Chapter 362
Zara (2)
"What the fuck is happening…"
"My eyes! They are smiling!!"
"I thought I saw them before the trials, but I didn't get a good look… They are—"
"What are you all doing!? The deadline creatures are approaching!" one of the twins shouted, snapping everyone's attention back to the task at hand.
The creatures and ascenders collided once more as the battle of death resumed, the brief, surreal moment shattered instantly.
Reuel and Yohan glanced at each other before Reuel began to advance, completely ignoring the scene behind him.
Yohan's eyes lingered for a second longer before he shook his head and followed, stepping forward to meet the incoming creatures.
"OK… can you let go now. We are in the middle of a battle."
"Awww, but I want to catch up with you! Actually, I'm surprised to see you with other people… Are you… are you cheating on me!?"
Zara gasped dramatically as she took a couple of steps back.
Natsuki spoke as her sword left her side with a simple motion of her hand, immediately beginning to reap the lives of the deadline creatures once more.
"Stop saying such fatuous things and listen to me."
Zara sighed slightly before nodding. "Why are you here, and weren't you looking for me?"
"I trusted you would find me eventually after being drawn in by such a large group, but I didn't think it would take this long… I regret that… but you are here now, so I will need your help. After this, we will be taking on a devilborn."
"No way, are they not scarier babies than the other babies?" Zara exclaimed, her face as expressive as ever, completely lacking any hint of fear.
"Yes… this baby will need to be taken care of by us. I'm hoping you will be willing to help me, right?" Natsuki, who was normally tyrannical and unbearing, spoke with an unusual level of respect for her friend, her usual domineering aura nowhere to be felt.
"Of course! I love kicking babies' ass!" Zara shouted at the top of her voice.
Natsuki was silent.
Zara seemed to realise her blunder as she quickly corrected herself. "Oh—I meant I love kicking babies' butts!" she whispered into Natsuki's ear. "After all, we don't want the babies to pick up bad words, right?"
"…Right."
"OK! When do I start kicking butt!" Zara said as she flexed her arms, switching into a few exaggerated poses.
Natsuki grabbed her own hip, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she stared ahead at the battle unfolding.
"Before you do that, first we need to kick these butts. Can we do 'that'? If not, it's OK since it's mana draining…"
"Of course I can, no need to worry about me… I can kick their butts with ease!"
As "butts" kept leaving the mouths of such beauties at a speed many hearts would not be able to endure, Reuel wasn't too far away, toying with creatures as usual.
"Woah! Is it just me, are you guys seriously getting closer or am I getting slower?" as multiple attacks came at him from all sides, yet each one missed as he barely even moved from his spot.
He twirled his spear skillfully, and with a flick of his wrist, a clean hole appeared in one creature's head—and with another motion, a second creature had a hole torn through its ribs.
As he reveled in his dominance, in the corner of his eye he noticed Zara beginning to approach the most congested area where the battle was taking place.
For some reason, she drew attention.
It wasn't just him.
Inexplicably, everyone's eyes were drawn to her, as if, in this moment, she had become the centre of everything—The protagonist!
Yohan, who had been watching her, felt that something had changed. He narrowed his eyes slightly, trying to understand what felt off.
Then he saw it.
It was her disposition.
Her gait.
It wasn't her usual cheerful or whimsical flow.
From her entire being, she was radiating utter and absolute focus and seriousness. And on her face was an expression Yohan never thought he would associate with Zara.
It was apathy.
"what is—"
His words were cut off by Natsuki's voice, which wasn't an answer—but a warning.
"I advise everyone to clear out the area for Zara… She can't fully control who's affected… or has it already started? "
It?,
Many thought.
It was here that Yohan noticed a subtle change in himself.
What was that?
It was hard to explain, but it was growing… growing with each step Zara took closer.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
What is going on?
Yohan didn't realise his forehead was sweating—when did that even begin? He brought his hand up to wipe it and—
There it was.
That strange… thing.
He suddenly became aware of his heartbeat, and he realised it was pounding heavily, like he had just run a marathon without stopping.
He raised his hands to look at them —and realised how… how hard it was to even do that.
Natsuki's voice echoed in his ears once more as he forced himself to take a step forward.
He lifted his foot into the air…
And brought it back down!
His eyes shrank as the sensation became clearer and unmistakable.
Natsuki spoke again.
"Distance yourself away from her as quickly as possible before it gets worse! Now!"
Simultaneously, Yohan realised what this sensation was.
It was heaviness.
It was weight.
It felt as though the weight of everything was pressing down on him all at once.
No—
It was deeper than that.
It wasn't just his body.
It was his thoughts.
His emotions.
His very intent.
Even the coursing of mana through his Avien felt incomprehensibly heavy, sluggish, as if it were being dragged through something thick and unyielding.
And it would only continue to grow heavier the closer she got.
What… what... a… terrifying… concept, Yohan thought.
But that wasn't even the worst part.
He had to move.
Now.
Before it became impossible.
He looked up, but even that felt immensely heavy, as if something was pressing down on his very neck. His gaze dragged slowly across the battlefield, each movement laboured, and what he saw only deepened the unease.
Many who stood close to Zara were in the same situation.
However—
It was noticeable that some moved far more easily than others. There was still a sense of heaviness clinging to them, but there was no doubt—they were moving better and escaping sooner. The reason for that difference was unclear for now, but it was unmistakable.
Natsuki's voice rang out once more, tyrannical and commanding.
"Those who aren't as affected, help move the ones who are more heavily affected out of Zara's range."
And they did just that.
Yohan realised quickly that he was among the most affected by this phenomenon… with Reuel being the other, equally burdened.
His body felt like it was being dragged down into the ground itself.
Hands suddenly grabbed onto him.
"Fuck! Why are you so heavy?"
They began pulling him back, each step a struggle, his body resisting as if it no longer belonged to him.
The same was happening with Reuel not too far away, both of them being forcibly moved out of the suffocating zone.
Gradually—
Yohan felt it.
The weight began to lessen.
Step by step, the crushing pressure eased, his movements returning to him piece by piece, until suddenly—
It was gone.
Completely.
He stood there, breathing slightly heavier than usual, his body finally his own again.
He muttered his thanks to those who had helped him before turning his gaze toward the source of it all.
The sight that met him…
Was shocking, to say the least.
We had touched upon the humans… but now… what about the deadline creatures?
It was incredible to witness.
All, without exception, were kneeling.
No—
That wasn't entirely accurate.
It was more like they simply couldn't stand upright, no matter how much their forms strained or twisted. Their limbs buckled, their bodies bent, their structures collapsing under an unseen force they couldn't resist.
From a distance, however, it looked like every single creature within her range was kneeling before an ascender.
Before her.
Riveting.
Fantastical.
Incredible.
No matter how it was described, it was a goosebumps-inducing sight. No one could look away. Even the creatures outside her range came to a sudden halt, their movements stuttering as if instinct alone screamed danger at them—something overwhelming, something absolute.
Yohan turned to Natsuki, who had already begun to motion her sword, sweeping it through the creatures who were now completely and utterly defenceless.
"How?… What is going on?"
Natsuki glanced at him, her expression that of someone mildly perturbed by a stupid question.
"Didn't I already tell you?… Zara… is strong."
"That's—"
Before he could continue…
Zara began to speak.
Her voice was strangely apathetic, as if it didn't even belong to the same person. Yet it carried clearly across the entire field, cutting through noise, movement, and chaos alike.
"Tell me… can you feel it?"
She raised a free hand as she continued stepping forward—slowly—towards the creatures. With each step, the invisible pressure deepened, and the closer she got, the more their forms buckled under it.
"All things, regardless of origin—whether alive or not—go through experiences…"
She tilted her head slightly, as if listing something obvious.
"For things that are alive, it might be emotions, memories, self-awareness, identity, connection, rejection, trust, betrayal, dreams, mortality, existential dread, survival, suffering, instinct, reproduction drive, adaptation, remembering, forgetting, imagining—and more…"
The battlefield was deathly silent.
Even the creatures didn't move.
No one interrupted her.
"For non-living things, it might be rest, movement, pressure, mass, weather, corrosion, erosion, friction, gravity, combustion, deformation, breaking, sedimentation, aging, decay—and more."
Her gaze remained calm, detached, almost empty.
"At the end of it all… regardless of whether it lives or not… everything that exists, or will exist, experiences something. And it will be impacted by it. No matter how small. No matter how large."
She stopped walking for a moment.
The pressure peaked.
"Now I ask you a question…"
Her hand lowered slightly.
"Where do these experiences go?"
Silence.
"Does it simply exist in the brain of living things… or in the body... The core?… or even in the abstract and difficult theory of a soul?"
Her eyes shifted faintly across the battlefield.
"After all… why is it that humans have things like thoughts, personalities, uniqueness, behaviours? It is not needed to help the human body to function, so why would such things exist?"
A pause.
"It suggests the existence of a soul."
Another step forward.
"But regardless of whether it exists or not…"
Her voice lowered slightly.
"I do not care."
???
"What I do know is that these experiences stay with something—whether alive or not—until its eventual oblivion… There is no rebuttal to my statement, and it is for this reason I am here… to judge… to bring judgement. Judgement on these experiences…"
"For some, they might have a vast number of them, yet they are small and light… for others, it could be something infinitely small, yet unbearably heavy… yes… everything must bear the weight…"
She raised the arm holding the hammer.
"Whether it is good or bad, I am here to judge these experiences you have had… for I am the judge."
All the while she spoke, another Presence moved across the battlefield.
Natsuki...or more specifically her sword.
It was already in motion—massacring the creatures within range with effortless precision. Each swing of its blade was clean, efficient and absolute. The numbers dwindled rapidly as bodies fell apart and faded from existence, unable to resist even in their final moments.
As the last of the creatures collapsed and vanished, Zara's voice returned—calm, final and carrying an unnatural stillness.
"Now tell me… can you feel it?"
She raised her hammer high above her head.
For a moment, everything seemed to pause.
Then she brought it down with the exact motion of a judge delivering a verdict.
"Can you feel it… the weight of your existence?"