Chapter 272

"Ahhhhhh!"

A small fissure tore open in the sky.

It was a crimson tear, and dropping down from its depths was a body.

Then another. Then another.

Three bodies dropped down from the tear as if they were forcefully ejected, sending them crashing down with immense momentum toward a tall hill that sloped steeply downward.

Out of the three bodies, only one was human; the other two were the carcasses of dead spider beasts.

Crash—!

The bodies hit the hill with immense force and immediately began rolling downward as if they were mere discarded dolls.

"Damn it! Damn it! I can’t stop... I feel dizzy," the silver-haired youth shouted angrily, desperately trying to find a way to halt his descent.

Unfortunately, due to being forcefully dropped and slammed onto the hill before being sent tumbling, he was completely disoriented.

He couldn’t make sense of which way was up and which was down, leaving him to roll helplessly alongside the massive beasts’ bodies. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The tear in the sky closed shortly afterward, vanishing without a trace of its existence and leaving the night sky looking pristine, filled with numerous stars embedded in a dark expanse with hues of crimson flowing through them.

The entire landscape was draped in a heavy blanket of darkness.

Yet, the tumbling human didn’t even have the chance to observe or process his surroundings as he continued to fall.

"How tall is this hill?!" he shouted angrily as he kept tumbling like a soccer ball.

«I think you should stop screaming, otherwise you might attract something to our location,» Elyon uttered inside Ray’s mind space.

’To our locat...’

That was when his eyes widened in realization as the images of the preceding events flooded his mind.

Due to the force of the pull toward the gate, the beast he had been handling had slammed heavily into him, temporarily dazing him.

That was why he was so disoriented the moment he was dropped down from the sky.

Now, the reality set in that he was no longer in his home world, but trapped inside a beast world.

In a Red Gate.

’... Red gate? Why have I never heard of something like that? Did Sony forget to teach us about this?!’

"Wait... how long have I been rolling for?!"

«Didn’t you hear when Elyon told you to stop screaming, you stupid idiot?!» Bruce growled angrily, causing the entire mind space to shake for a second.

Rolling across the terrain, Ray could feel a few sharp rocks attempting to pierce his skin, but his endurance was far too high, so they merely scraped harmlessly against his body.

The next second, it felt like he was airborne again as the wind hit his face hard.

How he had ended up in the air, he didn’t know; one moment he was tumbling, and the next, the ground seemed to slope upward, launching his body into the sky.

He didn’t get to enjoy the short respite, however.

SPLASH—! SPLASH—! SPLASH—!

Ray and the dead beasts plunged into a large body of water with a resounding splash, their bodies sinking deep beneath the surface.

’Huh? Water?’

He tried turning his head around but noticed his movements were slowed down incredibly by the liquid resistance.

Opening his eyes for a split second, he felt the rush of salt biting into his eyeballs, but he resisted the urge to react to the discomfort.

He peered closer, but to his shock, he couldn’t discern anything at all.

Even while rolling disorientedly on land, he had been able to perceive his surroundings due to his incredible vision that allowed him to see through the night.

But now, he was completely unable to see anything.

It was as if he had been entirely robbed of his sight; the water was simply too dark for his night vision to pierce.

For the first time in months, Ray felt cold dread creep up his spine as the realization dawned on him.

How was he unable to see through the darkness of this water?

Still, he was grateful for one thing—he could still utilize his sensory perception to map his immediate surroundings.

His perception was still active, hence he could still sense his surroundings.

He could feel the dead beasts still sinking around his position.

One more thing, too.

His eyes widened in shock as the water rushed in faster.

It not only entered his eyes but his nose too as he felt himself sinking along with the dead carcasses.

The realization gnawed at him as clear as day with every struggle of his body to escape the claws of the water.

’I—I—I can’t fucking swim!’

"....?!!!"

That was right.

The powerful Tribrid had never actually learned how to swim, and now, he was sinking at an impressive rate.

«Wait. You really can’t swim?!» Elyon shouted in worry as he shot to his feet instantly.

Then, he dashed toward the chair and grabbed a hold of Ray’s shoulders.

"Then switch with me now. I can swim."

Ray wasted no time in leaving the chair for the celestial to take over.

The moment Elyon sat on the chair, Ray’s eyes changed color to a pristine white.

And the next second, the body propelled through the volume of water with immense speed and force as the celestial swam with all his might, trying to get out of the depths they were in.

A moment later, Ray realized something.

«Wait. The cores. Those spiders still have their cores in them. We can’t leave the beasts.»

Bruce facepalmed himself, shaking his head while glaring at the human on his knees.

But luckily, Elyon ignored the distraction and swam with all his might, as he could feel the body losing consciousness while its physical energy was being sapped from being deep in the water for minutes before the human realized his flaw.

Within three minutes, Elyon could now begin seeing the upper outline of the body of water as he swam upward with all his entire force.

His eyes were blurring in and out at an astonishing rate, but the celestial was determined not to fail.

With one final stroke and thrust upward, Elyon shot out of the surface like a dolphin and then crashed onto the solid land with a powerful thud.

"Haaa.... haaa... cough... cough... haaa...."

The celestial was on his knees coughing, wheezing, and panting with incredible force, to the point that even specks of blood landed on the ground.

He sucked in another powerful breath of air before coughing violently once more.

Ray was about to breathe a sigh of relief when all the hair on his body suddenly rose up as he turned to the screen in the mindspace.

Rushing toward Elyon in the chair, he placed his hand on the celestial’s shoulder, and then his eyes widened.

Before he could open his mouth to warn the celestial, something whistled through the air with deadly speed and rushed directly toward the body’s side.