As Il-sung finished his cappuccino, he saw from the cafe window, as people in cars, and on the streets stopped in the middle of the road and were all looking toward the sky, they started making a commotion, and most of the people their phones pointed towards the sky.
What's going on? Is it an ad campaign where they flew large banners from planes or is it a meteor shower?
Let's see
He stepped out of the cafe and joined the people on the streets, in viewing what was so interesting in the sky.
Il-sung was speechless. A giant black oval structure was floating in the sky, the object was so immense in its dimension that it cast a shadow onto an entire city block.
He took out his phone to search for what was happening, but even before he typed, the queries on trending were giant floating structures. Clicking on it, the search engine results were filled with reports of strange giant structures floating in the sky, in hundreds of major cities across the world, these structures reportedly appeared out of thin air. One moment there was nothing and the next a giant black oval floated in the sky.
In ten minutes, news media and internet forums were in a frenzy, all suspecting aliens. The governments of the world even announced setting up teams to prepare for first contact. conspiracy theorists with alien abduction stories were now tooting their horns on every corner of the internet.
20 minutes have passed, Yet the surprise didn't wear off on anyone. What is that structure made of, what's inside it, how is it floating in the sky with no visible engines to provide thrust, and does it have weapons? There were all kinds of questions in people's minds, they continued to stare at the giant object as if they were expecting it to speak to them.
But that's exactly what happened. But it wasn't speaking in the normal sense, it was a different way of communication. It was what one could call telepathy.
All the people on planet earth heard it, not by way of sound, but they could hear it in their minds.
"Rejoice, Humans. Rejoice. You are now witnessing the power of the descendants of Angels. We are the Arken."
"The time for humanity's evolution and transcendence has finally come. We the Arken are here to bless you with this gift. Earth, which was forsaken by the Angels of old, now has new protectors to beward it"
"Prepare yourself, the time for your refinement has come. Through trials and tribulations, evolve, your weapons of war shall be no more, you shall learn to rely on yourself."
"In one month, the break will begin. But Fear not, we the most generous Arken hereby grant this world magic and strength this world hasn't witnessed before. Fight for your survival and emerge strong"
"Emerge as the subjects of the heavenly Arken"
The telepathic sound which was akin to a radio broadcast ended. The world didn't immediately comprehend what happened. It was like a bad prank, they didn't know what to think, but a few hours passed, and the giant black structures were still floating in the sky, they realized that it wasn't a collective hallucination.
As the reality of the situation set in, the words that people heard were published verbatim, across all print, news, and internet media.
As governments and militaries across the world realized that within minutes of this broadcast, except for small arms, all fighter jets, tanks, missiles, bombs, torpedoes, and nukes disappeared. Not a single one remained across the whole world.
As the power of the Arken, the self-titled descendants of Angels and protectors of the earth, was now proven to be real, religious groups marched the streets, the Vatican broadcasted a message from the pope.
"Humanity's sins have finally come to bear their poisonous fruit. Repent and pray to the Arken, who has blessed us with the sight of their miracles, the descendants of the archangels of heaven. Repent and your sins will be washed"
As the chaos was spreading among humanity, Il-sung was sitting at his desk in his office.
A series of realizations swept across his mind.
The Arken, who call themselves the descendants of Angels were real, the world at large acknowledged them.
They are beings of immense power, being able to perform such feats on a global scale.
They have some sort of plan to punish humanity. Or maybe reward them. He wasn't sure which it was, by orchestrating a fight for survival, through events called breaks, so humanity could grow stronger and 'evolve'.
The strange feeling Il-sung had since what is now known as 'The Great Revelation' grew stronger, and as it grew stronger, Il-sung now knew what it was. It was something he knew very well, magic and mana were now flowing through this world. With each breath he took, he could feel his strength and magic increasing.
Regret washed over him. Ilarion teleported to this dimension the moment he broke the dimension prison without even analyzing the state of Mistveil.
If the Arken were indeed descendants of Angels, then did that mean the Angels have perished? Or maybe they lost their power It may be why the barrier weakened
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
But this train of thought only led to more questions, were the Angels that descended on Farvin, the same as the ones described on earth? If so, what happens now? What about the war?
The most important question he had was if it were truly only for a decade that they have been imprisoned in the dimension barrier. Was there a chance that it was far, far longer?
The only way he had to gauge time was by the rate at which his mana was consumed, as he used it to sustain his troops.
Though Ilarion took a great liking to Earth, the events of the past several hours, led him to decide.
I should return immediately
Ilarion stood from his chair.
Ilarion used the magic he used to teleport here. But in reverse. Magic gathered at his Body's core and then dispersed.
Nothing happened. There were no flashes of light or no disappearance, he stood there like a stage magician, whose trick has failed. He had a look of disbelief and defeat.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't perform the trick. The magic doesn't even initialize completely. It's as if his homeworld disappeared.
He couldn't even find a faint trace. The magic he used was exceptionally powerful, even if the link was undetectably faint, it would still connect him to Farvin and teleport him back to his world.
His homeworld ceased existence.
Despair overtook Ilarion. Was he now stuck on Earth, forever to be known by the name of Il-sung? Was he to call himself an Earthling? Was Earth his home now? Were all his troops and generals dead? Was his beautiful world, Farvin, destroyed?
Before the despair grew, another thought entered Ilarion's mind. Perhaps a dimension or time barrier of some sort was now separating the worlds, which didn't exist before.
It was part possible, and part wishful thinking. He wanted it to be the former. As despair subsided, Ilarion sat down in his chair, as he looked at his office and the workbench in the corner of his room, faint embers of hope kindled in his heart.
At least I have something to look forward to
The trivial question that he harbored for a while was now answered. Should I call myself Ilarion or Il-sung?
Il-sung then, for the foreseeable future..... and probably forever
He didn't dislike the name, but it was an extremely old-fashioned and outdated name from the 1940s. Il-sung's mother, Dae, named him after her grandfather.
He, who was the great Monarch of Mistveil, was now thinking about such trivial things. Self-pity set in.
Before he descends into depression and has to start popping pills, Il-sung decided to go home and sleep.
He went to the floor below. All the cubicles were empty, the floor looked deserted. Il-sung went to his father's office and opened the door.
As Son Kang saw his son. "Are you ok son, I came up a few hours back, but you weren't there"
"I was at a cafe nearby" Il-sung sat down in the chair in front of his father's desk.
"Did you see it?"
"Yes, it happened when I was at the cafe. I came back a bit later."
"I can't believe it. All of this is crazy"
"Yeah..... Where are all the employees?"
"I told them to take time off till things settled down. If the chaos spreads anymore there won't be a company to return to." Kang was now looking a bit dejected.
"We'll see, let's hope it goes well. Anyway why are you still here dad, why didn't you go home?"
"I was waiting for you... And I had something to do as well, I liquidated all of the holdings and assets into cash, including the ones in your account."
"Thanks, Dad, I didn't even think about it, but that's the best thing to do before we know how it will turn out"
"I also withdrew a good chunk of it. Leaving 60% in the bank."
Kang took out a duffel bag from under his desk and placed it on the table.
"This is from the holdings in your account"
Il-sung was confused. The bag was pretty small. He opened the bag. A golden hue was cast upon his face. Il-sung smiled. He sure is an intelligent guy
It was gold, in bars and coins of various sizes. This was perhaps the best way to preserve wealth, assuming society doesn't completely go to the dogs.
Il-sung held the bag, it weighed somewhere north of 14 kilograms.
"What about your holdings Dad?"
"Had it securely delivered home along with a year or two's worth of supplies and fuel for the backup generators"
Il-sung grinned. Kang smiled in response.
"I'm not your Dad for nothing"
"Shall we go?" Il-sung was amused. This Guy
Before they could leave the office, the strange but now familiar voice began speaking again.
"We the Arken, the most generous, have decided to give humanity one last gift before we ascend. We bless you with the Seer's eye"
An overlay of garbled text appeared in front of Il-sung's eyes, as he looked toward his father, he didn't see any text floating in front of him.
Yet the confused expression on his father's face, who was seemingly staring at the door blankly, made him think that others were seeing the same thing as him.
It was exactly like Augmented Reality. There was already such technology on Earth, so this didn't seem all that impossible of a feat.
"Seeing as humanity is so fond of playing games, We the Arken grant this to you. Use the Seers eye by speaking the word 'Status'. Show your gratitude by fighting for your survival, and 'Level Up' or perish trying. The strong shall find the world bountiful, the weak shall succumb to the break. Now go forth and evolve, humans."
The giant shadow cast on the city block was gone, the light from the evening sun now streamed through the windows. The giant black structures disappeared.
"Let's first go home," Kang said as he became increasingly worried as he thought about the world returning to normality.
~~
They safely reached home, after securely placing their huge stash of gold in the safe room of his house, Kang, Il-sung, and Jung-Hwa gathered in the large living room along with Eun and the servants.
"You can all leave if you please, you can return if things return to normal, I'll pay you in advance for the coming few months."
Eun replied "Sir we'd like to stay here and continue working" The rest of the servants nodded vigorously in agreement.
They knew it might become dangerous out there and their best bet was in here. They had decent lodging here, and they'd want for nothing.
They also saw the several trucks worth of supplies their Master had gotten delivered, and were now stored in the humongous cellar. From fresh and dried vegetables to meat, they were stocked up on everything, including drinking water. A large generator along with several tens of barrels of fuel was also set up in the backyard.
This place would be the safest bet.
Son Kang nodded. He knew that they would choose to stay, after all, who could say what would happen outside? He knew the supplies, for which he had paid an exorbitant amount on top of their retail prices, enticed them, even with the servants, the supplies would last more than a year.
After the matter was settled, they turned on the news, and details of the latest "Great Revelation" were now being shown. Il-sung took out his phone and browsed the internet. Gamers everywhere were now trolling all over the internet, memeing that the 'normies' would perish. After seeing all the hype and noise online, Il-sung was curious too, after all, it was unavoidable.
As the people in the room fell silent, seriously watching the news, Il-sung said a word.
"Status"
The blue garbled text window that he previously saw, which disappeared after a few seconds, now reappeared.
The garbled words jumbled around, forming a message. The message caught him off-guard.
Welcome to the game
~~
END OF CHAPTER 5