Seeing Marcus's jaw tighten, Nexus let his laughter die.
"Apocalyptic Diaries aren't something I'm qualified to speak on." He said. "But I'll tell you this… whatever they are, they're not just powerful. They're dangerous—a force to be feared. And you… You shouldn't be worrying about them right now. After all, you have already awakened with a False Page. Focus on surviving that."
Marcus relaxed upon hearing this. He agreed with Nexus. He was in no place to be thinking about an Apocalyptic Diary when he was already tied to a False Page. Still, despite how composed he appeared, Marcus wasn't calm. Not at all. If anything, he was more afraid of the False Page than he was of the side effects of any MGP.
It wasn't knowledge that fueled this fear, but instinct. He refused to believe that it wasn't without consequences.
Marcus chose his next words carefully. "Then… if False Pages or Broken Diaries are so effective, why doesn't the Empire just hand them out to soldiers to use. Rather than the MGPs that are filled with irreversible risks? Those things ruin more lives than they save." He took a roundabout way to asking if the False Page had some kind of side effect.
It was a roundabout way of asking: What are the side effects? Do they destroy you too?
Nexus smirked. He caught the evasion instantly. The more he spoke to Marcus, the more familiar the kid felt, it was as though he was talking to a version of his younger self. Though he's difficult to get a read on, he actually wears his heart on his sleeve. Quite innocent of him.
"You haven't even scratched the surface of what awakening truly means, and you're already asking questions like this?" Nexus leaned back, gazing up at the roof of the truck. "How many Apocalyptic Diaries do you think existed, kid?"
Marcus said nothing. He hadn't considered that. But now that the question lingered in the air, he realized the implications. If even one Apocalyptic Diary could reshape the world, how many could have existed before it all fell apart?
He began recalling fragments of global history—moments shrouded in myth and horror. Catastrophes that tore through continents, collapsing cities in dust, boiling oceans, and splitting tectonic plates like glass. Annihilation unlike anything ever recorded… until the very shape of the Earth itself had changed.
By the time the shaking stopped, the world had grown. Not metaphorically, but literally. It swelled to a thousand times its former size, pushing what was left of humanity into scattered fragments and isolated civilizations.
Some believed the planet's transformation was nature evolving. Others were certain it was a divine purge meant to wipe the slate clean. But humanity—stubborn as cockroaches—just don't know when to die out.
With Earth's evolution came sweeping changes. Creatures once considered harmless or domestic grew monstrous. Their biology was warped and enhanced. Even plants mutated and some became predators in their own right.
The sky turned hostile, filled with aerial beasts and unstable phenomena. And the oceans… they became one of the most forbidden places on the planet, too vast, it was known as the graveyard of monsters and sunken civilizations.
Though this transformation took a while, it started as a gradual process, and then it skyrocketed from there.
According to the Empire's official records, Avalon was born from chaos. Its founders were three blood brothers, ordinary men once, who were said to have been "blessed by the world" during the transformation. They weren't left behind in humanity's collapse—those rose with it.
What started as a small, fortified village built in the heart of an apocalypse, eventually grew into a town, then a city, and finally, an empire
The Avalon Empire.
Its landmass was immense—greater than all four of the old world's largest continents combined, or so modern archaeologists claimed. And yet, it was still only a sliver of the continent it inhabited.
And that wasn't an exaggeration.
The rest of the world? Largely uncharted.
Not because no one tried—but because trying meant dying. The planet had become too dangerous, too alien. Exploration had become a death sentence.
Marcus thought about all of this as the truck rumbled along. The scale of it all… the scope. If the Apocalyptic Diaries were real, how many could have existed before the first fall of mankind?
One? Two? Surely it can't be more than that.
And if the Imperial Families held power till now, perhaps it was because their ancestors had awakened first before anyone else.
Nexus watched him silently, studying the shift in his expression, patiently waiting for his thoughts to settle.
"So there's a limit to how many exist… or the Imperial Families prefer to hug it all to themselves to remain in power?"
The truck went dead silent.
All eyes turned to Marcus like he'd just cursed the sun. Even Nexus who'd seemed to be amused with everything up until now, blinked slowly—his brows twitching as he processed what was just said.
Does this kid have a death wish?
That thought echoed in everyone's mind.
This time, it was Nexus who felt like groaning. "Kid," Nexus said with a calm voice that had some weight behind it, "You're a hair's breadth away from treason."
But Marcus didn't flinch. The cold stares, the silent gasps, and the tension—none of it rattled him. His tone stayed flat, as if he hadn't just spoken the unspeakable. Slandering the Imperial Family. "So… it's not true?"
Nexus rubbed the bridge of his nose as a bead of sweat slid down his temple. Even he wasn't reckless enough to entertain such a topic too openly.
"You are not wrong about the scarcity." He muttered, steering the conversation carefully. "But no, the Imperial Family isn't really in charge of regulating False Pages and Broken Pages. There are a lot of criminal groups and syndicates that have gotten their hands on a few. Hence their little ability to commit the crimes that they do.
"Though this particular batch did indeed come from the Imperial Palace, most of them are gotten from beyond the Third Ring… outside the territory of the Empire."
"Then how have they remained in power for so long. I mean if there are quite a number of people who have awakened, surely there are a few ambitious ones who have thought of overthrowing the Empire, right? I mean, it has always been known that the Imperial Families are blessed by the world, they have evolved with it."
Once again, Marcus threw everyone off with his statement. They all felt like the conversation should end at this point. However, Nexus wasn't going to let it end like this. To him, he felt like he would be admitting he had lost if he did.
"The Imperial Families are indeed blessed, while they have access to Broken Diaries and all, they also have something extra, a cultivation technique. They have an abundance of Wilder Force… the energy that essentially transformed the world. The breath of the apocalypse."