In the corner of the elevator, surviving college students Dana and Holden curled up, their teeth chattering uncontrollably and making soft clacking sounds.
Through the gap in the alloy doors, they witnessed the hellish tableau outside.
Blood dyed the cold metal floor a viscous dark red. Severed limbs and shattered organs were scattered everywhere. The air was thick with the stench of blood mixed with a burning odor, assaulting everyone's sense of smell.
A massive werewolf bit off the head of a white-coated researcher right in front of them, spraying scalding spinal fluid everywhere.
Dana's stomach churned violently. She covered her mouth tightly to keep her screams and vomit from spewing out together.
Holden and the others weren't faring much better. Their faces were deathly pale, their bodies trembling incessantly.
However, in the center of this hell woven from blood and wails, there existed an incongruous "pure land."
Yang Yi and Tomie sat leisurely at the central control console, as if enjoying a magnificent opera.
Tomie's face brimmed with a sickly excitement. She clapped continuously, applauding the grand feast of slaughter before her.
"Truly spectacular."
Her voice carried a slightly intoxicated tremor.
"Despair is the most wonderful seasoning. I really don't understand what's so interesting about other Tomies seducing men."
Inside the monitoring room, the surviving directors witnessed all this through the screens, the color draining from their faces.
This was no longer the laboratory where they controlled everything, but an all-you-can-eat buffet for monsters, and they had nowhere to run.
Only now did they realize an even more terrifying fact.
Their minds seemed to have been influenced by some invisible force all along, deliberately ignoring the existence of those two uninvited guests.
Whether in the cabin or this underground base, the figures of those two were clearly right in front of them, yet their consciousness seemed to have automatically pixelated them, treating them as a harmless background.
"It's over... everything is over..."
A director slumped in his chair, his eyes hollow as he muttered to himself.
Another director let out a miserable laugh, a flash of resolute madness in his eyes.
"Since the end of the world is coming anyway, we might as well have a thorough spring cleaning."
His trembling fingers moved toward a final button covered by a red protective shield on the console.
"Initiate the final purification protocol! Purge everyone!"
As he pressed the button, the entire base vibrated slightly.
Piercing alarms blared, and red lights bathed everything in an ominous, blood-colored halo.
The "Purification Protocol" was activated.
A massive number of fine holes opened up on the base's ceiling and walls.
The next second, a dense white mist spewed from those holes, instantly filling the entire hall.
It was a highly corrosive mist capable of instantly breaking down all organic matter.
Whether it was the rampaging monsters or the humans clinging to life, all seemed so fragile in the face of this indiscriminate attack.
A vampire, just about to enjoy a meal, made contact with the mist. Its body emitted a sizzling, corrosive sound, and amidst a shrill scream, it dissolved into a puddle of pus emitting white smoke.
A staff member trying to flee inhaled just a single breath of the mist, and his lungs dissolved instantly. He collapsed in agony, his body melting away at a visible rate, ultimately leaving behind only a uniform riddled with holes from monster attacks.
Yang Yi looked at the apocalyptic scene before him and casually waved his hand.
An invisible barrier instantly expanded with him at the center, isolating the deadly acid mist while simultaneously enveloping the shivering Dana, Curt, and the others in the corner.
The director who had done all this leaned weakly against his chair, waiting for his fate of being swallowed by the acid mist.
There was no fear on his face, only a peaceful sense of release.
After all, he was just a clone that could be sacrificed at any time.
His original body had probably already boarded a spaceship leaving this dying planet.
The final moment of the sacrifice had arrived.
The vibration of the entire facility suddenly intensified. It felt as if a prehistoric behemoth that had slumbered for hundreds of millions of years was slowly rolling over beneath them.
Dana and the others felt the ground beneath their feet violently bulging upward. The sturdy alloy floor was easily torn apart like fragile paper by a massive force from deep underground.
Yang Yi raised his head, his gaze seemingly piercing through hundreds of meters of rock and soil to see the true protagonist about to make its entrance.
"It's here."
"The grand finale is finally making its appearance."
Directly above the facility, a mountain peak was rising from the ground.
Finally, a massive hand reached out from the bulging mound of earth, followed by a giant eye flashing with a searing, magma-like glow that slowly opened.
Just this simple action triggered a change in the weather. Howling winds and gathering thunderclouds formed a storm right then and there.
Inside the remnants of the underground facility, Dana and the others watched this scene of a deity's descent through the torn dome.
"It's... it's... Cronus..."
A surviving high-ranking official of the organization spat out the name from myths and legends with a trembling voice, his face etched with despair.
The Titan Cronus slowly crawled out from beneath the earth.
His heaven-spanning body was still wrapped in countless massive, long-broken chains, their surfaces engraved with profound runes.
At the same time, identical scenes were playing out one after another all over the globe.
In the endless ocean, the sky-bearing god Atlas slowly rose from the deep seabed, his broad shoulders looking as if they truly could carry the entire sky.
Volcanoes that had been dormant for millennia erupted at this moment. The Cyclops bathed in the boiling lava, letting out a roar to announce his return.
Upon capturing these images, satellite signals from countries all over the world completely cut out.
The communication systems of human civilization were incredibly fragile under the might of the gods.
Right amidst this scene of divine punishment, Yang Yi and Tomie's bodies turned into streaks of light. Ignoring the terrifying air pressure and storms that could tear steel apart, they flew straight up.
In the moment she flew off, Tomie didn't forget to wave at Dana and the others below.
"Good luck, everyone."
The next second, the two figures—who appeared incredibly insignificant before the giant god—leisurely landed on the shoulder of the Titan Cronus.
Cronus's mountain-like head slowly turned. His magma-like giant eye stared at the two "little specks" on his shoulder, yet he showed no hostility whatsoever.
Yang Yi reached out and gently patted Cronus's shoulder, which was made of solid rock.
"Sleep well, buddy?"
"The outside world has gotten pretty lively."
Cronus remained silent, but an incomparably grand and desolate will transmitted directly into Yang Yi's mind.
"Greetings, esteemed strong one."
"We sense that the apocalypse is approaching, but the true threat... does not come from us."