Faryab, Afghanistan, Shadow World
The woman with straight black hair, piercing green eyes, and a cold expression swiftly ran through the ruins of the city.
The air was thick with smoke, and the faint smell of ash lingered, mingling with the metallic scent of blood.
Crumbling buildings cast jagged shadows across the cracked streets, where debris and shattered glass glittered faintly under the dim, otherworldly light.
Dozens of monsters appeared in her path each second.
She dealt with them effortlessly, dispatching each with a single flick of her spear.
Her speed was fast enough to shatter the sonic barrier—yet no shockwaves followed, as if even the air feared to oppose her.
Ahead, the chaos of the city gave way to a dense forest.
The trees seemed almost alive.
Their gnarled branches reached like skeletal hands into the sky.
The ground beneath them was veiled in mist, and a faint, earthy aroma replaced the stench of destruction.
Gaia opened her mouth and began to chant.
“O Beings of Forest; Roots entwine, paths align; Through forest’s heart, let me combine; One green to another, bridge divine.”
The forest began to glow with a vibrant green light and the air hummed with energy.
Space itself warped, connecting this forest to another five cities away.
This was the incantation that enabled Gaia to traverse vast distances swiftly.
She was about to step into the forest when a sudden, blinding flash of light pierced the darkened sky.
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Her instincts screamed a warning, and she leapt back without hesitation.
A figure crashed into the ground where she had stood moments ago.
The impact sent tremors rippling through the earth, toppling nearby trees and scattering debris.
“Damn, I missed,” the figure muttered, rising unsteadily.
Perses shook his head as if to clear it.
“Whoever calibrated this Space-Time Cube needs to step up their game,” he grumbled.
He waved his hand dismissively, and massive gales erupted, scattering the dust cloud that had enveloped him.
As the air cleared, his form became fully visible to Gaia.
“Perses…” Gaia’s voice was icy. Her grip on the spear tightened. “Did you just attack me?”
“No, the teleportation coordinates were off mark and they made me almost crash on you,” he explained with an apologetic smile.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Kronos sent me to help you reach Neo Hargraves.”
Perses showed her the Space-Time Cube.
“Come on. Let’s go. We need to stop those brats from waking up the Typhaon.” freёwebnoѵel.com
Gaia’s expression didn’t change, and she remained silent.
When her silence stretched on, he added impatiently,
“The visions Apollo has seen showed us Neo Hargraves saving the Child of Mana. This means, unless we stop him and change the future, the Typhaon will definitely wake up. So start moving—we don’t have time to dawdle.”
A frown creased Gaia’s face.
Something felt off, but she couldn’t pinpoint what it was.
After a moment of deliberation, she nodded and approached Perses cautiously.
“Can the Space-Time Cube teleport us to the Savage Expanse?” she asked.
“It can’t teleport us inside the Savage Expanse. The ‘space’ there is controlled by Typhaon. But we can teleport outside and enter ourselves,” Perses explained.
His words were logical.
Despite the competition between the Titans and the Awakener Association, it wasn’t unheard of for them to collaborate in dire situations.
“Relax your body. I’m activating the Space-Time Cube,” he instructed.
Gaia exhaled, loosening her grip on her spear.
Her posture softened and he lowered her guard.
The cube began to shine. It emitted a pulsating light that enveloped them both.
Suddenly, an ominous bubbling orange-red glow appeared around Perses’ hand.
Before Gaia could react, the glow solidified into an axe, and he swung it toward her neck in a swift, lethal arc.
The ambush was too sudden.
Gaia managed to evade the full strike, but the blade grazed her shoulder, leaving a deep, bloody gash.
Pain flared, but her expression remained composed.
“What are you doing?” she demanded.
“Following my leader’s orders,” Perses said. “Your guy wrecked havoc in our place. I’m going to do the same here.”
Gaia’s frown deepened.
He was referring to Zeus’ attack, she realized.
“This isn’t the time for us to fight amongst ourselves,” she said.
Perses’ face showed a regretful expression when he heard her.
His furrowed brow and the slight downturn of his lips betrayed his internal conflict.
Clearly, he truly didn’t want to fight her and instead wanted to help her stop Neo.
For a moment, his piercing gaze softened, and he sighed, shaking his head.
“I’m sorry. I need to follow my leader’s orders,” he said with resignation.
Gaia’s expression remained cold, though a flicker of frustration crossed her eyes.
“You are breaking the peace treaty right now.”
“Your people were the ones who broke it first,” Perses countered sharply.
Before Gaia could respond, he shot forward like a bullet.
The ground beneath him cracked from the sheer force of his launch.
His axe gleamed with the fiery hue of his orange-red aura as he swung at her with brutal precision.
…
Ballyhoura Forest, Munster, Ireland, Shadow World
The dense forest loomed before Neo and Jack.
Its vibrant green exterior appeared at odds with the death and carnage that surrounded it.
The ground around Neo and Jack was littered with shattered bones of skeleton monsters and rotting corpses of zombies.
They had killed almost all undeads of Niles Radcliff that protected the boundary of Savage Expanse.
The forest appeared deceptively ordinary, with towering trees and lush undergrowth. However, an invisible barrier surrounded it.
Neo stood still, his gaze fixed on a translucent status screen before him, while Jack combed the area for a weak spot in the barrier.
[Eternal, Grade 5 Mythic]
Progress: 91%
Effect: Become ageless and gain resistance against status ailments (+10%).
[Mind Invasion, Grade 5 Awakened]
Progress: 99%
Both traits were on the verge of a breakthrough.
However, he could only wait to leave the Shadow World to make a break through, since each breakthrough consumed a large amount of Divine Energy and he was severely lacking in Divine Energy right now.
[Death]
Mastery: Adept (Peak) (Sealed) → None
Concept Progress: 97%
Neo frowned.
The progress had been stagnant at 97% for two days.
It wouldn’t increase no matter how much Intent he fused into his Core.
He clenched his fists, his jaw tightening in frustration.
‘There is no problem with my intent,’ he thought. ‘The issue here is that I lack Death.’
He had been slaughtering thousands of monsters over the past few days.
At first, their deaths provided significant progress, but as his mastery grew, the Death energy they yielded diminished.
‘I don’t need numbers now,’ he concluded grimly. ‘I need quality.’
His frown deepened.
He needed to kill someone strong—someone whose death would yield the kind of potent energy that could push his Concept progress to completion in one stroke.
“Neo, I found a way in.”
Jack’s voice cut through his thoughts, pulling him back to the present.
Neo turned to see Jack standing near the barrier, which now had a jagged tear running through it.
Jack had discovered a weak link after hours of searching and torn it open.
The two stepped through the barrier.
They felt a shift, and a strange stillness enveloped them.
The air grew heavy.
All natural sounds ceased—no rustling leaves, no chirping birds, only silence.
“I can feel someone staring at me,” Jack muttered.
“It could be Typhaon or one of his Sovereigns,” Neo replied. “Or maybe an Awakener sent to stop us. Let’s ignore it for now and focus on the issue at hand.”
The Ballyhoura Forest—now called the Savage Expanse—was originally a 10,500-hectare (about 26,000-acre) area spanning the Ballyhoura Mountains.
Since Typhaon’s arrival, the space inside the forest had expanded exponentially.
From the outside, it looked unchanged, and the size remained same.
But entering it one would find it was as large as Australia.
This was Typhaon’s doing—Spatial Manipulation on a scale that defied comprehension.
“Should I start?” Jack asked.
“Yes,” Neo said.
Shadows stretched outward beneath Jack’s feet, flowing like liquid darkness.
They spread across the forest floor, growing until they were vast enough to engulf an entire town.
The shadows began to churn and bubble ominously.
“Rise, my legion, and serve me once more,” Jack chanted.
The shadows rippled, and thousands of undead crawled out from them.
Their skeletal and decayed forms were a grotesque contrast to the vibrant forest.
They moved with fluidly and spread out in all directions.
Jack commanded them to search the forest for a giant tree—the Core of Typhaon.
Typhaon’s body was the forest itself.
The large size made it impossible to kill Typhaon due to lack of firepower.
The only way to damage the Father of Anomalies was to attack its Core.
“It shouldn’t take long for me to find the Core,” Jack said.
The space within the Savage Expanse was twisted by Typhaon.
It could alter paths, create loops, and misdirect intruders endlessly.
No one could locate Typhaon’s Core unless the monster wanted it to be found.
Jack and Neo understood this well.
That’s why they had devised a brute-force plan.
