"Fuck it, why now, hours before the Descent?!" a Blood cult member hissed in fury, rushing through the intricate pathways with his partner.

"I know, right? These fucking corrupted sure chose the worst time. Everyone is too busy in preparation for the Divine Descent!!" His partner echoed his sentiments.

But complain as they must, they still had to go reinforce the rest. As respected Blood Swords of the Order, this was their duty!

They couldn’t disappoint the Blood Father, the grand priests, nor the vampiric gods!

Sensing something ahead, both figures skidded to a halt, the flares of gene skills tearing through the darkness.

Just then, they felt an unsettling chill wash over them. The darkness beyond seemed darker than it was meant to be.

Suddenly, a pair of amethyst orbs tore through the darkness... no, not orbs — eyes!

Their hearts lurched in horror at the intensity of the presence before them. They braced for confrontation.

And inevitably, they blinked... and that was all it took.

Their vision spun, they lost all feeling in their bodies, their hold on their essence, their gene skills waned.

Their eyes bulged in enlightened horror, their faces contorted from fear, and darkness followed.

Their bodies crumpled still to the ground, and their heads bounced and rolled into the distance...

Leaving the steady squishing splash of footsteps threading through blood.

In Seth’s wake, these guys stood zero chance!

It didn’t matter that this Order consisted of felons, savage criminals, terrifying figures who escaped from God knows where after the apocalypse and banded together.

It didn’t matter that these weren’t noobs, but figures long exposed to brutal battles, drawing blood and reaping lives before the apocalypse even dawned.

Even if their stats were rife to the brim, their gene skills burning with chilling efficiency, and brutal mights, racial traits blazing in his presence, and the Infinite Potential passive climaxed their evolutions...

Before Seth, all these were snuffed out, their lives extinguished. The terror of an Awakened creature, even under constant self-suppression, was displayed.

Heck, even if he hadn’t ascended, these guys would have zero chance. Meeting him in his ascended state was even worse.

What chance did they stand? If he wanted them dead, could they resist?

Heads rolled, blood pooled, and Seth’s eyes only grew colder, calmer, his killing intent more insidious.

The air soaked to the brim, but his will was restrained. If not, not only the entire fort but even the entirety of Killdeer Mountain and Duncan County might be mired in its wake.

Even as torrential waves of his stimulated will crashed against the inner walls of his mind, they remained tightly locked away.

The silver watch on his wrist never once flared or blared. Good thing he had started practice long ago, and now even under self-constraint he could still wield more might.

And this trickle of power was more than enough for him to overcome his foes with sheer power and might.

Today, the amount of humans that died by Seth’s hand slowly rose in count. In any normal scenario, he might have felt something.

His humanity might have stirred in remorse... but today his conscience lay inert.

He had seen the savageness of this bunch firsthand. He had even seen more as he traversed through the network of caves.

Teenage girls abused, even the elders weren’t spared. On rare occasions, men too — all civilians.

People who mostly led mundane lives before the apocalypse, mundane humans thrust into a brutal reality, not only besieged by the corrupted but now by their own kind.

Fellow humans, tortured, raped, and assaulted brutally, savagely killed and left broken.

Seth’s heart broke at each victim he came across, his eyes colder at the sight of the madness.

Some were broken bodies of young underaged girls, laid dead like crumpled dolls, used then dumped.

Eyes wide and vacant, life absent, faces contorted from agony, fear, and helplessness.

Some alive, but their minds broken, only able to stare vacantly, all hope of escape gone, resolved to die rather than live any further.

No matter what, Seth was still seventeen — a child in the eyes of most. Even if he anticipated this, even if he understood the horrors of the world...

Knowing and seeing were two different things. The sight shook him to his core.

His gut clenched from disgust, and his heart enraged from fury.

Fury which he unleashed. He killed and killed.

His blades reaped heads, sometimes deliberately reining back his strength, not decapitating in one go, making these vile scum suffer.

Until...

Seth stood in an open room, bigger and wider than any he had come across so far. The metal door behind him shut on its own, the sounds of it bolting and buckling rang out.

Then the slow, rhythmic, crisp noise of clapping rang out.

Seth stood in silence, his gaze unflinching, his pupils pulsed unstably from the raging will thrashing against his restraint.

Two figures walked into the room from the parallel door beyond.

Donned in crimson flowing garments, embroidered with shimmering silver threads at the rims.

They were both identical figures, with mirroring features.

These two men were most likely twins...

Both had coiling blonde short hair, their eyes burned with an emerald sheen.

Their skins unblemished and pale, their figures off — too delicate to be a man’s, too robust to be a woman’s. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Suddenly their lips moved, their voices echoing in eerie sync. "Have you had your fill playing with ants? Why don’t you play with us?"

Subconsciously, Seth tensed. It was impossible for a Shackled Rank creature to threaten him.

Not because he was an Awakened creature at a higher state of life, but also because he was just that strong. Even among Awakeneds, he was an apex.

At least compared to others at the early stage.

And even though he suppressed his might out of caution, that didn’t dull his superior senses, his superior reflexes, his mind-numbingly overwhelming internal calculation speed.

All these logical points proved that no Shackled creature should even shake him.

So why?

Seth’s eyes glinted with wary light, his hold over the blade fastened, his gait came alive, subtly shifting from laid-back to combat stance.

Why did the presence these two made him feel so uneasy?