The journey through the dark unknown was rather uneventful. I've had nothing to stare at, nothing to look at, but the dark emptiness of endless space.
It was pretty at first, rather delightful to look at all the stars and strange constellations. But after a while, you just get bored of it, as it becomes the same monotonous scene that you've been watching for the last five days.
The current hoverboard speed was far faster than the speed of the Thunderbull we used within the Ancient Sect's Dream.
And thinking about the Thunderbull, there is a good chance that its remains are still within the Under Void prison. I could probably scavenge them back from there.
I didn't manually interfere with the destruction of the Thunderbull and his arrival to the Under Void prison was predestined such as was its destruction. The problem is those damn felines, they don't look like anything I'd want to mess with, but if I were to use Y or some of my poisons, I might be able to bypass their security and head down where the bull was located.
I still have a bit more time of travel before I arrive at the Under Void prison. My only concern is the creatures that dwell within this dark empty space. With the Bull's presence last time, we had it easy as it was able to decimate all creatures that lived in space with a single roar. But now, I'm on my own with a hoverboard and a lot of lead, hopefully, I wouldn't have to use any.
As I had finished that thought, something seemed to ripple in space up ahead. I didn't like that one bit.
I pressed on the pedestals of the hoverboard as hard as I could, steering away from the ripples.
"Y, get ready," I warned.
The Puppet seemed too eager to break out as it had been unable to let out any of its tremendous powers while he was within the hands of master Rain.
Y's reactor thundered as it roiled and coiled so much Saint Qi I thought he was going to blow up right here and there. But all the excess Qi was funneled into Y's arms and towards his swords. Enabled his Demon Trigger Swords to burn bright red hot as he pressed their triggers.
Dozens of small creatures emerged from within the ripples. They were relatively small compared to a human, but compared to their bug counterpart, they were massive.
Fucking space hornets. And a lot of them.
These damn hornets seemed to be out for blood, they had blood-red eyes and seemed to have sword-sized fangs.
They made so much noise as they moved that I felt my skin vibrating from the impact.
"Let me at them, Master," spoke Y.
"Go on ahead, I'll support you," I replied.
The massive puppet shot forward, blasting through space causing it to ripple in the process. His swords are thirsty for blood, alien or not. It came down with fires of wrath and hellfire, upon the creatures that dared block his master's way.
The Demon Trigger swords burnt bright red as they struck right through the hornets splitting them in half and causing their parted remains to turn to cinder from the heat of the weapons.
I pulled the minigun and started blasting.
I tried my best not to hit Y in the process of shooting a weapon capable of releasing more than seven hundred rounds a minute. But I didn't need to worry, though Y was fast and seemed to be moving all over the place, he was still able to dodge a stray bullet, or twist itself around the trajectory of the minigun's rain of bullets.
The creatures didn't fare any odds at defeating us and soon the rest of their hoard dispersed after realizing how futile their ambush was. Perhaps if it was another prey, bigger and slower these things would have had a feast, but Y was no pushover. And I'm glad he is on my side.
After having gone past the ambush area we didn't seem to encounter any other creatures for the rest of the day.
A couple more days went by like that and I started to feel like we were getting closer to the Under Void prison. I made sure to keep tabs on our current location by using the Imperial parchment and the notes written on it. And it didn't take long before I saw the entrance to the Under Void.
It was the same as last time, a bunch of jumbled-up 'errors' in space. Folds of it, kneaded and pinched against each other looking pretty much like a spatial anus for the lack of any other more fitting description.
And down the hole, we go.
The feeling was much more different than when I first went in. It wasn't as suffocating and I didn't feel like someone was trying to pry my brain with a crowbar.
It seems that whatever the mental affliction that usually happened to the people who arrived here was downgraded several times over due to the passage of time.
Which didn't really matter as even when the forces of the Imperial Clan were at their peak, this failed to drag me into their dream world and I managed to go through it then without a hitch.
This was even more laughable as I went right into the inner part of the Under Void Prison and found myself staring at two gates. One so massive in size that one couldn't see any end to it, and another one, was far smaller and far less decorated.
I suppose that Master Rain had already come here since the small gate is currently being projected forcefully by hundreds of inscriptions making it manifest.
I had a small issue with this gate at first, since the Creedless had used a tool to open it, but now that Master Rain is here, the door is open for me.
I walked inside the small gate and found myself in the same area where the massive platforms of old were standing still. Though standing seemed to be an overstatement.
Age had done its job by making these platforms far more brittle than it should be safe to cross. Also, I fail to remember these things being so…red.
Approaching, I seem to have realized that this wasn't a discoloration of the platform but actual blood of something that seemed to have died here or spilled copious amounts of blood on the platforms.
The first thing that came to mind were those hunting creatures of the dark… The Dark Beasts.
Just the thought of one of them still alive here caused me to immediately regret coming here. But the comfort of Y's prows made me take a step forward.
The bridge that used to link the platforms was no longer available for use, dilapidated and broken, it had long since fallen. And thus the only way for me to cross was to use X.
X came out and looked at Y.
"He is back," spoke X.
"Yes, we got him back, anyway I need you to link these platforms," I said.
X nodded and pointed one of his arms.
A rope extended from a spatial formation I made for X to store items, and it linked itself to the Drill Bullet that was inside X's arm.
The bullet spun and spun then was released with enough power to penetrate the stone platform but not enough to completely shatter it on impact.
"Y, be ready for any ambush, I don't think we'll be crossing without a hitch," I said.
Y then immediately readied his Demon Triggers, warming up the weapons for any unpredicted apparition.
I stepped on the rope and rapidly ran across to the other platform. The gravitational pull from the depth of this area was forcefully disrupting spatial laws, making teleportation impossible. And unless I'm all the way down, I can't stop it.
Thus we had to walk across the platforms on foot.
I would usually have no purpose in even thinking of going down this deep dark chasm, but if my theory is correct, there should be a prize waiting for me down there.
My time print didn't seem to be too great in regards to changing Creedless's decision-making. Since I arrived to this place with him, my contact with the Creedless was minimal at best. And I didn't have any effects on causing him to change the choices he made.
So, if what happened back then in the dream world, and the fact that the Stone Aged Milk actually existed, that would mean that the Thunderbull remains should also be down there somewhere.
The Thunderbull was a captured soul trapped into a caravan, it shouldn't be anything worth eating for the Dark Beasts, thus if I'm lucky I should find its broken remains still there.
Me, X, and Y made it through several platforms before I asked them to stop.
It was this very platform where the two dark beasts jumped on the Thunder Bull chariot, so it should be down below.
"Z," I spoke and the small spider-like puppet came out of my Poison God's book.
"Go down the pillar, check for any carriage remains," I said.
I then placed the small spider puppet down, and it zoomed down like a bullet running down the pillar.
I waited and waited, still carefully watching my back, while X and Y were both occupied with guarding any threats to come.
Suddenly, Z came up and he seemed to be carrying something. It was a golden nail.
My lips curved into a wide smile. This nail is definitely a part of the chariot, since it also had an imperial inscription on it.
Just as I approached Z to grab the nail and further study it.
Something the size of a train surged up from the dark and was facing me.
It had the face of a wrinkled mole rat. the lips of a catfish and the jaws of a predator. The rest of its body looked like that of a sickly vermin and it hissed at me with enough force that I felt like I was going to be blown away.
"Your breath stinks," I muttered, "Take him out," I added and hell broke loose in the depth of the dark.