A month later – A surprising rumour spread across the world. It was that Deathbringer died at the hands of CoT. CoT publicly announced that they killed him.

  At the ACZ headquarters. An hour before an emergency meeting among all countries which is to be held online.

  “Sir, honestly speaking, I don’t believe that CoT killed Deathbringer. Can that man even be killed? He is an assassin as well as a dark mage. God knows how many abilities he has. He is almost a god himself. And CoT is saying they killed that kind of person. I don’t buy it.”

  “Well, then, where is he? Why isn’t he showing up when CoT has claimed that they murdered him? Explain it to me,” Pascal asked Vade in a rather loud voice.

  “Uhh.. Maybe he is busy clearing some Gate he found and isn’t able to contact us,” Vade replied.

  “He always contacts us before leaving for a Gate. He knows the importance of his absence very well. I don’t think the reason behind his disappearance is that simple,” Pascal said.

  “Then maybe he is trapped somewhere. The CoT may have gotten some item from a Gate to trap him, and they announced his death to scare us,” Vade responded.

  “If they can find an item to trap him, then they can find an item to kill him as well. Maybe they really killed him. This is driving me crazy. With his death, not only Zekron but the whole world has lost its one of the strongest protectors. And now we must take care of CoT first before we do anything about the apocalypse we are having. I have no idea why we must fight among ourselves when we are all facing such a disaster,” Pascal said in a low tone.

  “That might be true, but I might be right as well. Unless I see his dead body with my own eyes, I will believe that he is alive. I don’t think he can die at the hands of a fellow human,” Vade said in a firm voice and continued.

  “However, we still need to get rid of CoT before they do something more horrible. With this claim, they have clearly declared that they aren’t on our side. We should make sure that other countries also understand this matter during the meeting.”

  “Yeah. I know,” Pascal said.

  The time for the meeting came. ACZ made sure that other countries also understood the gravity of the situation. While many countries feared Deathbringer, they also knew that he was one of the protectors of Earth. Ultimately, it was decided that CoT should be eliminated before humanity suffers any more loss. And the next day, a universal emergency was declared in every country. War against CoT was declared. 1 S class with some other awakeners were to remain in their own country while others were to go to war. Therefore, out of 28 S ranks (not including the ones from Thiren and 4 of them, including Deathbringer are dead), only 5 S ranks were to take part in war. Since Zekron now only had one S rank, Joren was to remain in Zekron for security reasons. However, a lot of awakeners from Rockstar Guild were taking part in the war. ACZ chairman and Kristina with some of her guild members were also going.

  It was known that CoT has 2 S ranks and the 3 S ranks of the neighbouring countries died while protecting themselves from CoT. So, the manpower seemed more than enough to fight against CoT, but considering that CoT killed Deathbringer everyone was still nervous.

  A month later war took place in Thiren. A lot of people died. However, it was the victory of the allied countries. Every person who had ties with CoT was eliminated. 1 S rank and 4 A ranks died in battle. A lot of other awakeners died as well, while 1 S rank awakener was so badly injured that she wasn’t fit for battles anymore. Among the A ranks who died, Kristina was one of them. It was yet another tragedy for Zekron even though they had avenged the death of Kyuma. They tried to find the dead body of Kyuma but the leader of CoT claimed that they burned Deathbringer to death.

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  With this now, only one common enemy remained for humanity to fight against, i.e., the apocalypse. In a month, everything settled down. There were some new A rank gates which appeared after the war. But a few days later a new Gate appeared in a remote country, Uknaam. This gate was nothing like anything else they had seen before. Every guild failed to assess the level of the Gate. Therefore, it was given a SS rank and was declared as a universal emergency. Humanity has yet to succeed in clearing the S rank gate in Itheona and now a SS rank has come into existence.

  ***

  A month before, when Kristina died.

  “You are the judge lady from Zekron I have heard so much about. You think your lightning can affect me when I have an item that makes me immune to lightning. Be honoured woman, we took extra precautions against you even though you are an A rank. Your lightning powers can be very annoying for us, so I was specifically prepared to deal with you. You will die here,” S rank Rifrit Thiren said to Kristina.

  “There’s nothing like absolute immunity in this universe. I am sure it has some kind of weakness. Let’s see how long you can talk big,” Kristina replied and their fight started.

  Kristina’s lightning attacks were indeed not working on Rifrit and her other skills were not powerful enough to defeat him. She thought of calling for reinforcements, but they were isolated on purpose. Although her attacks weren’t effective on him, she tried again and again until he finally got injured. It turned out that immunity was for a limited time, but Kristina was exhausted while Rifrit, had barely done anything yet.

  She was fatally injured by him. He was also injured but it wasn’t life-threatening.

  “Like I said, woman, this is where you will die. You were quite persistent like a cockroach, but at the end it’s my victory, Goodbye,” Rifrit laughed loudly and put his sword in her chest.

  I guess this is the end of me. I have no regrets; I fought to the best of my abilities. I know he will die soon as well, since he is exhausted a lot. I wonder what happens after death. Will I go to heaven or hell, or will my soul wander here on earth? Will I see my parents after death?

  [You have died] … [Judging karma to designate punishment or reincarnation] … [Karma positive] … [With this life she has earned positive karma in all 100 lives she lived] … [Requesting Heavens Gate to open] … [Request can’t be reached] … [Satan stop your interference] … [Are you sure, what I am doing right now might save you from going through a tragedy] … [In that case deal with it yourselves] … [You will take full responsibility for this] … [Sending her soul to hell]

  Huh!! Where am I?? I thought I was dead and after that I think I heard some weird noises, but I can’t remember.

  Soon she came to her senses.

  Oh, God!! I ended up in hell, but HOW? I am pretty sure I lived a good and productive life. This place is scary. I thought Gates were scary, but I think this is much scarier than anything I have ever seen. I don’t even know what I am scared of. I just feel fear.

  “Welcome to hell, Miss Kristina. My lord would like to meet you. Please follow me,” a scary demon said to me.

  And I ran from there. This is too scary. I don’t even deserve to be here. Did I really commit bad deeds enough to go to hell? I don’t think I did. I must find a way out of here. Come on, Kristina, you can do this. You were an A rank awakener when you were alive. This much should be nothing. Wait!! Wait!! I am dead. So what’s there to fear anymore? Yeah, now that I think about it, he welcomed me politely as if I was a guest in hell. Maybe I am not here for the punishment.

  “You cannot outrun me, Miss Kristina. This is hell and I know every corner of this place. It would be wise of you if you follow me,” the scary demon suddenly popped out of nowhere in front of me and requested me to follow him again. No time to overthink. Let’s just follow him for now.

  “OK.” I couldn’t say anything more. I don’t know why, but the fear is still there even though I am dead already. I can’t even talk properly because of this fear. I can’t even imagine what his lord will look like if he looks this scary. I tried glancing at the monster near the entrance, but my eyes just couldn’t get the courage to look at whatever that was. It even had a collar. Imagine having a pet like that. Scary.

  As I was thinking about all of this, I entered the main hall. And there I saw the scariest yet most elegant being ever in existence. He was there sitting on his throne looking down on me. Please don’t hurt me, please don’t hurt me, please don’t hurt me, please don’t hurt me.

  “Relax, Miss Kristina, I am not trying to hurt you. I am Satan, but I called you here to propose a deal. Would you like to listen to me?” Satan asked me.