The voice echoed inside Nikolai’s mind, just once, before the deep rumble was overtaken by the hum of something hidden in the darkness. All that appeared in his gaze was the damaged tower, wrapped in a horizon of endless dark matter and twinkling stars.

Nikolai tried to rationalise the sound, as he did with anything. Read new chapters at My Virtual Library Empire

The likelihood of hearing a voice echo inside a mind with no source would be just impossible, right? But Nikolai was having trouble thinking at all.

When his connection to the girls vanished, even his link to Sarah faded, he became isolated in this strange world.

『Complete the challenge to survive.』

Once again, the strange voice echoed, but this time in r-dialect, something that Nikolai understood well, causing him to stand up and dust himself off.

The creature or existence speaking to him wasn’t making itself known, and despite their current separation, there was a sense of connectedness between them. This presence almost suffocated Nikolai as it weighed down on his spirit like a tonne of steel.

He could focus on the voice for just a moment longer, though, before his thoughts solidified they started fading away one after another.

“Well…” With a sigh, he exhaled and stepped forward. The sound of rocks crushing into powder echoed out underfoot. “I should find my way out.”

Without waiting for an answer, he continued walking forward until the darkness began to warp and twist around him. Everything seemed endless and never-changing.

Something clicked in Nikolai’s head, as if unlocking some ancient memory long since forgotten, yet never fully erased from existence entirely.

The more he tried to avoid the tower, the more twisted and deformed the passage, until after walking for some time, he found himself standing in the same spot that he started out in.

It took several attempts before he even discovered the phenomenon happening right beneath his feet; should he move away from the tower, the ground subtly curved to the right, or left until the path eventually brought him full circle.

“Do I have to enter here?”

After staring at the structure for a long moment, he turned back towards where he came from, frowning.

“Well, isn’t this peculiar. What else will happen?”

A shadow crossed over Nikolai’s eyes, but no hint of fear appeared within his mind as he took numerous deep breaths, he decided to enter the tower.

The passage itself resembled that of a cathedral or temple rather than anything else, leading up a steep incline until it ended with two doors opening outward.

An ominous sight met him when they opened: dozens of skeletons lay strewn about across the floor, many piled high atop one another. He noticed these skeletons spread from the tower and continued until the horizon.

There must have been millions, if not billions, of corpses.

That’s when he suddenly thought of the war and the second tower mentioned by his father and those books in the Volkov vault.

‘Is this the tower that caused the great war, the tower that was destroyed?’

He paused, glancing behind himself, and noted how now things made sense.

From this position he could see deep craters, a dry and devastated land filled with countless dead, and the darkness hiding them from existence. It looked as though a meteorite crashed down onto its surface, destroying everything.

But as much as Nikolai found himself staring outside, there seemed little point lingering, since entering the tower was clearly the goal of the existence guiding him.

“Well, let’s go inside!”

Nikolai’s lips twitched, the musky scent of mould and damp filling his nose as he pushed the heavy silver doors open.

Meanwhile, on the outside, Risa became berserk.

The moment Nikolai vanished, and their connection severed, her heart started pounding, a mix of emotions causing blood-red lines to appear across her skin, spreading through the whites of her eyes like spider veins. Her pupils contracted and expanded at an alarming rate.

Her body shifted through various shapes, transforming into her battle form, claws, eyes, and whiskers sometimes fading as her nose started bleeding and steam erupted from her ears.

Risa’s chest tightened, breathing growing erratic and irregular.

Risa’s self-control and sense of reason slowly eroded, until finally something snapped in her mind.

Then she simply stood still for several minutes, swaying gently. Her eyes glowed while the fleeing ghouls approached, her ears flickered each time a wet footstep or sound echoed.

‘Nikolai… where are you?’

Her mind became chaotic, unable to keep track of even basic thoughts. Yet, her expression was cold and focused. When two more ghouls were spotted in an adjoining room, she reacted.

With frightening speed, her eyes locked onto them with the pinpoint accuracy of a sniper scope.

A vicious snarl escaped Risa’s lips, fangs dripping with saliva.

Before she knew what was happening, she found herself standing above the headless corpses of the two ghouls, covered in their disgusting mottled blood, with more footsteps coming closer.

Nikolai, don’t leave me alone…

‘I’ll make them pay.’

The sounds of flesh tearing and screams soon filled the tunnels, as Risa’s instinct and hunger overwhelmed all higher brain function.

Without Nikolai, Risa became an unstoppable beast rampaging through the tunnels. Her mind lost to pure instinct.

And within moments, it happened: She came face to face with the other humans.

A few moments before she started the massacre, Selene, Kumiko and Nikita also stood on the edge of the village, with dozens of the Volkov maids behind them.

The instant that Nikolai vanished, a devastating shock washed over them.

Their eyes dimmed and dulled, looking down at the ground below. They heard something crash through the forest canopy above them, then saw a human body covered in wounds roll across the ground, holding a gun.

“Why is this human here, wasn’t he supposed to be with our husband?” Nikita’s voice became low, a guttural growl as she narrowed her golden eyes, her arms, and legs already transformed into a werewolf.

“…” Selene remained silent, her pupils constricted into tiny dots, as she touched her face, which contorted itself into a monstrous visage, with sharp fangs and teeth growing.

Unlike her usual pretty visage, Selene looked like a true monster.

“I guess we can’t let him live.” Kumiko whispered to herself in an empty and emotionless tone, her hand gripping Ryan’s throat. As she transformed into her complete monster form, only the maids seemed to be focused and didn’t transform. “I don’t care if he lives or dies now…”

With those words, she started squeezing Ryan’s neck.

“Lady Kumiko!” Leona’s voice echoed as the maids dashed forward.

Though weaker in pedigree, their age and time training allowed them to at least restrict her with numbers, dragging Ryan away, with his neck turning dark with a bruise. But Kumiko didn’t remain idle. Her expression twisted as she looked up at the village.

“He’s there… He went there…” Kumiko growled.

“He did…” Selene said while licking her lips with a monstrous look.

“Let’s go!” Nikita’s eyes almost seemed to turn black for a moment, her movements swift as they rushed into the dark caves, seeking Nikolai.

Unaware of what was happening, Nikolai found himself on the tower’s first floor. The walls covered in sticky black corruption, and the monsters all dead, with flowers and strange fungi growing from their dried corpses.

“The monsters were wiped out,” Nikolai said as he pushed himself back on his feet, looking around carefully, checking everything inside his surroundings.

But when his eyes turned towards the door, his instincts flared, and a small, subconscious instinct screamed to stay away from it.

“Hell… This is why I hate magic.”

He shook his head and sighed deeply before placing his hand on the stiff door, jammed in place, forcing him to kick it open, stepping over the mummified corpses that stood guard beside it.

An instant later, Nikolai was sent tumbling outside. And by the looks of things, it appeared he was in the centre of a village somewhere.

There were several dilapidated houses lining the sides, with a central bonfire surrounded by dozens of people who knelt, frozen in place, like stone statues praying to the sky.

“What?”

The village reminded him of the mermaid village he slaughtered in the other tower, but this time there was not a single monster in sight. Everything seemed eerily calm and peaceful, especially considering the tower itself was warped in darkness.

Cautiously moving forward, Nikolai examined each of the kneeling statues until he finally approached a large building in the centre of the village.

On the floor, he found a strange, half rotten book with a few readable pages.

— The gods have forsaken us.

We prayed our haven would remain free of the blight, but I fear my faith has dwindled as more and more succumb to the evil plague sweeping our village. In times like these, one must wonder if anything could save us from our fate.

There are many who do not deserve such horrible suffering.

— Another child died today. The gods still do not answer our calls!

Are you there?

Have you abandoned us?

— I cannot keep writing about so many deaths.

— All hope is lost…

— People I’ve known my entire life rot in their homes, while others seem immune. Perhaps we’ve angered the gods. A blasphemous belief spreads among survivors: there is only one way left to survive.

The page is covered in blood, but the words are etched into the paper… as if someone scratched them hard enough to reach the cover.

— WE MUST KILL ALL HUMANS FOR SALVATION!

“What?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep