The World After the Fall Volume 2 Review

In Volume 1, Jaehwan left the Tower of Nightmare after finding out that the tower he was in was a replica of the real tower standing atop the Tree of Illusion. As a replica, it sits at the roots of the trees, and Jaehwan doesn’t have any intention on starting all over again after completing it, as suggested by the Dream Demon that manages the tower. He’s going to smash his way through the tree until he reaches the top. However, after the roots comes the trunk, and that’s where Jaehwan finds himself after exiting the tower.

He meets Mino, the witch of destruction, who shows him around Chaos: the trunk of the tree where the dead live. The people living there might look human to each other, but Jaehwan can see the truth. When he was still in the tower, he doubted everything, from the tower to the monsters inhabiting it, giving him the power to see the true fabric of the world and to break the limits that the world put on him. Jaehwan can’t reveal his true goal to the people he meets, but maybe interacting with him will allow them to see the truth of the world as well.

Mino doesn’t really know what to do with Jaehwan. He’s something that she has never seen before, and it seems like his spirit power cannot be corrupted. Inhabitants of Chaos as dead souls can get their spirit corrupted just by living there, so they need to constantly take medicine unless they want to turn into fiends, aka monsters. Jaehwan, a living human, doesn’t have that issue, but it’s a secret that he keeps to himself for the moment; after all he recognises them for what they are: skeletons.

I felt that this volume was quite confusing, especially at the beginning with everything that was mentioned but not explained properly. There are fortresses in Chaos, and there are also sects, of what I don’t know yet, but they definitely are not that friendly with one another. Mino also belongs to a sect, but it’s too early to say if she’ll become Jaehwan’s comrade or an enemy. We are also introduced to Captain Carlton Xavier, who makes sure that the inhabitants of the fortress he’s in obey the law. It seems that Jaehwan would have liked for him to be his comrade but as with Mino, it’s too early to say.

Another aspect that isn’t properly explained, is about the power levels. People in Chaos have different power levels by how much they are adapted. What that means exactly, I’m sure we’re going to find out in future volumes but so far the more adapted you are, the more powerful you become. Compared to Volume 1, this volume is made up of shorter fighting scenes, and Jaehwan encounters multiple adversaries, who are not up to his level, so the fights are pretty quick to end. The volume is fast-paced and quite violent, however, as the creatures he fights are monsters and dead humans, there is not much blood going around. It’s quite different compared to the same author’s series Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint which is quite explicit in its depiction of violence. However, the monsters are quite ugly and they get the brunt of Jaehwan’s attacks.

The World After the Fall is written by singNsong, illustrated by Undead Gamja and adapted by S-Cyan. It’s released as a digital comic on Webtoon, and it’s published in the English language as a print volume by Ize Press.

Our review copy from Ize Press was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.