At the depth of the canyon that was filled with dark green gas, lay Anna and Leon. Both of them were unconscious. Their rising and falling chests were the only signs that they weren't dead.
Jumping into this canyon was Anna's plan to escape the chimera.
For the past months, she had noticed that no monsters went near the canyon. Although she knew that there must be even greater danger lurking inside the canyon, she had no choice but to jump here.
Nevertheless, she had been too na?ve. Because the dark green gas was so thick that measuring its depth was impossible she hadn't thought of what could happen once they jumped there, or rather she didn't have time to think about it.
It was thanks to Leon's timely intervention that Raikou covered both of them and the impact of the crash didn't kill them.
Several hours passed in the same manner but none of them awoke. Whenever anyone among them would almost regain consciousness, the gas would gush into their mouths in great amounts and they would lose hold of their consciousness again.
A day went by.
Exactly 24 hours after they fell, a change occurred in the canyon.
Sudden noises of cluttering echoed. The jarring cacophony drowned the canyon. Hundreds, if not thousands glowing dots appeared, seemingly moving toward the two unconscious prey.
Leon and Anna's brows furrowed, and they scowled, but they were unable to come out of their dreams. The effects of the gas were overpowering their instincts.
The gas twirled and a monster stepped out.
Two large pincers, lustreless green exoskeleton, 10 legs supporting their weight, and two beady eyes. Clanking their pincers, the monsters jeered and raced to dine.
Swosh-
Puchi-! Puchi-! Puchi-!
Suddenly, the three monsters at the front dropped to the ground and turned into pixels. Before the monsters at the back could react, a thin grey vine moved at a terrifying speed and killed another 10 monsters.
Kreeeecchh-
The vine-covered Leon and Anna, and growled at the monsters.
Monsters of their rank shouldn't have retreated as they couldn't think, but they instinctively felt that the grey vine was a different 'species' altogether. It was something superior than them.
When the monsters finally retreated, the grey vine turned and stared at the two unconscious humans.
kreeEEccHHH-
Bubbles swelled and burst on the vine's trunk and, like a tree undergoing rapid growth, it became larger.
The vine grew two legs, two arms, a torso, and a head. It had the appearance of a human, the difference being its grey color.
The bubbles kept bursting on the Abomination's skin and it thrashed around.
kkRRReecchHH-
Even in pain, the Abomination tried to kill Leon as its last job but it failed. At the last second, as its limbs were about to pierce their skulls, a rainbow-colored flame burst from within it and the Abomination's body stiffened.
Ear-piercing howls rang for hours in the canyon as the grey monster and the rainbow-colored flame fought for supremacy.
"Haah… haah…"
At the end of the battle, the monster breathed and dropped to the ground.
*
"My head… it hurts"
Hours later, the silence of the canyon was again broken. Groggily sitting, the 'human' looked around.
"Leon…Anna…? Why are they here…." The 'human' looked shocked and then hurriedly checked his own body. "Didn't I die with Susan? How am I alive?"
The 'human' bore a strikingly similar appearance to Nathan, only his eyes were grey.
Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours.
'Nathan', noticing that monsters in the canyon were afraid of him, stayed near Leon and Anna while thinking of reasons for what was happening. freeweb(n)ovel.com
"The last thing I can remember is 'me' dying with Susan. But how did I fuse with the Abomination?" He rubbed his chin and thought more. "The only possible way I can think of that it has something to do with [Miracle]. Maybe X merged me with the Abomination to save me?"
As the cluttering returned, 'Nathan' glared into the fog and the monster retreated in fear.
"But why is Leon here and how are we supposed to get out of this [Singularity] trial?"
Knowing the terrain of floors, and noticing the physical age of Anna, he guessed that he was in a [Singularity] trial inside the tower.
'Nathan' didn't know how he reached there. He didn't know if others were alive, too. But because the Abomination, 'he', was alive, the tower restrictions were still in place.
Bizarre things were happening, yet 'Nathan' was calm, eerily so.
Was he a human? Or was he an Abomination? Was he even alive?
HISSSSSSS-
The appearance of the new monster broke him out of his reverie.
Turning his head, 'Nathan' used the previous trick again, glaring at the monster to make them back away. But when it didn't work, he issued a warning, "Get lost if you don't want to…."
Fwosh-
Bang-!
A massive tail swung at him and smashed him into the walls of the canyon.
HISSSSS-
Killing 'Nathan', two glowing slits slithered toward Leon and Anna.
A snake came out of the mist. It was big and wide, wide enough that two of the same snake wouldn't fit side-by-side in this canyon and the end of its body was nowhere in sight.
The monster lunged at the two prey.
"So, physical damage doesn't work anymore, huh."
Fwosh-
'Nathan' appeared suddenly beside Leon and Anna, and carried them away before the monster could eat them.
Moving at an unbelievable speed, he placed them far away from the monster and reappeared in front of the snake monster.
Swinging his fist, he hit the monster's overgrown body.
"Eh?"
His punch went through the monster and hit empty air. 'Nathan', could ignore physical damage, but he also couldn't attack physically.
Barely suppressing the twitching corner of his lips, 'Nathan' jumped back.
He kept Leon and Anna in his presence to make sure monsters did not attack them while facing the snake monster.
"You are… I have seen you somewhere."
While 'Nathan' was drowned in his thoughts, the monster lunged at him, intending to kill him. As the king of the canyon, it took it as an insult that 'Nathan' survived his attacks.
Moving with minimal movements, 'Nathan' kept dodging the snake's attack without any effort.
"You're J?rmungandr! The World Eating Serpent! Well, at least the copy of the real one." 'Nathan's' brows furrowed. "But then, why do I feel like I've seen you somewhere?"
J?rmungandr was one of the four calamities that would almost destroy Earth in the near future. While that one was real J?rmungandr, the one in front of Nathan wasn't.
Suddenly, Nathan's eyes brightened.
"That merged Leviathan in my First Trial! You're that!"
As he recalled where he had seen the monster, Nathan failed to realize that he was dodging the monster's attack with terrifying accuracy.
Although this J?rmungandr was only Lvl 50, it still had 3 [Traits]. The one Nathan had faced in the [Singularity] trial had only one [Trait], and on top of that, Nathan won only because he defeated the main body of the monster. He wasn't able to kill the merged Leviathan.
Throughout the time he dodged J?rmungandr's attack, 'Nathan' held a relaxed expression.
However, the grey color from his eyes suddenly burst and covered the upper half of his torso. At that moment, Nathan momentarily lost control of his body, allowing the J?rmungandr to hit him.
Bang-!!
The canyon shook greatly and rubble flew into the air.
The monster was hissing in victory when 'Nathan' stepped out of the crater. He was back to normal with the grey color only present in his eyes.
"I was dodging it this whole time…?" Grasping his action in the past minutes, 'Nathan's' face hardened. "When did I grow proficient enough to dodge a monster's attack without breaking a sweat?"
He would've let it go if this ability came from Abomination, but it didn't. Feeling something on the tip of his tongue, 'Nathan' unconsciously touched his earlobes, he was forgetting something.
HISSSS-
"Dark world"
'Nathan' swiped his hand and covered the valley in black color. A gigantic black sphere appeared in the canyon.
Losing its vision, the monster lost track of 'Nathan'. Using the gap, he picked up Anna and Leon, and ran away.
'Nathan' didn't worry about his current predicament. He didn't pay attention to his absurdly strong stigma. He ignored his merging with Abomination.
But for some reason, as soon as he tried to recall when he got so much proficient in combat, his back was drenched in cold sweat.
Gulping heavily, 'Nathan' continued running without a second thought.
His mind screamed at him to stop trying to remember. The more he dug into his memories, the more he shivered.
Bam-
Unable to continue running, 'Nathan' fell along with Leon and Anna.
"Huff! Huff!"
Ironically, there was a small puddle where he fell. He looked at his face in the reflection and the missing pieces clicked in place.
"The earrings. They are missing."
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