CHAPTER 4: THE VOICE

[ Sight!

"Is this destiny…?"

"No…! It doesn't matter… I can't just give up…"

"Everyone, listen up…! The gate was torn open!"

"There is nothing I can do now…"

"I'll lift the restrictions off the life energy on your bodies!"

"I'll unseal the array and distribute the magic artifacts, to those who have magic talent"

"Use your life energy, strengthen yourselves!"

"Use your magic artifacts, comprehend their spells!"

"Use life energy, use the magic artifacts, use them to fight back!"

"Fight! Kill these damned beasts!"

"Seize their cores, ignite your life energy!"

"Seize their magic cores, level up your artifacts and unseal the spells!"

"Use the modern day weapons!"

"Use whatever you can!"

"Defend yourselves!"

"Survive!

Survi…

s…

…

. ]

"This…"

When Ramie had heard these words from the people he asked, he immediate confirmed it with Eric; turns out, these were the exact words Eric had heard.

Ramie didn't even know what to think at this point anymore…

What sort of occurrence is this…?

For that many of people to dream of hearing the exact same thing…? Across the distances? And in the same time?

It was unprecedented!

It was something the common sense that he was raised up into had no answer for…

His mind really stood helpless, unable to come up with any reasonable explanation.

Apparently, whoever had heard this voice… had also felt the emotions behind these words, vividly!

The sadness, the helplessness and the remorse this voice had carried… also, the anger… People had felt it all, as if these emotions were transmitted to them along the words, directly into their hearts, making anyone who had heard the voice feel a vivid fear and a horrifying foreboding sense of doom, that the speaker of these words had felt, as if something beyond what words could describe had stepped into this world, eyeing their very souls with insatiable greed.

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This left Ramie flabbergasted.

There was no way for him not to make the obvious connection.

The voice in the dream, which obviously belonged to an adult male, had mentioned beasts, and hours later, out of nowhere – these creatures appear!

More ever, the voice, spoke these words in a warning tone! Foreseeing the aggressive nature of these creatures, saying words like; fight! Survive! Defend yourselves!

It was obvious at this point that whoever spoke these words, had definitely knew this would happen!

So, who was this man that spoke these words? More ever, how did he even know this would happen!

And if the speaker knew this much… could he also knew what these creatures were? Where did they come from? And how on earth could they possess this kind of terrifying strength?

Also, the voice had spoken of other things, like; life energy, unsealing arrays… magic artifacts… what did he meant by that…?

However, it was undeniable that the speaker was right about the creatures. So, wouldn't that mean that he is right about the other things he mentioned?

He additionally spoke of some kind of gate being torn open!

So, were these events related to this gate…? And if so, then how exactly?

Also, how in the world did this fellow managed to get his voice to the people and through dreams nonetheless?

Ramie was sure that there was no current technology capable of pulling off such a feat.

As he walking on, his mind reeled with thoughts, question upon question flickered across his mind nonstop.

He knew that no matter how hard he thinks now, the situation would remain the same… Not to mention that a monster-like creatures… real monsters! That not even the army could stop! Were probably heading this way…

But he couldn't just stop his mind from spinning with these thoughts.

Slowly, the pure negativity of the situation started overwhelming him a bit by bit, throwing him into despair like most of the people around.

Looking at Eric next to him, it was apparent that he was not faring too well, probably thinking of his parents; which lived in one of the nearby cities that were first to be attacked.

Now that there was no phone signal, there was no way for him to check on them, to see if they managed to evacuate to this city alongside the army or had remained stuck there, or even if they were among the unlucky lives that was lost during the initial creatures 's onslaught.

Thinking to this point, Ramie's mood plunged even further.

His aunt, the only family he had, was living in this city. And although this place had not been assaulted by these creatures at first, but now that these ferocious creatures were advancing this direction, there was no way of telling that this place too won't be overrun by them any moment now.

Beside, the military didn't want the civilians to obstruct their operations, as such; they gathered all the people of this city as well as the evacuated civilians from the nearby cities and move them to the east side of the city, where it had turned into a large refugee camp.

Right now, all the original inhabitants of this city had been relocated there.

As for those around him, all of them were evacuated from the other nearby cities.

So the problem was, with such large concentration of people in relatively small area, how in the world would he locate his aunt? Especially that there was no phone signal right now.

Slap!

Feeling overwhelmed with negative thoughts, Ramie slapped himself to regain focus. But even though he did so in public, no one even paid attention to him.

Right now, everyone was lost in his own matters to care for him.

Ramie tapped Eric on the shoulder, as a form of support. However Eric only gave back a hollow smile then resumed back into his trance.

Ramie could only smile bitterly in response.

Eric was the sort that took life way to lightly; he was the only child to his parents, so they poured their all into him, making him have a very easy life.

His life was paved on to him before he even get to high school, and he didn't have to struggle for anything, spending his days in a very carefree manner as he happily followed the path drawn to him by his parents.

His entire life revolved around his parents, so if anything was to happen to them, he would probably not even know what to do with his life.

So, the impact of this event was especially hard on him.

Seeing his complexion, Ramie knew that there is nothing he could say to Eric at the moment that can alleviate his mood.

Right now, it has been only a bit over 40 minutes since they disembarked off the boat. However, due to the many shocks he had gone through, Ramie felt very exhausted at the moment.

But he could only grit his teeth and keep walking forward.

Currently, the evacuated people were walking on the middle of the street, which was one of the widest main streets in the city. On both the right and left side of the street, soldiers were standing in a long two line that extended along the street, with a distance of 15 to 20 meters between every two soldiers, while people move between the two lines of soldiers.

Some of the people that were too tired to continue were allowed to move out of the line, and sit at the side road to pick up their breath.

However only elders or those with children got such privilege, as for everyone else, they could only endure and keep walking. As even if they tried to say or ask anything from the soldiers, the only responses they'd get were a loud shouts of: "go back in line!" or"keep walking!"

Through the branch streets and alleyways, military vehicles could be seen parked at the other end with armed soldiers, standing alertly, and making sure that nothing sneaks past them into the main street.

Right now, other than few specific areas, there was no safe place within the city.

As the military was engaged in a savage battle against the strong types of creatures to maintain its footing, there was no room to secure the entire city and face these creatures at the same time.

So, since the military pushed the majority of its forces into the battle, the rest of soldiers were concentrated only in the key places to maintain order, and to protect the civilians.

Thus, instead of securing the entire city, the army had opted to secure specific controlled areas and gather the survivors there.

As for the rest of the city, there was no telling what was lurking in its dark corners, as there was many weak and small types of creatures that could easily sneak in, hiding in the city. There was also flying types that could simply bypass the lines of defense by flying and sneaking in from other less protected directions.

The military didn't have the luxury of defending against all possibilities, they couldn't protect everyone.

This was the cruel reality of the situation.

Being raised in this city, Ramie was familiar with its streets and routes. He estimated that it would take less than an hour before he reaches the east side where his aunt was, along with the other city inhabitants and refugees.

Looking up to the sky, the sun was falling toward the horizon. Only two hours were left before the sun departs, letting the night descends.

Ramie's unease started growing further and further.

Even though he estimated that he'd arrive at the temporary camp before night falls, but the horror stories that he had heard really got to him.

The scenes of people being torn apart alive was not something easy to be forgotten. And it that was reflected vividly on the faces of the people who had witnessed these scenes, bringing a deep fear into his heart, even though he hadn't seen it himself. But the descent of the night served to further enhance the fear in his heart!

But what is there to be done!

Letting out a heavy burdened sigh, he could only grit his teeth and keep walking.

Time went on, minutes ticked by slowly, with only a little less than 20 minutes left before he reaches the camp.

At this moment however, a sudden successive sounds of screams rang from behind, in the distance.

His heart palpating, Ramie immediately turned back to look!

And his heart skipped a beat…

An unbelievable scene entered his eyes!

"This… can't be happening…"

...