Astral Apostle - Chapter 479: Expansion and War (1)

In her last life, Qu Zhi tried her best to be a good wife who was sensible and did not cause trouble, a filial and good daughter who helped her family, and a good mother who accompanied her children. However, Qu Zhi worked hard and suffered all her life. When she was about to die, she realized that in the end, all she got back for her hard work were complaints. Her husband complained that she was an idle, rich wife all day long who wasn’t satisfied with her happiness at home, and that she was a greedy woman.

But after decades of marriage, her husband had a firm, deadly hold on all her money, and she didn’t even have a dime to her name, nor a property to call her own. Every time she asked for money, he would trample all over her self-esteem. Her husband’s cold and sarcastic words made her unable to lift her head, and his friends would demean her while drinking wine, making her tremble with anger. This man had once said he would take care of her, yet he turned a blind eye! Those people focused on her happiness as a topic, and made a joke out of it.

Even her three children resented her for her uneven love towards everyone, and their relationship only became more strained as time passed. She had spent her whole life as a loner, and she had nothing. Lying on the operation table, Qu Zhi thought that if she could do it all over again, she wouldn’t be a housewife. She wouldn’t have given her second daughter away, and she wouldn’t take care of her blood-sucking relatives.

She wouldn’t marry her indifferent, cold husband either! When she next opened her eyes, she was back to twenty years in the past. Her eldest daughter was still in elementary school, and her second daughter had been in her belly for several months…

“I am Bianca Valestra, Witch of the Frozen Night, an enemy of Humanity. By choosing to follow me, you will be fighting not just humans—but the entire world. I no longer wish to lie to you, Elian. If you wish to walk away or choose another path, I will let you.”Yet the boy shook his head and laid his hand gently over hers.“I am no longer human. I just committed what I think to be genocide. I am not afraid. For you—the one who saved me, gave me purpose, and my only desire—I will fight. I do not care how many come. I will kill them all.”___In the year 2030, everything changed.Portals to other dimensions appeared without warning.We called them dungeons.And from them came monsters that knew only destruction.But in humanity’s darkest hour, a sliver of hope emerged.People began awakening strange abilities—Talents—to fight back.Years passed. A fragile normal returned.Our story begins with Elian Reeds, a teenage student born in this new world—without a Talent.A Defect, they called him. Useless. Broken.That is, until he meets her.A fallen villainess whose name still strikes fear and reverence alike:Bianca Valestra—divine in beauty, and colder than death.This is the tale of their meeting.The chronicle of their journey.And the legacy of their triumph.

“First were the Gates, and now you’re saying the world has been invaded by Aliens and we’re soon going to be turned into livestock…? Great…”—----------------*Ding!*[You have awakened with the Idle Evolution System!]“The wha—”Suddenly thrown into a magical parallel world of the Earth he once knew, Cassius was greeted with powerful beings known as Hunters and the terrifying Gates that plagued the world. Moreover, he received a message…[To Idle, one must stay proactive!][Firstly, you require Character Development!]“Character Development…?”[You seem a bit (A lot) overweight, and you resemble that of a goblin! What say we start there!?]{[Daily Quest 1:]}_________________[Daily Quest - To Idle, one must stay proactive.]GOAL[INCOMPLETE] PUSH-UPS — [0/100][INCOMPLETE] SIT-UPS — [0/100][INCOMPLETE] CURL-UPS — [0/100][INCOMPLETE] SQUATS — [0/100][INCOMPLETE] RUNNING — [0/10km]REWARD - [1 Point in Charisma, 1 Point in Agility, 1 Point in Strength, and 1 Point in Endurance]_________________“Is this torture!?” shouted the ugly, obese transmigrator Cassius.*Ding!*[No, it’s Character Development! ^-^]—----------------100 years ago, Earth was suddenly overwhelmed with the appearance of Gates and the horrifying monsters within those mystical portals. That was the First Major Calamity.Now, one hundred years later, the next major calamity has arrived—the subtle invasion of an Ancient Alien species from deep into the Milky Way Galaxy. Its undercurrents spread far and wide, with the threat an apocalyptic one. Yet, that is but the 2nd of Three Major Calamities as per prophesied by the famed prophet, Baba Yaga.The Third Calamity, and the most dangerous of the Calamities, is one that will bring about the true END of the world, but only if the Second Calamity can be overcome by humanity…What does this Third Calamity detail, one might ask…? To know the answer to that, one would have to brave past the first Two Calamities and stare into the abyss, praying to all Gods known to man that the Abyss does not stare back also into you…

The Nightmare BeginsDr. Emma Taylor, a renowned psychologist, had always been fascinated by the human mind's darkest corners. Her latest patient, a young woman named Sarah, suffered from terrifying nightmares that seemed all too real.