Escape

Escape

As the Snake King's corpse sank beneath the water and vanished from sight, Ivette let out a long breath, feeling as though a boulder had finally been lifted from her heart.

Of course, killing the Snake King would not make any equipment drop, but she had always regarded it as the greatest obstacle to leaving Crater Lake.

Now that obstacle was gone, her path out had suddenly become smooth and clear.

Moreover, decades ago, her mana pressure had already reached the required threshold for charging magical devices, and she had repaired a still-functional Flying Board from a field of scraps.

So if she wanted to, she could set off right now and leave this lake prison that had trapped her for nearly two hundred years.

But...

After some thought, Ivette still turned and returned to the facility.

On one hand, she needed to review the gains from this operation and further improve Wrath of Thunder.

On the other hand, since she could leave whenever she wished, why rush?

A little more preparation could only help!

In the decades following the giant snake's death, the waters around the ruined platform became noticeably quieter. Whenever Ivette appeared under the sun, whether meditating or practicing magic, the Mutated Creatures in the shallows would wisely keep far away.

These low-intelligence creatures seemed to have decided through some primal instinct that the slender figure had replaced the giant snake as the new ruler of this place.

Of course, challengers did appear from time to time.

Compared with ordinary mutants, these challengers had far less exposed flesh and possessed unique attack organs, such as chitinous carapaces or electrified tentacles, offering a vivid demonstration of biodiversity.

But for Ivette, they were all just one Wrath of Thunder away from being dealt with.

—The improved version of Wrath of Thunder had reduced its mana cost from 240 points to just 100, while retaining 60 percent of its power. It was an optimization she was quite proud of.

Worth mentioning was that her Mana Points had recently approached the five-hundred-point mark.

During the age of Origin Civilization, even the energy core used by a fully automated magical combat mech standing two meters tall was only around that level.

So in that respect, after more than two hundred years of solitary practice, Ivette's Mana Points could already be considered quite abundant. And Wrath of Thunder, her strongest original spell, was indeed built to military-grade specifications.

"With my current combat strength, I would have counted as an expert even before the apocalypse. Supplies and weapons must be scarce in this post-apocalyptic era... Hmm, that seems to mean that once I escape Five Finger Mountain, I can immediately become one of humanity's top assets..."

With such small hopes in her heart, Ivette trained with even greater motivation, as though she could already see herself descending like a divine soldier, propping up a collapsing edifice, turning back the tide, winning the admiration of thousands, and having beautiful women throw themselves at her.

Until that day finally arrived.

On a misty morning, Ivette stood silently before the sealed metal door leading to the eleventh basement level for a long time, then shook her head helplessly.

After breaking through the five-hundred-point Mana Points threshold last night, she had decided to leave. She had no luggage to bring and no particular attachments to leave behind. Her only regret was that, before departing, she still had not managed to open this sturdy alloy door made from some unknown material.

"Fine. Stay shut if you want."

Leaving those words behind, Ivette climbed the stairs. The sound of her heels striking the metal steps echoed layer upon layer through the hollow shaft.

Over the long span of more than two hundred years, she had walked up and down through the ruins of Abyss Base more times than she could count, as though every bolt had been engraved into her memory. Though she had once seen this place as an endless prison, sometimes it barely qualified as a shelter from the storm, giving her a brief moment of quiet and peace in an apocalyptic world overrun by mutated monsters.

And now, she would finally put an end to those long years of imprisonment with her own hands.

Standing on the Water Platform, Ivette activated the Flying Board.

As a simply constructed magical vehicle, its energy storage panel was surprisingly capable. It could store one hundred points of mana and support a range of roughly fifty kilometers.

By comparison, even with her five hundred Mana Points and the help of her prized Wind Control, Ivette could only fly one kilometer. The disparity was immediately obvious.

But Ivette did not find that strange, because she knew very well that, as one of the technological crystallizations of Origin Civilization, this thing looked ordinary but contained at least a million runes within its magical circuits.

Comparing the effects of Wind Control to this thing was roughly like using an abacus to challenge a quantum computer.

She extended a hand, and a transparent handle made of mana formed in her palm. With a slight forward lean, the Flying Board immediately carried her soaring ahead, carving a fleeting trail across the deep-blue water.

Wherever she passed, the Mutated Creatures in the lake and shallows fled in panic, clearing a path from afar for this visitor from the sky.

Thus, in less than three minutes, she crossed the stretch of water, less than three kilometers long, and arrived before the smooth rock wall she had once gazed upon when she first came here more than two hundred years ago.

Because of the height limit, she could not continue using the Flying Board here. Ivette lightly leaped onto a protruding rock and stowed the board at her waist. Pale-blue currents of air curled around her body, lifting her straight up along the cliff face.

When her fingertips finally touched the highest point of the crater, the entire world suddenly opened before her.

The azure horizon blended with clouds and sunset glow. Along the coast, vine-wrapped skyscrapers had merged seamlessly with the forest, resembling towering ancient trees. On the nearby foothills, a sea of trees swayed, stirred by the mountain wind into emerald waves.

She instinctively turned to look back the way she had come. From this angle, the crater lake that had once seemed as vast as the sea was no more than a clear pool, while the metal platform at its center looked as small as a toy floating in a bathtub.

So this is the world after the apocalypse... she thought, standing there quietly for a long time, until the fierce wind atop the mountain lifted her silver-white hair, scattering faint rainbow gleams beneath the sunlight.

What was she supposed to do after escaping?

Ivette had considered that question as early as two hundred years ago, but she could never find an answer. After all, she had not known what kind of sight would await her outside. Would it be a deserted wasteland, or an inferno crawling with mutants?

Would there be gathered human survivors, fighting for survival and to rebuild their homeland, sounding an anthem called courage?

For now, the answer appeared to be no.

Following a road whose original shape could still be made out, Ivette entered Ish City, the capital of Ish Island.

Compared with the island's other two human cities, which had been reduced to ruins, the sight here was far more magnificent. After all, this had been the site of an important branch of Black Tower Pharmaceuticals. Even from dozens of kilometers away, she could still see the black tower rising into the sky at the city center.

It was painted in verdant hues, like an ancient sword entwined with branches. Even though its master had been dead for years, it still stood unfallen, pointing straight toward the heavens.

This was humanity's sword, and humanity's tombstone... As Ivette looked over the ruins before her, it was as though she had crossed time itself and witnessed Ish City's former prosperity and splendor—Black Tower Building at its center, surrounded by orderly rows of skyscrapers; holographic advertisements flowing over glass curtain walls; aircraft weaving through the air like swarms of bees; neon lights dyeing the night sky into a dreamscape. Now, it had all vanished like smoke.

Leaping over a clear underground river formed by a collapsed sewer, then passing through streets blooming with wisteria, Ivette moved like a ghost through the alleys.

Butterflies landed on her shoulder before flying away, while fawns lifted their heads warily beside collapsed storefronts. Mutated Creatures occasionally pounced from the shadows, only to turn into charcoal in Flame Dance.

In this manner, strolling as though through a garden, she crossed countless perilous streets and arrived at the city center. Along the way, she found no cooking smoke, footprints, or signs of human activity.

Then, in the plaza, as she looked up at the Black Tower's weathered exterior, she finally became certain of one thing: at least on this island, there was no other living human besides her.

In fact, even setting Ish Island aside and looking toward the three major continents of Origin Star—Black Tide Continent, Emerald Continent, and Silver Mirror Continent—there were probably no other survivors left there either.

Otherwise, it was impossible to explain how, over nearly six hundred years, humanity had still failed to rebuild its civilization despite its technology and wisdom.

Struck by that realization, she sighed softly. As a visitor from another world, she had thought that once she stepped out of her prison, a brand-new world would await her—a place where she could see all kinds of people and experience entirely different customs and cultures. Yet she had never expected that, along the long road ahead, loneliness would still be her only companion, until the end of countless ages, until Morning Star itself went dark.

If that was the case...

Then!

Maybe she should start by farming?