The Author's POV

Screeech—!

With a loud screech, the car came to a stop in front of Nola's kindergarten and I got out of the car.

Without looking back, I quickly headed for the kindergarten. Although the situation wasn't exactly dangerous as I knew what was happening, I still decided to pick Nola up. I couldn't quite trust my memories anymore.

Rumble—!

Entering the premise of the kindergarten, there were a couple of guards guarding the entrance, however, they were all too preoccupied looking at the sky to even notice my appearance as I quickly headed inside.

'Which one is Nola's classroom?'

Cluelessly navigating through the corridors of the building, I looked left and right in hopes of seeing Nola.

As I looked around the place, I could hear the panicked screams and cries of the teachers and students echoing throughout the corridors and classrooms of the place.

"Nola!"

To my luck, I didn't have to look for long as I soon found Nola inside one of the classrooms, hunched on the ground with her head covered with her hands.

I immediately rushed towards her.

Hearing me call out for her, Nola turned around and reached her hands for me.

"Brother!"

"I'm here."

Grabbing her by the armpits, I brought her into my embrace and finally calmed down. So long as she was okay, then everything was okay.

Raising my head and staring at my surroundings, my brows furrowed.

There were over twenty other children inside the room, and they all looked panicked.

Rumble—!

With another rumble, the classroom shook and the children started to cry even harder. Nola who was tightly holding onto me, tugged the back of my shirt as she softly said.

"Brother, I'm scared."

"It's alright, it's nothing major. Just a small earthquake."

Caressing her head, I quickly reassured her that everything was fine.

"Earthquake?"

"Yes, just grab tightly and nothing will happen."

Lowering my head and staring at Nola, I smiled.

"Didn't you say it before? Brother is strong isn't he?"

"Um."

Seemingly convinced by my words, Nola brought her face closer to my chest and closed her eyes.

I sighed in relief once I saw this.

Taking a look at the children inside of the classroom, I headed for the teacher that was trying to calm everyone down. Because of what was happening she had still not realized my presence.

Walking toward the teacher, I softly called out for her.

"Excuse me."

"Huh? Who are you?"

Startled, the teacher jumped back.

Tilting my head and showing the teacher Nola's face, I quickly tried to calm her down.

"It's alright, I'm her brother."

Then, glancing toward the others, I quickly said.

"You don't have to panic about the situation. It's only a light earthquake, it should disappear in a couple of minutes. What you should do is calm the kids down. The building is reinforced with special means, so it won't crumble down under this type of shaking."

If I had to estimate the strength of the shaking, I would say that it would be comparable to an earthquake of magnitude 6.5.

It was strong, but it wasn't something that could cause the building any trouble. After all, the building was designed to even withstand earthquakes of magnitude 9.9, which was the highest ever recorded, even when the first cataclysm occurred.

Simply put, this situation was not dangerous.

As I said those words, I made sure to release a wisp of my aura to reassure her that I was someone reliable.

"O...okay."

Hearing my words, and sensing my power, the teacher finally managed to calm down. She then quickly got to work and helped all of the children calm down. I nodded when I saw this.

Then, with Nola still in my arms, I quickly got out of the building.

As I had memorized the way when I entered, it didn't take me long to get out of the building.

Arriving at my car, the door opened and I let Nola sit on the front seat.

Clip—!

Fastening her seatbelt, I got onto my seat and pressed the accelerator of the car. My current destination was the mercenary headquarters. At the moment, that was probably the safest place that I could go to.

As I was driving the car, I glanced towards the small screen that sat at the front of the car. With my right hand, I tapped onto the screen and called my parents to make sure that everything was alright with them.

The last time I checked they were home, and therefore shouldn't be too worried about their situation. But I still needed to double-check.

Riiing—! Riiing—!

The phone did not ring for long as my mom's panicked voice sounded from the speakers of the car.

—Ren? Is everything alright? Are you okay? Is Nola with you?

Seeing how panicked she sounded, I quickly tried to calm her down.

"Mom, calm down, everything is alright. I'm with Nola."

Turning my head, I looked at Nola.

"Nola, say hi to mom."

"Hi, mom."

—Oh thank god, I was very worried. Thank god you two are fine.

It was only after she heard Nola's voice that my mom calmed down. Before she could continue, I quickly informed her of my plans.

"Mom, I'm going to bring Nola to my workplace. I figured that's the safest place to bring her, so you don't have to worry about us."

As I was talking, I suddenly noticed Nola tilt her head away from the speakers.

Extending my hand, I lowered the volume of the speakers before continuing.

"Regarding the situation, it's best if you stay home for the next couple of hours. The situation is not as bad as you think it is. But just in case, stay at home with dad, okay?"

Because I already had an idea of what was happening, I knew that the situation wasn't exactly terrible. However, just in case something did happen, I still suggested that they should stay at home for the day.

Fortunately, my mother readily agreed with my words as she said.

—Okay, if you say so. Make sure you keep Nola safe, okay? I trust you.

"Yes, don't worry."

Glancing at Nola who was staring at the streets, I once again repeated.

"Don't worry."

***

"What is happening?"

Standing up and staring toward the window of her apartment, Monica's brows furrowed. Taking a step forward, she appeared outside of her building, levitating in the air.

Her bright orange hair gently moved upwards as the wind blew past her.

Raising her head and staring at the crack in the sky, her brows knit tightly.

"This doesn't look good," She softly mumbled to herself. Although she couldn't quite understand what was happening, she knew that the crack in the sky was not a good sign for what was to come in the future.

Her disposition quickly became serious.

"Hm?"

From above she could faintly hear the panicked cries coming from beneath the city, however, this all went deaf hear to her as she suddenly an odd sensation coarse through her body.

"What's going on?"

Raising her hand, her pupils dilated as she found millions of bright red particles floating around her.

Swiping her hand to the right, she watched as the bright red particles brushed past her hand like water. To make matters even odder was the fact that as she brushed her hand past the particles, she could feel the mana inside of her body increase.

Her lips dried up once she felt this.

"The mana in the air, it's thickening up..."

Before she knew it, the red particles in the air surrounding her became denser and denser. It wasn't long before she was surrounded by the red particles.

"Huuuu."

Instead of panicking, Monica suddenly closed her eyes. Following this, something extraordinary happened.

The bright red particles that were floating around Monica came to a sudden stop. Then, as though Monica was a vacuum, the particles in the air suddenly shot toward Monica's body like a funnel.

The hue revolving around Monica's body intensified and her hair shot upwards. With her eyes still closed, a bright flame-like hue suddenly materialized by the side of Monica's eyes as the area around her froze.

Ohm~ Ohm~

An humming sound rang in the air, and a red funnel manifested above Monica's body.

This persisted for an unknown period of time before Monica's head suddenly arched upwards and a bright red pillar shot out from her body.

The moment the bright red pillar appeared in the air, all the powerful individuals in the human domain simultaneously raised their heads and stared in its direction.

At this moment, they all knew that something extraordinary was about to happen.

***

Dashing out of the Union headquarters, Kevin's footsteps came to a stop once he was finally able to get a clear view of the sky.

There he saw the massive tear in the sky, and his face couldn't help but twist once he saw this.

'What in the world is happening?'

From the system message to the crack in the sky, Kevin had no idea about what was happening.

However, if he had to make a guess, Kevin believed that it somehow had to do with the demon king. For the timer to suddenly shrink down, and this to happen, Kevin knew that this was not a coincidence.

The demon king was definitely up to something.

His teeth clenched at the thought.

"Hm?"

Because Kevin had been too distracted by his thoughts, it was only after a couple of minutes had passed that he noticed something odd about the world. Or rather, the mana in the air.

"The mana in the air..."

Unlike Monica, Kevin was unable to see the individual psyons in the air; however, he wasn't dumb.

He could definitely sense that something was up with the mana in the air.

Closing his eyes, Kevin quickly channeled the mana in the air towards his body. After a couple of seconds, his eyes opened widely.

"The mana in the air is denser!"

If before it took him an hour to fully recover his mana, at the moment, Kevin estimated that it would take not even half of that time. The mana in the air had become that much denser!

This was a pleasant surprise to him.

Not only did it mean that he could now fight longer, but it also meant that he could break through at a faster rate than in the past.

Kevin did not rejoice for long, however.

Although the fact that the mana density of the earth had increased was a good thing for humanity as a whole, he also knew this was just as bad as it was good.

'If only every human was good.'

By now, Kevin knew that he wasn't the only one that noticed that the density of the mana had increased. From the members of the Union to the members of the Monolith.

This sudden change definitely threatened the balance of the world. The stronger people became, the more chaos it sewed, and the Union would have a much harder time retaining the little order the world had.

To Kevin, this change was not ideal. Rather, it only served to make him more apprehensive about the whole situation.

"Huh?"

Snapping Kevin out of his thoughts, Kevin suddenly sensed an enormous pressure coming from the distance.

Turning his head to glance in the direction of where the pressure came from, Kevin's eyes opened widely as he stared at an enormously large orange pillar in the sky.

"This..."

Gazing at the orange pillar in the sky, Kevin felt an odd feeling of familiarity coming from it. It didn't take too long for Kevin to realize where the feeling came from as his head rolled back in shock.

"This familiar mana footprint, it definitely belongs to Monica."

It wasn't clear to him at first, but because the mana output coming from the pillar in the distance was so enormous, Kevin was able to instantly tell that the mana belonged to Monica.

He had been with her long enough to know this.

"Is she about to break through to <SS-> rank?"

Furthermore, to his shock, he realized that the mana in the air was rapidly covering in her direction.

Having broken through several times in the past, Kevin was quite familiar with the process, and therefore, after staring in Monica's direction for a couple of more seconds, he was able to quickly come up with the conclusion that Monica was just about to break through to <SS-> rank.

Once his thoughts paused there, his fists secretly clenched.

Finally, after a long time, humanity was about to gain another powerhouse.