Chapter 858: Anomaly (1)

Theron’s body healed at a rapid pace that defied logic, and soon even his eyes began to fuse back together, the bloody gash that split them sewing together in lines of red flesh and glowing blood.

However, while Theron’s Mana and his body were quickly regenerating, his soul was not. One didn’t seem to have any impact on the other, and he found many of his senses still shrouded.

It was an extremely uncomfortable feeling. It was like his body had all the power in the world, but his head was still too foggy to make proper use of it.

‘What is this?’

Theron barely had enough sense left in him to feel that his two Void Cores had instead become two points of radiant white light that pushed everything away.

The borders of these new White Cores were impossible to define, and Theron found that the more he tried to find these borders or edges, the further and further they expanded outward.

The feeling was impossible to describe. Somehow it was like his Cores were in his body, and yet their edges were far outside. It didn’t make any sense.

One moment it felt like he had found the defined “end” of his White Cores, but in the next moment it moved out further, and then further beyond that.

Then a spike of pain rippled through Theron’s mind, shaking him awake from his exploration.

He groaned, reaching a hand up to his head as he finally got a good look at what was around him.

But then he realized that he was actually able to move, when previously he had been so severely restrained. On top of that, he didn’t hear Ayame’s crying anymore at all.

‘Ayame!’

Theron jolted upright, ignoring the throbbing in his head.

He found himself in a cave with a light that barely came out from one direction. But that light wasn’t direct and was instead coming from around the corner.

Everywhere he looked there was nothing but endless jagged rocks. But then he finally saw it.

An embodiment of darkness, a black, vaguely humanoid form that was passed out next to him.

It had shrunk considerably, but other than that, there was nothing about it that was reminiscent of Ayame at all. Even the silhouette had lost all of her shape.

It could have been anyone lying there, and yet Theron was sure that it was Ayame.

He rolled over and up to his knees.

“Ayame? Ayame.” He shook her, but she didn’t move at all.

‘What is happening? Where is this place?’

Theron shook Ayame again, but before he could try once more—

BOOM.

The cave shook and large amounts of debris began to fall.

‘Dammit!’

Theron cursed. His soul hadn’t recovered yet despite his body having. It not only made it difficult to control Mana in the first place, but he couldn’t even stretch out the range of his Third Eye to figure out what was happening outside.

He scooped Ayame into his arms and hopped up to his feet. He looked toward the light in one direction, and then toward the other way.

Theron hesitated. He was usually a lot more decisive than this, but it was hard to think when there was a wall of fog around his mind. His White Cores weren’t helping at all. If anything, they were making it several times worse.

His mind kept trying to process information about Mana dozens of kilometers away from him.

‘Wait.’

Theron’s eyes sharpened and he sensed the flow of Mana around the outside. When he tried to do this, he felt that there was just one figure outside of the cave right now, but there were actually others rushing toward him.

‘What the hell? Where am I? Why is this person attacking?’

Theron couldn’t see this person’s features. He just knew that they were here, and they seemed to be wielding strong Lightning Mana.

‘Am I really in Heaven’s Gate?’ Theron seemed to finally recall his earlier conclusion, but even compared to back then, his mind seemed to be in a worse state. It was eating away at his ability to recall.

Theron squinted and shook his head. He really needed to figure out how to replenish his soul as quickly as possible. Otherwise, just fighting would eat away at him too much.

‘Dammit.’

Theron stomped a foot and surged toward the light. With another stomp, he cut around the corner and roared.

A large vortex of Mana formed around his maw like the roar of a lion. Swirling masses of Mana he had never even consciously controlled before jetted out and blew a path right out of the cave.

Theron surged in behind his roar, bursting out into the light.

If it could be called light at all.

There were no blue skies in this place. The masses in the air were swirling clouds of silver and black, sparks of flashing white lightning passing by from time to time, matched by eerie black lightning and booming thunder that followed after it.

There was nothing but jagged rock formations even beyond the cave itself. Mountains as tall as stars rose up in the distance, and yet there was one with a golden peak that stood taller than any one of them.

‘This place…’

It really did feel like the end of the world just standing here.

BANG.

Theron suddenly flashed to the side, skidding to a stop along the jagged formations as a woman wrapped in pulsing white lightning landed where he had just been standing.

However, the woman wasn’t as focused on Theron anymore. Instead, she was looking at the bundle of darkness in his arms as though she recognized something.

“That.” Her voice came out in a frigid cold tone.

Theron frowned in response. She spat out the word as though it were a slur, everything in her being radiating a hatred that came from deep within her bones.

“Hand it over, or kill it. Otherwise, face the consequences.”