Chapter 24: Levels Beyond Reason
The smile faded.
Not because of the towering giants.
Not because of the onlookers.
Not even because of Fenrir.
For the first time since he'd woken—
OBLIVION was quiet.
No alerts.
No messages.
No cold, mechanical remarks.
And somehow…
this silence was worse than any monster.
---
The four giants stayed on their knees.
It was surreal.
Beings capable of crushing cities like brittle clay…
bowing before an elderly man who served tea.
The battlefield stood still.
Then—
the lead giant slowly raised its head.
Its burning gaze fixed on Aetherion.
"The Sage of Stars…"
Its voice rumbled like thunder beneath the earth.
"…still lives."
Aetherion gave a small smile.
"As do you, it seems."
The giant almost bristled.
"I was sealed away."
"I've been making tea."
A pause.
After a moment, the commander gave a reluctant nod.
"…You appear to have won."
A few people chuckled.
Even now, in the aftermath.
---
Fenrir slowly lifted his hand.
"…Question."
No one reacted with surprise.
"Am I the only one who has no idea what's going on?"
"Yes," Kael said without hesitation.
"Fantastic."
"It really isn't."
---
Then—
a small screen flickered into view before Fenrir's eyes.
Only he could see it.
It was a format he recognized.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Species: Demon Giant Commander
Race: Abyssal Titan
Level: 146
Threat Assessment: Catastrophic
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Fenrir went still.
"…"
"…"
"…One hundred forty-six?"
His breath caught.
He was level nine.
Nine.
The gap wasn't just large—it was unimaginable.
Like comparing a spark to a star.
Another notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Species: Demon Giant
Race: Abyssal Titan
Level: 141
Threat Assessment: Catastrophic
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Species: Demon Giant
Race: Abyssal Titan
Level: 138
Threat Assessment: Extreme
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Species: Demon Giant
Race: Abyssal Titan
Level: 135
Threat Assessment: Extreme
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Fenrir turned slowly toward Kael.
"…Hypothetically."
The werewolf sighed.
"That never ends well."
"Hypothetically… how strong would something need to be to destroy a city?"
Kael hesitated.
"…Above level one hundred."
Silence.
"I see."
"Why?"
"No reason."
"You look like you've seen a ghost."
"I've decided I like being alive."
---
A few exchanged glances.
Even Elena studied him oddly.
"Did you sense something?" she asked.
Fenrir paused.
"…Maybe."
It wasn't a complete lie.
---
The dwarves looked grim.
"Those things aren't just monsters."
"We can feel it."
"Their presence alone is overwhelming."
Fenrir nearly laughed.
Monsters?
They were forces of nature.
And he was level nine.
This wasn't a fight.
It was suicide.
---
Then—
the lead giant turned to him.
Its expression unreadable—fear, confusion, disbelief.
"You truly don't remember."
Fenrir blinked.
"Remember what?"
The giant let out a dry, humorless laugh.
"Perhaps that's for the best."
"I feel like everyone knows something I don't."
"That's correct."
"…Wonderful."
---
The giant shifted toward Aetherion.
"What will you do, Sage?"
The old man folded his hands behind his back.
"That depends."
"On what?"
He glanced at Fenrir.
"On what my young friend decides next."
"…Me?"
"Yes."
"Why me?"
"Because your future matters most to you."
"…That's annoyingly logical."
Aetherion smiled.
"I know."
---
The old man's gaze softened.
"You've seen it now.
The hidden world.
The dangers.
The creatures that lurk beyond sight."
His silver eyes gleamed.
"And you've seen how little strength you have."
Silence.
The last part wasn't harsh.
It was fact.
Unavoidable. Uncomfortable. True.
Level nine.
Facing enemies over one hundred.
The difference wasn't just big.
It was ridiculous.
---
"You need training."
The voice belonged to Elena.
The dragon woman stepped forward, golden eyes locked on him.
"You know nothing of your bloodline.
Nothing of combat.
Nothing of this world."
Silence.
She wasn't wrong.
Not even slightly.
---
Then Seraphina spoke.
"You need time."
Adrian nodded.
"And guidance."
Raphael smiled.
"And knowledge."
The dwarves raised their hands at once.
"And weapons!"
"And armor!"
"And food!"
Fenrir blinked.
"…Why food?"
"Training makes people hungry!"
"…Actually, that makes sense."
---
Yuna grinned.
"And friends!"
Silence.
The fox spirit blinked.
"What?"
"No, that one was good too."
She immediately brightened.
---
Aetherion looked at him.
"So?"
He smiled gently.
"What do you want to do?"
Fenrir looked around—at the people gathered near him.
People who had just met him.
People who owed him nothing.
And yet they were here.
Helping. Standing by him.
The feeling was unfamiliar.
Strange.
But also… warm.
Too warm.
Then he looked toward the Rift, closing slowly.
At the darkness beyond.
At beings who feared what he was.
He thought of the alley.
Of powerlessness.
Of regret.
Never again.
Slowly, he turned back to Aetherion.
"I want to become stronger."
The old man smiled.
"I thought so."
"No."
Fenrir's crimson eyes darkened.
"I need to become stronger."
The battlefield fell silent.
"I don't want to hide behind others."
"I don't want to be protected."
"I don't want to be helpless."
His voice dropped.
"I never want to feel that way again."
Silence.
Then—
Aetherion's smile deepened.
"Good answer."
---
A warm hand settled on his shoulder.
Seraphina's.
When he looked at her, she simply said:
"You won't always be helpless."
Silence.
Elena nodded.
"Not if you keep moving forward."
Kael smirked.
"And not if you survive training."
"Why does that sound dangerous?"
"Because it will be."
A few laughed.
Even Fenrir.
---
Then—
the giant commander spoke one final time.
"Grow stronger, Child of Ruin."
The battlefield stilled.
Its molten gaze remained fixed on him.
"Because next time…"
Its voice grew heavier.
"…they will come."
Silence.
"The ones who remember your kind."
"The ones who survived the war."
"The ones who still wake in terror at the name of the God Devourers."
Its eyes dimmed.
"And unlike us…"
"…they won't hesitate."
Fenrir frowned.
"Who are they?"
The giant offered a sad smile.
"Those who still fear your race."
"Those who still hate it."
The Rift was already pulling it back.
"Those who spent centuries praying your kind would never return."
"Wait!"
Fenrir stepped forward.
"What happened to the God Devourers?!"
The giant paused.
For a long while, it simply stared at him.
Then—
it spoke.
"They died screaming."
Silence.
"But not from fear."
The air turned cold.
"They died protecting each other."
"They died protecting their children."
"They died protecting their families."
Its molten eyes grew distant.
"Even at the end…"
"…not one ran."
Silence.
Something tightened in Fenrir's chest.
He'd never met another of his kind.
He remembered nothing.
Yet suddenly, he couldn't breathe.
The giant looked up at the sky.
"And when the end came…"
Its voice trembled.
"…even the heavens shook."
Then—
it vanished into the Rift.
The others followed.
The red sky faded back to normal.
Silence stretched, thick and heavy.
---
"…That felt important," Fenrir finally said.
"Very," Adrian murmured.
"…I was hoping it wasn't."
"No such luck."
---
Aetherion placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Your life is about to get much more complicated."
Fenrir exhaled.
"I had a feeling."
The old man smiled.
"Come."
"Where?"
Aetherion glanced toward the Midnight Exchange.
"For tonight…"
A small, gentle smile touched his lips.
"Come home."
Silence.
Fenrir froze.
Home.
Such a simple word.
Yet after everything…
it felt strangely right.
"…Home?"
"For tonight."
The old man looked up at the stars.
His silver eyes shimmered with the light of distant worlds.
"Rest."
"Because tomorrow…"
A faint smile returned.
"…your real journey begins."