Chapter 104
Extinct or...
The streets of Hope's higher sector were washed in pale gold as the sunlight climbed past the towered skyline. Glass buildings shimmered like sheets of light, casting reflections across the neatly tiled roads and clean blackstone walls that lined the walkways. Despite the beauty of it all, the city was quiet, as if it too, had paused to take a breath.
IAM walked with slow steps, shoulders slightly hunched as if the wind brushing his collarbone was whispering things he didn't want to hear.
When IAM had first asked Raj how someone would identify a descendant of a Dwarf, Raj didn't hesitate. He simply shook his head, expression unreadable, and said,
"We don't."
There was something strange about how he said it. As though it was a door long since closed.
IAM had blinked, confused. "What do you mean you don't?"
There was a pause. Raj exhaled deeply, the kind of sigh that came not from impatience, but from the burden of explaining something he had already accepted as hopeless.
Then, he said quietly, "According to history, the Dwarf usually lived in an area where he felt most comfortable. And that was where he created his descendants in his image. After the blackout… it was noticed that the whole country was wiped out."
IAM had gone quiet.
Raj didn't stop. His voice lowered, almost like he was trying not to stir something in the air.
"What was left was just ruins. Dead structures swallowed by time. The area became overrun with Deadline Creatures soon after. As we know… they're drawn to the abandoned. The forgotten. The places where humans once lived… and then left behind."
IAM froze.
That line.
He had heard it before. Not in the same voice, not in the same tone—but the words, or something like them.
Milo.
Milo had said something like that, long ago—back in the Hold. The exact phrasing was different, but the idea, the rhythm behind the meaning, was hauntingly similar.
IAM didn't like how casually it was said.
Why was that always the case? Why did they always appear in places people had abandoned?
Not battlefields. Not cities full of life. But ruins.
Empty homes. Cracked streets. Ghost towns.
Places forgotten by humans… always seemed to attract them.
IAM couldn't shake the feeling that there was a hidden reason behind it—something no one was talking about.
And the fact that both Raj and Milo had said it, without question...
He wanted to follow it. He wanted to unravel the hidden link—but the weight of something else stole his attention.
Something worse.
IAM couldn't stop thinking about it:
A whole country.
Gone.....
Vanished.
And no one even noticed until it was too late.
And by the time anyone realized something was wrong, the land was already crawling with Deadline Creatures.
IAM tried to take it with a grain of salt.
Surely there had to be some survivors. Somewhere.
But the longer he stayed here in the higher sector, the longer he lived among the people of Hope, the more he began to understand just how absolute it really was.
A whole race of people. Wiped from the world.
And even if—by some miracle—there were a few descendants of the Dwarf still alive somewhere, they would have long since mixed with other bloodlines. And over generations, that lineage would blur, dilute, and eventually disappear.
Like a name forgotten. Like a statue worn down by rain.
IAM had also asked Raj about the Oni—curious if the story was the same.
IAM had also asked about the Oni, and Raj's response had caught him a little off guard.
They only considered what IAM—coming from Earth—would recognize as a light-skinned person to be a true descendant of the Oni.
Anyone else who was mixed, no matter what their actual heritage was, would be called a descendant of whichever hero they happened to resemble most.
Even if they had Oni blood, it didn't matter.
Raj spoke about it like it was completely normal.
Like that was just how things worked here.
It was then IAM realised something strange—something that made the back of his neck itch.
If he hadn't been from Earth—if he had been born here, raised with their language, their culture, their categories—
He wouldn't have noticed.
He wouldn't have seen how weird it was.
He would've accepted it the same way they all did.
Without question.
IAM could feel it, even if he couldn't explain it yet. Something about the Seven Heroes—about how they were remembered, how they were categorized—
It wasn't right.
Not everything was quite as it seems.
Not with the Seven heroes..... Or anything really.
There was something beneath the surface. Something carefully hidden in plain sight, buried under history and names and praise.
IAM didn't know what it was yet. But he would find it.
Eventually.
He walked with quiet steps now, his thoughts circling themselves as he approached the entrance to his hotel.
IAM finally arrived at the entrance of his hotel, a slight smile on his lips as the glass doors slid open with a soft hiss, welcoming him into the cool embrace of the marble-floored lobby. The low hum of the air conditioning was the only sound besides the faint clack of his shoes against the floor. Soft lighting spilled across sleek black tiles, reflecting fragments of his silhouette with every step he took.
He walked past the silent staff at the counter, barely glancing up as they offered polite nods.
He was smiling because he had received a message from Thor.
The mech was finished.
There was no explanation. But that message had lingered with IAM all day like a low drumbeat behind every thought. The mech. His mech. The last piece of proof he had of Raj's existence.
And it was being sent back to his place today.
He could already imagine it waiting inside—new, improved and untouched.
A mechanical beast reborn.
One he hadn't even named yet.
IAM felt a pulse of anticipation.
There weren't many things to look forward to these days.
But this was one of them.