[[Earthlings♡~]]
The intermittent vibrations of the wristwatches replaced the racing beating of hearts. Despite the apparent kindness in the words that were being read aloud from the projections, the humans listening to them felt as if their bodies were made of cold stone.
It was like the unconscious growl of an animal that mysteriously seemed to resemble human speech.
After listening to it, Perse felt like he was about to throw up. 'I feel dizzy. I don't know if it's because of the strange situation or because of the beating.'
'... Maybe both.'
[[We are extremely thankful for your help restoring our dead planet^^. Your magic is great, the whole galaxy is in awe. Other species think so too!!!]]
Perse's feet seemed heavy as if they had been trapped in the same place for years. He was sure everyone could feel a feverish chill in their arms as if their innermost instincts could detect the uncanny origin of the voice.
'Others?'
He vomited on the ground.
138 years ago, the Hiladorians first contacted the demons of the south, a tribe with a now-defunct name. After annihilating them, They decided to approach the Warlocks Council.
All the wizards in it had enough power to negotiate with the Hiladorians, who had more advanced technology, on equal terms. However, constant exposure to energy as pure as mana made the elders forget how cruel the world was and even the world beyond.
They fell for sweet words and soon followed the same fate as the southern demons.
'And now...' He thought, still vomiting but with a clearer head.
[[Since we have some mana left from the one you gifted us, we have now decided to return it using this special game that you have created, the Neo System.]]
[[From now on, the rest of the mana will come back to you! d (^_^) b]]
The watches stopped vibrating and the blue light changed to a reddish glow. Notification sounds flowed incessantly from all wristwatches in the area.
Each and every user recognized what that meant. The Neo System was being updated.
[[This is our last message, we don't hope to ever need anything from each other again. We will miss you (^_^). Also, since mana cleaned our previous planet, it has now become corrupted. Good luck!]]
Once the message was over, the watches continued to sound loudly.
Perse had been close to fainting before and now, after the shock, it felt as if his body would break like glass. He still couldn't move his legs properly but his mind was wide awake despite the dark clouds in his vision.
A thought ran across his head, 'I need to get the fuck out of here.'
He didn't know how long it would take for the update to be finished and his knowledge about magic was as vast as the money in his pockets. Non-existent.
The same could be said about Chris and the others, although it meant the opposite in their case.
Once the group came out of their astonishment and recovered, if they could use magic, they weren't going to just beat him up. They would kill him.
Perse had stolen "that" item after all. He thought he could get Chris to tell him how it worked, but now...
'Why now of all times? Damn.'
He felt the anxiety rising to his head as he couldn't find a way out no matter how hard he tried. The stone in his pocket seemed to weigh him down.
'Fuck. What if his family can use magic?' The sheer number of possible deaths running through his mind made him even more uneasy.
Chirs and the others looked at each other, frowned, and opened their mouths as if they were about to say a curse. However, their words never came out.
Suddenly, people started shaking and screaming in pain.
Perse himself couldn't process the way the sound escaped his throat. His body was so numb that the last thing he could process before actually fainting felt like his last words before dying.
'Shit-'
All humans on Earth could feel a slimy substance filling their guts and moving as if it was alive. Many of them lost their sanity from the pain, and some died. A significant amount of pressure fell over as the symphony of sudden pain sang in unison from all the corners of the planet.
As if moved by the sorrowful song, the sky pushed itself against the wind. And soon, night fell.
...
Bip. Bip. Bip. Bip. Bip. Biip. Bip. Bip. Bip. Biip. Biip. Bip.
Thirteen hours later, motionless bodies filled the landscape.
The screaming had stopped less than an hour after the Hiladorians' message arrived. Still, none of them had woken up even after the update was completed.
Some of the bodies appeared monstrous, while others were covered in an unknown fluid. And by now, others had completely lost their previous appearance.
In the future, this phenomenon would keep the most renowned scientist awake at night. Especially because of what happened when the first minute of the fourteen-hour arrived. When the first people known to the media started to get up one by one. And the curtain that had kept the light away was up when a new darker landscape and a dark red-blue sky met their gaze.
And even more so when they discovered, years later, that they had been wrong about the moment when the greatest magicians on Earth woke up during the first wave.
...
The former low-class bully, Chris, woke up among the corpses of his former colleagues. He couldn't hear any sounds coming from his friends and thirty long minutes passed before he stopped waiting for them to wake up.
He staggered to the entrance of the alley. The tall buildings obscured the new color of the night sky, making it difficult for him to see what the world had become and what state the bodies of his friends really were in.
As if to say goodbye, Chris looked back one time. Right then, he noticed that among the six people that were in the alley that morning, only four could be distinguished on the floor. And one was covered by a dark, moving pile of insects and flesh that had previously belonged to one of the bodies around.
The image made him gag and it followed him in his dreams afterward. Long enough for him to notice, one day, that there was nothing hidden underneath the amalgam. But, the traces of rot and black blood disappeared somewhere on the opposite side of the street and insects could be seen perched even on the highest part of the buildings surrounding the alley, as if hypnotized.