The World After the Fall Volumes 5 and 6 Review
Jaehwan’s tournament is coming to an end. Anyone can fight him and claim the title of the new leader of Gorgon Fortress, but if they lose, they will need to join the new Abyss Expedition that Jaehwan is planning.
People and clan leaders from all of Chaos come forward to fight him and usurp his place as the leader of the expedition, but Jaehwan shows them who they are messing with. As the only person to come to Chaos by defeating a Dream Demon and its Nightmare Tower, Jaehwan has skills and a vision of the world that make him different than an adapted person—he doubted the world and his newfound view allowed him to overcome the limit imposed on him by the world itself. He’s one of the awoken.
This brings him a step closer to his goal of reaching the original Tower of Nightmare sitting at the top of the Tree of Illusion. But the first step in his plan is to unite Chaos and stop the masters from other realms of the Tree of Illusion coming to the trunk of the tree and mess with it and its inhabitants. To do so, Jaehwa creates a new Nightmare Tower where the clan leaders and the rest of the population can train and decide if they want to go through an awakening to become awoken ones. Jaehwan’s multiple fights, and especially his last one against a horde of fiends—corrupted souls—gave hope to many people who now want to stand by his side.
Once his plan is in motion, Jaehwan together with Doctor Cheongheo start moving toward the Recovery Palace to defeat its guardian, the Golden Sky Sect. Once they get rid of the sect, steal the fruits that allow a soul to live again and destroy the Narrow Gate, which allows masters higher up in the tree to come to Chaos without dying, Jaehwan can stop the masters’ influence and free Chaos once and for all.
However, their journey is stopped by Sirwen, a Dream Demon, who seems to be on the masters’ side and has an interest in Jaehwan. Sirwen, though, hasn’t accounted for Jaehwan’s strong will to reach the top and to doubt everything in the world, making the powers and skills given by the system (the world) to her, pretty weak compared to his.
Like the previous volumes, these two are also packed with action and stabbing (Jaehwan’s favourite attack). The higher-ups, aka the masters, don’t like how he’s changing Chaos and want to put a stop to it. Too bad they don’t give him too much credit in his goal and in his skills. He keeps proving his strength over and over again as he keeps facing stronger people in each of his fights.
In Volume 5, the readers get introduced to a new possible enemy and to the dangers of awakening. Rupture is an organisation that helps the people of Chaos go through an awakening, or so they think. The method they use only brings madness, so whoever awakens with them ends up taking their own lives. And Doctor Cheongheo seems to have been involved with them and in the creation of the organisation. It’s not clear what will happen between Rupture and Jaehwan, but it seems plausible that a fight is not too far off as it seems the organisation also has their sight on bringing the Doctor back within their ranks.
The characters’ growth so far has been only physical and in regard to their skills. Jaehwan only moves forward toward his goal, and he pushes the people of Chaos to do so as well, but with their own strengths. Of course, this means a lot of physical training. While the series isn’t gory, the illustrations don’t shy away from showing battles and training wounds.
While the first few volumes were quite confusing in terms of the setting and organisation of the world Jaehwan finds himself in, Volumes 5 and 6 don’t drop too many bombshells on their readers. They don’t explain about the sovereigns and monarchs or what their plans are or give further clarifications about the set-up of Chaos and the higher levels of the Tree of Illusion, but by now we have a simple understanding of the hierarchy.
Between Volumes 5 and 6 there is also an aesthetic difference with their cover art. It seems the publishers decided to change the cover stock, and although you can’t see it much unless you pay close attention, you can certainly feel it.
The World after the Fall is written by singNsong, illustrated by Undead Gamja and adapted by S-Cynan. Volume 7 is releasing in August 2024 as a print volume in the English language for Ize Press, but digital chapters of the series are available on Webtoon.
Our review copies from Ize Press were supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
