-leap as pressure forced it into the pavement.
Within minutes, the plaza fell silent.
The gate still pulsed in the center of the square.
But the creatures surrounding it were gone.
Slowly, soldiers lowered their weapons.
The battle had ended almost as quickly as it began.
A command officer approached carefully.
“Sir, the gate is still unstable.”
William looked toward the distortion.
He could feel the mana pressure radiating from it.
Strong.
Unpredictable.
Closing it would require a full awakened team.
“We stabilize the perimeter first,” William said.
His voice was calm. Certain.
The officer nodded immediately and began issuing orders.
Barricades were repositioned.
Evacuation corridors secured.
Medical teams moved into the plaza.
The battlefield slowly began transforming into a containment zone.
A few minutes later, an analyst approached holding a tablet.
“Sir, there’s an update from global monitoring.”
William glanced down.
Satellite imagery filled the screen.
Construction grids.
Infrastructure expansion.
Supply convoys moving along reinforced routes.
He recognized the location immediately.
Abyss.
The walls had grown since the last report.
Defensive rings now surrounded a rapidly expanding central city.
Civilian population estimates had nearly doubled.
At the top of the report was a familiar name.
Xior Wenson.
William had known that name long before the gates appeared.
Back when Xior had been a prodigy in economics rather than one of the most powerful awakeners on Earth.
An officer standing beside the analyst spoke quietly.
“Construction speed increased again.”
William studied the image.
“He always accelerates once the structure becomes stable.”
The officer hesitated.
“Three S+ rankers in one city.”
William didn’t answer immediately.
He zoomed slightly on the image.
Even from orbit, the city’s defensive pattern was visible.
Layered.
Adaptive.
Built to absorb failure instead of collapsing under it.
Exactly like the man who designed it.
The officer continued.
“And civilians are still relocating there. Thousands already.”
Three names surfaced in William’s thoughts.
Tancred Wilmot.
Altes.
Xior Wenson.
Three of the strongest awakened humans alive.
All in the same place.
Working together.
He knew Tancred’s reputation well.
A weapon that never hesitated.
He knew Altes even better.
Their paths had crossed before.
Back when Iria died.
A memory none of them had escaped.
William handed the tablet back to the analyst.
“He’s building it faster than expected.”
The officer asked the question everyone was thinking.
“Do you think Abyss will become a problem?”
William looked back toward the unstable gate twisting slowly in the plaza.
Reality rippled faintly around it.
The world was still breaking apart.
Cities falling.
Systems collapsing.
People searching for somewhere safe.
Then he glanced toward the distant horizon.
Toward the direction where Abyss was rising.
“No,” he said calmly.
“Not yet.”
He paused.
Then added quietly:
“But when the world starts choosing where it wants to stand…”
“…places like that will matter more than governments.”
