Chapter 638: Luther’s Return (Fixed Chapter)
Crackle!
The space in front of Alex convulsed violently.
Not like before, when Luther had entered the Void realm with calm, practised manoeuvres. That earlier fracture had been narrow, controlled and just big enough to fit Luther’s body perfectly inside without straining himself any further to make it bigger.
This new one was unstable, Alex could tell that at a glance.
The dark rift tore its way open like a wound forced into existence by sheer will. The edges shuddered and spat out waves of warped energy that sent nearby wreckage and space debris tumbling away.
Even Alex’s expression tightened when he sensed the chaotic fluctuations pouring out from the Void rift.
’Something’s gone wrong...’
Badly wrong.
Then a figure burst out from the rift.
Out came Luther.
The King class S tier stumbled the moment he emerged, his body lurching forward through the vacuum before he forcibly steadied himself.
His usually immaculate crystal-like chitin was cracked and blackened in several places, with entire layered sections splintered apart as though something unimaginably heavy had struck him multiple times, again and again.
One of his lower right arms hung at an unnatural angle, nearly torn away from the shoulder joint, while deep gouges ran across his torso, exposing his dimly growing tissue beneath the fractured carapace.
And in two of his arms—
Lay Mira. Unconscious, but her life force was still glowing brightly in Alex’s Spatial Perception, indicating she was still alive and with a lot of life left in her.
Alex was beside them instantly.
His hand shot out, taking mira from Luther with a speed and care that seemed impossible for someone who had acted so violent only moments earlier.
"Mira."
His voice came out low and unaltered so that he didn’t affect her with his panic.
He scanned her entire body in that briefest moment. She was alive, but weak.
Her breathing was shallow, and considering that they were floating in a vacuum, only the remnant energy floating all around them entered her mouth and nose with every inhale, barely keeping her stable.
Her face was pale, and her body lay limp in his arms, the weightlessness of zero gravity not letting Alex get a good grip on her.
But aside from several small injuries and signs of strain, she seemed physically intact.
There was a thin, black mist clinging to parts of her clothing and skin that was a point of concern for Alex, but she was alive.
A great weight lifted itself from Alex’s chest but returned even stronger than before an instant later when he glanced back at Luther.
The alien was breathing just as shallowly as Mira. His body drew in droves of insane amounts of ambient energy from the surrounding space to heal his wounds, devouring it in massive gulps just to steady himself.
The damaged crystalline layers of his body began to regrow, though far too slowly for someone of his level.
That alone told Alex enough.
Whatever Luther encountered in the void was very dangerous.
Luther straightened out with visible effort being exerted, one hand pressed against a deep crack running diagonally across his chest.
"I found her quicker than I expected." He started spoeaking, his voice a mere fragment of what it was before.
"Unfortunately, something else found us as well."
Alex’s eyes sharpened.
"What?"
Luther let out a slow exhale to haul some more energy into himself.
"A Void beast ."
Alex’s expression darkened, but he continued listening.
He shifted Mira slightly in his arms, then extended a part of his perception through her body, checking for deeper injuries while still keeping the damaged rift in front of them under constant watch.
’It should have closed by now.’
Now that he knew the origin of the black mist coating some of Mira’s clothes and body, he immediately utilised some of his energy to disperse it before it could cause any more damage to her.
Luther continued without wasting more time.
"It was nearby when I entered. I didn’t sense it at first – just as I warned you, beings native to that place are much harder to pin down than intruders from our universe. By the time I found your girl and reached her, it had already begun investigating the disturbance my intrusion caused."
The image had already started to form in Alex’s mind.
A Void Beast finding two intruders to its realm likely saw two juicy pieces of meat to devour and didn’t hesitate to attack.
The rift trembled again.
This time more violently.
Alex’s gaze flicked toward it, and Luther also noticed it.
"Yes," he said grimly. "It’s coming."
Luther began desperately gathering even more energy towards him in an effort to speed up his recuperation.
Mira stirred faintly in Alex’s arms, clearly affected by the Void energy emanating from the rift, but she didn’t wake. Alex immediately wrapped a thin layer of controlled warmth around her body, enough to isolate her from the lingering chill from the void and protect her from any residual hostile energy in the area.
Thankfully, his Celestial rank Phoenix Flames seemed to ward off the intruding hostile energy quite flawlessly.
"What kind of beast?" Alex asked.
Luther’s face, if it could still be called that beneath the layered crystal plates, grew even more severe.
"The worst kind to encounter there while burdened with protecting someone weaker."
He paused, drawing in another intense breath of energy. More fractures along his body restored themselves.
"It is an A+ rank Divine Class creature," Luther revealed. "On the verge of stepping into S rank."
For the first time in several moments, even Alex went completely still.
This was something on par with, no, even stronger than Brontes!
Both were Divine Class A tier beings, but Brontes was still just an A- rank beast, while this Void Beast was A+ rank, nearly S tier!
A creature like that, one with an affinity for the dangerous Void element no less, would be vastly more dangerous than any ordinary Divine Class A tier beast, even though no Divine beast is ordinary...
And it was heading right for them, aiming to cross the still violently crackling rift into the outside universe!
