Chapter 80: Cube

The moon hung high in the sky, alone in an empty firmament, with no stars or clouds to accompany it. Its pale light fell upon the city, bathing the deserted streets in a cold, distant glow.

The wind swept through the alleys, slipping between the buildings with a persistent murmur. It carried trash, dry dust, and dead leaves, whirling them up into brief eddies that dissipated against the damp walls.

Perched on the edge of a rooftop, a woman with crimson hair let the night breeze—slightly salty, carried in from the sea—play with her locks, gently swaying them.

Her legs dangled in the void, swaying ever so slightly, as she gazed at the city spread out below her. The scattered lights, the shadows in the alleys… and, in the distance, the faint reflection of the ocean beneath the moon.

Her gaze, lost in the darkness, betrayed a barely concealed boredom.

Then she turned her face slightly.

Someone was approaching.

“Princess Alexandra, please come down from the ceiling. It’s dangerous.”

Alexandra glanced sideways at her maid without moving, as if her presence were nothing more than another minor annoyance in the night.

She ignored her.

She had no intention of locking herself away again in a stifling room, trapped between hot walls, the constant buzzing of mosquitoes, and that heavy air that seemed to stick to her skin.

“I don’t want to. The breeze is cool here…”

She shook her head dismissively, letting the wind brush against her face.

“Besides, I have a beautiful view of the sea.”

Her eyes drifted toward the dark horizon.

“Isn’t it wonderful?”

She paused briefly, and her expression grew slightly colder.

“At the royal castle… everything is so fake.”

The maid shook her head, clasping her hands against her apron before letting out a weary sigh.

“But, Princess, this place isn’t safe. Please come down. Tomorrow you’ll be able to explore the city better, and we can continue our journey to Risthon.”

Alexandra frowned slightly.

She pouted childishly and crossed her arms, looking away like a sulky little girl.

“I don’t want to get down from here.”

The wind picked up for a moment.

And then…

From different parts of the city, four pillars of energy shot up violently, tearing through the air with a sharp crack.

The light they emitted was unnatural, pulsating… as if Something alive were beating inside them.

They cut through the night sky and connected, forming an impossible structure that bathed the city in an unsettling glow.

Alexandra stood motionless.

Her eyes narrowed as she sensed the mana they were giving off.

It was dense and heavy.

Without another thought, she stood up and nimbly climbed down from the roof, landing lightly on the ground.

“We have to get out of here. Quickly.”

…

After leaving the mansion, Adam frowned.

He sensed it instantly—a fluctuation in mana.

Subtle… but impossible to ignore.

His SSS-rank talent in magic, combined with his Mana Perception Trait, reacted before he could even fully process it. Something was happening in the city.

Damn it! Why did I offer to help them?

Adam didn’t want to get caught up in this mess that was about to unfold.

So he ran.

His footsteps pounded the ground as he raced through the dark streets, guided only by that uneasy premonition clinging to his mind.

However, as he raced forward, he suddenly saw pillars popping up in various parts of the city; this only confirmed the inevitable.

It was beginning.

And there was no way to escape now.

Adam slowed his pace. Something didn’t add up.

The streets… were crowded.

Commoners, merchants, peasants… everyone went about their business as usual, busy with their own affairs as if nothing were happening.

The sound of footsteps, trivial conversations, and everyday life filled the air.

At first glance… everything seemed perfectly normal.

Too normal.

Adam narrowed his eyes. That city… felt wrong.

As if all that “normality” were nothing more than a mask.

And beneath it…

… Something was waiting.

After all, it was a simple rule. The more normal Something seemed… the more dangerous it was.

He made his way through the streets. Adam still had that nagging feeling: that he was being watched. It was strange… and at the same time unsettling, as if thousands of invisible eyes were opening and closing all around him, but none could be identified.

As he kept walking, he passed several shops and street stalls. At first glance, everything seemed normal, but there was an absurd twist to that normality that stuck with him.

In the central square, next to the fountain, he came across the statue.

An impossible figure: the body of an angel, but with the elongated face of a dog, a neck as sturdy as a lion’s, and membranous bat wings.

The stone glowed with a dull sheen, as if a blasphemous whim had forged the sacred.

It was grotesque, it was ridiculous… and yet it exuded an aura of unshakable solemnity, as if one were compelled to bow one’s head before it.

Adam watched it for a while, standing motionless in the crowd.

The longer he looked at it, the more real… and the more absurd it seemed to him.

The creaking of the carts’ wheels, the jingling of coins, the overlapping voices of merchants and customers… it all fit together. Too well.

And even after walking through the city—narrow alleys, open squares, crowded markets—that feeling wouldn’t go away.

It was still there.

Stuck to his back.

Like a gaze he couldn’t quite find.

The faces in the crowd smiled, haggled, and argued over prices with feigned enthusiasm. Their movements were fluid, natural… almost perfect.

As if they were playing a role.

As if they were all following the same script.

Adam slowed his pace.

His eyes darted from one face to another, searching for Something out of place. A belated gesture. An incorrect reaction.

After several minutes of pacing back and forth, he stopped in the middle of the street.

The murmur continued around him, indifferent to his silence.

Then… Something changed the world… it warped.

The houses began to stretch slowly, as if their structures were turning soft. The walls stretched upward, tapering unnaturally, before suddenly shrinking to the size of simple boxes.

The wood creaked without breaking.

The stone bent as if it were hot wax.

Everything warped… like a poorly drawn sketch.

And the people…

The people were no exception.

Their arms stretched out, long and thin, until they brushed the ground. Their fingers lengthened like threads, trembling… before shrinking abruptly, leaving them with absurd, almost childlike proportions.

Their bodies contracted and expanded, as if someone were squeezing and releasing them from the outside.

Like rag dolls.

Like things… that were never human.

Amid hollow laughter, they all held hands, spinning in circles while their forms continued to warp absurdly, stretching and shrinking, stretching and shrinking…

Even the sky seemed like a joke. The clouds stretched out like cotton snakes, the sun curved as if it were a freshly painted canvas, dripping liquid yellow light.

The horizon undulated; the houses leaned to one side as if dancing in a comical carnival.

It was all absurd, comical… and, at the same time, deeply unsettling.

But despite that scene, Adam’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. Anyone else would have dropped to their knees, been terrified, or fled in panic.

He, on the other hand, remained motionless, observing calmly, as if that grotesque spectacle were nothing more than a fleeting detail.

He gathered mana in his fingers. With a simple gesture…

A loud snap echoed through his fingers; it was like thunder shattering the illusion. Energy scattered throughout the room, and reality began to crumple like a sheet of old paper.

The absurd scene folded in on itself, tearing and disintegrating into pieces until it revealed what lay beneath.

The painting faded; the caricature crumbled.

Adam remained in the same spot… but everything had changed.

…

An ethereal cube formed over the city, trapping all its residents, as well as those from the sea and nearby areas.

Without warning, several figures emerged at various points throughout the city, appearing among the crowd, on rooftops, and even in the middle of crowded streets. No one saw them coming. No one had time to react. They were there… and in the next instant, they began to attack.

The violence was immediate and absolute.

Screams erupted into the air, tearing through it, mingling with the wet sound of flesh being torn open and bones snapping under an unstoppable force.

People tried to flee, tripping over one another, falling, getting back up only to be caught a second later.

Chaos spread like a wave, devouring everything in its path, directionless, illogical… nothing but destruction.

The streets began to fill with blood, while the night continued in tranquility, oblivious to the massacre unfolding in the city of Bretan.

…

Once the illusion had faded, Adam began to hear heart-wrenching cries for help.

And just as he was about to run, several figures appeared in front of him.

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