Ning had gone to sleep after introducing Sorlus to his younger cousin. The young man was surprised to see Sorlus and his first instinct was to ask if he was Ning's son.
Ning knocked him on the head before telling him to take care of him for a while and went to sleep.
However, since it hadn't been long since he had woken up, merely 8 hours at most, he didn't need much sleep.
Still, since the night was over, he felt like she should sleep so he went ahead and took a small nap.
His nap was interrupted a few hours later by rather loud bangs on his door.
"What? Who is it?" he shouted at the door. However, before anyone could answer, Saphandra flew through the door and appeared inside. On her face was a look that said something terrible had happened.
Ning instantly sent out his divine sense to check on his grandmother, and then his uncle. Once he made sure the two of them were safe, he checked the other two of his family members.
He saw that the both of them were in the living room, watching TV along with Sorlus. White was by the door as he was the one who knocked.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Ning, you need to come to see this quickly. Something bad has happened," she said.
Ning was a little worried, so he walked out of the room quickly. "Tell me, what's going on?" he asked.
"You should see it for yourself, master," White said before quickly taking Ning down to the living room where the TV was.
As soon as he walked in, he saw something on the flatscreen tv.
There was some news segment being broadcasted in Korean saying something about victims and aids. Ning's focus was instead pulled by the map of the USA that was behind the woman on the TV.
On the map, there was a massive red circle that covered everything on the western half of the USA, even clipping a bit of Mexico in the south.
"We still do not know the cause of the disaster, but we can say for sure that it was no nuclear attack. None of the countries have reported any missiles being fired, nor has the USA sensed it. The disaster itself does not look like it could be the result of a nuclear… " The woman on the TV continued giving a report on the situation.
Ning, unfortunately, was too late to understand exactly what was going on.
"What happened in the USA?" he asked solemnly.
"Look for yourself," the younger cousin changed channels to another channel that showed footage of the disaster was shown from a high point, likely through a drone.
What Ning saw was a scene that only happen if an earthquake of high magnitude appeared at the exact same time a nuclear explosion destroyed everything.
Fire raged everywhere in the image, with destroyed buildings scattered everywhere. People were trapped underneath rubbles and many were being carried to the hospital.
Help had arrived in the form of military aid as well as many hunters, but it was still lacking.
Ning looked at the image with a fierce look as a thought came to him. "Is this… is this happening everywhere inside the red circle from before?" he asked.
"No, not everywhere," Hi-Ah said as he took the remote and flipped the channel back. She walked up to the TV and made a circle with her finger on top. "Only the people outside of this area are the ones that are hurt or need immeidately help."
Ning looked a little confused. "Huh? Are you saying that the people inside of that smaller circle are okay and don't need any help?" he asked.
"No," Hi-Ah said.
"There simply are no humans inside there, brother," Jung-Hee replied. "They just… vanished. No one knows what happened to them."
Ning's eyebrows lowered in confusion. "There is no one there?" he asked.
"No, none," Jung-Hee said.
"I will have to see what's going on then," he said. "White, Sorlus. Come, we're going there."
"What? You're going to the USA?" Hi-Ah asked.
"Yes," he said. "I will need to help them as much as I can. Saph, you stay back," he said.
Saphadnra nodded from the side, as she only now appeared before the brother and sister duo.
Ning grabbed Sorlus and White, and then he teleported.
The moment they reappeared, they were flying in the air on top of some of the wreckage.
Ning's divine sense instantly moved at an impossible speed to take in every part of the disaster. His eyes went wide when he saw the disaster for himself for the first time.
As if something had appeared and tried to uproot the entirety of the western USA, all the houses were destroyed, roads and bridges in shambles, as well as vehicles, being tossed around like toys.
There were too many things for him to look at, so as his main focus, he only looked for humans that were in trouble. There were absolutely no humans in a massive circle around the center, not even animals, so he had to focus on the outside for now.
"You two, go help save people. And don't turn to your original self, remain a human," Ning said.
"Yes, master," the two of them said and moved.
Ning moved as well. He moved at frightening speed, appearing near any and all places that needed immediate attention.
He grabbed onto the trapped people using his spatial powers and teleported them out to the safe space while healing them at the same time.
Even as he did that, he needed to know, how did this happen? What could cause such a massive disaster on such a scale?
And why a circular range of disasters? Did something begin in the center?
As Ning thought that, he had to slow down as he realized what was in the center.
"That's… that's where I opened the portal to this universe," he thought.
"System, does the portal I opened have anything to do with this disaster?" he asked. Every second felt like forever as he waited for the answer.
<Yes, that portal is indeed the main reason for this disaster.>
