Title: The World After the Fall Vol. 9
Author: singNsong (Original Story), S-Cynan (Adaption), Undead Gamja
Publisher: Ize Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
Genre: Fantasy, Action
Publication Date: February 18, 2025
The Story
Samyeong has made it to the factor and demanded the managers to open the gate; however, with Jaewhon inside having his conversation with the Sovereign, they can’t allow that to happen, so Samyeong gets impatient and attacks. While they do their best to hold him off, he is far too powerful. Jaewhon returns looking a bit scarred. He begins to fight Samyeong one on one; however, he quickly learns that he is outmatched. He grabs a red crystal and bites it, stating he is going to use his trump card.
Catastrophe, the Sovereign Gatekeeper of The Abyss inhabits Jaewhon’s body, bringing Samyeong to his knees. Once the matter is settled, Jaewhon leaves for The Abyss. When he does, Mino awakens and we get an update on what happened to Chaos in the wake of Jaewhon’s efforts. We learn what becomes of the factory, the tower Jaewhon built, and how the other realms did once news spread of the events that took place.
Once we get through the update, we are joined by two new characters in The Abyss: Lunard and his god, Anderson. They seem to be heading on a fishing trip of sorts after Anderson received information on a good fishing spot from one of the greater gods, a fortune teller named Minerva. Of course, they were swindled out of their money; however, wanting to get the most out of their sad situation, they keep hunting until they find a lake at the bottom of a waterfall. They start fishing but after twenty-four hours, they are about to give up when they catch something… something from Chaos.
Of course, it’s Jaewhon and in the process of surfacing, he accidentally eats Anderson! When she’s inside of him, Jaewhon gains a rather… interesting… power. As we learn about The Abyss and the pecking order of the gods that reside there along with the different regions (sites), Jaewhon comes across someone he recognizes!
Characters
Hun Samyeong continued to be your typical trope character where he is incredibly powerful but that power has made him overconfident and quite full of himself; however, his defeat wasn’t something that I had expected. Instead, it was interesting to see him humbled and groveling for his life when Jaewhon became possessed by Catastrophe. It just goes to show how powerful and feared Catastophe is!
Jaewhon went through some interesting developments in this volume. First, his new power of being able to summon Catastophe is insane; however, with great power comes a series of checks and balances. He can only summon him three times… which means he already used one of those three against Samyeong and when Catastrophe tells him he will need him for “Big Brother,” he truly only has one summon left. The other downfall is that when the summon is over, Jaewhon undergoes the process of becoming a fiend!
The other part of his development came after the battle with Samyeong when everyone traveling with him learned that he is a living soul unlike them. They begin to question him about the fruit, why he was lying, and more. Their loyalty to him disappeared in an instant until he used his new weapon to sever his tether and his connection to his life. That sacrifice made everyone bend the knee out of respect, but it also showed just how determined he is to change everything.
Finally, we have our new characters Lunard and Anderson. Anderson is a god that we can’t really see. She exists as a voice; however, she realizes that without believers, she will cease to exist, which is why they are going “Fishing.” She needs to find new believers to continue living. Despite this, she’s not the smartest as she got easily fooled by Minerva and swindled out of all of their money in exchange for a fortune reading. Also, for being a God, she’s not fearsome or controlling. They and Lunard have a very open and playful relationship. They act more like siblings than gods and believers.
Lunard tries to be the voice of reason, but he’s more worrisome about everything. He is strong and while he can use Anderson’s unique power, he’s not all that brave… at least his inner monologues suggest he is more scared than anything else. Still, he will follow Anderson anywhere because, sadly, she’s all he has. He’s got that lost puppy syndrome going for him but it makes it a pretty endearing character.
Final Thoughts
The Abyss arc didn’t start the way I had envisioned it; however, it was nice in terms of world-building. We got to understand how The Abyss is structured, who lords over what, the ranking system, and the differences between Abyss and Chaos. We don’t exactly know who Big Brother truly is yet, but I’m sure that if Catastrophe is a major god charged with protecting the gate to The Abyss, then Big Brother must be his counterpart… someone on equal terms… or perhaps more powerful, hence the Big in Big Brother. I guess that is something we will have to see when we get to it.
To see Samyeong cower after his massive bravado in the previous volume and here was satisfying. I was kind of right about what his ego would get him but I was also off the mark about it, too. Still, watching him get humbled (and even turned on by those he brought with him) was one of those feel-good moments!
I didn’t expect to see Mino again after everything that happened but she did serve as a good narrator to give us an epilogue on the Chaos arc of the series. Whether or not we will return to Chaos and see what it has become remains to be seen.
Overall, this was a pretty good volume that served as a transition from the Chaos arc into the Abyss arc. Now, we have a whole new realm to explore… kind of like walking into a new zone in an RPG after leveling up. Looking forward to meeting some more new characters and discovering who it was that Jaewhon saw on the final page!
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