The second they passed the threshold, their surroundings vanished.

A moment of absolute darkness passed before they slammed into the ground below with a heavy thud.

Damon hit first.

The impact drove the air from his lungs an instant before another weight crashed directly onto him.

"...Ow."

Yuki groaned softly somewhere above his chest.

For a brief moment, the two of them lingered there, regaining their focus before quickly scrambling up.

The difference in the environment was enormous.

One moment, they were in the middle of a desolate planet with nothing but grey rock and the next, they stood in something resembling a jungle, if one was drawn by a four-year-old.

There was no greenery.

Instead, the leaves, vines and everything else had a blue colour that differed slightly, depending on the height or thickness of vegetation.

At their peaks, the trees look almost ocean blue, and at their eye level, they looked nearly black.

"Well..." Yuki murmured. "It’s definitely not my world, but at least we escaped death."

Damon’s eyes continued to sweep their surroundings as he listened to Yuki’s lack of encouragement.

The air felt heavy.

Not the usual mana-induced weight but something far simpler, humidity.

His gaze slowly moved away from his eye level, making sure there weren’t any creatures nearby, and he looked up toward the sky.

There, the familiar black jagged lines scratched, clearly moving in one direction.

"At least locating the core won’t be a problem," he said.

Yuki followed his gaze and then nodded. "Let’s get going, who knows how long before we find the right rift."

They moved fast, faster than safety required, and so it wasn’t long before they encountered the first monster of the rift.

It was a jaguar-like creature, with blue fur and black spots. It was a lot larger than the jaguar from Earth, but to Damon’s surprise, it moved very predictably.

It tried to stalk them from the shadows, finding an opening to their back, but with Yuki’s superior mana sense, she took notice of it almost immediately and with a simple hint, Damon found it too.

His lightning struck with a terrifying force that crashed a couple of trees along the way, devouring the monster with a single attack.

[You have slain a Level 92 Azure Jaguar]

[New Monster Index Bonus: +13 Strength, +29 Dexterity]

[You have reached Level 88. You have received 1 Stat Point.]

Damon ignored the notification and continued moving, Yuki staying right beside him.

It took almost an hour and two dozen more Azure Jaguars until they finally reached the rift core.

It hung just above a small clearing, pulling the air and light around it in the familiar circle.

But of course, before they could actually reach it, the boss of the rift appeared before them.

The jungle seemed to have gone silent at its arrival.

The thing looked bipedal, made of a combination of dark blue vines, fur and something mangled that Damon couldn’t quite recognise.

The noise of nature behind them faded completely, replaced by an eerie stillness that was far from natural.

Damon didn’t linger.

He only eyed the monster for a split second before sending a lightning bolt straight at it.

The strike connected almost immediately, the speed of the attack too fast even for the boss of an S-Rank rift to evade.

But to Damon’s surprise, it survived.

It raised one of its arms at the last second, blocking the attack by sacrificing its limb.

There was no pain in the monster’s posture, no reaction to the sudden loss of an arm.

Instead, it simply raised its other arm, and in that moment, all the vines hanging from the trees around them stirred.

Damon grabbed Yuki by the waist at the last second before stepping between the shadows.

The vines crashed where they had stood just a moment ago with a terrifying force.

They reappeared near one of the shadows on the monster’s flank.

Damon didn’t waste a moment.

With his right arm still around Yuki’s waist, he raised his left arm high and let the lightning strike.

But this time, instead of catching the monster’s arm or perhaps even another part of its body, the vines, which had recovered from the earlier strike, already moved, creating a wall-like structure in front of its master at the last possible moment and blocking the strike.

Damon frowned.

"It knew it couldn’t evade my ability, so it created a wall on pure instinct."

Just as the realisation had hit him, the creature slowly tilted his head around.

Or at least that’s what Damon thought had happened, assuming that the twisted mass near the top of its torso was its head.

It stayed in that position for a second before suddenly lunging straight at him.

Damon pushed Yuki to the side as he changed the shape of his glove and turned it into a sword.

He pivoted with practised ease, but as he moved to block the hit, he quickly realised something else.

"It regenerated its arm!"

BANG!

The impact sent a wave of air across the clearing that was strong enough to crash and shake the nearby trees.

The monster moved fast, spinning around for a second hit just as Damon stepped between the shadows.

He reappeared from the creature’s side, his blade catching its torso before vanishing just as the monster countered.

Damon danced around its shadow for a few more moments, catching more of its torso and limbs with each step, until its movements slowed down just enough for him to look for a finishing blow.

He ducked under another one of the monster’s attacks, driving forward and thrusting his blade deep into what was supposed to be its torso.

The blade plunged deep, and the second it did, the lightning roared to life.

The creature trembled under the surging current of electricity coursing through its body, slowly breaking it apart until it collapsed, and the once-mangled parts of vines, flesh, and something else slowly turned to ash.

[You have slain a Level 118 Azure Titan]

[New Monster Index Bonus: +32 Strength, +37 Vitality, +43 Dexterity]

[You have reached Level 91. You have received 1 Stat Point.]

[You have reached Level 92. You have received 1 Stat Point.]

[You have reached Level 93. You have received 1 Stat Point.]