Before Ronan picked up any of the red crystals placed on his bed, his mind wandered back to what he had read about the world of Acrolius. How the apocalypse had begun, what were Athar Rocks, the abominations and the crystals.

One hundred and fifty years earlier, Acrolius had been a planet remarkably similar to current day Earth. It had a comparable and similar level of scientific advancement and technological development. Acrolius had buses, railways and airports. It had the internet and Wi-Fi.

The people of Acrolius drove cars and rode motorbikes powered by oil. They explored outer space and studied human genetics. They lived just like the people of the current earth. At least the basic framework remained the same.

Despite these similarities, Acrolius was vastly different from Earth in one specific aspect. Its geography. Unlike Earth, it did not have multiple continents and oceans.

Acrolius featured only a single, massive continent called Acrolium, surrounded by a single, massive ocean called Ocrolium. But the planet or the continent was by no means small in size.

As of right now, Ronan did not have an exact estimate of the continent’s size, but from what he had been able to understand, that single landmass was many times larger than all the landmasses of Earth put together. Similarly, the planet Acrolius itself was a few times larger than Earth.

Apart from the massive landmass of Acrolium, there were also various islands scattered across Acrolius, though most of them remained completely uninhabited.

But all of that changed on one fateful day. Out of nowhere, hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of colossal rocks descended upon the world of Acrolius. These were later known as Athar Rocks.

Some believed they were the remnants of an extremely large asteroid from outer space that had shattered into pieces probably because of friction after entering Acrolius’ atmosphere. Others believed it was the deliberate handiwork of the wealthy and powerful global elites. Some believed that it was a government experiment gone wrong. There were a few more conspiracy theories regarding the sudden arrival of these strange rocks, but no one knew the definitive truth. At least, that was what the book Ronan had been reading claimed. Though the book supported and agreed with the first theory, about Athar Rocks being asteroids, the most.

What everyone did know for certain, however, was the absolute destruction the Athar Rocks brought in their wake. Entire cities and settlements were completely wiped out wherever the largest fragments of these rocks impacted. But this was just the beginning of the ravaging and chaos the rocks unleashed.

The Athar Rocks carried with them a special, unique kind of energy within them. The inhabitants named this energy ’Athar.’ The sudden, violent outburst of Athar radiation across the globe was what ultimately triggered the apocalypse. Athar in its pure form was extremely harmful to any kind of life. Be it humans, insects, animals, plants, trees, and any other kind of vegetation. Humans and animals died in millions. A large percentage of the population was wiped out. Every shade of greenery was also completely wiped off.

But even this was not the end. A massive portion of the surviving population, be it humans or animals, was instantly mutated into abominations.

Those who managed to escape that horrific fate were forced inside heavily walled cities, entering a state of perpetual warfare with the abomination hordes just to ensure their survival.

Then came the crystals. Just like all the fantasy stories Ronan had read, these crystals were derived directly from the abominations. It was mostly located in the chest of the abomination.

The crystals served as the source of power for these monsters. These crystals contained Athar within themselves in its crystallized form. Though the Athar in its pure form was harmful and fatal to living beings, its crystalline form was not. Remarkably, it was the only form of Athar that could be safely utilized by them for a lot of things.

The current world of Acrolius was heavily dependent on these crystals. Beyond acting as the standard currency for day-to-day life, they powered the motorbikes and the massive trucks Ronan had seen in the city of Kovliar. They were also the primary source of electricity. The power plants of the current age extracted all their energy directly from the crystals. Everything in this society depended on them.

These crystals were divided into four distinct categories.

The first category consisted of Blue crystals. Ronan had already seen them and came into contact with blue crystals. These were collected from the specific types of abominations, the blue abominations.

The blue abominations were the smallest and weakest of all the monsters. It included the humanoid abomination Ronan had seen outside the walls of Kovliar. They were humanoid in shape, size, and appearance, exhibiting only minor mutations to one or two of their body parts. They also included the smaller mutated animal abominations like dogs, cats or even rats for that matter. Ronan had not encountered any animal blue abomination or any animal abomination for that matter.

Next came the Red Crystals, collected from red abominations. These abominations were typically larger animals, such as mutated tigers, elephants, and wolves. A few humanoid abominations also fell in this category. They were formed when a high level of mutation had occurred in humans. They were generally around ten feet in height with proportional width and weight.

The energy stored inside a single red crystal was ten times that of a blue crystal, and its market value scaled accordingly.

Then came the purple crystals, harvested from purple abominations.

Purple abominations were the result of extreme mutations in a living creature, whether human or animal. Most of these monsters were colossal in size, with the humanoid variants growing as tall as twenty to thirty feet and exceptionally massive. The mutated animals were equally gargantuan.

The energy packed within a single purple crystal was ten times that of a red crystal and a hundred times that of a blue crystal, and its price reflected that immense power.

Finally, there were the black crystals, the most unique of all. They were incredibly rare and followed no fixed rules for their occurrence. They could form inside any of the three types, blue, red, or purple abominations.

From what Ronan had read so far, he deduced that humanity had no definitive answer for this phenomenon. They had no idea what specific conditions or requirements led to the formation of a black crystal inside a blue, red, or purple abomination.

The energy contained within a single black crystal was ten times that of a purple crystal, and its market price reflected that immense power.

With all these thoughts flashing through his mind, Ronan picked up one of the red crystals. There was a clear hesitation in his movements and a flicker of conflict on his face. He knew that what he was about to do was incredibly dangerous and risky, but the sensation he had experienced earlier when he absorbed the blue crystals was constantly hammering away at his thoughts. The subtle increase in strength currently coursing through his veins was pushing him to take that ultimate risk.

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