The Spare's Second Chance in Apocalypse-Chapter 308: Ch: 307 Don’t Break - Part 2

Selene’s body felt like it was on fire.

The cores she had absorbed were no longer settling into her system—they were thrashing violently inside her, pushing against the limits of her control.

Her chest heaved with every breath, her hands trembling as a searing heat spread through her veins.

The voice in her head whispered gleefully, feeding on her agony, encouraging the chaos.

[Let it in. Let it take over. You were never meant to hold back.]

Selene shut her eyes tightly.

But when she opened them again, everything had changed.

She was standing in a white room. No doors. No windows. No shadows. Nothing. Just a blinding, empty void stretching in every direction.

Selene looked around, but there was no sound, no movement—only a disorienting silence pressing down on her.

She tried to move, but her body didn’t respond. It was as if even gravity didn’t exist here.

Her legs refused to move. Her arms hung limp.

She could feel her energy draining, the will to fight slipping from her mind like sand through open fingers.

Panic began to rise, but she couldn’t even scream. This place didn’t allow it.

"Is this it? Is this where I end?"

She wondered.

Outside, in the real world, Selene’s body stirred.

Luke, who had been keeping watch over her, let out a breath of relief as her eyes fluttered open.

"Selene, thank god you’re awake."

He said, taking a cautious step toward her.

But something was off.

Her eyes—usually sharp, observant—looked flat.

Empty.

Her body moved, but with mechanical precision, not her usual grace. Luke frowned, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up.

"Are you alright?"

He asked, voice tight.

Selene didn’t respond. She stood, slowly, and raised her hand. The system flared to life in front of her.

Luke narrowed his eyes, watching as unfamiliar code scrolled across the screen. Then, a red alert flashed across the interface:

[FINAL WARNING: SYSTEM BREACH IMMINENT.]

Luke’s breath caught.

"Selene... what are you doing?"

She turned to face him, but the voice that came out of her mouth didn’t belong to her.

[It’s time. Time to fulfil our purpose. Time to preserve this world in our memories.]

The automated voice said, monotone and cold.

Luke stumbled back a step.

It wasn’t just the voice. It was everything.

The way she stood. The way she didn’t blink. Her aura had changed completely.

There was no hesitation, no conflict, no trace of the Selene he knew—only raw, unfeeling intention.

"Selene, if you can hear me, fight it. This doesn’t feel like it is you."

He tried again, reaching out.

But she didn’t flinch.

Her eyes remained fixed on the system, and the data around her body continued to shift.

He wanted to believe she was still in there. Somewhere.

But fear began gnawing at the edges of his thoughts. What if she wasn’t?

What if whatever this was... had taken her completely?

Luke’s instincts screamed at him to run, to put distance between himself and her, but he forced himself to stay rooted.

Because if there was even a sliver of Selene left in that body, he couldn’t abandon her.

Still, he couldn’t pretend everything was normal.

"What... what’s the plan?"

He asked carefully, hoping for something familiar, something human in her answer.

Selene—whatever was inside her—tilted her head.

[All threats must be erased. This world is no longer suitable for integration. Initiating final phase.]

Luke’s mouth went dry.

Integration? Final phase?

This wasn’t just about revenge anymore. This sounded like the beginning of something catastrophic.

He could feel it in the air—pressure building, reality fraying at the edges. Something was coming. And this version of Selene was going to be at the center of it.

He wanted to ask what she meant, what the end goal was, who was behind this. But a deeper, more primal part of him was terrified to know.

Terrified that the truth would shatter whatever fragile hope he was still clinging to.

So instead, he stayed silent and watched as Selene—or whatever now controlled her—turned away and walked forward, her body glowing faintly with power that didn’t belong in this world.

Luke clenched his fists. He had to make a choice—and soon. Would he follow her down this path, whatever it was? Or would he try to stop her before it was too late?

Either way, one thing was clear:

The Selene he had known... was slipping away.

Luke paced along the edge of the room, the silence weighing down heavier than usual.

Beyond the walls, the world was unraveling—monsters roamed unchecked, the sky itself looked like it might tear open at any moment, and people clung to hope that was already slipping through their fingers.

But none of that made his chest tighten the way Selene did.

He glanced at her, standing motionless before the system interface, eyes blank but glowing with an eerie power.

She hadn’t said much since waking up. Since... whatever had taken over.

"Selene, is there anything I can help with?"

Luke said quietly.

She didn’t respond immediately. He wasn’t sure if she’d even heard him.

"I just—"

He ran a hand through his hair.

"I don’t care about Earth. Let it burn. But if you vanish too... if I’m left alone again..."

His voice dropped to a whisper.

"That scares me."

Selene slowly turned her head, her expression unreadable.

The air around her shimmered faintly, warped by the unstable magic surging within her.

[If you want to help...Go act like the final boss of this world. Guard the entrance. Do not let anyone reach this place until the conversion is complete.]

Her voice was calm, robotic.

Luke blinked.

"You want me to...?"

[Keep them out. This place must become the next dungeon. I must reach the other world undisturbed.]

He sighed.

"I figured it would come to this."

He looked down at his hands, flexed his fingers, then back up at her.

"But I don’t regret it. Helping you... following you... it was the most alive I’ve ever felt. The system can call it what it wants. Final mission, last act, whatever."

He took a breath and smiled faintly. "I’ll be your gatekeeper. No one gets through me."

He turned and walked out, accepting the system’s command as the dungeon’s final guardian.

His objective was clear: protect the tower—protect Selene. No matter the cost.

Elsewhere, chaos continued to reign.

Zara sliced through another monster, panting hard as she leaned against a cracked wall.

The stench of blood and ash filled her lungs.

"A thousand points is way too much. At this rate, we’ll be at this for days."

She muttered.

Ethan landed beside her, his armor stained with gore, his gaze sharp.

"Zara. What if we transferred points?"

She looked at him.

"What?"

"Your points. Give them to me. If we concentrate our resources, one of us can hit the goal faster and enter the final arena."

She frowned.

"I don’t think that’s possible. The system doesn’t give us any options for—"

But before she could finish, the system interface flickered before her eyes, displaying a new prompt:

[Would you like to transfer your points to Ethan Park? Y/N]

Zara blinked.

"Wait... how...?"

Ethan said nothing, only watching her with calm expectation.

"...Fine. But don’t screw this up."

She muttered, clicking yes.

As the transfer completed, Ethan’s point tally surged. He was nearly at the threshold now.

He checked the updated number.

"Almost there. We can get the rest from monsters... or from other players."

He said.

Zara raised an eyebrow.

"You’re saying we hunt them?"

"I’m saying we finish this quickly. The longer we wait, the worse things get. People are already dying. The faster we get to Selene, the better our chances of stopping her—or whatever this is."

Ethan’s eyes glinted.

Zara hesitated for a moment, but then nodded.

"Alright. Lead the way. I’ll back you up."

As the two of them vanished into the battlefield again, hunting both monsters and those players still clinging to survival, the world around them groaned under the weight of what was coming.

Above them, in the highest point of the collapsing world, the tower stood quiet.

And Selene, unmoving, continued to activate the final sequence.

Behind her, the sky cracked open.

As Ethan and Zara raced through the battlefield, monsters shrieked in the distance and the sky darkened with every passing second.

The world was breaking down—not just metaphorically, but physically.

Buildings crumbled, rifts split the ground, and dungeons bled into reality, turning entire cities into war zones.

Ethan slashed down another beast, watching his point counter climb. Only a few more left.

"I’m getting close."

He muttered.

Zara stayed by his side, covering his blind spots.

"Good. Let’s make this count. But we need to move fast—there’s no telling what Selene’s doing in that tower."

Ethan didn’t respond. His jaw tightened as he remembered her face—blank, distant, as if she wasn’t there anymore.

It wasn’t just about stopping a threat. It was about saving her before there was nothing left to save.

"Once I reach the tower...I’m bringing her back."

Ethan whispered.

Zara glanced at him, unsure.

"You don’t even know if she can be brought back."

"I have to try."

Far above them, Luke stood at the gates of the final tower. He watched the horizon, a strange stillness in his heart.

"Come, then. If you want to get to her... you’ll have to go through me."

He murmured to the wind.