Dimensional Keeper: All My Skills Are at Level 100 Chapter 1544 Encountering Strange Things!
Previously on Dimensional Keeper: All My Skills Are at Level 100...
Several minutes passed in utter silence. Tranquility reigned, yet it was abruptly broken.
Suddenly, a pack of monstrous creatures burst from the shattered earth, their flesh merged seamlessly with the scarred landscape, as though spawned directly from the battlefield's devastation.
Twisted shapes defined their bodies, limbs mismatched and grotesque, eyes emitting a dim, eerie glow. The instant they appeared, they lunged forward mercilessly.
Rose sprang into action without delay.
"Prepare for battle!" she commanded.
The team synchronized perfectly, arranging into a flexible defensive line just as the beasts barreled toward them.
The fight erupted fiercely, though it ended swiftly.
These creatures possessed real power, yet they remained within the group's capability to defeat. Their danger stemmed from sudden appearances and wild, savage assaults.
Yet the two teams were no pushovers. They battled fiercely, slaying the monsters one by one.
In mere seconds, every beast vanished.
Not killed conventionally, rather disintegrating into energy shards that faded into the atmosphere.
"Are these zombies or something?" Max pondered, his gaze sharpening.
Rose shot him a quick look, seemingly aware of his insight, yet remained silent. She merely signaled for everyone to press forward.
Further along, the oddities intensified.
They traversed zones where the soil appeared to pulse, subtly heaving and subsiding like a colossal entity sleeping below.
Rose directed them onto a precise route, cautioning against any deviation whatsoever. Her authority went unchallenged.
Soon, they entered a meadow brimming with softly luminous particles hovering midair. Seemingly innocuous and enchanting, they floated lazily akin to fireflies.
A member of the second team reached instinctively, but Rose halted him sharply, her tone cutting and authoritative.
"Do not touch anything!"
She reiterated the prohibition, her resolute voice underscoring it as an absolute order demanding instant obedience.
Doubt found no place in her words; even the unaware pulled back their hands on reflex.
Max sensed the peril too. Those airborne specks weren't mere energy forms. Profound malice emanated from them, a subtle warp that twisted nearby space in eerie, volatile manners.
Proximity alone bred unease invading his perceptions, like reality warping faintly in that spot.
'I sense an intensely volatile spatial essence from these fragments.' Max mused inwardly while scrutinizing them.
The team hurried beyond that zone without delay, vigilant against any brush.
Shortly thereafter, peril shifted once more.
This time, Rose offered no slowdown or details, issuing one stark directive.
"Everyone, run!"
Though hushed, her words pulsed with undeniable haste. No rationale given, no threat in sight, no chance for queries—yet all grasped the peril's enormity, far exceeding casual confrontation.
Hesitation was absent from the group.
They bolted.
Movements turned rapid and precise, tailing Rose unwaveringly. The atmosphere astern stirred subtly, but no one glanced back. Max's Dimensional Sovereign Body detected naught visually.
Merely a sensation registered.
Vast, primordial, and crushingly dominant, it dwarfed prior threats. No beast or cultivator vibe—this was antiquity incarnate, predating them and outlasting eternity.
Yet at a safe remove from their flight's origin, Max witnessed a spine-tingling sight.
The earth where they'd stood moments before vanished abruptly. Via his Dimensional Sovereign Body, a massive void yawned open there.
Swiftly, the void sealed, restoring calm.
'What in the world was that?!' Max scowled.
The teams sprinted onward. No one eased pace, clinging tightly to Rose.
They fled till the aura receded from awareness, the suffocating pressure eased, and ground quakes halted.
Only then did Rose moderate her speed.
"What was that?" Lucia inquired.
Rose shook her head. "Nothing. Let's continue."
With Rose withholding details, the groups pressed on without further probing.
Only Max truly grasped the reason for their desperate flight. Yet he couldn't figure out why Rose hadn't revealed the horror they were fleeing from.
Their trek pressed onward, bringing them nearer to the target.
They clashed only when battle was unavoidable, hacking through beasts obstructing their route. Peculiar sights that posed no urgent peril were overlooked, as they followed Rose's instincts unquestioningly.
And upon encountering threats too mighty to challenge, they bolted without a second thought.
One step at a time, they delved further into Orion.
The environment surrounding them grew ever more chaotic, defying the natural laws they knew. Time flowed erratically, with instants dragging on or snapping short in baffling fashions.
Distances turned deceptive, spots looking nearer or more remote than expected. Absent Rose's lead, distinguishing progress toward the goal from aimless drifting in a fractured realm would have been hopeless.
After hours that dragged on with cautious steps, the ambiance shifted yet again.
This shift stood apart.
The atmosphere didn't thicken or stifle.
Unsteadiness seized it.
A delicate split hovered within, like the essence of space had been rattled.
Max detected it at once.
His awareness caught the ripples, subtle initially but intensifying with every stride. The terrain underfoot displayed fresh wounds, born not of combat or ruin, but a profoundly eerie force. These traces came from whatever had ripped through the fabric of existence.
Rose eased her pace upon feeling it too.
"We are close," she said.
Before them, the ground widened into a sprawling, jagged expanse. Reality itself wavered softly, as though unable to hold its shape completely. No outright gash showed yet, but the portents were unmistakable.
Max's gaze hardened as he peered forward.
The crack.
Its proximity had been attained.