Apocalypse with my SSS Harem Beauties-Chapter 185: Declaration

The companions soon spread out across the silent ruins. Myles walked down what had once been a main street of the city but now it looked more like a long scar carved through the broken remains of a civilization.

Sand and dirt had swallowed most of the stone roads. Only fragments of the original path still peeked through the earth. Jagged pieces of pavement jutted from the ground like cracked teeth.

The further he walked, the clearer the truth became. Time had buried this place for a long time. What they saw really was just an illusion.

Many buildings had completely collapsed and disappeared beneath layers of soil and stone. In some places the ground rose into uneven mounds where entire structures had once stood. Centuries of wind and shifting earth had slowly covered them until only shapeless hills remained.

A few of the tallest structures still resisted the slow burial of time. Broken towers and large stone walls rose from the ground like the ribs of a gigantic skeleton. Their upper halves remained visible, but even they leaned heavily under the weight of age. Large cracks split through the stonework and chunks of the buildings had fallen away long ago.

Victor climbed over a mound of buried debris and looked into the hollow shell of what had once been a large hall. The roof had completely collapsed, leaving only two tall walls standing.

Sand filled the interior halfway up the walls. Only the very tops of ancient pillars remained visible above the surface.

George walked through the remains of another structure. His hammer rested across his shoulder as he pushed aside loose stones with his boot. Beneath the scattered rubble he found nothing but empty space and more sand.

Kade wandered between the broken walls and buildings. Stone platforms lined the ground in uneven rows, but most of them had sunk into the earth. Only their upper edges remained visible.

Daniel climbed onto a slanted wall that had fallen and become half buried in dirt. From the higher vantage point he slowly scanned the surrounding ruins. He saw the city stretched in every direction, but most of it had already disappeared beneath the land.

Clara carefully examined a large archway that still stood upright. Frost from her spear briefly coated the stone as she brushed away some of the sand covering the carvings. She saw ancient patterns appear for a moment before the grains slowly slid back down and hid them again.

Ethan and Samantha moved together through another section of the ruins. They inspected several half-buried huge doorways and broken staircases that led nowhere. In many places entire floors had collapsed and filled with dirt long ago.

The more they searched, the clearer the situation became. There was almost nothing left.

Nature and time had already consumed the city. The ground had swallowed most of the structures so completely that there was barely anything to investigate. Whatever secrets the city once held had likely been buried centuries ago.

After a while the companions slowly returned to the center of the ruins where Myles waited.

Victor arrived first and shrugged his shoulders.

"I found nothing," he said. "Just more sand and broken buildings."

"I found nothing as well. Everything’s either collapsed or buried," George said while shaking his head as well.

"I found some carvings, I think," Clara said. "But they’re too damaged to understand."

"The city has been like this for a very long time," Daniel said. "Centuries at least."

Ethan and Samantha returned soon after with the same report.

"We didn’t find anything important," Ethan said.

"Just more ruins," Samantha added.

Myles listened to them all before slowly nodding. The result was about what he expected.

Beside him, Lilian had been standing silently while observing the ruins with narrowed eyes. Her wings remained folded behind her back as she looked around the ancient remains.

A thoughtful expression slowly appeared on her face.

"Maybe if we had more time we could search this place more thoroughly," she said. Her gaze moved toward one of the larger towers still rising above the buried city. "There might still be something hidden beneath all this. Old civilizations tend to leave interesting things behind."

Then she simply shrugged. Her crimson eyes shifted toward Myles and the others.

"But right now I don’t see any real reason to investigate this place further. We should proceed to the fifteenth floor."

Myles turned his head and looked at the rest of the group. "What do you guys think?"

"I’m good with that." Victor answered first with a casual shrug.

George nodded in agreement. "If there was something important here, it probably got buried with the rest of the city."

One by one the others gave the same answer. None of them had found anything worth staying for.

Myles finally nodded.

"Alright," he said. "Let’s move."

Lilian raised one hand slightly. The air around them shifted and a faint ripple spread across the ground and a familiar circular platform slowly rose from beneath the ruins. The smooth surface pushed aside sand and small stones as it emerged completely.

The companions stepped onto the platform one after another.

As soon as the last person stepped into place, the platform activated. A soft amber glow spread across the surface beneath their feet. The light quickly grew brighter until it surrounded the entire group in a warm golden radiance.

The ruins around them blurred then the world vanished. In the next instant the light faded, the companions found themselves standing inside a massive chamber. No longer in an open field.

A vast circular arena stretched before them. The floor was made of enormous stone slabs arranged in perfect rings. Ancient runes glowed along the outer edges of the chamber.

Towering pillars rose along the curved walls. The pillars were so thick that several people would struggle to wrap their arms around it. The pillars supported a high domed ceiling far above their heads.

Dark shadows filled the upper reaches of the chamber. At the far end of the arena stood a colossal stone gate carved directly into the wall. Strange symbols covered its surface, glowing with an ancient and ominous power.

The entire room carried the heavy atmosphere of a place built for only one purpose, like a special battlefield.

They stood quietly as their eyes slowly adjusted to the dim atmosphere. The air felt heavy. Sounds echoed softly through the vast circular space.

Then several translucent screens suddenly appeared in front of them.

[Floor 15 Reached]

[Current Objective: Defeat the Guardian of the Fifteenth Floor]

The notifications floated silently in the air for a few seconds before fading away.

"So this is another boss floor," Victor said. "I thought it would be on the 20th floor."

Kade let out a slow breath while scanning the chamber. "This place feels different."

No one disagreed. Even before anything had appeared, the atmosphere of the room already felt far heavier than any battlefield they had faced before.

Then a sudden invisible weight pressed down from above. It wasn’t a physical force that pushed their bodies to the ground. Instead it felt like something far larger had simply turned its attention toward them.

The air thickened then a deep and ominous pressure slowly descended across the arena. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

The companions immediately became alert.

Myles slowly looked upward toward the dark shadows filling the upper half of the chamber.

He could feel it clearly now that something was watching them.

The pressure continued to grow stronger. It spread across the arena.

A faint chill ran down his spine. Myles narrowed his eyes slightly.

"I think this isn’t going to be like the fights before," he said.

Every battle on the previous floors had been pretty easy. They had fought soldiers, monsters, and entire armies created by the trial. But this felt different. The oppressive aura hanging above them carried a weight that none of those enemies had possessed.

—

A different scene unfolded within the sprawling camp where Red and his group resided.

Torches burned in iron brackets around a wide clearing that served as the center of the settlement. Rough wooden structures and tents surrounded the area, forming a crude but organized camp. Armed men and women gathered in rows across the open ground.

Nearly two hundred people stood there.

They carried swords, spears, bows, and other crude weaponry. Their armor varied wildly. Some wore proper gear taken from fallen enemies while others relied on patched leather and scrap metal plates.

At the front of the clearing stood a raised wooden platform.

Red stood atop it.

His posture remained calm yet commanding as he looked over the crowd gathered before him. For a fraction of second his eyes flashed with a faint crimson glow before fading again. No one noticed it.

The crowd watched him with anticipation.

Red slowly lifted one hand and the murmuring voices across the clearing quickly faded into silence.

"It’s time," he said. His voice carried easily across the entire camp. "We will prepare for a raid!"

A ripple moved through the gathered fighters. Several of them straightened as excitement mixed with tension.

"This time we cannot hesitate. If anyone stands in our way... you must kill them. We’re going to take control of this entire area and when we do, our strength will rise beyond what any of us imagined when we first entered this new era."

He leaned slightly forward as his voice lowered.

"I received a revelation. If we pass this trial and claim this territory we will gain power like gods in our dreams."

Red’s lips curled into a faint smile.

To the listeners it sounded like bold ambition.

But Red knew something they didn’t.

The power that had taken root deep within him had already shown him fragments of the truth.

If he conquered this entire region... The authority and strength he would gain would surpass anything he had ever imagined.

—