NOVEL NEXT Chapter 86: Beyond Human Comprehension
I sigh heavily and sink slowly into the chair, my eyes shut tight against the light I'm not accustomed to, while I use [Perception] to examine my surroundings. She doesn't seem to mind.
"I'm not sure, that's just what you guys call us," I respond truthfully.
"And what do you call yourselves?" she scrutinizes me, and I can't help but think she's using her mana to probe me without me even realizing it.
I begin to gradually open my eyes, carefully adjusting to the light.
I repeat a phrase I've said many times before to numerous people, The test I did to see their reaction, "We're from Earth and we got stuck in the Tutorial. This world, your world, seems to be part of that tutorial. You are either being manipulated by the tutorial or more likely, you're not real at all - just copied over and over again for a purpose that's unclear."
Just like before, her reaction mirrors others' - it's as if she doesn't hear or can't understand what I've just said.
Well, I guess that's it, let's try...
"You said something, but I couldn't make it out. Repeat it."
Chills run down my spine, and despite the blinding light I'm not used to, I force my eyes open and gaze at the elderly woman before me. For the first time, her brow furrows, and I can sense her mana slowly intensifying. It's as if I'm sitting next to a nuclear reactor.
Her mana, released now, radiating an intense pressure that was steadily growing. The room trembling in the wake of her raw power, each vibration chilling and reminding me of the force she holds. The world around us responds to her, terrified tremors echoing beneath our feet.
I feel as if I'm standing on the edge of a cliff, one misstep away from sure death.
"Repeat it," her voice is firm and leaves no room for refusal.
As I repeat my earlier words, her mana pressure increases. The ground beneath me starts to tremble more, and I hear a loud, cracking noise from the outside. The air becomes heavy, making it hard to breathe.
"Again."
I repeat it once more. The sounds from outside give the impression of a collapsing mountain, and it's noticeably darker than before. The noise of a cracking stone is almost deafening, and the whole house shakes. This continues until she intervenes, seemingly isolating whatever is happening outside from the events within the house.
After all this noise, the silence is almost deafening as she speaks, "I can't hear it," she whispers, her voice more for herself than for me, evident confusion in her tone.
"Miss..." I begin cautiously, and the formidable presence disguised in human form in front of me slowly redirects her attention towards me.
Slowly, delicately, I utter what I intended to say, "Have you met other drifters besides me and my group?"
"Of course, I have, drifters are..." she trails off.
Her eyes widen and she falls into silent contemplation, the world around us starts to shake again. A trace of annoyance crosses her face and everything comes to a halt. The world falls silent and the air grows stale.
From her reaction, it seems like my suspicion was correct. This world, this duplicate of a world that once existed and was copied by the system, has never known drifters. It's merely a mechanic employed by the system to introduce us, the people from the tutorial, into this world.
She looks at me one final time before standing up. In a split second, her mana flares up and a long tear in space appears in front of her. She steps through it and vanishes.
The tear has an effect similar to Ruby's skills. But where Ruby's skills feel like she's negotiating with the world using her mana to teleport, this master simply tears through it by the sheer force of her mana, disregarding efficiency.
"Damn, that was terrifying. What on earth did you say?"
Ruby slowly approaches me, but I'm already opening the door, eager to see what caused the noises I heard.
Stepping outside, I'm rooted to the spot because of the sight in front of me, overwhelmed, unable to comprehend what I see. The once majestic mountains, their peaks reaching higher than the highest on Earth, are now nothing but wreckage.
Decimated. Shattered.
What lies before me is an expanse of destruction that seemingly goes on forever, as vast as a sea stretching beyond the horizon.
The mountains are fragmented, and the earth beneath is fractured. And there, suspended in mid-air, are huge pieces of these mountains, as large as skyscrapers, as large as mountains themselves. These gigantic chunks hover, gradually descending towards the shattered ground below, gravity reclaiming its hold on them.
This destruction extends as far as I can see, devastation repeating itself over and over.
For a long moment, I'm completely at a loss for words and don't even know what to think.
Ruby quickly guides both me and Biscuit away, just before a huge chunk of what was once a mountain crashes down near us.
As we arrive in a new room, I can't help but replay the events that just unfolded in the back of my mind. I can't ignore it. The raw power needed to cause such destruction is beyond my comprehension.
"Is your master a Champion?" I boldly ask Ruby, hoping for answers.
"She... she is unique, ancient. I don't know much more than you," this time she replies without her usual smirk or playful banter. "I've been with her for over 40 years and I still don't fully understand what she's capable of."
Hmm? Another indirect answer to my question. It seems that reaching a certain level of power can halt, slow, or even reverse the aging process.
"Is she stronger than them?"
"I can't say for sure, and you shouldn't underestimate Champions and Paragons. They are more than capable of doing what the master did. Even I can say that she held back considerably."
This is holding back? I pull Biscuit closer and begin to stroke his tiny head to calm myself a bit. No words echo in my head, and for that, I'm grateful.
It seems I drastically underestimated the power level of some people here. Survive the end of the world? At this rate, I'll consider myself lucky if there aren't many more people like her.
"Just get some rest and I'll wake you in a few hours, okay?" the redhead leaves the room, leaving me alone with my always-hungry friend. Time to sleep.
I lay down on the bed and slowly close my eyes. Recalling the darkness of long tunnels filled with unseen monsters, I decide to leave the lights on and gradually drift off to sleep, comforted by the warm body beside me.
POV Hadwin Harper
The woman standing before me appears to be in her fifties, maybe even sixties. She has gray hair and is dressed in a black and white suit that, in my opinion, would be more suited to a man.
Despite her age, she moves with surprising agility, exuding an unwavering aura of confidence. However, I notice a tiny crack in that confidence as I recount my journey here.
Just like the others I've attempted to explain my situation to, she seems unable to grasp the concept of the tutorial and everything it entails.
For a fleeting moment, fear grips me as I consider how she might react and what she wants from me.
"Harper, what the hell did I tell you? Turn off the light and go to sleep!" my commander bursts into the tent. He freezes in the middle of his step after spotting the woman.
"Who, the fu--"
In an instant, he's reduced to a bloody mess on the floor, his life extinguished before he can finish his sentence.
"Repeat it," the woman commands, and I quickly comply.
Her annoyance is more apparent this time, but she finally speaks after I've finished. "Go through the tear," she orders, slashing the air with her hand.
It's as if she's torn open the fabric of reality itself, revealing a different place on the other side - a simple, cozy-looking room.
Quickly to not agitate her more, I step through. The tear closes behind me, leaving me alone in this new place, with the crazy gray-haired woman nowhere in sight.
Soon, I hear footsteps approaching from behind the door. It swings open to reveal a young woman dressed in a white, long-sleeved shirt and black pants. Her hair is a vibrant shade of red, and her eyes have a peculiar yellowish hue.
"God damn it, Master. You always make me do such annoying things," she sighs as she sizes me up, "Well, I'm sure Nathaniel will be happy," she says, her smile growing wider.
Oh no.