Chapter Text
"The Immortal Lord of Heaven and Earth for Blessings,
The Sky Lord of Heaven and Earth for Blessings.
The Exalted Thearch of Heaven and Earth for Blessings,
The Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth." A man whispered as he suddenly fainted in the middle of the room.
Out of nowhere, multiple people wearing dark wizard robes jumped in the apartment and circled the man who fainted. They drew a circle made of fine, white crystal powder and placed random items such as lizard's tail on the circle.
"Let's be quick. It won't be long before we get noticed by Him." Wooden vines entangled the man who fainted.
Seeing this, they unified their whispers and kowtowed to the circle. "O' Great Goddess, please cast down Your gaze onto us."
"Your greatness and mercy shall spread across the planet."
The whole group of cultists waited for a while. Silence was heard across the apartment until a man finally spoke.
"Nothing happened." Everyone sighed in dismay.
"Yeah, I think we should go. Maybe something will happen by then."
"Are we even sure that something will happen?" A woman in the group spoke up. "We're just reciting random rituals from the internet."
"Something magical already happened to us before. This means that Gods are real somehow. Let's go." The cultists nodded at each other as they jumped out of the window one by one.
Suddenly, a faint, white mist hovered on top of the man, encircling him before it entered in his body.
...
The man opened his eyes and immediately noticed that he wasn't in his apartment. Am I still dreaming?
He sat upright and scanned his surroundings. It was an endless, gray fog that seemed to exist for millions of years. "I should wake up soon. My boss will scold me later and deduct my salary if I wake up too late." He laid back down and closed his eyes.
He opened his eyes once again and met the grey fog. What? This isn't a dream? Where am I? "Hello?" He called out to the fog with no response.
All of a sudden, he had a really bad feeling. "What is going on?" Numerous scenes flashed before his eyes. It showed his own apartment crumbling down and many people fainting from something indescribable. He saw his own family and friends getting entangled with vicious, wooden vines and red mist before exploding. Lastly, he saw the whole world shaking and crumbling down within minutes.
"I-I'm hallucinating, right?" Despair flooded in his face, and the whole world of grey fog surged and boiled to signify his inner turmoil.
The whole planet was covered in grey fog, and the only humans left stared in horror as reality distorted around them.
Both the spiritual and astral world flooded with grey fog, and the Outer Gods eyeing the planet froze in fear.
Buildings that once crumbled stood up again, only for it to crumble again.
Doors appeared from thin air and opened, only for it to close.
Everyone had their intelligence forcefully lowered.
The man noticed this and collapsed into a giant pile of worms and tentacles. The tentacles flew around and swayed violently, while the worms crawled around and pretended that it was nothing but a worm.
Gray fog covered the mess and attempted to converge, yet it's continuous attempts failed.
The turmoil on Earth didn't stop. The gray fog only got thicker, making it hard for everyone to see and navigate around.
The people huddled together in one, small place. Everyone was anxious and feared that they would all die instantly like everyone else.
A man in white shirt and ripped jeans stood up in determination. "If everyone only huddled in this place for hours, what will happen to us? How are we going to survive?" He clenched his fist as he watched everyone stare into the fog. No one was listening to him.
"Will everyone only sit here and wait for your deaths when your loves ones sacrificed their lives for you to live?" Everyone turned their heads to him. A man stood up and faced him.
"As you said, billions of people sacrificed their lives for us to live and continue the race of humanity, and that's exactly why we don't want to leave. Have you not seen the world? It's covered by an ominous, ancient gray fog. Doors appear out of thin air, and the whole world is stuck on the cycle of being destroyed and rebuilt. How are we supposed to survive under such power? Are you trying to kill us?"
"Then how are we going to eat?" Everyone looked at each other in an ominous way, except him who still believed that they could go outside and grab some food. "Don't tell me you're planning to..."
A woman stood up and faced him, seeming defiant. "Then how else are we going to survive?" He looked at everyone that seemed to be like curly-haired baboons and sighed.
One of the young teens raised her hand and came forward. "I-I volunteer as food!" Their eyes were wide in shock. "Everyone needs to eat somehow, and we can't turn on each other. We are the last humans on Earth, and we need to continue living for the future of humanity." Everyone looked at her as if she was some kind of hero.
Everyone has become stupid somehow. "Are you really going to act like primitive cavemen? We're in the age of information, dammit!" The crowd turned angry on him. "Isn't eating each other the same as going outside? What if she has an unknown disease? Would you really rather risk abandoning your morals and eat someone before dying or be brave and contribute to humanity's survival before dying?" His words gave everyone second thoughts on their initial plan.
Those who opposed him slowly backed down and sat on their original seats.
Another man stood up and voiced his thoughts. "He's right. We've lost our minds due to our fear for this apocalypse, but going outside means we can also eventually find out how to get around these various phenomena and survive."
"Only six people can go out per team, so that if we die, there will still be people who can go out and continue our journey." As if an unspoken rule, everyone tacitly agreed to let this man become the leader.
Many people raised their hands to volunteer. "Those who raised their hands, let's all gather here and discuss our plans moving forward. The rest should collect nearby materials and build our base." This ordinary man with ordinary features had such excellent leadership skills that everyone didn't hesitate to listen.
"Five of you can go out with me today. Tomorrow, there will be another team to explore the area and bring back food. So, who wants to go with me today?" One-third of them raised their hands, still more than enough.
The leader observed those who raised their hands carefully. Obviously, those with strong physical physiques are a great choice, but this doesn't rely only in strength, but also in intelligence, mental fortitude, and more. He picked five people with diverse personalities and finally formed a team of three women and two men.
After the briefing, the group made their way to the entrance of the cave.
"By the way, we can't operate properly if we don't know each other." The leader smiled to the group. "My name is Merlin."