In a desolate place, destruction could be seen.
Houses stood without roofs, their insides exposed to the harsh sky, and the tops of skyscrapers and many modern houses had been cleanly cut off. It looked like a typical apocalyptic sight.
From the looks of it, a beast siege happened here, and it also seemed this place was destroyed and abandoned for a long time.
The air was dry and heavy with dust, swirling in lazy spirals that made it clear — the dust was not going to clear anytime soon.
Different sounds and calls of mutant beasts echoed through the silence, each sound indirectly showing the ferocity of the beast that made it.
From the ear-piercing howl of a mutant silver-fanged wolf to the magnifying screech of the all-seeing, diamond-clawed mutant eagle.
All of these beastly noises were enough to instill fear even into a 4-star souler.
Two silhouettes could be seen approaching, the muscular one supporting the other silhouette, which looked like that of a pregnant woman. They were staggering as they walked, and their heavy breathing could be heard even from a distance.
It was clear that the muscular silhouette was having a hard time supporting the other one. In normal situations, the muscular one would've chosen to abandon the other to her fate, but for some reason, he decided against that.
Soon, they were close enough for a person to see their faces clearly.
The muscular man had jet-black hair tied into a ponytail — the style of ancient cultivators. He was wearing a black suit with an expensive-looking watch.
The combination was fitting. But now, his expensive suit seemed to have multiple cuts and tears of all kinds. Underneath these cuts were bruises and deep gashes from knives, soaked with blood.
The woman wore an expensive blouse that was stretchy enough not to stress her during her pregnancy.
She also had some minor cuts here and there, all over her body. But the injuries weren't severe enough to cause her to bleed out.
It was obvious that she was exhausted, her body overstressed, and if this continued, she might end up having a miscarriage.
But they couldn't stop — they needed to keep going. It was a run for survival. They had to run for their lives, because this place was far too dangerous for them.
At some point, they started talking. Albeit, in whispers, as they didn't want to draw the attention of the beasts in their surroundings.
"Please try hard to continue, we are not out of the red zone yet. A 3-star beast is not something that I can handle now... my soul energy has reached its limit," the muscular man, who seemed to be her husband, said with great urgency, trying to urge the woman to keep going.
As he told her this, he tapped on the screen of his glass-faced watch, and a multicolored holographic map shined out into the air.
At the bottom left of the map in the holographic panel was written: Lumen Empire. One noticeable feature on the map of that empire was that it was circular — or should I say, spherical.
Outside the empire's map, about 10,000 meters — well, according to what was written and drawn in the displayed holographic panel — there were two white blinking arrow-like dots.
The arrow-like figures in the hologram represented these two people, and the information told them that they were currently approximately 17,500 meters from the empire.
They were in an area of the map termed the red zone, to signify the danger level of the place.
Within 10,000 meters from the empire was the orange zone, and within 3,000 meters away from the empire was the white zone.
The red, orange, and white colors signified how dangerous a zone was; the strength and number of beasts in the area...
At the bottom center of the hologram was written in bold, glowing, light-blue letters:
[Map of the Great Lumen Empire]
They were currently in the red zone and would leave it to enter the orange zone in about sixty minutes or so if they kept walking at their normal rate.
But they seemed to be slowing down because the pregnant woman was approaching her limit.
The man continued urging her, trying to make her increase her footsteps, but at some point, she simply stopped walking.
The man, left with no choice, decided to carry the woman in a princess-style hold.
He was already tired, and it took almost all of his remaining strength to lift her.
It was only now that he truly realized how heavy a pregnant woman could be.
If he was in his top health condition, carrying this woman would have been a piece of cake. But the battle he had fought some hours ago was now taking its toll on his body, leaving him with little to no strength to do anything else.
He carried the woman and started running... or rather, tried to run.
But he couldn't — the "running" didn't increase his speed in any way. He was still moving at the same pace he normally walked. It even made him limp-walk, making things even worse.
After walking for a minute, his wife started having labored breathing. She also began giving low screams of pain.
Seeing this, he cursed. "Shit! Now is not the right time!"
He knew exactly what that meant. His wife was going to give birth right now!
Normally, it should have been a miscarriage, but his wife was already nine months pregnant, and by his calculations, she would give birth on this very day.
The day of the birth of a child was supposed to be a joyous, blessed day. But all the bad luck had come crashing down on him right on the day his child was to be born.
At this point, he started asking himself — would his wife survive the ongoing labor? There was a high chance she might die because of their current circumstances.
He even found himself thinking dark thoughts — wondering if he should kill the child once it was born so that this bad luck wouldn't follow them back home.
The woman continued to scream, trying her best to keep her voice low, but she couldn't — each cry of pain was driven by instinct.
It didn't take long for beasts in their environment to hear the screams and start heading toward the source of the noise. They licked their beastly mouths in great expectation.
The noise was the biggest factor, but the blood from the injuries on the man and the woman only made the beasts even more bloodthirsty. What's more — fresh blood trickled down the woman's legs...
This one had an even stronger scent than the blood from their injuries. While humans like them couldn't smell it, the beasts in the surroundings, with their enhanced senses of smell, could easily pick it up from miles away...
They subconsciously allowed saliva to drip from their tongues at the thought of a tasty meal.
Meanwhile, the man, knowing that danger was heading his way, started running with as much strength as he could muster — but deep down he knew that he couldn't outrun these beasts. Not in his current weakened condition.
So before he even knew what was happening, he was surrounded — by 1-star, 2-star, 3-star, and even 4-star beasts.
At this point, a chilling fear of foreboding overwhelmed him, threatening to crush his very existence.
'Is this where the life of me and my wife ends!?'
The man clenched his fist tightly, while at the same time, trying to comfort his wife by gently rubbing her left hand against his right hand.