18 THE ONES WHO WALK AMONG THE WORLD DATE: 7 MAY 2031 — YEAR 6 AFTER THE DESCENT LOCATION: EARTH Earth no longer resembled the planet humanity once inherited.
The transformation had not happened all at once.
It spread year by year, layer by layer, until ordinary people eventually realized that the old world had quietly disappeared beneath them.
Cities expanded around dimensional barriers like kingdoms built beside active volcanoes.
Mana reactors illuminated entire skylines with blue-white energy.
Floating transport routes crossed awakened megacities while armored convoys traveled through monster-controlled regions under military escort.
Entire economies now revolved around: mana technology, dungeon resources, dimensional trade, monster materials, awakening education, and territorial security.
Humanity adapted because adaptation had become synonymous with survival.
But the monsters adapted too.
And that realization frightened governments more than any calamity-class dungeon ever had.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ NIGERIA FEDERAL MONSTER RESPONSE DIVISION ABUJA 9:11 AM Rain tapped softly against the reinforced windows of the command center.
Inside the massive circular operations hall, holographic projections floated above dozens of analysts and military officers.
Satellite imagery rotated beside live battlefield recordings while dimensional fluctuation graphs updated continuously across suspended screens.
The atmosphere felt tense long before anyone spoke.
A giant reptilian creature appeared across the central display.
It moved through the ruins of an abandoned dimensional quarantine zone somewhere near the Congo border.
Its body resembled a cross between a crocodile and a draconic monitor lizard, yet what unsettled the observers was not its appearance.
It was the way it moved.
Deliberate.
Tactical.
Aware.
The creature avoided kill-zones.
It used surrounding terrain for cover.
At one point, it even baited an armed response squad into a collapsed structure before ambushing them from below.
General Bamidele Okonkwo folded his arms slowly.
“…Replay the footage again.” The recording restarted.
This time the room noticed more details.
Hand signals between creatures.
Coordinated movement patterns.
Rotational scouting formations.
A young analyst swallowed nervously.
“Sir… we don’t think these should be classified as ordinary monsters anymore.” Another screen appeared beside the footage.
MONSTER EVOLUTION CLASSIFICATION FERAl MONSTERS ADAPTED MONSTERS INTELLIGENT MONSTERS DIMENSIONAL SPECIES ANCIENT SPECIES Silence spread gradually through the command room.
One older military officer rubbed his forehead tiredly.
“…Explain the difference.” Dr.
Hadiza Bello stepped forward.
Her white research coat contrasted sharply against the glowing red emergency screens surrounding her.
“Feral Monsters act primarily on instinct,” she began carefully.
“Adapted Monsters evolve combat efficiency through environmental pressure.” The next category illuminated.
“Intelligent Monsters demonstrate social hierarchy, language structures, territory management, coordinated warfare, and primitive cultural behavior.” Several officers exchanged uneasy looks.
Then she activated another recording.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ RECORDED FOOTAGE CONGO DIMENSIONAL FOREST The forest looked unnaturally dark beneath the mana storms overhead.
Gigantic wolf-like creatures stood around controlled fire pits constructed from arranged stone circles.
Some sharpened bone weapons against rocks.
Others carried hunted carcasses through organized pathways.
One smaller beast presented food toward a larger armored wolf before lowering its head respectfully.
The room in Abuja became very quiet.
An analyst whispered almost unconsciously: “…That’s civilization.” No one corrected him.
Because everyone was thinking the same thing.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ OLANIYI RESIDENCE ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA 6:42 PM Warm evening sunlight filtered through the curtains while the smell of pepper soup and grilled meat filled the house.
The contrast between global anxiety and the Olaniyi household felt strangely comforting.
Damilola and Temitope were arguing again.
“You cheated.” Temitope nearly choked.
“How do you cheat in a racing game?” “You hit my car!” “That’s literally part of the game!” Tomi laughed quietly from the dining table while organizing mission reports on her tablet.
Mayowa leaned against the kitchen counter with tired amusement.
“You two behave like children.” “We ARE your younger siblings,” Damilola replied immediately.
“That’s not an excuse.” Julie sighed while stirring soup.
“In this house it apparently is.” Soft laughter spread naturally through the room.
At the far end of the living area, AETERNUS sat silently on the couch with several holographic reports floating before him.
The blue glow from the screens reflected faintly across his pale skin.
His appearance had changed subtly over the years.
Not dramatically.
Gradually.
His features looked sharper now.
More refined.
More ancient somehow.
The white hair mixed with crimson and azure strands fell loosely around his shoulders while faint draconic markings occasionally flickered beneath his skin whenever his mana circulation intensified unconsciously.
Even while sitting calmly, the atmosphere around him felt unnaturally stable, as though the surrounding temperature adjusted itself instinctively to his existence.
His eyes scanned the reports quietly.
Intelligent monsters.
Interesting.
Not terrifying.
Not shocking.
Interesting.
That alone would have disturbed most people.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SYSTEM INFORMATION NAME: AETERNUS ASGORATH MORNINGSTAR TITLE: THE FIRST PRIMORDIAL DRAGON RACE: PRIMORDIAL DRAGON RANK: C-RANK HIGH LEVEL: 347 AGE: 27 AFFINITY: ICE BLOODLINE GRADE: PRIMAL TALENT: RANK CHAOS LUCK: RANK PURPLE HP: 241,000 / 241,000 MP: 510,000 / 510,000 STAMINA: 483,000 / 483,000 STRENGTH: C-RANK HIGH AGILITY: C-RANK HIGH ENDURANCE: C-RANK HIGH CONSTITUTION: B-RANK LOW PERCEPTION: B-RANK LOW INTELLIGENCE: B-RANK LOW DEXTERITY: C-RANK HIGH VITALITY: B-RANK LOW AUTHORITIES ICE DRAGON ENERGY SKILLS RED BLUE PURPLE GLACIAL DOMINION FROSTFALL APOCALYPSE WORLD FREEZE DRAGON BREATH: ABSOLUTE ZERO VOID FROST STEP DRAGON BODY ARTS PASSIVES ETERNAL REGENERATION PRIMORDIAL RESISTANCE MAXIMUM COMPREHENSION DRAGON FEAR AURA PRIMORDIAL INSTINCT ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The system interface vanished quietly.
Then AETERNUS looked toward the backyard.
His expression changed slightly.
Not alarm.
Awareness.
“…Someone’s outside.” The room immediately became quieter.
Tomi’s hand paused near her glass.
David slowly looked toward the windows.
Mayowa noticed something subtle then.
AETERNUS wasn’t tense.
He looked focused.
Curious.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ OUTSIDE THE OLANIYI RESIDENCE The scout stood atop a nearby rooftop beneath drifting rain.
Black mist distorted around its body in unstable waves.
Its appearance shifted subtly every few seconds, as if reality itself struggled to fully define what it was seeing.
Golden eyes observed the house calmly.
Interesting realm.
The being could sense multiple awakened signatures inside the residence.
But one presence dominated everything else.
Cold.
Ancient.
Predatory.
The scout’s expression shifted slightly.
So this is the six-horned Primordial Dragon.
Then— space cracked behind it.
CRAAAAACK!!
The rooftop shattered beneath AETERNUS’s landing.
Cold mist exploded outward.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Blue eyes met golden eyes.
The scout studied him carefully.
Young.
But dangerous.
Not because of raw power alone.
Because instinct and intelligence already existed in balance.
That combination produced monsters capable of transcending worlds.
The scout smiled faintly.
“…Interesting realm.” AETERNUS took one step forward.
The surrounding temperature collapsed instantly.
But before he could speak— space distorted.
The scout disappeared soundlessly.
Only fragmented black mist remained behind.
AETERNUS stayed motionless afterward.
His instincts screamed quietly beneath his calm exterior.
Dangerous.
Not prey.
Not enemy.
Something else.
Something unknown.
And deep inside himself— the ancient draconic part of his existence stirred with anticipation.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ LATER THAT NIGHT OLANIYI RESIDENCE Dinner became louder afterward, almost intentionally.
As though everyone unconsciously wanted to return the atmosphere to normal.
Temitope stole meat from Damilola’s plate again.
“That’s mine!” “You were too slow.” “You cannot say ‘skill issue’ during dinner!” “I absolutely can.” Julie laughed harder than expected.
Even David smiled faintly this time.
For a while, the terrifying future outside the house felt distant.
The television quietly displayed global updates in the background.
Dimensional activity in Northern Europe.
Mana storms above the Pacific.
Economic negotiations involving dungeon mining rights.
The world continued moving forward regardless of fear.
Then Mayowa suddenly paused while scrolling through hunter news.
“…Another one appeared.” Everyone looked toward the holographic screen.
GLOBAL EVOLUTION NETWORK SPECIAL EVOLVED INDIVIDUAL CONFIRMED Footage began playing.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ICELAND 11:08 PM Snowstorms consumed the battlefield.
Hundreds of abyssal creatures surged across frozen plains beneath collapsing auroras.
Then lightning descended from the sky.
BOOOOOOOOM!!
A woman wielding a massive black spear crashed into the battlefield like a falling star.
Current Identity: VALERIA STORMBRINGER Former Identity: FREYJA EINARSDOTTIR Race: PRIMORDIAL VALKYRIE Affinity: THUNDER She moved with violent precision.
Her combat style differed completely from Selene’s flowing grace or AETERNUS’s overwhelming close-range pressure.
Valeria fought like aerial warfare given human form.
Every spear strike accelerated through lightning propulsion.
Every movement chained seamlessly into another attack.
Monsters exploded apart beneath thunderous shockwaves.
Nearby soldiers stared openly.
“…Another one of the 200…” One younger soldier whispered quietly: “How many monsters does humanity need to survive now?” No one answered him.
Because nobody knew anymore where the line between protector and monster truly existed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ BRAZIL AMAZON MANA FOREST 8:44 PM The forest breathed softly beneath glowing mana spores.
Gigantic beasts rested peacefully between ancient trees while spirit creatures drifted lazily through the air like floating lanterns.
At the center sat a man beside a massive horned creature.
Current Identity: ORION FANG Former Identity: LUCAS SILVA Race: PRIMORDIAL DRUID Affinity: NATURE Birds rested comfortably across his shoulders.
Even mutated predators remained calm nearby.
A young hunter spoke carefully.
“Why don’t you live in the cities anymore?” Orion smiled faintly without opening his eyes.
“Because humanity keeps trying to conquer nature.” His fingers brushed softly across the ground.
“And nature is beginning to remember how to fight back.” ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHINA DIMENSIONAL RESEARCH FACILITY 7:31 PM Rows of stabilized dimensional gates floated inside massive containment chambers.
Researchers moved between control stations while spatial fluctuation alarms echoed quietly through the facility.
At the center stood: Current Identity: XIAN WUYUE Former Identity: LI WEI Race: PRIMORDIAL SAGE Affinity: SPACE Blue runes rotated around him continuously like orbiting stars.
One scientist adjusted her glasses nervously.
“Can dimensional fractures truly stabilize permanently?” Xian observed the gates thoughtfully.
“…Eventually.” Then his expression changed slightly.
“But something else is approaching Earth.” The room became silent instantly.
No dramatic music.
No explosions.
Only fear spreading quietly between researchers who already understood how dangerous those words might become.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ UNITED KINGDOM LONDON ARENA DISTRICT 5:17 PM Awakened combat sports had become one of the world’s largest entertainment industries.
Tens of thousands filled the arena while millions watched online.
But the crowd became louder the moment she entered.
Current Identity: RAVEN DUSKMOURN Former Identity: CHARLOTTE BLACKWOOD Race: PRIMORDIAL WITCH Affinity: CURSES Black ravens spiraled around her elegantly.
Unlike direct-combat specialists, Raven weaponized fear itself.
Her abilities focused on: curse propagation, psychological destabilization, sensory interference, and battlefield manipulation.
She smiled slightly toward the audience.
Not warm.
Not cruel.
Just aware.
Fear and admiration blended together beautifully around her.
And she understood that better than most evolved beings.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ THE TOP 30 By 2031, the Top 30 no longer existed merely as powerful individuals.
They had become cultural forces.
Political variables.
Military deterrents.
Religious symbols.
Economic influences.
Living myths.
Yet each interacted with humanity differently.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SOLARA IGNIS — FRANCE She rebuilt dimensional disaster zones using phoenix flames capable of purifying corrupted mana.
Children adored her openly.
Some cities even celebrated annual reconstruction festivals in her honor.
Yet privately, Solara increasingly feared how dependent humanity was becoming on beings like herself.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SERAPHINA NOCTIS — ROMANIA Rumors surrounded her constantly.
Entire criminal organizations disappeared after entering vampire-controlled territories illegally.
Yet civilian casualty rates within her regions remained among the lowest in Europe.
Many feared her.
Many secretly trusted her more than governments.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ FENRIS VALKOR — RUSSIA He continuously fought in frozen dimensional frontiers where ordinary hunters could not survive.
Soldiers respected him deeply.
But civilians avoided his gaze whenever he visited populated areas.
Because despite his loyalty— his instincts still felt wild.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ AZRAEL LUX — UNITED STATES Celebrity.
Military asset.
Global icon.
Corporate symbol.
Azrael represented the commercialization of the awakened era more than anyone else.
And increasingly— he hated it.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ LYRIEL ELYSIUM — EUROPEAN DIMENSIONAL ALLIANCE Scholar.
Diplomat.
Researcher.
Many believed Lyriel understood mana ecosystems better than any scientist alive.
Some even called her the wisest among the 200.
She disliked the title immensely.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ OLANIYI RESIDENCE MIDNIGHT Rain drifted softly through the darkness.
AETERNUS stood alone in the backyard.
Blue rotated above one hand.
Red spiraled above the other.
Slowly— both energies merged.
Purple formed between them.
Smaller now.
More stable.
The air distorted gently rather than exploding immediately.
His eyes sharpened slightly.
Control improved.
Not enough.
His thoughts returned toward the scout.
That thing wasn’t from Earth.
And for the first time in years— AETERNUS felt genuine excitement.
Not because he wanted destruction.
But because the unknown still existed.
Because something out there might challenge him to evolve further.
Behind the sliding door, David watched silently.
And once again— that expression disturbed him.
Because his son looked most alive when facing uncertainty.
Not comfort.
Not peace.
Challenge.
David closed his eyes briefly.
I just hope… …you never stop remembering why you fight.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ RANDOM PUBLIC POV TOKYO, JAPAN 7:18 PM Mana trains crossed floating rail systems above neon streets while dimensional patrol drones moved between skyscrapers.
Inside a crowded café, several students discussed the outside world excitedly.
“I heard Nigeria’s awakened cities have living mana forests now.” “And America has floating combat arenas.” “And Egypt’s ruins are glowing again!” One teenage boy stared through the window thoughtfully.
“The world became scary…” Then he smiled slightly.
“…but also kind of amazing.” Nobody disagreed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ RANDOM MONSTER POV UNKNOWN FOREST TERRITORY NIGHT Gigantic wolves gathered around burning bone structures beneath a blood-red moon.
Unlike ordinary monsters— their eyes contained intelligence.
Purpose.
One smaller beast bowed respectfully.
“Leader.
Intruders entered Stonehide territory.” The massive wolf king slowly opened crimson eyes.
Current Identity: KHARZUL BLOODFANG Race: ABYSSAL FANG WOLF Classification: INTELLIGENT MONSTER — TERRITORY LORD Sharp teeth reflected the firelight as he smiled slowly.
“…Good.” Nearby beasts growled eagerly.
Another monster hesitated.
“What about the nearby humans?” Kharzul’s gaze turned cold.
“…Let them watch.” “Fear is useful.” And for the first time in human history— some monsters had begun thinking politically.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ INTERNATIONAL AWAKENED ACADEMY NAIROBI, KENYA 1:42 PM The academy resembled a fusion between a military university and a futuristic city-state.
Thousands of awakened students trained across massive combat districts.
Some practiced mana circulation beneath artificial gravity fields.
Others reinforced their bodies with Aura while sparring in armored arenas.
Nearby instructors supervised dimensional survival simulations using controlled monster environments.
The entire institution felt alive.
Structured.
Evolving.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ COMBAT THEORY CLASS Colonel Ibrahim Adeyemi stood before rotating holographic projections.
Scars crossed both his face and armored uniform.
“Mana and Aura are fundamentally different systems,” he explained calmly.
A fire construct appeared beside him.
“Mana influences external phenomena.” The projection changed.
Aura reinforcement spread across a human body.
“Aura strengthens internal physical existence.” Students wrote quickly.
One raised his hand.
“Sir… can both be used simultaneously?” The instructor nodded.
“Yes.” “But balancing them is extremely difficult.” The hologram shifted again.
AETERNUS appeared fighting across the projection.
The class immediately focused harder.
“He combines: mana, dragon energy, Aura, martial arts, aerial combat, and instinctive body synchronization simultaneously.” Several students stared blankly.
One muttered quietly: “…That’s completely unfair.” The instructor laughed.
“That’s why the world fears Primordial Dragons.” ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ RANDOM PUBLIC POV GLOBAL NETWORK FORUMS Online discussions never truly stopped anymore.
Not about the evolved races.
Not about Earth’s future.
Not about the universe beyond dimensional space.
“They’re humanity’s next evolution.” “No.
They stopped being human years ago.” “AETERNUS froze an entire mountain range.” “Solara literally saved millions.” “What happens if the 200 unite?” “What happens if they leave Earth?” Fear.
Admiration.
Envy.
Hope.
Humanity experienced all of it simultaneously.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SUBTLE SIGNS Across Earth, strange phenomena quietly continued increasing.
Ancient ruins activated beneath multiple continents.
Unknown stars appeared briefly above dimensional zones before vanishing again.
Several portals emitted languages that no known civilization recognized.
Some intelligent monsters spoke about: kingdoms, empires, dimensional wars, and ancient species.
Deep-space dimensional observatories detected movement beyond Earth’s outer barrier repeatedly during the past six months.
Humanity simply lacked the context to understand what it meant.
But the truth remained unchanged.
Earth was no longer isolated.
It had become visible.
And somewhere beyond the boundaries of known dimensions— something had finally begun looking back.