Return (2)
As I thought that I should never have come back, and at the same time drifted through the faded memories of the family and friends I had left behind, I sank into the fear that they might have died while I was gone—yet that dread lasted only a moment.
Suddenly a warmth spread through my body, and the fear, terror, and anxiety that had crowded my mind with negative thoughts simply vanished.
This had to be the Blessing of Courage Partruna had spoken of.
It was a relief to know the blessing was working properly, but the forced way it overrode everything left a jarring gap between the raw sensation I had just felt and the cold clarity the blessing imposed. Getting used to that dissonance would not be easy.
"Hoo."
I drew in a long breath and let it out again, deciding to set the side effects aside for later. With my head cleared by the Blessing of Courage, I turned my thoughts to the situation at hand.
"All right. Let's sort this out. While I was off in another world, Earth's god—Gaia—either grew old, got hit by something, or just plain died, right?"
"And because of that, a system for reconstructing the world called the Tower appeared. But Gaia still gave people the power to overcome it, and gods from other dimensions, like Partruna, are lending a hand…"
Unfortunately, I had only just returned, so my information was thin. All I could really tell from looking around the Tower was that some places had turned into barren deserts or crumbling ruins, while others had transformed into ruins where nature had reclaimed everything in a strangely harmonious way.
I still didn't know what made the difference, only that some other force seemed to be at work.
I rose from the terrace, stepped back into the room, and was hit by a sudden wave of exhaustion that sent me collapsing onto the bed.
"Ah, whatever. What am I even supposed to do? It'd be nice if there was something I could look up, but there's no computer, no smartphone—hell, there's no way the internet still works."
I muttered to myself and rolled over, and right in front of my eyes sat the smartwatch strapped to my left wrist. I didn't know the exact model name, so I just decided to call it a watch.
"Wait a second. If this thing is still working… doesn't that mean other stuff might work too?!"
I sat up with a sharp motion and started tapping and swiping the watch on my left arm. The ID-like window from earlier vanished, a loading screen flickered past, and then a familiar design appeared.
"This… looks exactly like an internet search bar."
The screen resembled the search engine window of a company called Goggle. Why it still existed I had no idea, but I figured the power of other gods—like Partruna or Thoth—must have kept it running somehow.
I searched for the end of the world and the Tower.
What I found was so absurd I almost couldn't believe it was real.
First of all, back in 2020—the year I had been taken to another world—other people had vanished as well. Most of them had been dragged into other worlds just like me.
"So I wasn't the only one? What, was there an otherworld-transfer truck driving around or something?"
A neatly organized year-by-year summary laid everything out.
2022
The Tower that suddenly appeared began rising across the entire world over the next two years. Because it thrust up from the ground, buildings sitting on top of it were damaged, but beyond that there hadn't been any major problems.
Every country tried to destroy the sudden structure, yet some kind of barrier blocked them. Demolition efforts failed, and even investigation was impossible because of that boundary.
Looking at the photos of the Tower and the ruined buildings around it, I was reminded of things I had seen in Maderona.
"So there really was a barrier or a veil of some kind."
2024
The barrier around the Tower vanished and an entrance appeared. Governments sent investigation teams in sequence, but they could only reach about the third floor before going any farther became impossible.
All they discovered were walls made of materials that looked thousands of years old, covered in strange characters. The photos of those densely carved walls were fascinating.
"Looks just like the kind of wall you'd see in an old ruins-exploration movie. And they still haven't figured out what any of it means?"
That meant investigating the Tower was far more difficult than I had assumed. Even though Gaia had given people the power to overcome it, and even though returnees from other worlds existed, no one had managed to decipher the contents. Either the documents and people who could explain it simply didn't exist, or the Tower itself was so hard to explore that proper investigation was nearly impossible.
2025
Previously sealed floors opened. Fearing the danger, every nation sent armed military investigation teams—only for every single member to be wiped out by strange monsters that appeared without warning. The investigation ended in total failure.
After that mysterious massacre, public opinion about the Tower split. Some people fell into fear; others began insisting the Tower should be worshipped.
Strangely enough, the monsters only existed inside the Tower and never came outside. (Attached photos showed the creatures stopping right at the entrance and refusing to step beyond it.)
"I wonder if there are still people who worship the Tower. If there are, they're going to be a real pain."
In Maderona, every clash with people who served gods other than Partruna had always ended badly enough to chip away at my sanity.
2027
A large clock-shaped icon appeared on the Tower. As time passed, the surrounding regions began to undergo inexplicable desolation. The desert-like area I had seen earlier was probably one of those zones.
"A clock icon that just suddenly showed up… Don't tell me there's a time limit for investigating or clearing the Tower? Ugh…"
I had planned to take my time if I ever ended up exploring the Tower, but a time limit would make everything far more serious.
Fortunately, additional details were attached. The clock icon had moved twelve times, and each movement marked the passage of one month.
"So either there are about twelve chances, or clearing it takes twelve months. No way to know without seeing it myself."
As I kept reading, another note appeared: every time the clock icon moved, a certain range of the environment rapidly turned barren.
"If that's true, then desolation advanced twelve times and the affected area kept expanding. Now that I know this, the reason Earth fell so quickly makes sense."
Worse, once desolation began, monsters started appearing outside the Tower as well and hunted the people living in those regions. Nations tried to suppress them with force, but they couldn't inflict any damage at all. All they could do was put up no-entry signs and barricades.
Of course, idiots who wanted to prove their courage kept going in anyway, only making the damage worse on multiple occasions.
2029
People who had gone missing in 2020 began returning. The phenomenon was named the Return, and alongside those returnees, individuals who awakened the power to overcome—granted by Gaia and called "this Ability"—started appearing.
"So this is when the other gods finally noticed what was happening? Then Partruna must have known too. That's why she kept asking if I really had to go back…"
Governments were so busy dealing with the crisis that they couldn't focus on the Tower. Processing returnees, registering the Awakened, and handling the crimes committed with new powers left them completely overwhelmed.
Photos showed Awakened flying through city skies, looking exactly like something out of a superhero comic or movie.
With people suddenly possessing superpowers, society must have undergone massive change. Plenty of them would have done whatever they wanted without any sense of responsibility for their strength. Even if someone tried to stop them, who could?
"Hmm. Looking at the Tower's time limit, this is probably what pushed everything even faster toward ruin. The Tower itself wasn't even the main problem anymore."
2030
From this year onward the clock icon on the Tower began moving again, expanding the range of desolation around it. Society was still reeling from the chaos caused by returnees and the Awakened, so the damage only grew worse.
"Ah, so this is when the icon actually started moving. The earlier note made it a little confusing."
The rest of the year was filled with one problem after another. Yet compared to what was coming, the article claimed that up until now things had still been relatively peaceful.
2031
A returnee named Ryan O'Connell appeared in the United States. He claimed he had been possessed into a game where a zombie apocalypse had already begun.
Because society was in chaos and returnee processing had become half-hearted by then, no one properly investigated him before sending him home—and that decision detonated a catastrophe.
Ryan was a carrier of the zombie virus that had existed in the world he came from.