Chapter 54: Doom-0 Disaster
"Fel... Felix... Felix!"
Felix was startled awake and quickly spun around, activating the [Elemental Dominion] skill. With a flick of his wrist, he drew a ball of dark energy on his palm, ready to strike, but stopped just a few meters from slamming the spell into the familiar face.
"E—Elizabeth?" Felix stuttered in confusion, quickly extinguishing the ball of darkness into wisps as Elizabeth shrunk back in fear.
He slowly spun around to see the running civilians he had spotted earlier had already reached him and were streaming past. Elizabeth, who had been sitting inside the café a second ago, was now standing before him.
"A—are you okay? You just... zoned out," Elizabeth asked worriedly, her heart still beating erratically from the near-death experience.
Felix inhaled deeply to clear his head. "Y—yeah. Yeah, I’m fine." He lied. He was deeply disoriented from reminiscing his darkest memory in the face of a similar situation. This scene was all too familiar from that fateful day. Although he was a Sage now—and had the power to make a difference—Felix found it hard to stop his heart from pounding loudly against his chest.
"What do you plan on doing?" Elizabeth asked. "I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go there," she added, her tone worried.
"Why not?" Felix frowned. "I’m a Sage now. It’s my duty."
"I know that, Felix. But don’t you think it’s strange?" she asked, uncertain.
"How so?"
"Apparently, there was no dungeon nearby. Let alone a failed expedition that would lead to an outbreak. So, either the Sage alarm is broken, or..." She trailed off.
"Or this might be another case of the Doom-0 disaster from nine years ago," Felix completed with a shaky breath.
This was the same event from the day his father died, when Dark Creatures suddenly attacked from no discernible source. No dungeons. No hidden portals. They just somehow spawned at the amusement park and began wrecking havoc. The resulting high death toll was blamed on the Sage Council being slow to react, with most of their Sages on expedition missions around the world. For nine years, the case still remained widely unsolved—even by the Sage Council.
But Felix was here now. He was right on time and nearby the outbreak zone. Maybe, just maybe, he could finally solve the mystery of the Doom-0 disaster that had destroyed his life and left him battling with guilt.
"Like I said, I’m a Sage now. It is my duty to save lives and vanquish dark creatures. I’ll have to go investigate and take control of the situation before the Elder Sages arrive." Felix told Elizabeth, who looked like she wanted to interject, but held back.
If anything went terribly wrong, he could always run away to his Lobby as a Champion, or have Lilith fly him away from the heat.
With that thought, Felix looked behind in search of his partner, Lilith, but didn’t see her. Even after looking around in the chaos, he still couldn’t find her anywhere.
’Lilith?’ He tried calling out to her a few times in his head, but got no reply. Felix couldn’t help but feel uneasy with Lilith’s sudden disappearance.
"Have you seen the... friend I came here with?" Felix decided to ask Elizabeth. "She was right behind me a few minutes ago." Elizabeth must have seen her, as Lilith had been standing behind him when he waved at her from the street, and she waved back.
"Who? A girl?" Elizabeth asked in uncertainty.
"Yeah. In a black dress... charming, black hair...?" Felix tried to describe Lilith to her.
"Charming?" Elizabeth reiterated with a complicated expression. "I don’t think you were with anyone when I spotted you inside." She replied, confused. Felix had been all alone on the street.
"What?" Felix felt his mind was a mess, but decided to focus on that later.
"Are you sure... you’re okay?" Elizabeth asked, watching his disoriented state.
Before Felix could reply, the first disaster struck nearby, and a blood-guttural scream reverberated down the street, sending a chill down the spine of everyone who heard.
Felix turned to look in the direction and saw a swarm of giant mosquitos suddenly corner the street. They began swarming people, draining their blood in seconds and leaving behind husks—their former selves—for the next prey.
Felix frowned deeply. The thing this had in common with the Doom-0 disaster was the monster type, which wasn’t in any records. Neither the nameless dark creature from nine years ago nor these giant mosquitos were documented in any records Felix and the Sage candidates had been briefed on.
In other words, this was a second Doom-0 disaster.
Felix turned to Elizabeth, whose face was now etched with terror. He observed the mosquitos were fast. At this pace, it wouldn’t matter if Elizabeth started running now—they’d definitely catch up with her. He was about to venture into the swarm to discover their source and therefore couldn’t stick around to protect her. So Felix grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward an abandoned truck. The owner had parked it midway due to the blocked road and run on foot—a grave mistake.
The mosquitos were large and came in a swarm, but Felix doubted they were strong enough to break into a vehicle—especially not a truck. The safest option was either to lock oneself in a car or in a building with its windows shutters closed, and doors locked.
He pushed her into the driver’s seat where the keys were still dangling from the ignition.
"Stay in. Keep the doors closed. Do not open them for anyone under any circumstances—or you’ll both die. Do you understand me?" Felix instructed, earning a panicked nod from her.
"I’ll be back for you," he said just before he shut the door and tapped on the tinted windows for her to take the cue and lock the doors.
Felix didn’t waste any more time. He summoned the Deathrizzler from the [Absolute Domain]—he could do that now. And without further ado, he charged at the horde of giant mosquitos.