Chapter 80: Crimson Thrust

The Rank-C Invader jolted, sensing something clearly wrong with what it had assumed was easy prey. Naturally, the Invader had read Aveela as a Rank-E Hunter, just like Julian.

It had no idea that Rank had been deliberately disguised. Watching the surging wave of energy, ripping up and tearing loose chunks of asphalt from the road, carrying them off in a violent gust of wind.

The Invader spun around, running in sheer terror. Its instincts screamed at it, warning that whatever it did now, there was no way it would survive this.

Meanwhile, across from Aveela, Julian stood there, stunned. He raised his arm, shielding his face from the swirling dust.

After that, the layered crimson spear in Aveela’s hand released. A whistling gust of wind roared like thunder and lightning, its echo crashing across the entire surrounding area.

The sound of destruction, wind exploding in every direction with sheer chaos, and a densely layered spear obliterating everything in its path.

The road twisted upon itself, a building was punched clean through, shattering into countless pieces, the very air seemed to split apart, tearing through the clouds hanging overhead.

And the next instant, the spear obliterated the Invader entirely, leaving nothing behind. The Invader vanished completely, not a single trace of its body remaining.

Right in front of Julian, he witnessed the direct aftermath of Aveela’s attack. Just moments before, there had been a paved road, buildings standing in neat rows, long-abandoned cars, and all sorts of derelict structures.

But now, nothing remained at all. It felt like staring at some massive mountain, punched clean through with an enormous crater carved into its very core.

"That’s called Crimson Thrust," Julian remained frozen where he stood, but he listened as Aveela spoke beside him. "And that’s the scale an A-Grade skill carries, the best and most powerful skill I currently possess."

Aveela then smiled, looking at Julian. "So, the real question now is... if an A-Grade skill alone can create devastation on this scale, what about something above it?"

Could a scale like that be capable of destroying an entire city? An entire country? Half the world? Or perhaps the entire world itself?

Julian mulled over that possibility until he found himself unable to speak. Then, the next sentence that came from Aveela left Julian’s breath catching for several seconds straight:

"Aliens at Rank-S are said to be capable of crossing the entire universe. That means, they will eventually find their way here, the moment they locate this planet. Which is exactly why, humanity is, fundamentally, already finished. There is no salvation left, except to submit to stronger Aliens, begging for mercy."

But humans were creatures of considerable pride. They would never allow themselves to submit before being utterly slaughtered first.

That was also exactly why Aveela and the other Rank-A Hunters had never revealed the fact that there existed Aliens willing to cooperate.

Because if that ever came to light, a great many people would refuse it outright, and discrimination would inevitably follow.

Ordinary humans had never once been ready to accept a reality like this, and convincing them wasn’t as simple as saying, "don’t worry, they’re safe."

Besides, humanity had spent so long suffering under the shadow of Aliens seeking to invade this world.

The only real path to saving this world lay in befriending the Aliens willing to negotiate, and each of the seven legends were currently carrying out their own individual roles, working to build those alliances alongside their usual work of slaughtering hostile Invaders.

But whether they even had enough time left for that remained entirely unknown. Because so far, the only Aliens willing to befriend humanity were those existing in circumstances similar to humanity’s own.

The truly powerful ones had no interest in lowering themselves, and that was exactly why Aveela had come to believe humanity was already doomed.

Or, at least, that was what she thought.

She gripped the two Serum vials in her hand, then held them out to Julian.

"My darling, I’ll always support and respect whatever choice you decide to make."

She handed over the vials. Julian, still standing there in silence, glanced at them, now resting in his open palm, then looked up, meeting Aveela’s eyes.

"I spent nearly my entire lifetime pushing Crimson Thrust from a D-Grade skill all the way up to A-Grade. That took nearly fifty years, and that’s despite the fact that I hold an SS-Grade Talent. And you? You pushed your skill to B-Grade in a single month. You need to understand just how absurd that actually is."

Aveela didn’t need to say anything further for Julian to fully understand.

And Julian understood exactly what Aveela was doing right now. If the world truly was going to end the way Aveela had said, if humanity genuinely had no other option left, then perhaps only someone like Julian, given his absolutely nonsensical Talent, could actually do something about it.

Julian had no idea how he was supposed to react to any of this. There was simply too much heavy information for him to fully process, but eventually, he let out a small sigh.

"Manager, turns out you’ve really changed quite a lot, haven’t you?"

"Have I?" Aveela didn’t seem to deny or reject what Julian had just said. After all, it had been nearly a hundred years since Aveela had come to live in this world. "Well, I’ve been fighting for this world for a very, very long time, you know. If I suddenly lost, what exactly would all that struggle have even been for? That’d be genuinely infuriating."

Stretching her body with a tired sigh, Aveela yawned briefly, gazing up at the morning sun rising perfectly overhead.

It was another beautiful day, and Aveela had, in fact, been in an exceptionally good mood ever since reuniting with Julian.

"By the way, we’ve been talking about something pretty heavy, haven’t we?" She let out a soft chuckle. "Julian, darling, want to join me for a drink? For me, it’s been almost a hundred years since I last saw you, you know. And, I’ve missed you so, so much, just so you know."

That was a genuinely sincere sentiment. After all, Aveela shared a fairly deep bond with Julian, even if, somehow, she’d ended up complicating that bond with her rather sadistic fetish, terrifying Julian in the process.

Well, either way, Julian had simply gone along with it back then, so Aveela hadn’t realized just how terrified he’d actually been.

She coughed awkwardly, a flicker of guilt crossing her face.

"I’m not planning anything bad here. We’re genuinely just going to have a drink, and... since I’m a Rank-A Hunter, there’s obviously no way I’d actually get drunk, right?"

Aveela smiled, a little awkwardly. She still wasn’t used to seeing Julian’s completely emotionless, cold expression, it genuinely felt like she was being looked down on.

Fortunately, she knew this was simply one of the effects of his Talent. Otherwise, she might have genuinely felt insulted right about now.

She waited a moment before Julian finally nodded.

"Alright, but I’m not drinking."

Well, that was more than enough.

As for everything else Aveela had brought up earlier, all she could do now was wait patiently, and see exactly what decision Julian would ultimately make about the crisis facing this world.