An idea flashed, this time it was more direct, a gentle atmosphere spread all over the world, I finally came back to Zach, I like the style of men, the people I have died a thousand times were all men, brothers, I am back again Yes, haha.
Now that he had traveled back to the tunnels under Kooria, Zach actually saw Zorian sitting cross-legged, eyes closed, trying to perceive with his own thoughts. Practice mana sensing.
The only way the Matriarch can really help right now is by becoming an experienced practitioner, very valuable when it comes to tinkering with things like psychic magic. Enter eight Elian's thoughts, I haven't seen him for a long time, let's observe first. I met another matriarch, the same Spider Sister from before? Ha ha.
. . . . . . Elian's perspective. . . . . .
[This, and the small fact that open minds are more easily perceived and accessible than those who are... non-psychic,] said the Matriarch.
Zorian frowned. Could it be that he couldn't even master infant telepathy? marvelous.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he tried to think about the task at hand and how to solve it. Yes, being psychic means being a natural psychic. Although the matriarch keeps bringing her weird Alanian spirituality into the mix, that's what it all boils down to.
Psychics can read thoughts and emotions, search people's memories, hijack their senses and motor control, communicate with them telepathically, and god knows what else, but all of it has to do with the mind. Even the Matriarch admits that Alanya uses modified forms of human magic, such as her arsenal of verbal spells and other non-psychic magic.
Suddenly, an idea flashed in Zorian's mind. According to the books on mind skills he read in the college library, the spell of reading people's hearts is not too difficult in principle. Human mind spells are very much like a divination, trying to simply dump their output into the caster's mind... not something most mages can handle.
All that said, it seems to Zorian that one of the defining powers of a psychic is their ability to understand directly into the brain - maybe he should stop trying to push his powers outwards around him and focus on inwards. He took a deep breath, imagined the results as particles of light around him, and... opened his mind.
The blazing sun exploded around him, and many spiders appeared. Apparently, the matriarch had brought more guards than last time.
[Your first success,] the matriarch said, her telepathic probe breaking his concentration, causing the entire field of vision to crack like a dream. [well done. Things should move faster from now on. I'll congratulate you on your rapid progress, but I have to be honest and admit that I have no idea how quickly humans generally advance in this area. ]
"Maybe things would go faster if you actually told me I did something wrong," Zorian said angrily. "Why don't you tell me that I should be concentrating instead of looking outward?"
Duality, stupid! Because you are a human and I am a spider, two completely different species with completely different body structures,
"Hmm, so language and species do matter to psychics," Zorian commented.
said the matriarch. [As long as two creatures speak the same language, they can have a telepathic conversation freely, and a psychic can potentially communicate with the minds of complete strangers.
"So the reason why you can talk to me so easily is not just because you are stronger?" Zorian asked.
[No. I spend time learning about human language, mentality, and culture. As do many other spiders that occasionally interact with humans.
"In other words, mental attacks are easier than communication?" Zorian asked curiously. "I mean, if botched telepathic communication is actually a psychic attack, then simply blowing out a creature's brain wouldn't be a bother?."
[This is called "Psychic Blast," the simplest form of telepathic attack,] the Matriarch said. [This is also the simplest defense method. You really should stop worrying about me attacking you. Isn’t the explosives you always carry in your pocket enough to give you peace of mind? ha】
"They can help me," Zorian said. "There is still a possibility of hostilities between us. I'm just curious."
Zach couldn't understand, because he had a hard time escaping from...the "Kid King", haha. He came here just to get addicted to fighting.
Eager to go to summer festival parties
Yes, it would make him uncomfortably close to another time traveler at night, but he was curious about how his empathic inhibitions would play out in a live situation, as well as Zach's complicated weirdness, from within him What does it look like. In addition, he also wanted to get to know his classmates better, and this was a good opportunity.
"Can I go with you?" Taiwen asked, walking beside him.
"Last time, yes. Zach made it clear that the more people we invite, the better," Zorian said. It's no surprise if you know what Zach is trying to achieve. "Listen, if you don't want to come—"
"Oh no, I totally believe it. It's not every day you get the chance to go to a party. I just find it a little weird, that's all. I'm a little surprised you agreed to come, though - this kind of thing isn't an annoyance to you ?"
"It's either this or attending the official dance organized by the academy," Zorian said. "My only real option is poison."
"Ah, I understand." Taiwen nodded. "I think in this case, it's really a better option."
Zorian glanced at Taiwen out of the corner of his eye, feeling a little guilty. In fact, the main reason he invited her along was to see for himself how she would stand up to an intruder. She's way better at combat magic than he is, and he wants to make some ridiculous comparisons with Zack!
Then again, this is Taiwen - she's probably fighting the intruder on every reboot anyway, just not where he can see her. At least this time she'll be fighting alongside a strong fighter like Zach.
As soon as they knocked on the door, Zach came over and ushered them in.
"I'm glad you're here," Zach told him as he led them toward the dining room, where the party was apparently supposed to be held.
In this particular reboot, Zach doesn't even bother him too much. Is another time traveler trying to trick him into revealing himself, or has he simply experienced too many legends in this time loop? So that he can't order events based on the time loop in which they occurred? snort!
"Uh, what's going on?" Taiwen looked at them doubtfully
Zach glanced at her, then turned to Zorian and gave him a thumbs up. "New girl huh? Man, every time I see you, you have a new one. You can't be that kind of person."
"What?" Zorian and Taiwen asked at the same time.
There was a moment of confusion, but then realization that Zach had mixed up his reboot again. Zach had seen him with the three of them at various restarts. But that... that's completely different! They weren't interested in him at all!
"Zorian is a male prostitute?" Taiwen asked in a worryingly calm voice.
"I'm not!" Zorian denied vehemently, and then focused his anger on Zach, who was smiling evilly.
"What about you! Stop spreading rumors! I know for a fact you've never seen me with a girl until tonight! You want to know why I've been avoiding you all month..."
Zach frowned. "I'm sorry, I was just joking with you. Don't worry, I believe your girlfriend won't leave you because of your stupid words, haha"
"Oh really?" Taiwen said. "Don't you think he would deeply regret losing such a strong, smart, sexy girlfriend?"
Zorian sighed. "Zach, she's not my girlfriend. She's just a friend. And you used to be a girl? You like to say that so much!"
"Who happens to be female," Zach said, wagging his eyebrows.
"You," Zorian said through gritted teeth in annoyance.
"Ah, well, at least you've got a girl to dance with for the night," Zach said softly.
Taiwen is a very attractive girl with a beautiful athletic figure and an angelic face, and she likes men who are equally talented in appearance.
"When I was a little kid, most of the servants were fired by my guardians," Zach said. Zorian wasn't surprised to hear her words - Taiwen was terrible at whispering. "
Since my parents died when I was a baby, he was free to do what he deemed necessary"
"Let's just say he and I had our differences and leave it at that," Zach said.
Taiwen said. "How did you become the last member of your family?" "
"She was open about her curiosity," Zucker said. Somehow he knew what was happening, even though his back was turned to them when it happened. "To be honest, I kind of like her attitude."
"Numbers," Zorian muttered. Now that I think about it, Taivin and Zach both have the same desperate attitude towards things, so maybe it wasn't the best idea for them to meet...
In this way, Zach unfolded a lengthy story about the previous time travel...
While Zach's story is tragic, it is by no means unique and can be attributed to two main reasons: divisive war and crying.
Firearms were already available for warfare at that time, and they were gradually improved over time. However, even after naval powers began arming their ships with cannons, and even after several mercenary groups began to use rifles successfully, hand-held firearms were ultimately seen as a dead end. There's nothing a rifleman can do, and we're used to training archers, that can be more easily enhanced with magic than a rifle and its ammunition. The advantage of a rifle is that it does not require much training to use.
Until the war of secession. As the old alliance fell apart, every nation was suddenly scrambling to arm themselves, with the smaller nations essentially unable to compete with the likes of Edmar in terms of magical power, and so invested heavily in firearms as a means of combat magic alternatives. Eldmar is one of the few countries with a fully functioning traditional military and feels no need to play with these "civilian toys".
But guns are devastating. The massed riflemen completely destroyed traditional armies and caught existing powers by surprise. Instead of annexing every small country around it, big countries weaken themselves, often splitting into smaller parts, and internal enemies smell weakness.
The separatist war caused huge casualties to the mage family. The reason is simple - Battle Mage is a highly prestigious profession, and many families use military involvement to gather influence and reputation, which they then use as leverage to further their political and business interests. With the advent of the Schism War, the demand for battle mages increased, causing more mages to join the various armies in search of glory and wealth. This backfired as casualties began to mount. Unfamiliar with the advantages of firearms and often dismissing them entirely, many mages fell victim to snipers, artillery fire, and concentrated rifle fire.
When Eldmar launches a massive, multi-pronged attack on its smaller neighbor! The separatist war began, and Zach and his fellow members of the Novida family were at the forefront of the attack.
They paid a high price for this.
Sadly, that's when the crying came and ruined everything.
No one knew where the crying came from. They spread among the soldiers, a deadly, incurable disease that killed everyone who contracted it, regardless of age, health, or even magic. Once a person is infected with this virus, they are almost certain to die - first they develop fever, confusion, then blindness, then their eyes begin to bleed, and finally they die.
Ordinary healers are useless, no magic can cure it, and not even the mystical powers of the gods can stem its spread. In the end, there was nothing to do but wait for the disease to subside on its own. But they finally did it. As mysterious as it appeared, the cry slowly disappeared across the continent.
Ten percent of Altazia's population died from the epidemic. Some groups suffered more, while others were completely unscathed, seemingly with no pattern. Zorian's family, for example, was completely unaffected - his parents and all of his siblings were extremely lucky to have made it through the pandemic unscathed.
Instead, Zach lost everyone over that. The few Novidans who survived the Secession War contracted the disease and died, leaving an empty shell of a family whose only surviving member was a small child who was too young to even care for himself.
"...That's how this whole sad story ends," Zach concluded. "If nothing else, the crying finally ended the secession war. But enough of the depressing talk. We're here!"
Indeed, Zorian was pleased with his rudimentary control over empathy - the conference hall Zach had chosen was much smaller than the academy ballroom, and after talking to a few acquaintances, Zorian turned to those who didn't seem to mind being interrupted .
"Okay, who else do you know?" Taiwen asked.
"Well, the tall green-haired girl who was having a heated argument with those two guys was Reed."
"Wait, is she that Reed?" Taiwen asked. "Is one of those gangsters in the same class as you?"
…well, gangster style. A small group of girls looking in his direction suddenly caught his attention.
"See those five girls over there?" he said to Taiwen. "That's Jade, Neolu, Maya, Kiana, and Elsie."
"They look...giggling," Taiwen said with a sour expression.
"Oh, it's too late now," Zorian said. "See how they're looking in our direction? They've noticed us and are discussing how best to approach us. Ha"
"Zorion, don't challenge fate," Tevan warned him.
"It's not about tempting fate, it's about knowing your enemy. "They just saw a classmate walking around with a girl they knew nothing about - there was no way those five were going to let this go without investigating. Zorian said, even as the group of girls he was talking about nodded and strode over.
"Look, what did I tell you? They're already coming this way."
Taiwen gave a small yelp, but had a look of amusement on his face as the girls approached. Zorian knew exactly what she meant - he didn't consider any of the five to be third time travelers.
It's going to be a long night.
. . . . . (Take a break, there is chaos, I will smooth it over, ha.). . . .
The real dance began, and Elian didn't like dancing. Find a secluded corner where no one will disturb you. He soon discovered that he wasn't the only one with this idea. Tina Mei seems to have found such a corner, and...it does look awkward. snort. Somehow he suspected she really wanted to be left alone, with her freckled face.
"Hello, Tinami," he greeted, making her twitch in shock at being addressed.
"Um..." she stammered. "Zorion, right?"
"That's me," Zorian confirmed. "Want to dance?"
"Oh. Oh! But didn't you already bring your girlfriend? Wouldn't she mind?" Tina Mei asked.
Zorian pointed to where Taiwen was dancing with his partner. "Also, Taiwen is just a friend, not a girlfriend."
"Ah," she said, fidgeting uneasily. Zorian wordlessly extended his hand to her. "Well, well..." she said, grabbing Zorian's outstretched hand with surprising strength and dutifully following him onto the dance floor.
Zorian spent the next thirty minutes trying to talk to Tinami with only mild success, suspecting that it was only because of these very specific circumstances that she was willing to open up to him, even a little bit. She is indeed a very shy girl and he somehow suspects that she is the third time traveler? Her embarrassment seems very real, surely a time traveler as old as Zack would have gotten over it by now?
"You raise... spiders?" Zorian asked curiously.
"Tarantula," she corrected insistently. "But, um, I kind of like spiders of all kinds. I know it's weird, but..."
"Nonsense," Zorian retorted naturally. Is it possibly surprising that a shy, delicate-looking girl would breed a giant, hairy spider the size of a human hand? "Spiders are indeed very magical creatures. Although I prefer jumping spiders myself - those two huge eyes in the front somehow make them more human-like."
Tinami gave him a look of disbelief, then frowned. "You're making fun of me," she accused.
"No," Zorian retorted. "In fact, I frequently visit a particularly large colony of jumping spiders. It's amazing what you can learn by observing the natural world."
Tina Mei narrowed her eyes and looked at him, asking a series of increasingly profound questions about spiders. Not only did she know more about spider monsters than he did, but she also knew more about the types of spider monsters (such as various spider demons) , and monsters with spider attributes are also known a lot.
"I noticed it didn't take you long to find a new girl," Zach said from behind him, making him twitch in surprise. He glared at the boy,
He's usually always...oh.
"Why are you here, Zach?" Zorian sighed.
"I'm the host," Zach said. "My job is to check on the passengers, but this time I just want to know if you want to see the fireworks."
Oh yes, Zorian would definitely love to see the fireworks.
He and Tina Mae joined a large group in the garden, where they had an unobstructed view of the sky.
However, Zorian was more focused on Zach than Sky. If the matriarch goes as planned, Zach is sure to have an interesting reaction. He wears clothes everywhere and probably forgets who he is more and more, ha.
Three days ago, he discussed the action plan with the old lady. Zorian had watched the invasion's progress from various locations over the past few reboots, and he became convinced that the best and easiest way to stop it was with artillery fire. Especially since he knew where they were shooting from—
The fireworks started...but not accompanied by any cannon fire spells. Zach's face grew more and more confused.
"What's wrong, Zach?" Zorian asked innocently. "You act like you've never seen fireworks before."
"Uh, no, I mean I did, it's just...it's okay," Zach sighed.
Zorian shrugged, turned to Tinami, and offered her a helping hand. "What do you think about going back and having another dance?"
"Well, yes!" she agreed enthusiastically. "let us!"
Slowly, people grew tired of the flash of explosions in the sky and poured back inside, leaving a frowning Zach alone to stare at the sky.
-While the invaders did take a heavy hit due to the lack of initial US artillery, the invasion was not called off and Zach's mansion became one of their main targets, probably because that's where Zach was and they were specifically targeting he. Maybe if the students witnessed artillery fire hitting the city, Zach could use it to take control and organize some kind of proper defense,
But the fact that the attack started caught them completely off guard. Even with Zach's powerful magic, he couldn't stop the intruders from flooding into the mansion. Afterwards, several groups of students were separated from Zach's main force. Zorian is one of them.
He, Tinami, Taiwen, Brian, and four other students eventually barricaded themselves into one of the few unspoiled rooms in the mansion, desperately trying to stop the invading forces.
Four unknown students are almost useless, but the other three are priceless. Elian summoned a fire dragon to his side, Taiwen knew how to cast some kind of extremely destructive vortex of fire that would render intruders unable to attack for a full ten minutes, and Tinami... she was no stranger to combat, And the performance in battle is completely different. She doesn't know any fire spells, but she does know how to fire a certain purple beam that would send even the largest war trolls screaming to the ground. These beams do no noticeable damage, they're presumably just pain spells, and that's enough - Tinami fires these beams wildly, chaining attacks, damaging charges, and interrupting enemy spellcasters.
"Zorian can finish it as soon as possible, this position will soon be untenable," Taiwen shouted.
Zorian ignored her and carefully carved the last set of explosive runes into the wall of the corridor behind them. There's no rush, unless you want to blow yourself up before the enemy gets to you. A minute later, he completed the set and stood up, his knees making painful noises from squatting for so long.
"Done!" he shouted. "Everyone retreat from the corridor!"
He had been covering their escape into the depths of the mansion. Fortunately there was an unknown boy who helped him with this, but he wasn't very good at it - his only offensive spells were magic missiles, and he fired them at the war trolls, but he didn't have enough mana, so, He raised the magic wand he had smuggled into the mansion and fired a weak beam of disintegration at them. He didn't aim at the mage himself - that wouldn't do much - but at the floor in front of them, which had no spell resistance to protect it.
The beam traced a jagged line across the floor, sending billowing clouds of dust into the air. It would at least disturb them.
War trolls approaching quickly. He decided to simply sacrifice most of his mana reserves and attack them with super powerful fire bombs.
Zorian's fire missiles were not powerful enough, and these special war trolls seemed to be particularly difficult to deal with. Taiwen cast a flame vortex spell, and the strong fiery vortex broke their charge. Zorian used the curse staff to summon another cloud of dust, and then followed it along He fled down the corridor behind other students. The other boy ran away, the useless coward,
He hoped the chaos would last long enough for him to create some distance. He's not fast enough to outrun the war troll.
There was a scream of rage as a war troll rapidly approached him. damn it.
Suddenly an evil purple beam of light suddenly cut through the air above his head and hit the troll behind him. The monster screamed again, this time in pain, and fell to the floor. Zorian dug another line into the floor with his spell stick, coating the corridor with more dust, and then he entered their newest sanctuary. So thrilling!
"Thank you," he gasped.
"Well, you're welcome," Tinami said, fiddling with the silver amulet she wore and watching the dust cloud covering the hallway for any movement.
The amulet seems to be the spell recipe she uses to cast the purple beam of light.
"Here they go again," Bream said.
Taiwen said. "Let them all enter the corridor before triggering the explosive rune."
"What if they find the trap?" one girl asked.
"Then at least they'll hesitate for a while," Tevin said.
They didn't bother to close the door - which only resulted in the mages being hit with splinters of wood and shrapnel when they forced their way through. Before they learned their lesson, they lost two students.
Sure enough, there was a flurry of concussive beams and battering rams before the war trolls charged. Crackling and roaring, mages entered the corridor to provide support, sensing that victory was near.
At that moment, Zorian unleashed a pulse of mana into the nearest cluster of exploding runes, and the entire corridor collapsed in a deafening explosion. . . .
A huge cloud of dust and rubble rushed into their small room, but Taiwen was ready, and with a huff, he created a large bubble to prevent them from suffocating.
"Okay," Tevin coughed, too slow to catch all the dust.
"This should temporarily stop the attack. The scary part is that this room is a dead end. The only exits are this corridor and the outside window."
"There are enemies everywhere outside, what should we do?" Zorian said.
"But we don't have much choice, do we?" Brian asked. "We can't stay here."
"How to get down?" asked an unknown girl. "We are on the second floor, so we can't just jump out of the window."
"Hmm... Okay, can you cast the floating disk spell?" Taiwen raised his hand and asked.
Zorian was the only one who raised his hand to show his cooperation.
"Ah. Okay, it's necessary. Zorian, I'll put down these four heavy objects first, and you follow me with the two."
"Hey!" complained one of the heavyweights.
"Sorry, but that's what I call it, as I see it." Taiwen said ruthlessly. "Let's go before more assholes gather at our location to watch the explosion."
So Zorian created a huge buoyancy disk outside the window and jumped on it, with Tinami following closely behind. At first, it seemed like everything would be perfect - no enemies were waiting at the bottom, barking.
Tevin had landed successfully, and his disc showed no signs of failing under the combined weight of the man standing on it. Then a group of Ironbeaks suddenly appeared around the corner, and Zorian cursed angrily.
There was really nothing he could do against a bunch of Ironbeaks, and they weren't much better. There were about fifty of them, so even if they could snipe two out of the sky, it would be meaningless. Tinami probably wouldn't be able to direct her pain beam at the target, Ironbeaks are very agile fliers.
Brian's fire dragon can rain down on them with iron feathers from a distance.
He fired a homing piercing bomb anyway, and noticed out of the corner of his eye that Taiwen launched a swarm of magic missiles with cruises. Eight Iron Beaks fell, but they were just a drop in the bucket. Next, it was Iron Beak's turn.
The air ahead blurred, and a ball of shimmering feathers shot towards them.
With hundreds of magic iron feathers, Zorian immediately scattered the floating disk, and the three of them immediately fell to the ground.
He successfully avoided the deadly feathers! As he tumbled through the air, his eyes briefly met those of the fire dragon, and he couldn't help but feel that it was glaring at him.
Suddenly, just as they were about to hit the ground, their fall stopped and they landed as lightly as feathers on the ground. Before Zorian could ask what was going on, a swarm of flaming missiles erupted from somewhere behind him, wiping out the entire Ironbeak swarm.
"You know, Zorian," Zach said from behind him, "sometimes I wonder if you have a death wish. Put yourself in a situation like this? You're almost as bad as me!"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Zorian muttered, climbing to his feet and helping Brian and Tinami to their feet as well. Strangely, they didn't seem angry at what he did. Shocked, but not angry. Maybe they didn't know he dropped the disk on purpose?
"Well, I'm glad to see another group of survivors, but we really should get going," Zach said. "It's not safe to be outside like this. Come on, I know a safer place."
Zorian looked around. A surprising number of students survived the attack and dutifully followed Zach. In fact, it's likely that they survived just by following Zack. Regardless, Zorian and his team have to join the team - they don't have any better ideas anyway.
They had not gone far before the attackers returned in force. Zorian heard Zach curse his bad luck and scoffed. Not bad luck - the attackers were apparently tracking his movements and were targeting him directly. Did Zach take any precautions to prevent him from being found? Knowing Zach, probably not.
As Zach deals with another group of Ironbeaks, a giant brown worm bursts out of the ground and begins wreaking havoc among the group of students.
Zorian has only encountered these four times in various reboots so far, and he already hates them - they can move around the earth almost like water, and their skins are completely impervious to physical forces. They are also unaffected by fire.
Zorian watched helplessly as the Worm single-handedly shattered the students' formation, causing them to flee in panic before being eliminated one by one by the winter wolves surrounding the crowd.
Tina Mae clearly didn't want to sit idly by. She fired a purple beam at the worm, causing it to scream in agony before immediately swinging its teeth in her direction, its murderous attention now firmly focused on her. Uh oh.
The worm let out a vengeful roar and dived back underground. Zorian immediately closed his eyes, trying to isolate the sound of the battle, focusing on perception, trying to track its movements. It's not too difficult - even if the worm doesn't have psychic powers, it's the only mind that's underground, so it's easy to tell from the other worms. He opened his mind and followed the worm's thoughts as it swam underground. Tina Mae seemed to stay where she was, realizing that she couldn't move too far away from the group lest she get picked up like the other students who had made this mistake... and thus couldn't truly escape the worm.
Just as the worm was about to surface, Zorian yanked Tinami aside and quickly dropped an exploding cube.
In less than a second, the worm erupted from its place, its teeth savaging the clod of dirt...and the exploding cube. Great, just as it turned its head in their direction, Zorian activated the cube and the worm shuddered and began screaming and writhing wildly before violently spitting out some of its pulpy guts. Coming closer, Dinami was hit by the tail while rolling, and was thrown to the outside of the battlefield, where she lay motionless.
Zorian quickly ran to her side, relieved that he was still breathing and had no obvious wounds. He turned his attention back to the bug, but while he wasn't looking, it was dying.
The worm swayed in the air like it was drunk, and for a moment, Zorian thought he had won...but then the worm swung its toothy mouth directly at him, growling a challenge. This time, it didn't bother diving underground, instead stretching to an impressive length at a much faster pace than a creature of its size should.
He is not dead. The insect stopped just a hair away from his face, broke free from some invisible restraints, suddenly turned sideways, and bit the winter wolf that had taken advantage of his distraction to sneak up on him.
[I see, I was just in time,] the matriarch's voice entered his mind, and then her body appeared, jumping out of the shadows of a nearby tree like it was the most normal thing in the world Same thing.
"Thank you," Zorian said. "But I'm not sure why you're here. I thought there should be as little contact between us as possible during the invasion."
[I decided it would be more important to update your memory pack with the information we discovered today. ]
Zorian sighed and looked around. Everyone was busy saving their lives and had no time to pay attention to them, and in the night, spiders were not so easy to find.
"Hurry," Zorian said, and the matriarch immediately got to work. Anything that tries to sneak up on them will be dealt with by the giant bugs, who are apparently under the control of the matriarch.
Then, five minutes later, she disappeared again, and Zorian picked up Tinami and tried to join Zach again, but as soon as he took five steps, a jagged red beam filled his vision and made his world Plunged into darkness again.
