Apocalypse: becoming the hidden Ruler[English]

Under that internal collision, flaws bloomed everywhere. The once-perfect defensive structure was riddled with weaknesses.

One glance was enough. Axel moved. In the overwhelming golden brilliance, a white arc sliced through the center like a streak of cold moonlight.

“Ugh—!”

Isos’s body jerked violently. The Buddha phantom froze mid-motion.

Axel didn’t stop.

Second strike.

Third strike. All within less than a second.

The golden radiance shattered like broken glass. The towering Buddha image dispersed into nothing.

Isos’s body collapsed—and fragmented. “This… is impossible…” His head cracked apart, yet his lips still moved, spitting out hoarse resentment.

Then even that faded. Wind and snow howled through the canyon. His shattered body crumbled into dust, scattering into the storm as if he had never existed.

“Clang.” Axel’s sword slipped from his fingers. His chest heaved violently. His face was pale as death. Those three strikes had been unleashed at absolute maximum output—compressed into less than a second—and they had nearly drained him dry.

After a moment, his gaze shifted. Two items remained on the ground. One was a life crystal—glowing faintly gold.

A golden life crystal. Axel had never seen one before. The highest grade he’d encountered were the two black life crystals Victor had possessed in the Abyss.

And yet—

Even in that transformed state, Isos had clearly not reached the level of a true Level Nine or a Beast King.

Axel crouched and picked up the crystal. Surprisingly light. The moment his fingers touched it, a flood of memory surged into his mind—fragments of the recent battle. But what stunned him more was the information that followed.

“Dharma. Level 6 Awakened /#4!%.&*…” Axel froze. The line after “Level 6 Awakened” dissolved into garbled characters.

Static. Corrupted data. For the first time ever, the ability granted by the Origin Tree had been partially blocked. Fortunately, not everything was unreadable.

“…Hiding his identity and infiltrating the City of Sin. Attempting to obtain Morris’s… Most regrettable failure: unable to uncover the secret of Moonlit Lake. Failed to seize the suspected treasure on Yehuda…”

Axel’s mind raced. So Isos—Dharma—had indeed been hiding something from Morris.

He had his own agenda. Someone stood behind him. A greater secret existed.

Moonlit Lake. And the “treasure” on Yehuda.

Axel exhaled slowly. “Valentino’s subordinate… was he a test subject?”

The theory formed quickly. Isos had discovered the spring but didn’t dare experiment on himself. So he used one of Valentino’s men to test it—granting that person a strange awakened ability, observing from the shadows. Before he could confirm the results—

He ran into Axel. And the moment he sensed something unusual inside Axel, he chose to strike.

“My treasure…” Axel’s thoughts instinctively drifted to the Origin Tree. It was his most unique and irreplaceable possession.

But how had Isos sensed it? His gaze shifted to the second object left behind. A small golden Buddha statue.

Axel’s eyes darkened. “Maybe… it’s connected to this.”

Axel picked up the statue.It was cold and metallic to the touch. Up close, he could see that this so-called “Buddha” wore layered golden armor over flowing robes. The craftsmanship was exquisite. Its expression carried an indescribable majesty—calm, merciless, sovereign.

“Hey. Quit zoning out. Shouldn’t we be getting the hell out of here?”

Lilith’s voice snapped him back to reality.

All around them, the mutated beasts that had previously knelt in submission were rising again. One by one, crimson and feral eyes locked onto Axel.

He’d disabled Group Silence to focus entirely on killing Isos. Now the concealment was gone. Which meant—

He and Lilith had just become the center of attention for every monster in the valley. If not for the lingering fear from that golden anomaly, they would’ve already been torn apart.

“Heh. Almost forgot about you bastards.” Axel tucked the Buddha statue away and rose to his feet.

Individually, none of these beasts could stop him. But there were too many. Stir them up recklessly, and something even worse might crawl out of the snow.

For a moment, both sides held their ground in tense silence. Then—

Bang!

A gunshot shattered the night. Snow exploded upward in several places as a squad of figures burst from concealment, sprinting toward him.

Axel’s eyes sharpened. He hadn’t sensed them at all. Not a hint of presence. They had specialized concealment gear—or an ability.

“Which city are you reinforcements from? Move! We’ll cover you—” The man at the front rushed forward.

Before he reached Axel, both of them froze. “Axel?!”

“Mr. Geoffrey?!” The squad that had just stormed in was none other than Geoffrey and his elite unit.

Geoffrey wasn’t particularly happy to see him—just troubled. In his mind, Axel was at best a Level Four… maybe Level Five. What the hell could that accomplish here?

At this critical moment, an extra mid-tier Awakener wasn’t help. It was liability. “Get behind me. Now.” His tone shifted instinctively into command mode.

Axel’s expression hardened. “Mr. Geoffrey. All of you—stand with me.” He drew his sword.

Geoffrey’s face darkened. What kind of idiotic bravado was this?

A silver-white arc sliced through the air. The blade struck the ground.

Boom—

The earth detonated. A wall of dirt several meters high erupted upward, and the blasted debris scattered like artillery shrapnel. The tightly packed low-level mutated beasts were smashed off their feet, bodies tumbling and rolling in the snow.

“Holy shit—?!” Geoffrey’s reprimand died in his throat. Before he could process what he’d just seen, Axel’s voice cut in urgently beside him.

“Come with me.” A hand grabbed Geoffrey’s arm. Instinctively, he tried to resist. He failed.

The world blurred. The landscape around him smeared like a slideshow played at absurd speed—dozens, hundreds of times faster than normal. His stomach lurched violently. Then—

Everything stopped. They were now behind a mountain ridge.

“It’s safe. For now,” Axel said calmly.

Geoffrey blinked. His squad members lay sprawled nearby, groaning and pushing themselves up. Axel and another man stood at the edge of the ridge, watching the movements of the surrounding beasts. But—

From a distance, Geoffrey could’ve sworn the person beside Axel had been a woman. Now it was a broad-shouldered middle-aged man.

Had he hallucinated?

As if sensing his gaze, the man turned and gave him a disturbingly seductive smile.

Geoffrey nearly threw up. Once he’d steadied himself, he lowered his voice. “There are still a lot of mutated beasts nearby. We can’t be certain we’re safe…”

He trailed off. At this distance, several Level Four and Five beasts with keen perception were roaming. Two massive Level Six monsters were even closer. Yet none of them noticed their presence.

Axel had an aura-concealment method far beyond anything Geoffrey had seen. How the hell had he grown this strong in just a few days?

“Mr. Geoffrey… is that really Axel?” one subordinate whispered.

“Of course it is.”

“My God… then we’ve hit the jackpot this time.”

Seeing Geoffrey’s confusion, the man continued, “Axel teamed up with other noble prodigies and killed the Saint.”

“…It’s only been few days since we last met,” Geoffrey murmured.

Another subordinate hesitated, then leaned close and whispered into Geoffrey’s ear.

“Commander… if that really is Axel… Mr. Zachariah’s intelligence report said it was him…”

The excitement drained from Geoffrey’s face. He lifted a hand, cutting the man off. When he stood before Zephyr earlier, he’d declared complete trust in Axel. But now—

Facing him directly—

He felt afraid. He stole a glance at Axel before speaking. “Axel.”

“Hm?”

“Do you… know Zachariah?”

“Zachariah?” Axel’s eyes sharpened. “He made it back to Northern Spiritual Town alive?”

There was unmistakable surprise in his voice. And something else. Hostility. Geoffrey’s mouth turned bitter.

Was Zachariah telling the truth? Or—

After a long pause, Geoffrey asked quietly, “Axel… you haven’t done anything to betray Krythos, have you?”

“Huh?” Subjectively, Axel felt no guilt. He hadn’t betrayed Krythos. But objectively—

He had sheltered his infected sister. He worked with the Holy Light Organization, even if not the infected faction. And now he was cooperating with Lilith.