Chapter 636: Layla?
Hibiki silently stepped closer, raising her hand and a dark pink mist flowed from her palm, slipping into the bird’s mouth.
As the mist took effect, the bird’s frantic struggling ceased, its body going limp in Arthur’s grasp.
But Hibiki’s expression darkened.
"It’s been deprived of its ability to speak."
She knew the type—this bird should have been capable of speech, but its owner had cleverly removed that ability, rendering it useless, even under her control. They couldn’t force it to spill anything now.
Before she could say more, the bird began convulsing again. Its beak opened, a thin foam trickling out before its body went still.
"It’s dead."
Arthur sighed, tossing the bird’s lifeless body to the ground. It bounced once and then disintegrated into dust before it could hit the ground again.
Whoever was on the other end had realized their familiar had been caught and severed the connection—killing it remotely.
"It seems we have some unsavoury characters watching us. Either it’s other survivors from the ship’s explosion, or..."
He trailed off, his eyes narrowing slightly and Hibiki finished his words with a grim tone.
"The natives of this planet."
Just because they had only been encountering monsters and cultivators who also got shipwrecked, didn’t mean there weren’t any natives around.
They were out there, somewhere, and if these natives weren’t friendly, things could get messy fast.
"Let’s speed up and regroup with the others quickly."
Arthur spoke as he held out his hand and distorted space with Cosmic energy, forming a Gate.
"Let’s go."
Hibiki nodded silently, following Arthur as he stepped into the gate.
Repeatedly creating cosmic gates, Arthur and Hibiki crossed vast distances in an instant, the landscape around them shifting as they travelled miles in a matter of moments.
By the time afternoon arrived, they had covered nearly three-quarters of their journey.
Along the way, they had a few monster fights and came across some other survivors, though none posed a real challenge.
Most of the monsters were weak by Arthur’s standards, but not for Hibiki.
She faced a few Legendary Realm creatures and after killing them she noticed something peculiar.
"The amount of EXP I’m getting from these things is a lot higher than usual."
She remarked, wiping sweat from her brow after one particularly tough fight.
Arthur wasn’t surprised.
This was Apex World. The creatures here were born with a higher quality of both energy and existential records.
Considering those were two of the vital components of EXP, it made sense they gave more.
"Evan must be having a field day."
Arthur spoke with a chuckle, and he wasn’t wrong.
Evan was indeed having a field day, slaughtering every monster above Level 500 that he came across and piling up EXP to get himself closer to Level 800.
◇ ◇ ◇
By noon, Arthur and Hibiki had reached their final obstacle: a forest that practically radiated unease.
The trees looked twisted with dark, creeping vines snaking up their trunks and along the ground, almost like they were alive.
Seeing the vines slithering toward the two of them as they approached, Arthur spoke.
"This place definitely has some strange monsters inside."
Hibiki shot Arthur a look, her tone deadpan.
"Come on, Arthur. Do you not feel the infernal energy pouring out of there? Of course, there’s something strange in there."
Arthur chuckled as his eyes swept the horizon to both sides before he sighed.
"Going around it’s going to take too much time."
He said, noting how the forest stretched out endlessly and Hibiki nodded.
"So, I guess we’re going through."
Without much more to say, they stepped into the forest.
The trees crowded in closer, their bark almost black, dripping with moisture that didn’t seem to have come from rain. Above them, the canopy was so dense that barely any light penetrated through, casting everything in a dim, perpetual twilight.
Strange, curling plants crawled along the ground, weaving around their feet, and the path they followed seemed to twist and branch at every turn.
The further they went, the more it felt like some kind of maze. Other paths fed into theirs from different directions, intertwining and breaking off again, creating a web of trails that made it easy to lose any sense of direction.
And then there was the mist.
It lingered low, creeping up to their waists as they walked. Every now and then, Arthur would send out a pulse of energy, blowing the mist away, but within moments it always returned.
They moved deeper into the labyrinthine forest, the air growing colder and heavier.
Soon, they stumbled across their first sign of human life—or rather, what remained of it.
A dead cultivator lay on the ground, his eyes wide open in a frozen expression of shock, a gaping hole in his chest where something had pierced straight through.
His blood had long since dried, turning the ground beneath him dark.
Arthur knelt beside the body and tapped the dead man’s forehead. His left eye glowed slightly and he rewound the man’s final moments.
"Poor guy."
Arthur muttered after a minute.
"It looks like he was betrayed by someone from his own sect. He saw someone he knew, went up to hug her, and then... a giant stinger emerged from her back. It stabbed him right through while they were talking."
Hibiki’s brow furrowed, confusion written across her face.
"So, the person he trusted turned into a monster? Or was that person a monster all along?"
Arthur rose to his feet, dusting off his hands as he responded.
"Could be either. I only saw the moments right before he died. But I have another theory—what if it was a monster that took on the form of someone he knew?"
Hibiki’s eyes darkened at the thought.
"That’s... unsettling."
They pressed on, leaving the body behind and at one point, Arthur halted abruptly, his gaze narrowing as he used his spatial power to recalibrate.
His eyes swept the area, realization dawning on him.
"We’re not heading west anymore. We’ve somehow ended up going south. So this place also screws with your sense of direction, huh?"
He eyed the mist that clung persistently to their legs and swirled through the trees. It wasn’t hard to guess that it played a role in their misdirection.
He refocused their course and once again, they set off westward, but soon Arthur noticed something alarming.
A slight diversion to the right—barely a deviation—and suddenly, they were veering south again.
"Space must be messed up inside this forest, too. Great."
Arthur grumbled in annoyance, but just then, he sensed movement behind them that made him turn around.
"Who’s there?"
Emerging from the shadows of a thick tree trunk was a figure that made Arthur freeze, his eyes going wide in disbelief.
Long black hair cascading to her waist, emerald green almond-shaped eyes, and a face he’d known all his life.
"Layla?"
By some force of nature, Layla Eryrth—his childhood friend, was now standing before him.
Layla’s expression mirrored his surprise, but then she smiled, stepping closer and a grin broke across Arthur’s face.
"Layla! It’s been so long!"
He started walking toward her, his arms spreading wide as if he was about to embrace her.
But Hibiki, standing just a few feet away, was dumbfounded. Her eyes didn’t see the girl Arthur was walking toward.
Instead, she saw someone else entirely—someone she recognized too well. It clicked in her mind at that moment, and alarm bells went off.
"Wait, Arthur! That’s not your friend!"
Hibiki called out, her voice laced with urgency but Arthur didn’t seem to hear her. He seemed utterly oblivious to Hibiki’s warning, his arms stretched wide as if to embrace the illusion.
’Is this thing capable of controlling him? Did it enthral him somehow?’
Without hesitation, Hibiki unleashed the suppression she usually kept on her succubus powers. Her body radiated a dark pink mist as she activated her innate Charm, intending to break Arthur free from whatever control the creature had over him.
If this imposter had the power to ensnare his mind, she would fight it by enthralling him herself, forcing him back to his senses.
But before she could fully act, Arthur suddenly stopped just within arm’s reach of the imposter, and to Hibiki’s shock, he let out a laugh.
"Ah, this is fucking hilarious."
The smile on his face vanished and before the creature could react, Arthur’s hand, which had been outstretched for a hug, moved at sonic speed.
It slammed into the imposter’s face with such force that its head was torn clean from its neck, splattering black blood into the air.
Hibiki just stood there, speechless, the pink mist of her Charm still drifting from her skin.
Arthur flicked the remaining blood from his hand, turning toward Hibiki, who stood there, still dumbfounded.
"What? Come on, Hibiki. We just found a corpse, and I literally told you how that guy was killed by his ’friend.’
Why would I think that ’my friend’ would magically show up here, especially when she’s not even in this universe?"
Hibiki blinked, finally grasping the logic.
"True, but I thought it had some kind of enthralling powers or something."
Arthur shrugged, glancing at the lifeless imposter at his feet.
"Nah, it didn’t have anything like that. Or maybe it did, but it just didn’t work on me."
He clicked his tongue, eyeing the body with disdain.
"This is distasteful. Even if it was a monster, it still had Layla’s face."
Sighing, he held out his hand, summoning his semi-transparent sword with a single word.
"Celestia."
The blade manifested in his hands and his energy flowed into it.
"Stand back a bit."
Arthur instructed Hibiki, positioning himself to face west. He peered into the distance with his spatial powers and, the corners of his lips curled up at what he sensed.
"Well, well, well. Looks like Evan’s just outside this forest."
"Huh? How do you know that?"
Hibiki asked, still reeling from the sudden turn of events and Arthur responded, though he seemed unsure of his answer.
"It’s a Singularity thing, I think? We distort balancing laws, so we can sense each other’s distortions when we get close. He’s not far."
Though Hibiki didn’t fully grasp the specifics of what he meant, Arthur’s confidence left no room for doubt.
He raised his sword high, and destruction energy flowed into the blade. He spread out his spatial power and confirmed that there was no innocent presence within his range. Only monsters.
A crimson silver beam of light surged from his sword, piercing through the thick canopy of trees and even the clouds beyond.
Then, Arthur swung his hand down.
"Split Series; Second Split: Island Split."
The slash of destruction energy cleaved forward, unstoppable. The trees of the forest were torn asunder as the slash carved through everything in its path.
The thick mist that had clung stubbornly to the ground was obliterated, vaporizing instantly. The ground split open in a colossal gash, stretching far ahead of them, all the way to the distant horizon, where the forest ended.
Now, there was a vast ravine cutting through the forest, perfectly straight and deep.
Arthur casually extended a hand toward Hibiki, using his gravity powers to lift her body into the air as he spoke.
"Let’s move."
Before Hibiki could even respond, Arthur dashed forward in a straight line, his speed making it seem as though the remaining world around them was standing still.
