Legendary Architect of Apocalypse

"I know you're strong, but aren't your abilities going to be sealed when the test begins? It will wipe every advantage that you have gained so far."

Astralious appreciated the confidence that Elias had, but he didn't want them to shy away from reality either.

"We should try to lose them so they can't come after us," he suggested. "It's better to be safe than sorry."

"I barely have enough time to get there. If I start trying to lose them, it will waste even more time. I will not be able to reach that place either. So as much as I want to follow your advice, I can't at this moment."

Elias rejected the advice outright, just as Astralious had expected. But he had at least given his reasoning, which was rare for Astralious. Normally, there was no explanation for his actions.

"Then so be it. I trust that you will have a way to deal with them. After all, it seems like a perfect place for another person to make their debut."

The time in the sky kept trickling away like sand passing through an hourglass. And every second was spent by Elias, inside the jet, flying over the ocean.

The ocean was filled with life, unlike the surface which had long lost everything except the lifeless structures that were created by humans. No one was alive to make good use of the tall skyscrapers or the satellites that were still circling earth.

Soon, twenty three hours had passed, and only one hour was left in the timer on the sky scrolls.

"Are we there yet?" Astralious asked the same question that he had been asking every hour for the last twelve hours.

"We are."

This was the first time he had received an answer that they had truly reached their destination. Elias opened the cockpit, with the jet trailing above a small city.

He stood up within the jet, and kept it back on his inventory. With the jet beneath his feet disappearing, he started falling from the sky, but he didn't react in fear.

Two black wings appeared behind his back, and made him regain his balance once more. He gently landed on the ground, being caressed by the winds created from his wings.

"This place looks like it went through a massacre. It's completely unlike the previous city." Astralious was the first to comment, when he saw the entire street littered with corpses of people that looked worse than zombies.

There were no serious wounds on their bodies, but many of them were still covered in black blood that they coughed out themselves.

"Even death in large cities looks fancy, because it's hidden behind a curtain made of glitter."

Elias carefully treaded on the narrow street, which barely had any space left for him to step without landing on corpses.

It looked like a very vague and distant memory, but he remembered running through these streets with his sister in arms. The street was just as bloody at that time, but there were a few less bodies here. It looked more crowded now.

Astralious didn't know what to say. He had always been feeling that something was wrong with Elias, every time earth was mentioned, as if it was deeply connected to his heart.

He had already learned that this was the first time Elias came to this world, so what could the relation be? It didn't make sense. Moreover, out of all the places on earth, why would he come to this place?

Elias was a man that didn't show such grief even when he killed people, as he did now for mere strangers. Something doesn't feel ordinary, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Are you alright?" he asked Elias, who felt like he was a little too distant suddenly. Astralious didn't know why, but he felt like Elias could simply disappear.

"I am alright. It's not my first time seeing blood. You don't have to worry about it." Elias answered, as he continued treading through the street.

After reaching the end of the street, he took the left turn and continued taking the same path, remembering every single thought that was going through his head when he was running through this place, trying to find a doctor.

Everything was so different, yet it was still the same. In the past, he was just an insignificant person on earth, who couldn't save even the person closest to him.

And now, he was the descendant of the Ashborn Family that could decide the fate of small words with a single whisper. He was as strong as he could be, yet he couldn't change the past.

Even if he had all the power in the world, the past was the one thing that couldn't be changed as it was what led him to this path in the first place.

Even if he had the ability to change the past, it would only create a paradox that would eventually lead him down the same path. The things that were lost were forever gone.

"Why are you walking in this dumpyard of corpses?" The two youngsters from the Creator Class also arrived, and landed behind Elias. "Is this the place you want to be our battlefield?"

"Eww, my shoes got dirty in their blood! These bastards!" One of them said, almost stumbling on a corpse. In anger, he kicked the corpse, and sent it flying through a nearby building.

"Who told you to walk through the trash? You should've been floating above them like me," the second boy smugly said, following after Elias while floating in the air.

"These bastards are so annoying. If I had my body, I would've sent them to hell already," Astralious clicked his tongue, watching their pathetic behaviour that even made him upset.

"I didn't know that even you people had the concept of hell," Elias mumbled, ignoring the actions of the people behind him, even though it also angered him somewhat.

"Why won't we know about hell? Everyone knows about it. It's a place as real as it can be. Don't tell me you didn't know about it either?" Astralious asked, but he didn't get an answer from Elias.

Instead, he saw Elias's body suddenly tremble when he came to an abrupt halt.