Chapter 268 - A Fissure In Rovero
As the two forces of creation and nothingness collided, the mana began to grow volatile as it rose in tides and waves. A vacuum was created at the point of collision that made the mana condense around them until it threatened to explode.
Mana explosions usually happen when space can't handle the mana that is condensed inside it. Like a balloon that bursts, the mana that results from this will decimate everything in its path.
"Lilo, take Rae and flee!" Arthur shouted as his arms were lacerated by the waves of mana. This destructive energy was nothing that he had seen before, violent and keen on destruction.
"I'm not leaving." Rae's scarf surrounded her body as it began morphing into armor. Arthur turned to face her with gritted teeth and she met his eyes.
"This is not something you can handle! Your ability is useless against it!" He yelled at her. Rae looked at him with confusion that Arthur couldn't understand.
"Your eyes, what's wrong with them?" Rae asked, making Arthur realize that the change in mana was starting to affect his disguise artifact.
"Trust me and go with Lilo, now." Arthur realized he couldn't allow her to stay here. Rae looked at him silently before shaking her head.
"I'm fighting." She said, stubborn. "You have no obligation to protect me."
'I'm trying to protect the last bit of my disguise.' Arthur wanted to shout but he simply took out his wrist protector. It shone green as Arthur equipped it.
Without pause, his mana rushed toward the wrist protector. Blinding light covered the surrounding as a green ancient armor with stirps of golden appeared around his body. His body was covered from head to toe as Arthur only left two holes to see through.
This way, Rae wouldn't see his real appearance. She wore her armor as well. Lilo gave a defiant cry as it turned ethereal as it flew upward, charging a mana blast.
The creature was still standing there silently, but Arthur's heart was getting more dreadful by the second. He could feel existence weakening in the surrounding. Whatever was to come was nothing good for them.
Even now, he was still doing his all to stop the rambling destructive energy from crushing them. His chest burned as his muscles contracted under the devastating pressure.
'What is this shit? Is this the result of the experiments they did all this time? The missing students and the orphanage?'
If it was, stopping the Enders will be harder than he had imagined. This power was above what he could handle at the moment. That's why Arthur clapped his hands and sent a wave of creation mana to crush the destructive wave.
"Surround it! We need to stop it!" Arthur shouted as the three of them ran in different directions. Lilo dived from above it as Rae and Arthur circled it, attacking simultaneously from both sides.
Luckily, the creature turned to face Arthur rather than any of the other two. Even though it could kill the other two easily, Arthur was the most threatening and it couldn't ignore him.
It raised both hands as the black matter pooled into them. It began to stretch until it was a shield in front of it. Even as it did so, the surrounding existence was still declining.
'At this rate, a fissure is going to appear here.' Arthur realized as he struck with everything he had. 'Wait, this is a separate space. A fissure would mean...'
His fist collided with the darkness and broke through it as the mana blast and Rae's attack followed. The attacks rained on the figure but they couldn't reach him. Space began expanding around it as the attacks disappeared.
'The fissure is happening!' Arthur tried to hold on but the power of the expanding space pushed him off his feet as he flew away. Everything began expanding as a wave of mana exploded blinding the area.
Arthur felt like his body was going to tear apart and used his mana to protect himself. His body started traveling through a tunnel-like space at unprecedented speed as the scenery began to change around him.
'This is...' Arthur realized in horror as he glimpsed the tower in the distance. 'Is the trial of the holy crown!' His heart shook as he saw the monsters run away and space gets displaced. Like a painting that got smudged, the scenery began to change in the trial of the holy crown as a new land appeared.
Arthur looked below and saw the expanding area of the mountain range appear in the trial of the holy crown. A black giant figure of a wolf appeared in front of him with scars over his body.
"Kira!" Arthur stretched his hand in a futile effort but the scenery kept changing. Kira got further away from him as Arthur tried to grasp but there was nothing to grab.
He understood everything now. The reason that the mountain range was in the trial of the holy crown was because of the fissure. It had displaced the space as the two worlds merged, sending the mountain range toward the trial of the holy crown.
Arthur's eyes teared up as he thought of the suffering Kira would spend in the trial. His body kept falling until space began to stabilize. He opened his eyes as he began to fall from the sky.
The scene in front of him was one of hell. A giant portion of the mountain range has disappeared, replaced by the wasteland of bones. Joe's pub was gone and everything that resembled a mountain range.
The bony castle appeared in the real as Arthur fell downward. He looked around and spotted the purple figure in the distance. Rae was riding Lilo as the two raced toward him.
Arthur stretched his arm and Rae met him midair and pulled him towards Lilo's back.
"Are you injured?!" Rae asked with worry but Arthur simply shook his head. "What happened just now?" Rae looked at the mountain range with fear.
"A fissure has taken over the land," Arthur answered as he looked at the bony castle. "It's still there, that creature." He could feel its existence.
From the hole that Lilo has created in the castle came out the masked figure. It looked around and spotted Arthur. It stared at it calmly before disappeared into thin air and disappearing.
"Did it teleport away?" Rae asked.
'No, it slipped into the nothingness. What the hell is this? What is this?' He racked his brain for an answer but he couldn't understand this creature.
Suddenly, a siren came from the direction of the city. Both of them snapped their heads toward it as Arthur's guts flooded with fear. Lilo sensed his emotions and flapped its wings toward the city.
Rae turned to him but Arthur has already used his teleport rune. He used it more than once until he was standing on the top of a building at the center of the city. What he saw made Arthur freeze.
"All citizens must evacuate. A Dungeon Break of Avarice has occurred. All citizens need to head to shelters and the Temple."
The broadcast ran through the city as destruction engulfed it from every direction. Monsters rampaged and destroyed everything in their paths. Citizens lied dead on the ground as kids roamed the streets crying.
Arthur's heart was seized with terror when he saw that the neighborhood Master Ronin and his family lived in was destroyed. He used his teleport rune and ran toward the direction of the mansion.
When he got there, he found houses demolished to the ground. He ran toward the mansion but stopped when he saw a hand lying underneath a fallen wall.
It was a small hand, bloodied and misshapen. Arthur removed the wall through telekinesis and found the kid that he met a few days ago dead beneath it.
With pain tearing through his heart, Arthur turned toward the mansion and used his detect rune. It was empty. He looked around and saw that the neighborhood has been cleared.
'Where are they?' Arthur's heart could rest easy until he found them. He took out his artifact and contacted them. As soon as he heard their voice, he sighed in relief.
'Hello?' Oren's voice came. 'Arthur, is it you? Where are you?'
'I'm by the mansion, I'm alright. Where are you? Is our mom okay?' Arthur realized that the relief brought to him made him tired.
'We're fine, Master Ronin came over to us suddenly and said we should go to a shelter. The Break happened at that moment.' Oren answered and Arthur realized he must have seen a prophecy.
'There's a kid over here, he's dead...' Arthur reported. 'I think it's the neighbors...'
'Oh god, oh god. They were looking for him.' Oren's voice broke. Arthur shook the thoughts away.
'Stay in the shelter. Take care of mom.' Arthur said before he bid farewell. He needed to find that creature before any more causalities occur.
At that moment, Arthur felt a movement behind him. He looked back and saw that the kid was standing up. He has turned into an undead.