WITCH OF THE END

Luna had never been outside the Main Districts of the Eastern Settlement. However, that didn't mean she was ignorant about their world. As a legacy, learning about the rest of the world, the other great houses or clans, the settlements, and who governed them was a must.

After the fall, humanity couldn't live on without some control to instill a new form of order. There were currently five settlements in the New World. And before, the settlements were six with one being a section of the moon--which was now classified as a danger zone. The settlements were the only habitable areas on modern-day earth and each one was protected by a Great House. The Eastern Settlement, formerly known as Asia was protected by House Feng. The Western by House Artemis. Central by House Val. Southern by House Night. And the Northern by House Ares, which had just recently become a signed ally of House Feng.

These Five major houses had only come into the picture fifty years ago and had only grown since then. Each house had an army of powerful ascenders serving directly under them to protect their respective settlements. In other words, the Settlements acted like huge citadels for most houses, and losing one meant you had lost your control over the world.

For example, when the Moon Settlement fell, The Government and the Houses that ruled it lost their influence on the world. At this time, the government wasn't as powerful and influential as before losing its settlement. The worldwide organization served as a bridge between mundane humans and the great houses. They also played the role of managing the great houses maintaining order by spreading propaganda and hiding the terrible news from the public. They also had a group of elite ascenders serving under them to maintain security in cities all around the world. While the Great Houses focused on protecting the Realm.

After having a conversation with Darkness, Luna learned that the Northern Settlement's surface could no longer support mundane humans due to the overall increase of black ether in the air.

That's what the woman meant when she said she grew up surrounded by monsters.

The settlement hadn't been lost because they had found a way to survive thanks to the deal they made with House to construct an underground city. The city has been standing for three years now, sustaining mundane humans while Ascenders continued living on the surface because they were immune.

Even with how far humanity had gone with technology, black ether was something that needed to be studied more if they wanted to find a solution.

'Maybe a filtration system that converts it to basic ether. Would that work?' she mused then shook her head right away. 'No. They require the chemical composition to create a suitable filter.'

But how do you find the chemical composition of something magical?

Sigh. There was still so much humanity didn't know about what was happening to their world. The only guarantee was that they had a fighting chance with more humans being born with divinity in them these days.

Luna spent the rest day in the diner car after Darkness ended their conversation. Right now, she was almost done with her piece of pie. She paused eating when she suddenly felt a shift in space as the train entered the vicinity of the tower's influence.

"Creepy." The world was suddenly faint as the sun's light seemed to slowly dim down in its attempt to try and penetrate the dark crimson clouds that hovered over one of the evacuated towns.

Luna first placed the pie down and closed her eyes to calm her thoughts, then opened them after a few seconds. Adjusting to the magical atmosphere left her with a nauseating feeling. This was a first-time experience for her since she hadn't trained for this.

Her communicator blinked red, informing her that the train had entered a red zone.

'I'm not blind damn it.' She scoffed closing the device while stabilizing her breathing.

The closer they got to the Crimson Tower, the more Luna felt like something was wrong. It's not she didn't trust her mother or her clan. But, with how everything was progressing, Luna felt like it was too smooth.

The plan was too perfect, everything was going smoothly.

What if they encountered a sovereign-ranked being?

She leaned back in her seat and faced the roof. "You're just being paranoid, Luna. You need to let loose."

***

Captain Snow was quiet in his office, staring at the monitors in front of him with a bored expression. After a brief while, he yawned loudly as he shifted his eyes to the massive ancient structure towering not so far away from the command building he was in.

The Crimson Tower was gigantic, casting a dark shadow over the town they had chosen for a main base. Surrounded by dark crimson clouds and engulfed in red sparks of lightning, it emanated a captivating and formidable presence. From what they had observed, the tower was capable of affecting the natural order which was a rare and powerful ability that was reserved solely for calamities like Black Ether.

The tower arrived two months ago and the military had been watching it since then. Its dormancy was concerning, but since nothing could get it opened, the Government decided to initiate the relocation of occupants to keep the infection numbers as low as possible.

Staring at one of the former capitals of the Southern Reach, the young man couldn't help but feel pity for its previous occupants. Capitals weren't like towns that were simple to reconstruct. Capitals were the people.

Without the people, cities could not exist technically speaking. To be honest, this entire place was on its way to becoming a real wasteland since its effects couldn't be reversed. And because the structure was indestructible from the outside, subjugating it was all they were capable of for now.

While he was still thinking, his wrist communicator blinked with a beep noise. He pressed accept and a familiar holographic face was projected from the device.

Even with the weak network tearing some parts of her image into pixels, Lena Feng was still beautiful.

"Reaper. How nice it is to see you again. How is the situation in the Reach?"

"The Evacuation was successful. The engineers are currently setting up the barrier projectors and they'll be up in about thirty to fifty minutes, the here power is very unstable."

Lena smiled briefly—which was very rare for the most part—and said:

"The Generals are on their way right now, the expected ETA is sixty minutes. Myself included. I also request for a file on each ascender participating in this operation and information on the suit I ordered for."

Snow froze for a moment. "Why would she need a prototype suit though? Do you think she can draw out its full power?"

Lena shrugged from the other end. She also didn't have a clear answer to that question. "I've trained with her multiple times, recently. She's gotten stronger. See this."

Another holographic display appeared next to Lena. On it, it displayed Luna's recent overall body statistics. These statistics were from a secret project run by the clan to understand where her physical strength came from.

Sure, it could be the dense molecular structure that made up her body structure or the special blood that ran through her veins. Or something entirely new.

His eyes widened as he studied the overall results while Lena waited in the background with a proud smug on her face. "Incredible. How did she grow so fast? We only do these tests once a year and the change is usually significant enough. But this…"

"I know. So will she be able to use the suit?"

"I'm not sure, but I'm confident she will handle the rush of having zenshi in her system. After that, drawing out its power is up to her."

Lena was excited after his reply. "That is all I needed to hear. Thank you, Captain Snow."

Snow was about to speak when the communicator's screen stopped projecting. She has ended the transmission.

"Little brat," he hissed.