101: Chapter 101 Falling into the Abyss
Chapter 101: Falling into the Abyss
Space was being mercilessly torn apart.
Then, it was forcefully fused back together in an utterly unreasonable manner.
The world before my eyes turned into a boiling, thick soup composed of countless chaotic color patches and blinding lines.
Lin Qingzhi and I were like two tiny, fragile leaves caught in the eye of a storm, helplessly tossed and tumbled in this bizarre, chaotic maelstrom.
This was the first time I had actively used the [Spatial Perception] I devoured from the Magician to initiate a jump.
It was also the most wretched, the most uncontrolled, and the closest brush with death I had ever experienced in this lifetime.
I felt as if my soul had been stuffed into a high-pressure blender filled with shards of glass.
Every inch of my consciousness was being frantically sliced, torn, and ground by invisible blades!
That excruciating pain, originating from the very core of my soul, was a million times more terrifying than any physical injury!
*Pfft—*
I don't know how long we traveled through that chaos—perhaps an instant, perhaps a century.
Finally, that highly unstable spatial channel spat us out like two discarded fruit pits it had grown tired of, hurling us violently into the open.
Then came the weightlessness.
The biting night wind, sharp as the finest blades, raked madly across my carapace.
The intense pain from inside and out made it impossible for me to maintain even the most basic balance.
I instinctively tried to flap my wings to steady myself, only to be horrified to discover that the Demonic Power within my body had been completely drained during that desperate jump.
And my once-proud wings, which had once surpassed the speed of sound, were torn to tatters during the passage through the turbulent spatial currents, like two tattered sails riddled with machine-gun fire.
We were like two stones dropped from ten thousand meters in the air.
Plummeting straight down toward the familiar, chessboard-like sea of city lights below and, at its edge, a pitch-black region of unfathomable depth!
*BOOM!*
A muffled, earth-shaking impact, as if the very ground groaned.
My body slammed hard onto a cold, hard concrete surface slick with greasy, filthy water.
I felt my reinforced carapace, tough enough to withstand blade strikes, crack like a spider's web within 0.01 seconds of impact.
Pain like my bones were shattering surged through me like the fiercest tide, instantly drowning all my senses.
My consciousness spun; stars exploded before my eyes. I nearly blacked out on the spot.
*Cough...*
An extremely faint, almost imperceptible cough came from not far away.
It was Lin Qingzhi.
Gritting my teeth against the pain that threatened to tear me apart, I struggled to lift my head.
She was in worse shape than I was.
Having taken Night Crow's blow head-on and endured the soul-rending ordeal of the Space Teleportation, the very foundation of her soul was now critically unstable.
At this moment, she had fallen completely unconscious.
Her face, always so aloof and exquisitely beautiful, was utterly devoid of color, like a flawless, lifeless statue of white jade.
Her aura was so faint it seemed it might dissipate into the air at any moment.
The lamp had burned out, the oil exhausted.
-->> This was the first time since my rebirth that I had fallen into such a complete, hopeless predicament.
Demonic Power depleted, severely injured, dragging along an unconscious 'burden', hiding in an unknown, foul-smelling corner.
And Night Crow, at the Peak Demon Rank, could catch up to us at any moment.
An unprecedented emotion called 'responsibility', mixed with lingering fear and intense self-blame, gripped my heart like two icy hands, making it almost impossible to breathe.
This time, she had saved me.
If she hadn't, at that critical moment, used her noble empress's soul to shield me from the fatal Soul Devouring Nail, I wouldn't have even had the chance to initiate the spatial jump. My soul would have scattered, and I would have vanished completely from this world.
She didn't have to do that.
Given her pride, given her status, when had she ever needed to go to such lengths for an 'evil creature', a 'pet'?
Yet, she did.
I cannot let her die here.
For the first time, this thought overpowered my simple, primal instinct to survive and evolve. It branded itself onto my soul like the deepest of marks.
I forced my nearly shattered body to crawl painfully to her side.
Then, using my own battered body, I began, inch by inch, to drag her cold, filth-covered form toward the depths of a relatively dry and more concealed large drainage pipe not far away.
Every step felt like dragging a mountain.
With my Demonic Power empty, I could only rely on the most primitive, brute strength... of a mosquito.
The rough, gravel-strewn ground scraped against my already damaged limbs, sending waves of piercing pain, but I seemed not to feel it.
Finally, after settling her, I had almost exhausted the last of my strength.
But I knew it wasn't enough.
This was the abandoned underground drainage system of Jiangcheng.
The air was thick with the energy signature of decay and mutation.
This place was also... a paradise for those mutated creatures.
The aura of vitality from powerful beings like us was, to them, no less conspicuous than a bright lamp in the darkness.
I took a deep breath and squeezed out the last 'drop of water' from my mental sea, now as dry as a riverbed!
[Swarm Monarch], activate!
My will spread out like invisible threads into the surrounding darkness.
Soon, several mutated rats gnawing on unknown refuse in the dark, and several giant Cockroaches the size of palms mating in a corner—their movements suddenly froze.
Confusion and... reverence flickered in their crimson-glowing eyes.
They became my eyes, my ears.
They became the... first line of defense guarding our fragile refuge.
After finishing this, I could hold on no longer. Darkness swam before my eyes, and I nearly lost consciousness.
Looking at the girl lying beside me, still unconscious with a faint aura, I made the most solemn vow since my rebirth.
"This time, it's my turn to protect you."
Before the words faded...
In the distance, one of the mutated rats I had stationed as a 'sentry' suddenly let out an utterly shrill scream!
Then, the sound cut off abruptly.
Danger was already upon us!