20, 40, 65, 82, 104…
Ning started counting until he counted 143. Every single Constellation was there. Both the ones that were trying to save the humans and the ones that were trying to hurt them.
Ning looked at the 5 that were among the 143. "You too?" he asked.
Noraxis shrugged slightly. "You should not have tried to teach them a way to fend for themselves. It makes us useless, and that is not why we do what we do."
Ning frowned. "I should have killed you when I had the chance," he said.
"Haha!" Briss laughed with his goat-like skull. "Even the man you imitate doesn't have the power to kill all of us, and you say you can do it?"
He wasn't wrong there. As Ning was currently, even with his main body and system, defeating them all was near impossible.
"Well, if you really think you can, then we will be ready for you. Whether it's you or him, we won't lose," Briss said.
'Is he bluffing?' Ning thought. These constellations were supposed to be scared of their existence, but somehow, they were very confident.
"What? Not going to kill us?" Briss asked. "Then just wait and watch, the show will begin, very, very soon."
One by one, the Constellations disappeared from right in front of him, surprising him greatly.
'Something bad is going to happen,' Ning thought. 'Ning, you have to return quickly.'
A few minutes later, as if some sort of blockade in the area had been released, people came rushing in towards him.
Ning tried to think of ways to tell them what was happening, but it didn't look like he had to. These people were already losing their minds from something else that had happened that Ning did not know about.
"What's wrong?" Ning asked. "Why are you freaking out?"
The one at the front was director Sung who was looking at him. "Are you okay? You were fighting with that terrorist? You weren't hurt, were you?" he asked.
"No, I'm fine," Ning said.
"Thank god. You must have finished the battle before it happened," the director said. "Oh god, what are we going to do now?"
"Director? What is going on?" Ning asked.
"Huh?" the director looked at him. "Have you not sensed it yet?"
Ning frowned and used his divine sense to search around him, but he didn't find anything that immediately stood out to him. "What's wrong? I can't tell," he said.
"Your powers," the director said. "They're gone."
"What?" Ning frowned and flexed his cultivation base and mana, but they were both there. "I'm still a mage."
"Huh?" the director looked confused. "How were you spared?"
"Director, please tell me exactly what has happened," Ning asked.
"The powers, they've lost their powers," the director said.
"Who—" Ning had only just asked when he realized he knew the answer.
"The Apostles. They have all suddenly lost all of their powers," the director said. "There are no more apostles."
Ning's eyes went wide. That was it. These constellations truly had given up on this world.
'All because of my Magic circle?' Ning thought. He was starting to feel horrible. He should have stopped himself just a bit longer to wait for Ning to come back and let him do everything.
'Dammit, it would have led to the same result,' Ning thought. 'I would only be delaying the inevitable.'
However, that seemed like a much better option than losing all of the Apostles right away, right now.
'But why?' Ning wondered. He understood that they were no longer trying to help the earth, but that didn't really accomplish much with the removal of the Apostles. Sure that made it hard to do all the dungeon runs, but Ning could clear the SS-ranked dungeons easily.
And without those upgrading, no portals would form to the other universe that will send in—
Ning stopped in his thoughts. 'Those are not the only dungeons out there,' he thought.
"Director, I need to go check on something," he said and disappeared, leaving the director dumbfounded.
The director looked around with a weird look on his face, wondering if Ning hadn't lost his Apostle's power at all.
He was about to return when Ning suddenly appeared in front of the director again.
"Dear god, young man. How are you doing this? Do you still have your Apostle powers?" the director asked.
However, Ning didn't answer. "Director, the worst possible scenario is happening around the world right now, so you need to quickly take back the prime minister and start preparing for an apocalypse," he said.
"What?" the director was surprised and scared. "What apocalypse? What's happening?"
"All the new dungeons, the new ones that had formed a week ago, they are all spewing out the people that had entered in it," Ning said.
"Huh? People are getting spit out of the dungeon?" the director asked.
"Yes, halfway through too. There is a bit of chaos around it, but that is not even our main problem," Ning said.
"What… what's worse?" the director asked.
"The worst part if that none of the dungeons are accessible anymore," Ning said.
"Not… accessible?" the director asked.
"Yeah, no one can enter it anymore," Ning said.
"And that's… bad?" the director asked.
Ning turned to look at the director with a disappointed look. "Did you forget what happened the last time there was a dungeon no one could enter at all?' he asked.
The director thought for a moment and color drained from his face as he realized what was happening. "No…" he said. He couldn't believe it.
"Yes," Ning said. "I'm afraid… this is the preparation before the dungeons break open and we are overrun by monsters in our city. The same thing from years ago will happen once more."
"No…" the director couldn't believe it still. "We will die. We don't have any apostles this time around."
"No, we won't die," Ning said. "We won't have apostles, but we have strong hunters. Besides, I just gave you the best tool for survival today."
"Tell everyone, we will have to start making the magic circles all over the world as soon as we can."
