Chapter 111: What had happened?

The entire room was silent. The burning candles of the chandelier illuminated the hall with a warm, cozy light, accompanied by a gentle fragrance that lingered through the air, while beneath it sat the enormous round table with exactly twenty-four seats.

Seventeen of those seats were occupied by individuals who had been chosen to protect the world in the future. Yet for several moments, none of them moved, their heads resting against the table as if they had suddenly fallen into a deep sleep.

A red, muscular man was the first to raise his head. "What... happened?" he asked, his voice stumbling slightly as it passed between his two enormous fangs.

He looked around and saw the others in a similar state, their heads slowly lifting from the table one after another. Confusion spread across their faces as they tried to understand why they had suddenly lost consciousness.

Moments later, another head rose from the table. Unlike the red-skinned man, this individual possessed blue scales covering his body, and his expression was filled with confusion.

"Dream?" he muttered. "Is this a dream?"

Before Le Von Dia, the Great Render, could respond, several more heads suddenly lifted from the table. Their voices quickly filled the once-silent room as everyone began questioning what had happened.

"Why did we suddenly become unconscious? Did the Entity do this?"

"Is this an attack?" One of them immediately shifted into a combat stance, his eyes scanning the room for any sign of danger. Another, appearing far more composed, raised a hand and calmly spoke.

"Don’t panic. There must be a solution."

The others looked toward him, waiting for him to explain. He took a moment before continuing.

"Let’s try using Intangible Spectation. We can investigate what happened without leaving our bodies behind, then return here afterward."

One by one, their physical forms disappeared as they activated Intangible Spectation. Their consciousnesses immediately separated from their bodies, allowing them to travel throughout the world without being restricted by their physical forms.

"HUMANS! HUMANS! THEY ARE NOT DUMB!" A high-pitched voice echoed across the land.

Pandi floated above the ground, her eyes widening as she stared at the settlement below. Humans were walking along a dirt road, carrying simple tools and supplies while a massive beast followed behind them like a companion.

She quickly turned her head and looked around. Several crude houses stood nearby, surrounded by small patches of farmland and primitive wooden structures.

"Why did they suddenly turn into this?" she asked, completely baffled. "Did my whining work?"

A strange silence followed.

Then a mischievous smile slowly appeared across Pandi’s face. "MWEHEHEHEHE..."

Far away, on the opposite side of the continent, Le Von Dia floated above the land and stared toward the territories once controlled by his demonic forces. His expression became increasingly complicated as he realized what had happened.

"The demonic forces rebuilt themselves."

He looked across the scattered settlements below. "But still, without me, they are as fragmented as ever."

His disappointment deepened as he remembered what he had accomplished in the previous timeline. Just before everything had changed, he had nearly conquered the entire southern continent, reaching a point where even the Creator had acknowledged his existence.

He had unified the demonic race and built an enormous force, only for all of it to disappear and return to its primitive beginnings. Now, the demons were once again scattered across the land, divided into countless groups with no unified leader.

On the frozen tundras far to the north, a white-haired man floated above an enormous stretch of ice. His eyes widened as he looked toward a distant mountain where several massive dragons slept inside a frozen cave.

"They are really back... Everything!"

The sight left him stunned. He remembered these creatures from the world he had once known, yet seeing them in such an undeveloped state made him realize just how much time had been erased.

Akuma and the other four Prodigies experienced similar reactions. They explored the settlements below, searching for the civilizations they remembered, only to discover that the enormous walls and advanced cities they once knew had been reduced to primitive settlements that could barely be considered towns.

"We skipped time," Rize finally said.

The others remained silent, slowly coming to the same conclusion. Whatever had happened, they had somehow been moved backward to an earlier period of the world’s development.

Meanwhile, Calean continued searching across the land. He examined the ground beneath him, looking for the enormous tunnel networks his race had eventually constructed, but no matter how carefully he searched, there was no sign of them.

"It seems they have gone extinct," Calean muttered, his expression becoming serious. "Something must have happened."

Olium and Moleius traveled through the dense jungles of the southern continent, both of them surprised by how familiar the environment felt. The forests were almost exactly as they remembered them, but unlike the humans, the elves and druids had not attempted to reshape the land with enormous settlements.

Instead, they remained deeply connected to nature. Many lived within enormous trees, using the natural structures of the forest as their homes rather than cutting down the surrounding vegetation to construct cities.

Coasta traveled through the ocean, although calling it swimming was almost inaccurate when he was practically flying through the water. He looked across the familiar seas and spotted enormous sea turtles slowly gliding through the waves, with countless fishermen using their momentum to conserve their own energy.

"Nothing much really changed."

Far above the continent, Odir floated through the sky and looked down at a settlement of lizardmen. He watched them for a long moment before his expression became strangely distant.

"In this timeline, where I never existed... the lizardmen really do look no different from humans."

His voice carried no anger or sadness. After living for centuries and becoming disconnected from the ordinary lives of his own kind, his sense of kinship had gradually faded, replaced by his fixation on the greater scheme of things.

He believed there was a reason the Entity had brought them here. Whatever this timeline became, Odir believed that everything happening around them was part of a greater plan.

The proud leader of the beastmen, on the other hand, still has a strong sense of kinship.

Valadin watched the beastmen below, but his expression soon became slightly disappointed. Their settlements were far less developed than those of the other races, with crude structures scattered across the land and little evidence of the organized civilization he remembered.

Then something else caught his attention. He looked toward the southern regions, searching for the familiar presence of the dark elves. Yet there was nothing.

"The dark elves... aren’t living across the continent."

His eyes narrowed slightly. "That is strange."