42 Tragedy

The city barrier may have been designed to hold up against the attacks of a B+ ranked beast, but against the combined effort of 1 B- rank mantis and dozens of C+ ranked beasts and the tens of thousands of other lower ranked beasts, it only lasted 5 minutes.

To most areas of the city, nobody noticed a thing as the commotion at the border of the city didn't reach them..

But things quickly became chaotic when people noticed that although the barrier was down, the sirens were still blaring.

The people turned to their city lord for answers, but he was nowhere to be seen.

He had fled.

***

When Rowan realised what was going on, he looked at Alex with a bit of reluctance before he spoke.

"Absorb all your beast cores and reach E- rank as soon as possible. Only then can you come back to the federation." Alex was going to ask why Rowan was so concerned with when he reached E- rank, but he continued speaking.

"If my gut feeling is right, this city isn't going to be around for much longer. It's best you deal with your own business before returning to the federation. Remember to ask around about Capital Prime University. If fate allows it, we'll see each other again in the future." 

With his info dump on Alex done, Rowan hurriedly said his goodbyes before a swirling void around the size of a human appeared before him.

Rowan stepped into the void while waving his hand at Alex and Wildblade, disappearing into nothingness with the swirling void leaving just as quick.

"What was that…" Alex voiced his thoughts out loud as he tried to comprehend what he just witnessed.

"That's how you outsiders travel back and forth between here and your universe. From what I've heard the voice of the Primordial Expanse gifts the ability to open these portals when your soul core reaches E tier." Wildblade answered Alex's thoughts.

They both kept silent for the next few minutes as they watched the carnage taking place all across the city.

The huge city literally spread so far across the horizon that even with Alex's superior eyesight, he couldn't see the end of it.

Yet even with it's immense size, there wasn't a district, road or house that was untouched by the beasts.

Millions were dying as they watched.

But there was nothing they could do, they were powerless before this beast horde.

"In all my years, I never thought this day would come…" Wildblade felt like his heart was tearing to pieces every second he watched the city he had loved and cherished since birth succumb to ruin.

His family lived near the centre of the city, where the highest ranked beasts were currently besieging.

There was no hope for his family to survive.

Tears fell from his eyes as his world completely fell apart.

'I'm sorry old man, but there is nothing we can do.'

Alex wasn't a religious man, but he said a quiet prayer for the people currently in the city before he departed in silence.

'This is probably going to be the last time we ever meet…' 

Alex's emotions were fluctuating madly between sadness, depression and helplessness.

Sad because although his time here was short, he had made some genuine connections no matter how superficial they were. But they were all gone now.

Most of all he was overwhelmed with helplessness.

'Is this really the reality humans live in?'

'Do we really have to live every day in fear that we might be stomped to death by some strong human or beast passing by?'

'What's the point?'

'Even in the federation people aren't safe. We have to worry about a random beast popping up out of nowhere because an awakened died.'

Alex could have kept his despairing thoughts up for hours, but it seemed the Primordial Expanse had other plans.

Just as he was walking away from the city at a leisurely pace, feeling lucky that he was actually outside the city when the beasts attacked, a monkey looking creature landed in front of him with a thud.

'Great, now an E- rank beast wants to spoil my already rotten mood.'

Alex didn't even bother stalling the fight or try honing any of his skills.

Instead he unleashed all the energy he had left in his reserves with his Flame talent and concentrated it all in the direction of the monkey.

With his repeated battles and increased usage of his talent over the past day, he had grown more accustomed to using his flames.

Instead of the usual 360 or 180 degree shockwave he produced, instead this one was concentrated into an even smaller radius, providing and even more lethal attack.

The monkey didn't even get to make any sounds or try to attack before it was already dead.

'No beast core, unlucky.'

'Let's get this over with then…'

Not in the mood to stick around anymore, Alex summoned the E rank soul orb from his inventory and took a good look at it.

'Here goes nothing.'

[Absorbed E rank soul orb, Soul Core progress at 100%]

[E tier soul core requirements:

Kill 5 F+/- rank beasts: 5/5

Kill 1 E- rank beast: 1/1

Kill 1 E rank beast: 1/1

Requirements met. Soul Core upgrading.]

'???'

'Nobody told me there were requirements to meet before you can upgrade your soul core????'

Before Alex could continue his mental rant any longer, he felt an incredible pain in his chest where his heart was located.

He had to use all his willpower to suppress his screams.

Immediately, he could feel an incredible amount of power coursing through his body. Every vein in his body pulsated as energy and blood flowed through each limb, back to his heart and repeating the process all over again.

With each revolution, Alex felt himself become stronger, but he also felt the pain intensify.

The pain only subsided after 5 minutes passed.

Alex felt like his body wasn't his own anymore.

His mind felt refreshed, he felt smarter, stronger and faster.

All of his reflexes, senses etc had been enhanced.

Every part of him as a being had been upgraded.

'So this is that upgrading a major level feels like, I- I want more!'

Alex wanted to revel in his newfound power some more, but a more pressing matter came to his attention.

[Would you like to leave the Primordial Expanse?]

A prompt floated in front of him.