The sinkhole in the Middle East had formed in an instant.
On satellite imagery, it looked as though some invisible force had scooped a piece straight out of the Earth.
The missing region formed a perfect circle, and the exposed surface along its edge was unnaturally smooth and level.
Vwoom~
A golden-orange spatial portal opened at the edge of the sinkhole.
MEI, Kevin, and the others stepped through, arriving from the Mu Continent.
They gazed down into the enormous abyss, which seemed to have neither bottom nor end...
"This..."
The air around them was already bitterly cold. The temperature had fallen to more than twenty degrees below zero.
And although the more than three thousand Undersea Temples had all been destroyed, meaning the Cold Wave would eventually recede...
Today, a chill deeper than the weather had settled over everyone.
"Why?"
Elysia could not help murmuring, "Why was Sundown Alley suddenly taken away?"
Yes. It had been taken away.
Everyone present understood what Sundown Alley represented.
On the night the Sims gained physical bodies and became capable of leaving the Elysian Realm, Ling Ke had sternly warned them not to approach Sundown Alley.
Nor had he concealed the fundamental reason behind that rule.
Pardofelis.
In the current era, she was an ordinary girl with no connection whatsoever to MOTH, let alone the Newborn World Serpent. Yet it was precisely that ordinary life of hers that Ling Ke treasured.
He would not allow anyone to destroy that rare peace.
But now, all of Sundown Alley was gone.
"Could he have acted on a whim and harmed Pardo?"
Based on what they knew of him, that possibility did seem plausible.
After MEI, Kevin, and Sim Su appeared as "uninvited guests," he had tripled the incubation rate of the "Nihility" embryo.
Given his personality, if Pardo had somehow displeased him, his "affection" might have turned into "fury" in an instant.
But they did not truly understand Ling Ke.
Or perhaps they simply thought too highly of themselves.
At that moment...
"Is there really any hope left for us?" Sim Hua suddenly murmured.
"..."
Everyone heard her.
No one answered.
They had all considered the other possibility.
God had decided that this era was beyond saving.
So He had moved the person He favored out ahead of time.
Like Noah in the Bible.
Only this time, the "Ark" had already departed from a world destined for destruction.
What remained behind...
"MEI."
Kevin walked over to the purple-haired girl wearing the Key of Blankness.
"Let's go back for now," he said in a low voice.
"All right."
MEI nodded without objecting.
Once again, she used the Authority of the Void to open a golden-orange spatial portal leading directly to the Newborn World Serpent's headquarters.
The others filed through one by one.
Eventually, only Kevin and MEI remained.
The two stood on either side of the spatial portal, gazing down into the bottomless sinkhole.
"There's no hope left, is there?" MEI asked softly.
"..."
Kevin remained silent.
Now, only the two of them were left.
The others seemed to have tacitly agreed not to disturb them. After passing through the portal and returning to headquarters, everyone had scattered to their respective lounges.
Right now, all they wanted was a proper rest.
Their bodies were exhausted, and their minds were no better.
As for the white-haired young man (?) and the purple-haired girl still lingering in the Middle East...
"Sorry."
Kevin finally spoke after a long silence.
He did not want to lie to MEI.
But he knew there was only one plausible reason for Sundown Alley's disappearance.
After all, if Pardo had truly angered Ling Ke, he most likely would have simply withdrawn his protection from Sundown Alley.
Once that happened, every trace of malice from the outside world, every dreadful natural disaster, and every conflict wrought by human hands would have flooded in.
Ling Ke loved nothing more than watching the people he despised suffer through exactly that kind of torment.
He would not have gone to the trouble of removing an entire hidden paradise from a world he viewed with contempt.
"Sigh..."
MEI slowly exhaled.
Some of the strength seemed to leave her with that breath.
Her shoulders slumped, and she took a step forward as if she meant to walk straight into the sinkhole.
Kevin instinctively reached out, trying to catch her.
Fortunately...
MEI stopped at the very edge.
Her voice was calm when she spoke.
"Kevin, do you know?"
"I won't turn eighteen for another three months."
"..."
Kevin did not answer.
Then she asked...
"How many more birthdays would the original me have celebrated?"
"..."
Kevin did not want to answer that question.
MEI waited for a moment.
In the end, she did not press him.
"Let's go."
The purple-haired girl turned and entered the spatial portal first, returning to headquarters.
Standing on the other side without looking back, she said, "We still have a lot of things to do."
From where Kevin stood, he could not see her expression.
All he could see was her back.
Let's rewind a little.
Somewhere in a snow-covered region of North America...
Thump.
Just as Kiana reached the cluster of tents, she saw a woman dressed in cold-weather gear, her brown hair tied back in a ponytail. A hunting bow was strapped across her back. She held a gun in one hand and dragged a corpse with the other, casually tossing it into the snow.
Before she could return to the tent, two more people emerged from inside.
They, too, were dragging a body.
Upon closer inspection, the three dead were two men and one woman.
The woman was older, while the two men had been very young.
"Hmm?"
The brown-haired woman immediately noticed Kiana.
In the next instant, the muzzle of her gun was leveled at Kiana's waist.
At the same time, the other two raised their guns and aimed directly at Kiana's face.
Unlike the first woman, their intent to kill was far more obvious.
Just then...
"Walking through the frozen wilderness all by yourself? You're quite something, young lady."
The first to speak was the woman standing behind the brown-haired one. Her black hair was cut short, and she appeared to be from Shenzhou.
As she spoke, all three lowered their guns.
Even so, they kept a firm grip on their weapons and clearly had not relaxed their guard.
Seeing this...
"What's going on here?"
Kiana took a deep breath and looked down at the three corpses lying at their feet.
At her blunt question, the sole man among them finally answered.
"We acted in self-defense."
He added, "By the way, I'm Leon."
Then he gestured toward the short-haired woman beside him. "This is Ada."
"Lara," the brown-haired woman supplied.
At that, a faint smile touched Ada's lips.
"Little girl, let me guess... You've never killed anyone with your own hands, have you?"
"I can tell just by looking into your eyes."
"..."