novelraw Chapter 80 - 76: The Second Awakening II
Chapter 80 - 76: The Second Awakening II
His phone buzzed again. This time he looked.
A video call from his mum. He answered it immediately.
His mother’s face appeared on screen, pale and frightened. She was in her car, the steering wheel visible in frame, and her voice came through with static interference that hadn’t been there during previous calls.
"Aiden? Aiden, thank god. Are you safe? Are you in your flat?"
"I’m here, Mum. I’m safe. What’s happening? Where are you?"
"I’m trying to get to you, but the roads are chaos. Everyone’s evacuating, but nobody knows where to go. Your father’s still at work in the City. He said something about his building going into lockdown." Her voice cracked slightly. "Aiden, what’s happening? Is this another dungeon break? It can’t be. The sky—"
"I don’t know, Mum." The lie came automatically, because how could he explain what the system had just told him? That Earth was entering a second stage of evolution? That the requirement was war? "Just stay in the car. Lock the doors. Don’t get out unless you absolutely have to."
"I’m coming to get you—"
"No!" Aiden said it more sharply than he intended. "No, Mum, stay where you are. The roads aren’t safe. I can protect myself better than you think. Just... just find somewhere secure and wait this out."
His mother stared at him through the screen, her expression shifting from fear to confusion to something that might have been realization. "What aren’t you telling me? Aiden, what’s happened to you?"
Before he could answer—before he could even formulate what to say—the call dropped.
Not ended naturally. The connection just severed mid-conversation, his mother’s face freezing on screen before the entire image pixelated and vanished.
Aiden tried calling back immediately.
No signal.
He tried again. Same result. The bars on his phone showed zero connectivity, which shouldn’t have been possible in central London where coverage was normally perfect.
’The rifts. The energy they’re releasing must be interfering with telecommunications.’
He looked back out the window.
The rifts were still growing, spreading wider across the sky. The red lightning intensified further, each bolt now thick as tree trunks and bright enough to cast shadows through the unnatural darkness.
And through every visible rift, Aiden could see them clearly now—the Valdris armies standing in perfect formation, waiting for the dimensional barriers to collapse so they could flood through and begin their conquest.
The countdown in his vision continued its merciless descent.
[71:47:23... 71:47:22... 71:47:21...]
Less than three days until the barriers fell. Less than three days until Earth faced an enemy an entire evolutionary stage ahead of them.
[PLANETARY EVOLUTION STAGE 2: INITIATED]
[INTERPLANETARY WAR: VALDRIS VS EARTH]
[DIMENSIONAL BARRIER COLLAPSE: 71 HOURS 47 MINUTES]
[ESTIMATED GLOBAL RIFT COUNT: 10,000+]
[ESTIMATED VALDRIS FORCES: CALCULATING...]
[HOST ADVISED: PREPARE FOR EXTENDED CONFLICT]
Ten thousand rifts. Worldwide. All opening simultaneously, all showing armies waiting to invade.
And humanity had seventy-two hours to prepare for an enemy that was an entire evolutionary stage ahead of them.
Aiden’s mind struggled to comprehend the scale. The First Awakening had seen maybe a hundred rifts appear over the course of three days, spread across the entire planet. That had been enough to throw civilization into chaos for years.
But ten thousand? All at once? With a three-day countdown until they opened?
And the enemy wasn’t random monsters. It was an organized military force from a Stage 3 planet.
"This is going to kill millions," Aiden said aloud, his voice hollow. "Maybe billions before it’s done. The hunter guilds aren’t prepared for this. No country is prepared for this. We’re not even close to their level. It’s—"
[CORRECT ASSESSMENT]
[STAGE 2 EVOLUTION TYPICALLY RESULTS IN 40-60% POPULATION REDUCTION]
[SURVIVORS EXPERIENCE ACCELERATED AWAKENING RATES]
[MANA DENSITY INCREASES EXPONENTIALLY]
[PLANETARY CULTIVATION POTENTIAL UNLOCKED]
The system stated it so matter-of-factly. No emotion. No horror at the death toll. Just clinical analysis of what was about to happen.
Forty to sixty percent population reduction.
That meant three to four billion people dead.
Aiden felt sick.
His phone buzzed once more—a final notification before the network died completely.
News alert from the BBC. He opened it with trembling hands.
UNPRECEDENTED GLOBAL CRISIS
SIMULTANEOUS RIFT APPEARANCES ACROSS ALL CONTINENTS
COUNTDOWN VISIBLE ON ALL RIFTS: 72 HOURS
WORLD LEADERS CONVENING EMERGENCY SESSION
HUNTER ASSOCIATIONS MOBILIZING - ALL AWAKENERS CALLED TO DUTY
CONFIRMED: HOSTILE FORCES VISIBLE THROUGH DIMENSIONAL BARRIERS
IDENTIFIED: ENEMY PLANET VALDRIS - STAGE 3 CIVILIZATION
MILITARY EXPERTS ESTIMATE 10,000+ INVASION POINTS WORLDWIDE
ESTIMATED CASUALTIES WHEN BARRIERS FALL: CATASTROPHIC
GLOBAL EVACUATION PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED
Then the network cut out entirely. His phone went dark except for the emergency power saving mode notification.
Aiden stood in his flat, staring out at the apocalyptic sky, and tried to process what was happening.
Sixty years ago, when mana first awakened on Earth, humanity had survived because the rifts appeared gradually. Because there was time to adapt, to organize, to develop hunter guilds and government responses.
But this?
This was different. Ten thousand rifts showing organized armies from a Stage 3 planet. Seventy-two hours until the dimensional barriers collapsed and those armies could pour through.
No warning. No gradual escalation. Just a countdown and the knowledge that when it hit zero, Earth would face an invasion force it had no hope of stopping.
The system had called it interplanetary war. Stage 2 evolution.
Not war as a side effect. War as the actual mechanism for planetary advancement.
’Earth has to survive an invasion from a more advanced planet. That’s the requirement. Fight and survive or die and fail to evolve.’
And Aiden had just been forcefully ejected from the cultivation world right as it started.
"Why?" he asked the system, his voice quiet. "Why pull me back now? I was about to enter the vault. About to get techniques and weapons. If this is happening, if Earth is about to go through a war that kills billions, wouldn’t I be safer in the cultivation world? Why bring me here?"
[HOST PLANET IN CRISIS]
[CONTRACTOR PRESENCE REQUIRED]
[DIVINE MANDATE: NABU REQUIRES YOUR PARTICIPATION IN EARTH’S EVOLUTION]
"Nabu..." Aiden’s jaw clenched. "This is why he made the contract, isn’t it? He knew this was coming. Knew Earth was approaching the second stage. That’s why he needed a contractor now, specifically now, before it all started."
[AFFIRMATIVE]
[DIVINE BEINGS BENEFIT FROM CONTRACTOR ACTIONS DURING PLANETARY EVOLUTION]
[YOUR SURVIVAL AND STRENGTH DURING THIS CONFLICT DIRECTLY INCREASES NABU’S INFLUENCE]
[FAILURE MEANS BOTH YOUR DEATH AND SIGNIFICANT LOSS OF DIVINE POWER]
So that was it. Nabu hadn’t chosen Aiden out of kindness or interest in his writing. The god had known Earth was about to enter a war that would reshape civilization, and he’d needed a contractor in place to capitalize on the chaos.
Use Aiden’s actions during the conflict to gain worship, spread influence, accumulate power while the old order collapsed and people became desperate for any god who could help them survive.
"I’m just a tool," Aiden said bitterly. "Another piece on Nabu’s board."
[CORRECT]
[HOWEVER]
[TOOL STATUS DOES NOT PRECLUDE MUTUAL BENEFIT]
[YOU REQUIRE POWER TO SURVIVE WHAT’S COMING]
[NABU PROVIDES ACCESS TO THAT POWER VIA NARRATIVE EMBODIMENT AND SYSTEM RESOURCES]
[RELATIONSHIP IS TRANSACTIONAL BUT NOT INHERENTLY DETRIMENTAL]
The system wasn’t wrong. Aiden needed the power Nabu’s contract provided. Without it, he’d just be another ordinary human waiting to die when the monsters came.
With it... he had a chance.
Outside, the red lightning struck with renewed fury. The rifts pulsed wider. And from somewhere in the distance, though the barriers still held, Aiden could hear the sounds starting—air raid sirens, emergency broadcasts echoing through streets, the first panicked movements of a civilization realizing it had three days before an invasion began.
The countdown continued in his vision.
[71:23:15... 71:23:14... 71:23:13...]
The war had begun.
And Aiden stood in his moldy flat in East London, cultivation at Peak Qi Gathering Realm, his qi reserves still scrambled from the forced ejection, watching as the world outside started burning.
His phone was dead. Communications were down. His parents were somewhere out there, separated from him by kilometers of chaos.
And the system was telling him this was just the beginning.
Seventy-one hours until the barriers collapsed.
Three days to prepare for a war Earth couldn’t win.
Aiden looked down at his hands. They were steady despite everything, despite the panic trying to claw its way up his throat, despite the knowledge that billions were about to die when those dimensional barriers collapsed.
He’d survived assassination attempts from King Realm cultivators. Survived comprehending Slaughter Intent. Survived awakening something sealed in his heart that shouldn’t exist.
He’d survive this too.
He had to.
Because somewhere out there, his parents needed him. And because Nabu hadn’t invested in a contractor just to watch him die in the first seventy-two hours of a planetary war.
The countdown ticked down relentlessly in his vision.
[71:11:03... 71:11:02... 71:11:01...]
Aiden turned away from the window and started preparing.
He needed to check his cultivation base, make sure the forced ejection hadn’t damaged his meridians permanently. He needed to gather supplies—food, water, anything useful. He needed to figure out where the nearest rift was and how to avoid the entities emerging from it.
And most importantly, he needed to find his parents before the chaos swallowed them completely.
The red lightning flashed again outside, painting his flat in crimson light.
Earth’s Second Awakening had begun.
And this time, there would be no gradual adjustment. No time to adapt.
Just war, survival, and evolution measured in blood.
A/N
thank you to every reader who has followed this story to this point. Reaching the end of our first arc wouldn’t have been possible without your support.