Sitting at the edge of the bed, Azrael stares at the clock on the table beside him, the clock reading already past ten in the night.
"Just a couple more hours," he muttered to himself as he stood up from the bed, opening the cabinet nearby, revealing the things he had bought and stocked for an entire month in preparation for the coming apocalypse.
On one side of the cabinet, there are all sorts of consumables ready for anyone to take. Canned goods, jerky, nutrition bars, and a lot of sweets and candies, along with a large supply of water and some everyday medicines, near them a gas tank that can easily be turned into a burner stove.
Hanging on the doors of the cabinet are multiple items that can easily give Azrael an advantage in a melee. Couple of baseball bats that he personally reinforced with metals, not to mention the numerous cold tools beside them, each shining as if they are sharpened to perfection, most of them being kitchen knives, some small enough to be treated as throwing daggers, while the longest one among them reaching more than a foot, Azrael treating it like a weapon enough for him to wield during the times he will be stranded in this island.
Closing the cabinet, he walks towards his drawer, opening one of them to reveal an inconspicuous set of attire, a long coat that seems nothing out of the ordinary if not for his mother's informing him what kind of thing this is.
'Listen, baby, you must bring this with you to school, you know that your mother is a worrywart when it comes to you, so at least bring this so I can rest assured, okay?' his mother said that night before he leaves for the Stars Academy, leaving behind this long coat with the specifications about it written in a folder.
A state-of-the-art IIIA level bulletproof clothing, more than capable of withstanding .308 Winchester rounds. Scratch, pierce, and tear-proof, more than enough to protect the user not only in the case of shooting incidents but also during melees with people using all sorts of sharp objects to fight.
'The only downside of this thing is it doesn't do much about blunt forces,' Azrael thought to himself as he wore the coat, complaining to himself before he mocked his previous thoughts.
'Forget it, I've got this much of a gift already, there's no need to ask for more…' he said as he tried moving around in the outfit, finding out that it is still quite a fit for him despite the attire being specifically tailored for his previous physique.
Unable to fall asleep, he just performs some exercises, eventually transitioning to the one in the old scroll to pass time, his practice lasting him until almost midnight, where he stops as a bright flash of light came out of nowhere, drowning his entire vision for a few seconds before everything returns to normal.
Experiencing the familiar scene, he instinctively knew that the end of the human society as everyone currently knew it already started, the entire societal system built upon thousands of years of cultivation of human knowledge and experience about to collapse on itself, the process only taking a few months from this point on to complete, before the new, absolute rules rise, a rule that is the survival of the fittest.
[Notification: Planet (Titan) now reaches the minimum threshold in order to evolve into an Intermediate World, now commencing the awakening of the world spirit…1%....12%....32%....69%....99%...100%.]
[Awakening of the world spirit successful, now passing the Management Authority from the Universal Library to the World Spirit (Clairvoyance)]
[Authority successfully passed, now commencing the first change. Connecting to the Gates of Evolution… Successful. Opening the World Gate… Successful. True energy now reinforcing the world…]
[Simultaneous reinforcement of the planet's inner core and exosphere complete, now commencing the eventual infusion of True energy within the planet's biosphere… introduction of True energy successful… now proceeding to the long-term gradual increase of the planet's True energy]
After the series of voices that rang in his head, Azrael immediately closed his eyes and started to feel around his surroundings. Without fail, he immediately senses some weird, dreamy, light particles floating in the air, moving around in a seemingly random, yet completely mysterious kind of way.
'It took me several months back then…' Instead of lamenting for his previous talents, the young man couldn't help but smile as he found out just how much better he is currently in comparison to himself in the previous timeline, something that will help him further in achieving what it is that he wants in this new order of the world.
After confirming the existence of True energy in the air, he immediately packed up all that he could, bringing a few smaller knives, stashing them inside his vest's inner pockets, sheathing two of the large knives around his waist, while carrying one of his modified bats, rushing through the door of his villa, completely focused on what he should do.
Opening the door, he scans everything outside before heading out, where he could feel the night's chilly winds starting to get ice cold, to the point that frost starts to form in his lawn, something that he thought is completely normal as the climate and weather of the planet will undergo a massive change once it starts evolving, something that will only stabilize once the planet completely evolved into an Intermediate World, which based on his memories, will only happen couples of years from now.
Moving around to roam the empty night street, his footsteps start getting faster and faster as he runs towards a specific direction, his plans and course of action already starting to run in his mind as he competes to be the one to kill a certain someone.
'That old guard sets a really great foundation for the ascender who kills him, pity in my past life, I was never the one who killed that old guard, but that bastard' Azrael thought to himself as the image of the young man, the last one he saw in his previous life along with the ones accompanying him, flash in his mind. Clearing such thoughts out, he started moving even faster, smiling to himself while his plans ran in his mind.
'Well, I said I will take everything away from them, so I might as well start with their foundations,' while moving across the familiar woods, he eventually noticed something amiss as the entire place turned eerie, not even the rustling of winds nor the chirping of crickets was audible, the deafening silence causing him to stay on guard.
As the leaves, initially stagnant, start to sway from the incoming wind, Azrael feels quite the danger, prompting him to move away from his location, which is immediately bombarded by multiple razor-sharp leaves just a few moments after he leaves the spot.
"That was close…" Despite seeing the leaves that just nearly sliced his body into multiple segments, Azrael retains his cool and starts looking around, trying to figure out where the attacks came from. After a few moments, another waves of razor leaves were sent towards him, the speed of this set of attacks even faster than the first, clear from the whistling sounds each of the leaves produces while moving through the air.
Before the attacks reach his position, Azrael already moves again, jumping across a tree, standing on one of its branches, surprising him when he felt something weird from the tree as he stretched his hand to touch it.
"This is…" feeling the beat of life from the tree, he couldn't help but get concerned as he scans his surroundings, the other trees clearly locking in on him as they send in their sharp leaves towards him.
'The system will definitely display basic information about my opponent the moment I see its real body, so where is it?' Doing his best to dodge all the leaves flying towards him, Azrael tries to cover as much ground as he can in search of the true body of the enemy assaulting him.
After a few minutes of searching, he stumbles upon a tall rubber tree, the thing displayed on the newly emerged system's floating screen baffling him.
"Shit…" he said to himself as he prepared to fight with the tree.