Global Awakening: Only I Can Respawn

"He… he jumped," Min-Ji whispered. "But why…?"

Gina's eyes widened with disbelief as she stood there, staring at the spot where YuWon had been only moments ago. But Yeji had the most volatile reaction.

"This is all your fault!" she shouted at Min-Ji. "If it weren't for you, YuWon would still be alive!"

Min-Ji couldn't even look Yeji in the eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out.

"We need to keep moving," Yuna muttered, urging them to climb ahead. "The mole… it's still out there. We have to protect—"

But Lysandra wasn't listening. Instead of climbing up, she took a step down. Anger replaced the sad look on her face.

"I'm going to find him," she mumbled to herself. "He won't die like this... he can't leave me behind."

"Lysandra, wait!" Yuna called out, but it was no use.

Before anyone could stop her, Lysandra began climbing down the roots, her mind set on one thing—getting YuWon back, no matter what it took.

But she wasn't alone. Gina joined her and began climbing down. Even Yeji joined them and finally, Anna did, too. YuWon wasn't dead... they refused to believe it until she saw his corpse with her own eyes.

No one bothered to stop them. As they climbed down, they could feel minor tremors. The mole was still there, waiting for more people to fall. Just then, a voice interrupted them.

"Stop!"

It was strange. They knew each other's voices, and it didn't resemble anyone whom they knew before. Yeji looked up, only to see hundreds of people staring down at them from the roots above.

"We can help you recover those taken by the mole," a man wearing black robes stepped up. "But before that, you need to get up here."

However, when Anna saw their cloak, a sharp pain shot through her head. Her vision blurred for a second and she saw flashes of memories from her timeline.

She recognized them as awakeners who came before them. In a room where one second was equivalent to twelve years, even a slight delay in leaving the chamber could mean years had gone by.

These people were one of the few who got released before them. Although it felt like just a moment for Anna and her group, these awakeners had been in the Awakened World for more than a decade and had made a home in the World Tree.

"W-We should hear what they have to say," Anna mumbled.

However, no one moved. Apart from YuWon, no one knew about the truth. They all viewed her as the Anna who tried to kill YuWon. As such, her words didn't exactly have any credibility, something Yeji was quick to point out.

"We should trust you, shouldn't we?" Yeji retorted. "You could have fooled YuWon, but not me."

"If you want to go, go," Gina chimed in. "But I'm not leaving without YuWon."

Anna sighed, knowing they wouldn't listen to her. She needed something to convince them and took a page out of YuWon's book.

"YuWon isn't the only oracle here," she said, lying through her teeth.

"Bullshit!" Yeji called her out. "If that was the case, why didn't you warn—"

"I did," Anna yelled back, cutting Yeji off. "Why do you think I took him to the side before? I told him this would happen, but the fool didn't listen!"

That stopped any retort Yeji had. She had seen Anna drag YuWon away and him dismissing her. At first, she thought it had something to do with the world tree and didn't pay attention. But she could be right.

"Fine," Lysandra and Gina spoke simultaneously. "But if this is a trick, we'll kill them and then you."

Anna sighed but didn't take their words to heart. She knew they were hurt and taking out the anger on her. She too was hurt, but unlike them, she didn't have a way to express her anger.

I hope I'm making the right decision...

***

As they climbed, the other awakeners rushed to help them. Everyone followed the worlds of the cloaked man they had seen before. They couldn't make out his face, but his black skin and feathers stuck to his back got everyone on edge.

"Only eight of you made it this time," the man sighed, joining his palms and praying for the departed. "Things are getting worse."

"Who are you?"

Gina was the first to speak up. After everything they'd been through with angels, it was normal for them to feel nervous around someone who looked like one.

The man looked at her and smiled. Slowly, he took off his cloak, showing them the burn marks all over his chest and arms. Behind him were his wings, or what used to be wings.

In place of wings, two massive holes were left and only a few feathers were stuck out of his back. It looked nothing like the wings of the angel they had grown accustomed to.

"You need not worry, mortal," he said in his soft voice. "I was once an angel, but now... I am as much of a mortal as you are. My name is Lucifer. Perhaps you've heard of me."

"Lucifer... like the fallen angel?" Yeji asked.

"Yes," Lucifer smiled at her.

Unlike Yeji and Yuna, Anna didn't know Lucifer, but she knew about the fallen angels. After all, she had once fought alongside them.

From them, she learned they were beings who had defied the will of the gods. As punishment, the gods stripped them of their divine status and threw them into the Awakened World to suffer alongside the awakeners.

They're no longer angels, but they're far from harmless creatures.

But that didn't matter. Things had changed a lot from her timeline. Back then, she only met the fallen angels in the trial against the 3rd disaster. But if fallen angels were present, thenhewould also be there.

"...take me where Asmodeus is," Anna stepped up.