Gehenna Realm
In the devilish, gloomy, crimson world of Gehenna, the barren land near the dimensional crack continued to be enriched with new soil and trees from Pangea at an unnoticeably slow but sure and increasing rate.
As the dimension crack expanded, Gehenna would eventually devour all of Pangea and become a singular larger world.
Such an instance was considered even in Chaos, which had existed for countless chaos cycles.
After all, a natural fusion of two different worlds could only occur if the dimensional crack appeared at the precise point connecting both worlds.
Nevertheless, many demons of Gehenna had been looking forward to the completion of the world fusion process since the day the dimensional crack appeared.
An entire new world was waiting for them to explore, abundant resources waiting for them to plunder, and new races to play with – all without the suppression of the material world.
Around the vicinity of Pangea's Gateway, the former parts of the Great Ashfallen Forest could barely be recognized due to the changes in the environment and the universal laws.
Some Ashfallen Trees failed to adapt to the change and died, turning into dead trees, black and dry like charcoal, yet also tough like steel.
They were also logged to clear the path to Pangea's Gateway.
On the other hand, the rest of the Ashfallen Trees had transformed into sentient demon trees as a result of greedily absorbing the mana and dead spirits of those that had previously fallen in the holy war.
Nevertheless, this allowed the sentient demon trees to grow to unimaginable height and shape.
Many sentient demon trees had grown taller than the dimensional crack itself and tightly entangled each other with their overgrown branches.
As such, the dimensional crack's existence was also hidden from everyone outside the new forest they had collectively formed, the Illusory Demon Forest.
That said, the dimensional crack wasn't permanently obscured from the outside.
During the season of the crimson moon, where the crimson moonlight was at its brightest, the entire Illusory Demon Forest would disappear without a trace, as if it had never existed in the first place. Only a barren land with few dead trees would be left during its period of disappearance.
Hence, it was called the Illusory Demon Forest for that reason.
However, people would be sorely mistaken if they believed the Illusory Demon Forest was just a mere illusion to fool the eye and nothing more due to its disappearing feature.
It was not.
On the contrary, it was very real and even more treacherous. It was a hungry ghost forest that preyed on the living, always craving flesh and blood to nourish itself.
Humans and demons alike would have to tread carefully if they sought safe passage through it.
An enormous shell-looking mountain with a hollow interior could be found roughly a hundred miles north of the Illusory Demon Forest, past the desolate land where the remnants of an old castle ruin could be discovered with scarce vegetation and water source.
Contrary to the desolate land, the region with the enormous shell-looking mountain was rich in vegetation and water sources.
It was said that the enormous shell-looking mountain used to be the actual shell of a Realm Turtle born on the land.
Realm Turtles were mythical creatures that could grow to the size of starry celestial bodies.
Unfortunately, the Realm Turtle in this land died before it could reach adulthood after the sea dried up several hundred thousand years ago.
Inside the shell mountains, a strong clan of shadow wolves had created countless burrows, making the place their home.
After humans felled Furhengir, the Demon Wolf King ruling the region, the Shadow Wolf Clan rose to power and replaced them as the new regional overlord, following the will of Balmodan the Undying.
At that moment, a gathering was taking place in the middle of the clan, a relatively large space with remnant traces of a fireplace, shortly after the spacequake occurred in Pangea.
It was their feasting ground.
Usually, only a few thousand shadow wolves would gather at the feasting ground at a time during their mealtimes. However, the entire clan was gathered for their summoning this time around. As such, it was a little overcrowded.
More than half the shadow wolves could only spectate outside the feasting ground.
Nevertheless, among the thousands upon thousands of shadow wolves gathered at the feasting ground, only a single half-man, half-wolf was present.
The wolf-man was the leader of the Shadow Wolf Clan, Thyrius.
In order to strengthen control over the region and not let history repeat itself, Thyrius was blessed with Balmodan's Immortal Lycan Bloodline and advanced into the semi-Divine stage, becoming an Early-stage Demigod.
"My kin, there's only one reason why I have gathered you all today! I will be leaving this region temporarily to report to my master at the Undying Devil Palace regarding the spatial changes at Pangea's Gateway!" Thyrius announced, full of vigor.
"Therefore, I am entrusting everyone to work hard and guard the region well during my absence! Of course, a clan cannot function without a leader, so Jackal will be in charge of the clan's matters until I return!"
"Jackal, come forward and receive my order!" Thyrius called.
However, not a single shadow wolf stepped forward after the name was called, even after some time passed. As such, Thyrius quickly lost his patience.
"Where the fuck is my little brother, Jackal?! Come out right now! You might be my little brother, but that doesn't mean you can disregard my words! Fucking hell, you must be tired of living! This is your last chance! If you don't come out immediately, I'll call you Jack-shit from now on!" Thyrius thundered angrily.
He repeatedly called out to Jackal but was only greeted with silence each time.
At the same time, his billowing rage and oppressive aura suppressed all the attending shadow wolves to the ground. Not a single shadow wolf dared to lift its head or even speak on Jackal's behalf—at least not until Thyrius's anger subsided or if they were called.
Nevertheless, Thyrius knew his little brother was sensible. Thus, after his short fit of anger, he quickly calmed down and thought things through.
"Does anyone know where the hell my little brother went? You look like you know. Tell me," Thyrius singled out a shadow wolf after noticing its expression.
Awroo!
The shadow wolf issued a series of short and intermittent howls, informing Thyrius how Jackal led a large group of clan elites to the Illusory Demon Forest to investigate a spatial anomaly prior to the spacequake disturbance.
"There was a spatial anomaly prior to the sqacequake disturbance?" Thyrius frowned.
"Since that is the case, we'll leave it at that. It will take some time before he returns. Have someone inform him of his duties once he is back. I won't be waiting."
"My report cannot be delayed," Thyrius stated solemnly.
If he couldn't deliver the information and caused the master to fail in resolving any arising problem from Pangea's Gateway in time, he could easily lose the master's grace and even bear the master's wrath.
He might have the master's grace, but he understood his Shadow Wolf Clan was expendable; they could be replaced if deemed useless.
Awroo!
Shortly after the shadow wolves expressed that they had heard and understood Thyrius's words, he immediately departed without further delay.
Little did he know, Jackal and the group of elites he led wouldn't be coming back.
…
…
…
Back on Pangea's side, Vaan left the Great Ashfallen Forest with Henrietta, but not without arranging for the Rank 5 young dragon elites to strengthen their watch over the region.
During the event of the brief spacequake, Henrietta was quickly made aware of a potential crisis that would affect everyone in Pangea.
Although neither Vaan nor Henrietta knew what caused the spacequake, they could at least see the spatial destabilization around the dimensional crack.
Even after the end of the spacequake, the dimensional crack continued to fluctuate with unstable levels of mana output.
Sometimes, mana would surge out from Gehenna, and sometimes, only a scarce amount would squeeze out.
However, the mana output in the dimensional crack wasn't a big problem.
The main issue was the unstable space causing Gehenna's Gateway to exhibit unpredictable behaviors, which could ultimately lead to an accelerated expansion in the dimensional crack.
"I will return to the capital and make preparations in case the worse happens," Henrietta said solemnly.
"And I will try to investigate the source of the spacequake," Vaan stated.
Shortly after Vaan and Henrietta said their piece, they flew their separate ways. Henrietta headed back to Blackthord City. And as for Vaan, he directed his attention to the starry sky.
'Fortunately, I made some progress in the Space Law,' Vaan thought.
He wasn't sure if it was a coincidence or not, but he did comprehend the Space Law in a timely manner. The Space Law would help him navigate the starry sky.
Furthermore, he was already a Peak-stage Demigod, even if only in the soul. Breaking through the sky was not a challenge.
Boom…
Vaan rapidly ascended the sky, leaving behind a trail of fire as he broke the sound barrier, followed by several short blinks through space.
In a short span of time, Vaan broke free from Pangea's gravity and left the planet behind, entering the endless darkness of space.
Although the vast expanse outside Pangea was dark, the cloudy skies and congested mana no longer obscured his vision.
As such, he could see the situation outside of Pangea very clearly.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m