Post-Apocalyptic Dispatch Society

"Now, I'm curious about the ability you'll gain."

At Rhizen's words, Felix paused in thought, gazing at the lemon-like fruit before him, one that seemed edible for some reason. 'Might as well.'

He let out a sigh before grabbing hold of it, observing that it was smaller than he had expected, unable to sense anything mysterious from it, wondering how it caused Raisha to obtain that power.

"Do I need to swallow it whole?" He asked.

"It'll melt the moment you place it in your mouth. So, it doesn't matter." Rhizen said, "Though, intaking it in one gulp ensures you obtain a fairly potent power. Otherwise, it would only generate a faulty power that's ineffective against the Aberrants."

"I see." He nodded, swallowing it whole, sensing a warm stream flow through his throat before settling in his stomach. Immediately after, he felt weak as his first evolution was undone, turning him into a normal human.

The warmth then spread throughout his body, seemingly condensing a mysterious pocket in his stomach. It seemed no bigger than a tumour but the space within was relatively bigger in comparison.

Felix could feel something welling up in him as suddenly, his surroundings morphed. Now, he was able to notice a mysterious yellowish-green radiance swirling around, constantly flowing into everyone stationed within the dome.

As Rhizen had explained, it was Nacre.

The Nacre then swerved into his body, filling up the pocket space in his stomach as soon after, a horn began to grow on his forehead, similar-sized as his sister.

And the moment he focused on it, a dense stream of information gushed into his mind, detailing everything in regards to the power he obtained, the ways to control and use it, the effectiveness of Nacre, etc.

"What ability did you get?" Rhizen asked in a hurry, feeling that he was getting excited for some reason. After all, to a certain extent, Felix was considered the protagonist of this world.

"I'll show it to you," Felix said as his horn emitted a bright radiance, slowly causing his Nacre to gush out of his Origin Space and condense into a pair of wings on his back. They were blue-tinted, resembling steel at first glance but had a rough texture similar to chalk.

With a flap of the wings, Felix took off to the skies, gazing at a Titan Aberrant far away as he grunted, causing all the feathers on his wings to tremble before flying out in a hurry, speeding towards the target before slamming into it.

The feathers pierced its skin barely before exploding one after another, causing singeing marks to form on the Titan Aberrant. It was only injured though, but it was already a great feat considering how tough these Titan Aberrants were.

"This…!" Rhizen was surprised for a moment before laughing aloud, "Hahaha! To think I would see this again."

"Is this the same ability as you?" Felix awkwardly crash-landed on the ground, retracting his feather-less wings.

"Yes," Rhizen nodded, "They are called Homing Feathers. It's my signature ability. Only one other person had obtained it to date."

"It…feels damn powerful." Felix nodded, unused to the power, but he planned to work on getting accustomed to it soon enough. He then asked in curiosity, "Who is the other person?"

"Well…he's something of a leading figure." Rhizen nodded, "Anyway, since you have the same ability as me, I'll train you in mastering it."

"Based on the information in my mind, this seems to be the only power I can wield?" Raisha asked, expressing her confusion as she gazed at her Needle Gun, tilting her head, "But, I see everyone else use multiple abilities."

"That's because our power systems are slightly different." Rhizen said, "We rear Mutated Beasts in our Origin Space. And it's their power that we wield. And, depending on our Stage, we can rear multiple Mutated Beasts. This is something only people from my world can use."

"But for those like you, people from other worlds that draw upon our power, you cannot rear any Mutated Beasts in your Origin Space. Instead, you'll only be able to use one ability." He concluded.

"Why is it like this though?" She wondered.

"There are some restrictions. And hence, this is the only viable option. Though, you needn't worry." Rhizen smiled, "As your Stage increases, your ability becomes more and more potent while your reserve of Nacre becomes greater. Moreover, to grow stronger, you only need to use your abilities as much as possible."

"But for us, it's different." He sighed, "To reach a higher stage, we'll have to be ripped apart by our Mutated Beasts and feasted upon…multiple times at higher Stages. So, it becomes increasingly harder to reach higher Stages. Currently, I'm the strongest in my world, and I'm only at Stage 9. But among the Horned Human race, there are already a couple that had reached Stage 10."

"So, there are advantages and disadvantages to both power systems." Raisha nodded, pondering about it further. She then pointed at her horn, "And this horn is the source of our power?"

"It's like a beacon." Rhizen said, "It is what absorbs the ambient Nacre into your Origin Space. Otherwise, you'll have to depend on your food intake to gradually replenish your reserves. It takes a significant time in this way though."

"And the higher your Stage, the stronger your horn's rate of Nacre absorption." He continued, "And it would be displayed by the number of rings/segments on your horn. Currently, it's not segmented, showing that you're at Stage 1."

"So, we only have to continue attacking our enemies from within this safe zone to grow stronger?" Raisha asked, feeling that it was a pretty amazing deal.

To use her ability, she only needed to aim her Needle Gun at an Aberrant and shoot it. It didn't take much effort.

"Yes, but it's not as easy as it sounds," Rhizen said, extending his hand towards the horde of Aberrants, unleashing his Dust Wave that turned a significant sum into dust. He then pointed at his surroundings, "See, a tenth of the Nacre here was consumed to fuel that one attack. So, we'll have to pace our attacks according to the Nacre production."

"Don't worry though." He smiled, watching the rest of Felix's family get down from his Whale, "That's why we have our Whales. The stronger ones among us have a Whale of our own to satisfy our Nacre needs. So, the production here is only for the rest."

Boom!

"Aah!" A Society Member screamed as he barely jumped into the dome, carrying a child in his arms. He then collapsed to the ground, losing all signs of life as his back began to rot. As for his rhino armour, it seemed to have been bitten off by something, also taking away half of his body.

"Tch!" Rhizen hurriedly summoned his wings and flashed before the Society Member, checking his body to notice that he was already dead. Before he could inspect the cause of death, a dark power of corruption exploded from within.

Rhizen grabbed hold of the child and leapt, creating a Dust Wave barrier that surrounded the corpse of the Society Member, sensing the corruption bombarding the Dust Wave barrier, rapidly eating through it as it seemed sentient.

"What the fuck is this?" Rhizen stared solemnly as the corruption morphed into the maw of a beast, gnawing through the barrier as its power continued to increase. Moreover, a similar corruption formed beyond the dome, slamming into it nonstop in an effort to penetrate it and connect with the beast maw.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The corruption slowly turned physical, slamming into the dome as it caused the Nacre expenditure of the Tower of Purification to spike in process.

"Sheesh! This place is more terrifying than the previous world." Dwun skid into the dome, flinching in pain as his Celestial Armour—rhino armour—was riddled with tears. The moment he arrived within the dome, the Nacre gushed into him, eradicating the corruption that had seeped into him.

The moment he was fully cured of the corruption, Dwun approached Rhizen, "Boss, what the heck is up with this world? Why are the Aberrants increasing in number this drastically? It has only been a few hours since the Apocalypse."

"You can consider it as the Apocalypse taking full action to eradicate us since Felix is with us here." Rhizen said before staring at Yulna, "How's the status of the other safe zones?"

"Dozens of times better." Yulna finished communications, stating with a tone of relief, "The number of survivors there are in the tens of thousands per each safe zone, almost filling up the place to max capacity. Only the rescue operations here are this stagnant."

"Rhizen looked around, observing that most of the teams that he had sent out returned by now. And those that hadn't done so had probably been wiped out. It was evident by the corpse of the Society Member nearby. He was the only one from his team of five that had made it back.

Among the over two hundred Society Members that had been dispatched, only 150 made it back alive. As for the rescued people, they barely reached two thousand in number.

"This is a pitiful number." Rhizen sighed, but also knew that this was due to Apocalypse focusing all its strength on them to crush them first. So, the other regions fared many times better.

"Are you alright?" He kneeled before the fear-stricken child, putting on a gentle smile as he asked.

"Mmhm," The child nodded bravely, despite tears streaming down her eyes. She had watched her parents turning into Aberrants before her eyes, witnessing them devouring other humans.

And then she lay witness to the team of Society Members hurrying to her rescue as the Aberrants ganged up on them. But despite everything, they ensured that she reached the dome safe and sound, even though they were all annihilated in the process.

She was a mere child, but now, she expressed courage, still holding onto life.

He could feel the courage from her tiny eyes, a level of courage unexpected from such a small framed individual as pangs echoed in his chest, causing him to feel lacking in failing to avert this tragedy on time.

He then sighed, closing his eyes as he took in deep breaths, regulating his emotions before extending a lemon-like fruit to the child, "This power would protect you."

"If I eat it…" The child looked at Rhizen as tears streamed out of her eyes, "Can I save papa and momma?"

"Will they…become normal?"

"They…" Rhizen controlled himself, unable to utter the next word as he hugged the girl. Even though he didn't say anything, the child was able to feel the answer, breaking into a cry, "Uwaaah!"

"I'm…sorry."