Entering Apocalypse in Easy-Mode
Chapter 413: Racing Thoughts

Chapter 413: Racing Thoughts

Sonya swallowed hard, her throat dry. She felt a tremor work its way down her arms but she forced herself to stillness. The echo of the recording still lingered in her ears, but the real storm raged within her.

Clyde and Asqa. They weren’t just surviving after the Selecttion Stage. They had become something else entirely.

She barely recognized them.

The Clyde she remembered had always been sharp, calm, a planner who held back until it mattered most. But now? Now he stood like an unknown god among the god of Underworld and Archangel. His eyes lit with violet darkness, turning entire abominations to dust with a single blow.

And Asqa... the timid girl who used to flinch when speaking up during strategy meetings now painted the domain with fire and something that maybe venomous attack. There was no hesitation in her stance and no doubt in her attack.

Sonya’s fists clenched against her thighs. It wasn’t jealousy that burned in her heart. It wasn’t fear either, not exactly. It was something harder to name. A feeling made of guilt, wonder, and an aching kind of awe.

She’d been trapped in this place too long. Doing what she could. Surviving, hiding, and ollowing orders. She thought that at least if she followed Hermes her life wont be miserable. Thinking that there’s no way you can survive in this world if you go against a higher beings.

However, those two had defied fate itself.

The hall around her had grown quiet. Even Hermes – who had appeared again at some time she didn’t realized – had fallen silent, watching the stunned silence settle like ash. No one dared speak now.

Sonya stood slowly, the motion drawing more than a few glances from the others. But her expression that filled with shock is not something strange so they didn’t pay her too much attention.

Her eyes stayed locked on the space where the projection had hovered.

"Clye were always stronger than the rest of us. I just never realized how far he can go."

A memory flickered—Clyde’s hand pulling her up after a failed attack, Asqa’s quiet healing touch when she thought no one saw the toll it took on her. The three of them had once stay together and fight together. But the world had shattered, and they had scattered like broken stars.

Sonya turned and walked out of the hall just like few of the followers who can not bear to watch it any longer, her boots echoing on the polished stone.

Somewhere out there, her friends were rewriting what power meant in this world. And if they were changing the rules?

Does she would, too?

Sonya walked through Hermes’ domain. The projection from the recording wasn’t just being broadcast in the hall—it was also visible outside, suspended in the air, displaying the impossible sight of Clyde and Asqa.

She could hear the voices of the others. Most of them weren’t even talking about Asqa, who had been running and evading Zeus the entire time. Their attention was locked onto Clyde, who was battling both Hades and Gabriel. The explosive display of his strange power, and the way he clashed with them, had created a storm of sheer force and destruction.

The skies above Gabriel’s domain had been set ablaze. A dark mist had spread rapidly across the area. No one knew what kind of power that mist held—but one thing was certain: it was overwhelming. If that mist could keep both Gabriel and Hades at bay, then any ordinary follower who encountered that creature wouldn’t stand a chance. They would simply die.

The moment Sonya reached her room, she locked the door behind her and sat on her bed.

"What am I supposed to do? Should I tell Hermes that I know them?" Her expression was tight with anxiety, her thoughts spiraling as she struggled to figure out her next move.

Hermes had been good to her—and to the other followers. In fact, he’d treated them better than most of the higher beings. She didn’t hate him, even though he had also appeared during the Selection Stage, and hadn’t hesitated to inflict suffering on her and the others just to choose his own followers.

She had always hated the higher beings since that Stage began—since it had turned her life on Earth into a living hell. But knowing she couldn’t do anything about it, she had reluctantly accepted her fate.

And now—suddenly—her old friends had returned.

"First, I need to find a way to contact them."

Sonya stood up from the bed and began pacing around the room, thinking. What could she possibly do?

Sonya stepped away from the bed, her decision hardening. No more pacing. Her body moved on instinct, her mind already slipping into the mindset of a mission.

She opened the narrow wardrobe at the side of her room, revealing her gear, her set of clothes that make her silent, deadly, and it looks well-worn.

She pulled on her light armor first: a tight-fitting black cuirass made of woven enchanted threads, layered over a gray tunic and fitted leggings designed for speed and stealth. Thin plates of reinforced alloy guarded her shoulders and thighs, but left her movements unhindered. She slid on a pair of fingerless gloves, each sewn with pressure-grip pads that helped with climbing and fast draws.

Next came the weapons. A sleek short sword, sheathed at her back, the blackened steel catching only the faintest shimmer of light. Twin daggers, curved and balanced, were strapped at her hips. And finally, her bow. It was a simple, darkwood and alloy, compact but powerful. She slung it across her back beside a quiver of black-feathered arrows.

A hooded cloak, dust-colored and fastened with a simple clasp, completed the outfit, letting her blend into the background when needed.

After she fully dressed, Sonya took a deep breath, tying her hair back. She looked at herself in the mirror—her own gaze sharp.

She stepped into the corridor and made her way through Hermes’ domain once more, the halls growing thinner with people now. Many had left after the projection. The silence in the air was telling. No one quite knew what to say, but some know what to do. The guards nodded as she passed. No one questioned her.

Her boots clicked softly as she reached the arched entrance of the portal chamber. The room shimmered with energy, runes glowing along the marble floor, and at its center stood the travel gate, an ancient ring of stone that swirling with thin light like a vertical pool of water.

An attendant stood nearby, a young man in ceremonial robes, holding a crystal tablet. He raised his head as she approached, brow lifting slightly.

"You going out to investigate like the others?" he asked. His voice was quiet, but not surprised. "Can’t stand to stay idle after seeing the recording, huh?"

Sonya gave a small nod, adjusting the strap of her quiver. "Yeah. Just like the others."

The attendant offered a faint smile and tapped the tablet in his hands.

"You’re not the only one. A lot of them left in the past hour. Some said they’re heading to old Ruins to train. Others are just... looking for something. I guess we all are."

Sonya’s eyes flicked to the portal as it shimmered gently, awaiting activation. Her heart was steady now, the weight of her gear familiar and grounding. She was ready to move.

"Just open the gate to Archangel Gabriel’s domain again. I believe all travel are permitted now?" she said.

The attendant nodded and began the process. Light surged through the ring, the portal’s surface rippling like disturbed water.

Sonya stepped through the swirling portal.

For a heartbeat, there was nothing. Just a flash of cold light and pressure pulling at every nerve in her body, like her soul was momentarily separated from her skin.

The energy here felt different—not like the threads of power she’d grown used to in Hermes’ domain. This was suffused with the unmistakable aura of an Archangel.

Gabriel’s energy wasn’t oppressive, but it was sharp. She felt it the moment her boots touched the scorched soil.

She arrived in what once might have been a beautiful domain—now reduced to rubble and broken marble.

The portal closed behind her with a low hum.

The sky was dim with clouds tinged red-orange, and the land bore the signs of catastrophic battle. Burned-out trees twisted in strange shapes. Stone structures were melted or shattered.

She stepped forward carefully, her eyes scanning the domain.

A few other followers were already here—strangers, most from other domains.

Some picked through the rubble, others tested the strange mist that still lingered in the air like smoke from a dying fire. None of them spoke. Their movements were cautious. Everyone was looking for something.

Sonya stayed quiet and moved past them. She didn’t want to be noticed. Her light steps barely made a sound.

She wasn’t sure what she was searching for either. But this is the last place she saw Clyde and Asqa.

She kept walking, deeper into the ruin, past places where stone had been twisted by dark mist, and light had scorched the ground into glass. Faint echoes of battle still clung to the air.

Then she saw it, buried in the dirt. A severed hand.

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