Chapter 1998 - 1998. Island

Noah and King Elbas had to reach the area mentioned by Sepunia to understand what she had meant with her vague description.

A dead zone unfolded in the trio's eyes after following Sepunia across the storms for many years. Spa.r.s.e cracks that led to the void tainted the area, and various patches of ground floated among the whiteness without falling prey to the pulling force that those fissures naturally generated.

The patches of ground had different sizes, shapes, and environments. Noah saw a solitary upside-down mountain floating next to a small tree that barely had enough terrain to spread its roots and a relatively large plain filled with lakes. Similar odd scenes that featured various settings occupied the other parts of the dead zones and actively avoided the storms in the distance.

All the pieces of the region that had survived the past destruction had developed an innate survival instinct. The trio could see floating lands changing direction all of a sudden, and the same happened even with the smaller areas. Noah could barely contain his curiosity when he saw that the dirt floating in the dead zone also stuck to that behavior.

"How can they have a survival instinct without being alive?" Noah wondered.

"It must be a consequence of Heaven and Earth's actions," King Elbas suggested. "Maybe they spread the flaw instead of destroying it. The world needs to put something against them, so they never succeeded in vanquis.h.i.+ng the meanings lingering in this area."

"I can't help you anymore from this point onward," Sepunia announced. "My memories end here."

"We should start with the bigger lands," Noah said, and the trio quickly went to the solitary mountain seen right after reaching the area.

A strange atmosphere fell on Noah, King Elbas, and Sepunia when they went deeper into the area. They initially found it hard to explain what they felt, but enlightenment eventually dawned upon their minds. The sky's constant pressure waned there. Something was weakening Heaven and Earth's power.

"How long has it even been?" Noah chuckled while looking at the sky.

Noah had stopped using protections against the white radiance countless years ago. He had grown so used to that constant pressure that it felt strange to be relatively free from it. Even the journey in the void couldn't generate the same sensations.

"Do you really want to count?" King Elbas asked while following his gaze. "I can give you an answer quickly."

King Elbas still protected his mind from the white radiance, but he didn't waste that power. He gathered the pressure falling on him and made it flow into a technique meant to expand his mind. That was how he had improved his mental sphere until now.

"I don't care enough to hear that," Noah laughed.

"Time will only continue to lose meaning for you," Sepunia stated. "You two are incredibly young compared to other existences at your level. Your perception has yet to move to replace millennia with eras."

"I plan to break the sky before that," Noah revealed.

"That sounds impossible," Sepunia giggled.

"Please, don't use that word," King Elbas sighed. "It will only make him do crazier stuff."

The trio fell silent after reaching the mountain. Noah, King Elbas, and Sepunia studied the rocky surface of the structure to search for the source of those strange effects, but they didn't find anything worthy of consideration.

The matter there had an odd aura. The rocks of the mountains felt slightly different, even if their fabric was as normal as it could be. They carried special effects that the trio had to inspect for a while before understanding their nature. Those materials weren't actually radiating that strange power. They had transformed because of it.

The aura that filled the dead zone seemed to have the same effects as the Devils' influence. It could taint the matter and force it to express its influence, but everything was fainter there. Those rocks couldn't repeat the process on their own. They merely echoed a minute part of the source's power.

'Where is the source?' Noah wondered, but none of the lands floating in the dead zone seemed to meet those requirements.

King Elbas and Sepunia soon reached the same conclusion. The source wasn't there, so they could only perform a thorough search. The trio returned inside the storms and completed the long exploration past the edges of the dead zone. The experts hoped that one of the nearby areas could have traces of that power, but that feeling eventually crumbled.

Noah, King Elbas, and Sepunia returned inside the dead zone after confirming that the nearby lands and storms didn't have anything. The answer had to be among that odd aura, but they didn't believe the source of that power to be among those weak floating lands. They would inspect all of them if the situation required it, but a better answer eventually appeared.

Noah and King Elbas only had to exchange a glance before approaching one of the cracks. The dark world expanded as a series of golden lines filler the edges of the fissure. The two experts prepared themselves to peek into the void, and Sepunia didn't hesitate to join them with excitement br.i.m.m.i.n.g out of her figure.

"Don't you need to create something in case the travel into the void turns bad?" King Elbas asked.

"I'm with the pioneers in that field," Sepunia smirked. "Why would I even need to do anything?"

"Another brute to save," King Elbas sighed.

A rope made of dark matter materialized among the dark world and wrapped itself around Sepunia's waist. The dark matter almost fused with the robe she had concocted with her power right after waking up.

Noah fixed part of the dark world to the whiteness and secured a rope around him before jumping into the crack. Diving into fissures that stood in the middle of the world could be more dangerous than exiting the sky due to the change of dimension, but that was nothing for an expert of s.p.a.ce.

Sepunia jumped after Noah, and King Elbas soon followed. The two found Noah right under the whiteness, with his eyes fixed on a ma.s.sive island that floated among the void. He was wearing a frown, and the reason behind that gesture became obvious immediately.

The island contained living beings. Multiple auras came out of that vast structure, and some of them were in the ninth rank. However, no energy reached that land, so the experts couldn't explain how those creatures could have survived without destroying the environment.

"Elbas?" Noah asked, but his friend shook his head even after inspecting the island with some of his sensors.

"I sense obstructions," King Elbas revealed. "It's clear that someone is trying to isolate that area. They didn't go as far as creating a separate s.p.a.ce, but they did a decent job nonetheless."

"Isn't that the time when you charge ahead?" Sepunia asked while shooting an expectant gaze at Noah.

"I'm not that reckless," Noah complained.

"You definitely are," King Elbas sneered, but he still took the first step toward the island.

Noah and Sepunia quickly followed after him, and a peculiar sight unfolded in their eyes when they approached the island. They saw strange skinny creatures that resembled dragons walking on its dark surface.