Chapter 93

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Chapter 93: Fall

Ragehorn Simon ripped through the space, then the chaotic flow of space tore through Simon, like a madman breaking through an airplane swept into the sky. The gaping hole left by the creator visibly shrank by half, the effect of the Abyssal Gaze, as the powerful body slightly filled the collapsed gap.

Yet the torn void remained hungry.

The synchronized target was obliterated, Tasha’s anger in her mind quickly cooled, and she could feel Abyssal Will disinterestedly withdrawing, showing no mercy. The departure of Abyssal Gaze was as swift as its arrival, leaving only aftereffects that slightly benefited her, such as the reinforced dragon wings that propelled Tasha forward like a rocket backpack.

She caught the still floating Book of Dungeons in her mouth and headed towards the core and the direction of the Magic Pool droplets. The blue magic droplets rapidly merged into her body, shaping a pair of new arms – a speedy but not durable temporary solution, enough for the moment. Tasha held onto Victor with one hand and pushed the Dungeon Core with the other, flapping her wings rapidly like a space astronaut, desperately heading towards the entrance.

The torn gap was shaking, the space trembling dangerously, with no one knowing if it would stabilize or completely collapse in the next second.

As they neared the entrance, a dim dungeon could be seen through it. Compared to the eerie atmosphere in the hallway, the dimly lit dungeon felt like a warm home. But just a few steps away from the entrance, Tasha felt something was off.

"Wait, don’t go!" Victor managed to speak, "You can’t pass through the hallway when the space is unstable, each entrance is chaotic at this time!"

Tasha quickly turned with what was in her hand, making her body that was rushing in the original direction abruptly climb upwards.

When the Angry Demon Lord tore open the crack, many things in the dungeon were sucked in. Tasha, Victor, Dungeon Core, Magic Pool droplets, gnomes, debris… and so on. Besides the important items Tasha held onto, various miscellaneous items floated in the space, like suspended space junk. She stopped at this moment, but many drifted items did not stop. A gnome floated unsteadily towards the entrance, failing to successfully pass through it.

The earth and stone body shattered the moment it touched the entrance, as if going through a meat grinder.

When the space became unstable, each passage was filled with chaos and nothing could pass through. Aryan was so close yet so far, like a desert traveler seeing an oasis but it was just a mirage.

Tasha looked back, and the collapse behind her did not spread. The gap that crushed the Angry Demon looked like a dying star, slowly collapsing.

"Do we just have to wait now?" she asked.

"Basically, once this wave of shaking passes, everything will be okay…" Victor said vaguely.

Tasha turned back, staring at the blinking eyes of the Book of Dungeons, repeating, "Basically?"

"Do you really want to hear?" Victor sighed.

"What can we do after hearing it?" Tasha asked.

"Nothing." Victor replied honestly, "Maybe just be mentally prepared?"

"Then don’t tell me for now," Tasha answered.

If bad things could be avoided by covering ears and not listening to bad news, the world would definitely be a much better place.

The tunnel was blasted with a big hole, with soil from above falling continuously to fill the gap, restoring stability to the passage— if this space were likened to a tunnel, what was happening now was just like that. Cracks were shaking, the surrounding space was distorting and contracting, the huge gap created by the Angry Demon was gradually closing. However, at the same time, another gap was also closing.

That entrance leading to Aryan.

The space repaired itself, treating all pathways as unstable sources. The space turbulence twisted all pathways, making the whole gap look like a squeezed honeycomb structure, with each hole getting squeezed and shrinking.

Basically, once this wave of shaking passes, the remaining pathways will stabilize.

The condition is that the pathway you want is still there at that time.

The space repaired itself quickly, collapsing rapidly towards stability, and the turbulence temporarily disappeared a lot. Tasha and Victor fell silent, looking at where the entrance used to be.

Unfortunately, there was nothing there anymore.

The mirage disappeared, and the hope vanished. Looking around, the whole space no longer had an entrance or exit, with even the flickering lights missing.

"We have such bad luck, haha," Victor said, laughing more awkwardly than crying.

Tasha looked around, seeing emptiness except for "space junk." In this strange space gap, only she and Victor were left.

"Are we trapped here?" Tasha asked.

Things are a bit troublesome, but there’s still hope. She brought the magic of the entire Magic Pool here, and as long as there’s magic, the dragon-winged body can survive without being in immediate danger. With the Dungeon Core and Magic Pool, the conditions are much better now than when first crossing over to Aryan.

"Ah, for now, yes," Victor said dryly, "but we won’t be trapped for long."

From the tone of that, it doesn’t sound like good news.

"As mentioned before, Simon had to push through a crevice to reappear, so the place we’re in right now is within that ‘crevice’," Victor explained. "The passage between the Abyss and the Primary Material Plane connected, causing the first crevice to form. This crevice only allows one soul through and exists for a very short time."

Tasha had already understood.

"’The crevice’ is temporary," Victor said bitterly, "and after the big demon that forced it open disappears…"

After the wedge that kept the crevice open vanishes, the crevice will close, and everything inside it will disappear.

The collapsed opening has been filled, but instead of the shaking subsiding, it’s getting stronger. The previous shaking was to stabilize the space, but now the crevice is about to close, and there’s no chance of safety amidst the collapse. It’s inevitable.

Tasha, floating in the air, swayed as chaotic air currents suddenly lifted her and then dropped her heavily. She finally understood how a bird feels in a storm high in the sky – the entire space seemed to be against her, no matter how she flapped her wings, she couldn’t fight this force of nature.

The light was all mixed up, flickering on and off, which could trigger seizures in people sensitive to light. Even the best pilots could be thrown off course, feeling like they were being tossed around in a washing machine. Tasha decided to stop flapping her wings and instead spread her huge dragon wings, holding onto the Dungeon Core, magic droplets, and Book of Dungeons close to her. Just before her wings closed together, she saw the border in the distance.

Not long ago, this place seemed endless, but now she could see the edge. Despite the chaotic light making it hard to judge distances, Tasha could see where the "space junk" disappeared. The debris floated evenly scattered in every corner, and beyond a certain distance, the space was quiet like water, with only darkness remaining. It felt as if Tasha was in a realm of water plants and fish, looking into the crystal clear still water not too far away, sending shivers down her spine.

That edge was slowly shrinking.

The turbulence tore at Tasha’s wings, as if a giant was ripping out bone spurs. The outer membrane of her wings felt a continuous stabbing pain, the part exposed to the external hurricane seemed to be peeled off layer by layer – probably already scarred. The dragon wings that had just battled the Angry Demon emitted a sour sound, sounding especially terrifying inside, as if a typhoon were hearing a wooden house creak.

Tasha grabbed onto her left wing, clenching her teeth tightly. Just now, her left wing had been torn off.

"…I don’t want to die," Victor muttered.

Obviously, no one wants to die. Tasha still had so much left to do, the foundations of the newly built castle still flat on the ground, so many things only she could do. It was absurd to think that she would die because of a collapse due to a small gap, having no chance to fight back and no meaning at all, it was simply ridiculous.

Tasha clicked her tongue anxiously, quickly thinking about what options she still had. Victor spoke up again at this moment.

"I have a way to tear open the gap, but it’s very dangerous, and who knows if it will lead to Aryan," Victor surprisingly sounded calm, "The space is very complicated, with a seventy percent chance of getting back, and a thirty percent chance of being thrown who knows where."

"It’s better than waiting to die," urged Tasha, "And a 70% chance is already very high."

"Indeed," Victor said to himself, "I really don’t want to die."

In the small space covered by Dragon Wings, the Book of Dungeons lit up.

Every blank page revealed countless intricate patterns, resembling the true nature of paper coming to life at this moment. The cover was wrapped in pitch-black scales, while the inner pages felt soft and cold like skin. Victor’s dwelling was not an ordinary book; it was made from a snake shed from a great demon, the skin of the Naga King was more translucent than calf parchment after being peeled, and the Legendary Wizard inscribed each spell with dragon blood ink. Even after hundreds of years in the fast-flowing magic of Aryan, some power still lingered.

They were illuminated at this moment, the dried-up words instantly fresh and vibrant, as if they had accumulated endless years.

Tasha suddenly understood.

Realizing the implications of Victor’s words, the anxiety brought by impending death turned into a chilling heaviness. An iceberg piled up in Tasha’s chest, slowly sinking, making it hard for her to breathe for a moment.

Tasha opened her mouth.

Say something, time is limited, thank you, goodbye? Certain familiar things weighted more heavily than imagined, the sudden parting caught her off guard. What do you want to hear? What can I say? Tasha wasted a few seconds but then made a decision.

"I will survive." For the first time in her life, she made this promise without absolute certainty, "I will be undefeated."

"Of course," Victor’s voice was filled with laughter, "Of course you will, my master."

The forbidden curse recorded in the Book of Dungeons, the final preparation left by Victor in the book, was activated at this moment.

The spell on the first page of the book emerged from the page, leaping out, with each spell connecting from beginning to end. The Book of Dungeons flipped quickly, with each turn bringing forth a large amount of runes transforming from flat text into leaping ribbons of light. Interweaving crimson and pitch black, it gave off an ominous yet incredibly gorgeous aura, reminiscent of the beautiful patterns on a venomous sea snake. Chains of light burst out, layering the space enclosed by dragon wings.

The unfolding magical array hummed, isolating the intensifying spatial turbulence around. The sharp, ear-piercing sounds of collapsing space drifted away, along with the unease of standing on ice. The buzzing, like a fluorescent lamp, was gentle as white noise, a force lifting everything within the ribbons from this space, strong like a rocket ascending, yet strangely comforting. Tasha’s wings tightly enveloped Victor and the Dungeon Core, while the runic light chains anchored them all, a scene that inexplicably reminded her of being a child, tucking toys under the blanket, only for her father to come in and lift her with the blanket and all.

Snap! The invisible barrier shattered.

The ribbons were soft on the inside like a cradle, but for the external space, they were like iron thorns, the power of the forbidden curse tearing open the closing seams. The doomsday of this rift arrived earlier, the space fractured, everything within it extinguished. Stepping on the remains of a sub-space’s destruction, they leaped out.

And so, Tasha saw the outside of the rift.

Victor wasn’t wrong, space was incredibly complex, and outside the rift didn’t necessarily lead to Aryan. This wasn’t Aryan, nor was it the Abyss.

Where is this?

Tasha’s mind was blank, protected by a beam of light, she widened her eyes, gazing at this vast expanse of sky that she had never heard or seen before.

Grand, majestic, vast, endless… all the words describing vastness and greatness are not enough to describe this place. No matter where you look, all living beings here are as tiny as dust. What is larger than "space"? What is larger than a "dimension"? "World"? However, each world is like a fruit hanging on the branches of a giant tree.

There is a tree, a towering giant tree with lush foliage.

Countless worlds hang from the branches of the giant tree, some are green and chaotic, some are ripe and complex. The changes are infinite and unpredictable because the observers are too small.

It is ridiculous to compare the giant tree and the fruit, but how can a mayfly describe the sky above? Aryan, which is completely different from the Earth, is just a fantasy world, and the chaotic Abyss with messed up rules can be understood, but here, Tasha cannot come up with a suitable metaphor. She cannot describe it, she cannot understand it, and it is impossible for her to take in everything in front of her. It’s as if a speck of dust has the chance to survey the world, a massive amount of information is impacting her soul, just by standing here, her cognitive world is engulfed in a storm.

Doubt arises about the existence of the world, doubt arises about her own existence, the thinking that is good at and used to sorting out all information and understanding it with her own logic becomes confused, everything in front of her is so vast that it makes people desperate, even if they exhaust their lives, they cannot even glimpse a corner. The more proud she is of her rationality, the greater the blow she receives at this moment. Tasha is not afraid of the unknown, but at least now, this place is not "unknown" to her, but "unknowable."

Tasha uncontrollably looks, listens, and senses, this uncontrollable pursuit makes her contact more of the "infinite", the larger the volume of the circle, the more things she can touch, so the more she understands, the more despairing her own ignorance becomes. Reason is on the verge of collapse, Tasha’s hands and feet are cold, fighting against enemies ten times stronger, facing an almost deadly situation has never made her teeth chatter and body tremble like this. This is too much, too much…

A pair of hands covered her eyes.

"Astral Plane," Victor sighed in front of Tasha.

The voice came from in front or inside the head, not sure, when did he appear? The great demon murmured in amazement, "It’s true… why didn’t I think of it before?"

What covered Tasha’s eyes was soft and slightly cold, not stable. It could be a hand, a claw, or just a thin veil of black mist, something between physical and non-physical. Tasha’s heart was pounding wildly in her chest, as if someone with a fear of heights was standing on an empty glass high platform. Another hand, half real and half illusory, rested on her shoulder, turning her in a direction, saying, "It’s a good thing you didn’t jump too far, look, this is Aryan."

The hand covering her eyes moved away.

The hand moved away, but the black mist still restricted Tasha’s vision, allowing her to see only a limited view. The infinite sky was temporarily shut out, leaving only the world fruit in front of her.

Tasha saw Aryan.

She seemed to see everything and yet nothing clearly, perhaps the soul protected itself, letting the gathered information flow rapidly past the sea of divine sense, not carrying that heavy sea of knowledge, leaving only a vague understanding. Tasha couldn’t explain what she saw, but she knew it was Aryan. The Primary Material Plane and the Abyss grew on the same stalk, intertwining.

"The Heavenly Realm is really gone now," Victor said behind her.

Reminded this way, Tasha finally noticed the subtle discord in the world before her, as if seeing a one-armed person. At the symmetrical position of the Abyss, on the other side of the Primary Material Plane, there existed a discordant gap, as if something should have been there.

Next, the time for sightseeing ended.

Their chains of light were spinning around, with sparks getting bigger and bigger on the outer rim, like a rod nearing a grinding wheel. Tasha felt a pulling force, but she couldn’t tell where she was being pulled towards. The small cluster wrapped in a forbidden spell, like a shooting star, was speeding towards Aryan.

In that brief moment, Tasha suddenly felt familiar.

Something felt familiar, what was it? Where had she seen it before? This was impossible, Tasha had never undergone such a level of spatial jump before, never touched a forbidden spell, never witnessed the Astral Plane, otherwise such a heart-stopping experience would not have been forgotten. Was it just déjà vu? Perhaps it was just an illusion of memory, like how sometimes people seem to remember things before they were born…

Wait a moment.

Tasha did remember, what happened before Aryan’s "birth".

Tasha clearly remembered that she had died, in a car accident, no grudges, just plain bad luck. In the final moments before her death, she unfortunately saw her torso half a meter away…

She saw her own face.

It wasn’t a case of "a detached upper body seeing the other half flying away", Tasha saw her face, so how exactly was she seeing? It was stormy that night, with thunder and lightning, the sky dark as if it had collapsed. Tasha was driving back home, on a deserted road, then it seemed like the car malfunctioned, skidded and hit something, before she could figure it out, she died, then came back to life, and the question of what she hit was pushed to the back of her mind.

The feeling now seems familiar.

When space tore apart, the tense feeling on her skin was just like the moment before the car accident that night. When space jumped, the weightless feeling of detachment was almost like after death, but before losing consciousness. Tasha now had the strength to remember, realizing that at the moment she died and crossed over to Aryan, she had also traveled from the Astral Plane.

Is the world where Earth is located also on another branch of this "tree"?

On the dungeon card, the progress bar was rapidly increasing. Years of effort increased by twenty-five percent, the Abyssal Gaze propelled it by six percent, now the value was rapidly rising and quickly approaching half. Information from beyond the world cleansed Tasha’s sea of divine sense, experiencing and accepting her own ignorance, Tasha accepted knowledge from beyond the realm.

The runic chains from the book were coming to an end.

It had been operating all along, the front half burning on the outer layers, worn down, replaced by the top half. They were getting closer and closer to Aryan, the chain of spells getting shorter, the Book of Dungeons finally turned to the last page. As Tasha finally recovered, ready to turn back, behind her, there was only shadows left.

The dark smoke was blurry, clearly struggling to maintain a human form. The arms that had just encircled Tasha turned into a cool black mist, still enveloping Tasha’s body, just like Tasha had embraced the Book of Dungeons with her wings before. Victor watched her – unable to see his yellow eyes, but Tasha knew he was watching her – then the black mist came close.

A cool kiss landed on Tasha’s lips.

The last bit of the spell left the Book of Dungeons.

The dim light that had faded away suddenly shone brightly, like a last flicker of a candle. Aryan moved closer, and the entire Book of Dungeons started to burn silently. Blue flames engulfed every page, turning even the tiniest ash into the final fuel. The last forbidden curse swelled with remaining power, the light cutting through Aryan’s defenses, emitting the cry of a thorn bird.

Crash!

The defenses and light shattered simultaneously, and Tasha saw the familiar dungeon.