I Reawakened as an Inferno Hero-Chapter 64: Foreboding

Chrysa walked closer to the screen and tapped it twice. It shifted, now showing faint outlines of each zone, like a hologram drawn in fog.

"Alright," she began, her voice taking on that cool, calculated tone that made everyone exchange glances even when they didn’t want to.

She pointed to the North.

"The North region," she said. "It’s freezing up there. Temperature’s low enough to kill you if the monsters don’t get to you first. I picked up high readings of life signatures, possibly hibernating or moving underground. Think massive burrowers. Worst part? The land shifts. Literally. Like tectonic plates with minds of their own."

Voidbreaker whistled. "Nice. Living earthquakes. Can’t wait."

Chrysa rolled her eyes and almost smiled, but then she moved on.

"The South region." She tapped again. "This is desert territory. High heat, radiation spots. Monsters here seem to be adapted to sand movement. I also got signs of camouflaged beasts that blend so well into the terrain that you wouldn’t even see them coming unless they open their mouths... wide enough to swallow a damn truck."

Axel shivered. "Yeah, let’s not go south."

His father hit him slightly on the shoulder.

"We’ll literally be squashed!" his father said.

"You bet," Axel blurted.

Mirrormeld looked relatively calm. She only sipped her cup of milk rather tentatively and acted like she wasn’t there.

"The East region," Chrysa continued, zooming in. "This one’s the creepiest. The whole place is covered in black forests, dead trees, thick fog, and echo chambers. My scanner detected weird energy spikes. Could be magic or some kind of illusion field. Either way, don’t trust your senses in the East. Voices in your head, shadows walking backward... classic nightmare fuel."

Spinal Edge mumbled, "Creepy. For me, this is the worst so far. I hate creatures that lurk in the shadows. I mean, why not come kill me? Why lurk in the damn shadows and spook the hell out of me?"

"I agree on that," Voidbreaker said, tapping on the table delicately with his fingers.

"The West region." Chrysa swiped left. "It’s volcanic. Lava flows, burning air, occasional ash storms. Not much life... except for things made of molten rock. This should be where the Embercolossus reside. And I don’t know how stable that region is. Perhaps it could collapse under our feet."

Voidbreaker muttered, "How is this place not extinct already?"

Axel found that amusing and couldn’t hold back his laughter.

"Damn," he said, his teeth still wide open.

Finally, Chrysa raised her hand and slowly gestured upward.

"And the Sky." Her voice dropped a little and was suddenly soft in a chilling way. It seemed that she was talking with her breath and yet was audible.

The voice alone made the place she was about to mention feel like some kind of hell, like a nightmarish abyss where she had gone and come back alive.

With the tone of her voice, Mirrormeld no longer wanted her to say a word.

"The Sky is weird," she began, and so, horror tore through the air. "The creatures there aren’t just strong, they’re... aware. Skyrenders fly like gods. I couldn’t scan much, but from the few frames I got, it’s an ecosystem that’s more organized than anything else here. There’s a hierarchy, even ranks. Like an airborne empire of monsters. We mess up once up there, we don’t fall—we get erased completely."

A cold silence followed, and then Voidbreaker said,

"The Skyrenders are that strong? Well, weren’t they the morons who wrestled and almost killed themselves? And now you suddenly talk of them as some godlike creature?"

Chrysa smiled, and suddenly, it turned into a mischievous grin which gave Axel the creeps.

"Those are actually the teenagers."

Cold, suffocating, mesmerizing shock filled the air, and suddenly, it seemed to coil beside them, blowing a scented, cool, bone-chilling breeze.

Even Voidbreaker didn’t crack a joke this time. He only opened his eyes, wide open, even forgetting to blink at a point.

"You don’t mean... this is, you...," he stammered.

"Teenagers."

Axel didn’t know why, but he dreaded the word. If they were just teenagers, then how would normal Skyrenders be?

The thought alone made him whistle. He could only imagine. He suddenly remembered the Abyssborn he and his dad fought back at the lined wall place. That was an Embercolossus, the second strongest in rank, and the only reason he had won against it by poking its eye and killing it was because of his powers, which made everything slow—thanks to his system.

All the regions were scary to the eyes, and even he would have to reconsider sending an enemy there.

This now felt like the first time he truly regretted being a superhero. To him, this was like a mess. How could he and five other superheroes defeat an empire of brained monsters with teenagers that fight on par with some of Earth’s strongest warriors?

Silence.

That was what suddenly soaked up the place, a sharp, rhythmic silence. Something you could listen to, something that would get you out of bed with a start.

It was a place-soaking exchange of glances.

"Being a superhero is the hardest," Spinal Edge blurted. "Hell, I didn’t sign up for this."

Mirrormeld still wasn’t saying anything or acting weird like she used to. On a normal day, she would be shedding tears of terror at what Chrysa had just said, but instead, she was very calm, making Axel feel concerned.

Voidbreaker joined Spinal Edge in her whining about being a superhero.

"We will survive," Chrysa assured them. "So, don’t complain because it won’t change anything. We are all superheroes, and our job is to save worlds. Normal superheroes save cities and towns, but we’ve passed that level. We save realms and worlds and even planets. Let’s quit this whining and do just that."

Henry (Axel’s father) could only stare, his face a deep frown, not from being angry but from thinking.

And then, just when everyone was starting to buckle up and be a hero, Axel leaned forward and asked,

"So where’s the best place to go first?"

Chrysa didn’t hesitate. Why would she? She had been blunt with facts all along, and she would continue to be.

"None of them," she replied. "But we’ll have to pick one, and fast."