As Zed cautiously approached the tent, the biting cold of the night seemed to intensify. It gnawed at his skin, leaving him shivering and longing for warmth.
But as he stepped inside the tent, a sudden wave of refreshing coolness washed over him, even more than the chill outside.
Instinctively, Zed tightened his grip on the golden spore that could summon Rai. He had braced himself for the sight of a gruesome trap, well...like hooks adorned with lifeless bodies hanging around like a macabre display. But to his surprise, the tent held no such horrors.
The tent had nothing.
"Could this really be some official testing point of the academy?" Zed pondered for a moment before shaking his head decisively.
"No, no way. This guy was too unprofessional, and he clearly didn't even plan the journey properly, considering it's late at night," he thought.
But he is already here.
Lifting the golden spore, Zed held it up, and its faint glow brought a hint of warmth to the surroundings, the only source of light within the entire tent.
The feeble radiance illuminated his path as he took two more steps forward.
As he moved, the situation changed. A brighter light illuminated before him, as if sensing his approach. The closer he got, the brighter the light source became.
"Hello!"
Zed called out, but there was no response.
He strained his senses, trying to draw his surroundings.
As said, there was nothing.
Except for a bell.
It stood there, towering over him, about two stories tall, made of a material that defied identification. Its surface emitted a soft, ethereal glow, casting an otherworldly luminescence. Zed had to tilt his head back to see the upper outline of the clock, its intricate details hidden from his view.
"A bell?" Zed wondered, then cautiously took two more steps forward.
No danger appeared even when he was completely near the clock. Zed started to relax, not because he wanted to let his guard down, as the radiance emanating from the clock had a strong allure.
Zed couldn't exactly describe the feeling in words, but it was like being with Lucy, in that office, feeling a sense of security and comfort, despite knowing that at any moment, a random brute could burst in and tear him apart.
Subconsciously, Zed felt an intense desire to touch it.
"This thing might not be used by the academy for evaluation, but... it definitely has something to do with Awaken," Zed thought.
With that in mind, Zed put Rai back and placed a hand on the bell's sidewall.
Contrary to his expectations, there was no insane whisper or instant flood of information into his mind. The glow of the bell didn't intensify either. All Zed could feel was the icy coldness.
There was an absence of vitality, only a solitary glow in the darkness, an eerie, moon-like coldness.
"What does this mean?"
Zed lost deeply in his thought, causing a great disparity in his expectations.
"How can something that appears so mysterious have no reaction?" he questioned, squinting his eyes and raising his hand.
And at that moment, his line of sight shifted.
The minutes within his palm seemed to melt, sticking to his hand as he pulled it out, elongating like the stretchy putty he had seen in a short video or the abilities of Gum-Gum Fruit users in anime, sticking to his hand.
Furrowing his brow, Zed could sense that the hand connected to the bell was still moving in a certain pattern, as if...
"It's like creating spores," Zed realized.
Simultaneously, the light of the entire bell bloomed more splendidly. Its ancient rhythms seemed to pierce through the river of time, delivering a series of messages directly into Zed's mind.
The bell before him was speaking.
"Ancient Nine..." it said.
Meanwhile, the smooth surface of the bell began to melt, transforming into wriggling masses resembling pigments. They twisted and turned like the ancient stone tablets of Mesopotamia or cave paintings, conveying incomprehensible messages to Zed.
First, at the bottom of the bell, he saw a pale vampire hand.
Zed lowered his head and compared his own hand to the one he saw. There was an inexplicable similarity between them.
"My hand is engraved on the bell now?" Zed stared in disbelief, continuing to scan upwards.
In sync with this layer, not only vampires but also werewolf ears, demon wings, fox's nine tails, and many mythical creatures whose names he couldn't recall from the bell existed.
Zed shook his head slowly, giving up the thought. In this situation, there was probably nothing mythical about these creatures. They most likely had become real, just like himself.
On the second layer, Zed saw insects.
What awaited him there was a disconcerting sight—a writhing mass of insects. Among them, a ghastly ghoultick, larger than any Zed had ever saw, circled relentlessly. Its teeth gnashed, and its claws furiously slashed at the sky, radiating an unyielding rage. The sight sent a shiver down Zed's spine, even as a hunter who had dedicated his life to deconstructing such creatures.
"Ugh... How ugly..." Zed said.
Though it slipped out before he could fully process the situation. Then it was followed by the realization that the compound eyes of the insects he had just insulted were moving. Some seemed indifferent, while others angrily surged towards him.
"Wait, I'm sorry!"
He took a few steps back, but the "bell" in his hand refused to let him go. It wasn't until the insects were about to climb up to him that he felt true panic.
As an Awakener, Zed could roughly judge the intensity of this aura. It was a power he couldn't possibly resist, at least an A... no, perhaps only an S-level could...He couldn't tell.
Despair washed over him, causing Zed to shut his eyes tightly. He didn't even want Rai to come out, it would only be walking to her death.
However, at that moment, a golden sword thrust out from inside the clock, fiercely impaling several insects that were running ahead, right into the ground in front of Zed. The chilling radiance of the sword felt like a sharp blade cutting through the air, and the insects writhed in agony as they were impaled through their abdomens! The pain was so intense that it felt like the screams pierced Zed's soul.
The creatures' anguished cries gradually subsided, their resistance fading until they dissipated into ethereal mist. Raising his head, Zed's eyes widened at the sight before him.
The colossal ghoultick, the queen of these vile insects, bellowed in fury as it clashed against a barrage of celestial weapons raining down from the sky.
Melee weapons of all kinds—swords, axes, spears, and longbows—wrought havoc upon the horde, creating a chaotic spectacle that defied imagination. The battlefield between the second and third layers of the clock was a testament to unbridled brutality and carnage, an epic clash of unimaginable proportions.
This fight had been raging between the second and third layers of the clock for a long time, but after watching for a while, Zed lost interest and continued his gaze upwards.
"What waiting for me above..." Zed said unconsciously.
On the fourth layer were titans.