Chaos' Heir

Chapter 1604: Return

When Liiza defeated her opponent, the whole maze-like environment that had expanded beyond the massive gorge crumbled, its fake space shattering, replaced by the true face of the world.

Major General Arngan and Lord Enforcer were still in the process of planning their next move when the very sky fell into pieces, revealing a second, identical atmosphere that contained familiar figures.

Lord Mighty, Ilman, Mazatl, Dean Ulluw, Perac, Lord Envoy, Lord Blind Sword, Kodwa, Airrak, and Liiza appeared among the vanishing shards of the fake sky, floating among that celestial body’s authentic atmosphere, only for gravity to pull them toward the surface.

Except for Ilman, everyone was able to land on the gorge’s edge on their own. As for the Niqols, Lord Mighty took care of him, carrying him on his broad shoulder during his free fall.

Of course, Ilman was only the most extreme example of the team’s general condition. Only a few warriors still carried injuries, but everyone was tired, no matter how much they tried to hide it.

Still, exhaustion or not, the team didn’t forget about their job. Those evolved warriors had come there to deal with the Scarlet Eyes’ Kings and pave the path toward their God. However, that road seemed to be closed now.

The destruction of the fake environments had brought the elite team back to the dark celestial body’s surface, but the massive mountain at the end of that manufactured maze was nowhere to be seen.

Even Liiza and Lord Envoy, the experts in matters of space, failed to spot or sense anything remotely close to that giant landmark that had once stood at the end of the fake worlds.

Despite wanting to go after even stronger opponents, the team didn’t know the way and had no immediate method of finding it.

Liiza and the others could fly all over the celestial body, searching for the mountain. Still, that would waste so much time, especially since that landmark could have been fake, too. Chances were it had never existed in the first place.

Of course, Liiza could rely on her mental connection with Khan to gain a sense of where he was. Yet, despite still sensing him, that channel felt faint and impossibly distant, as if he were too far away for her even to try reaching him.

That was because the distance was misleading. Liiza realized that the issue had nothing to do with kilometers or similar measurements. Khan simply was in a separate world, no different from what she and her companions had crossed earlier.

Since advancing wasn’t a realistic option, the next best course of action was to turn back, reuniting with the main army to help it fend off the Scarlet Eyes’ troops. The elite team’s arrival might also draw out more Kings, fulfilling its intended job in the meantime.

And that was precisely what the elite team did. The group hardly exchanged any words before hurrying back to the first battlefield, following the directions of the Orlats speaking through their few still-functioning devices.

The scene that expanded in the elite team’s vision once it reached the first battlefield was unsurprisingly terrible.

Clouds of True Chaos rose everywhere. The defensive lines had been broken, destroying most of the heavy weaponry, leaving the various soldiers fighting against bloated-backed monsters and red-eyed warriors in a battlefield that knew no order or formations.

An uncountable number of corpses also littered the black ground, but the scene did feature a silver lining. Somehow, the Leviathan-class ship was still intact and untouched, protected by a mana barrier while firing nonstop at the battlefield.

Obviously, the ship had switched to precision weapons, but its unharmed state brought great reassurance. The elite team hadn’t forgotten how they were in a separate dimension, so that vessel was their only way back home.

If the chance to go back home ever arrived.

Nevertheless, before Liiza and the others could jump into the fray, something ancient and impossibly heavy spread through the area. A pressure that everyone noticed descended onto the battlefield, ending all the fighting.

The regulated universe’s soldiers were confused, but the Scarlet Eyes’ troops immediately reacted, retreating to stand closer to the encircling glowing clouds before kneeling to the ground.

A vast ellipse opened above the battlefield at that point, seemingly as big as the Leviathan-class ship, containing inscrutable blackness. However, only a comparatively tiny caped figure stepped out of it, but everything transformed at its arrival.

The giant, elliptical gate immediately closed, and the mana in the area followed suit. The barrier around the Leviathan-class ship suddenly vanished, and the weapons peeking from its hull went offline, failing to draw any fuel.

Something similar happened to the regulated universe’s soldiers. The tools that allowed them to use mana in the presence of the True Chaos failed them despite still having mutagen to burn, exposing them to that annihilating environment.

The absence of mana extended to the ship and the soldiers’ insides. Now that the experimental fuel and the mutagen had failed, the regulated universe’s troops’ mana receded, vanishing directly from their bodies under the influence of the True Chaos.

The only exceptions to that rule were the members of the elite team, albeit not completely.

Liiza and the others’ mana didn’t vanish. Still, they found themselves unable to summon it past their bodies, falling prey to the same predicament that had afflicted Khan inside the spherical, separate dimension.

Obviously, the newcomer noticed the event. The caped figure still in the sky turned toward the elite team, and an even heavier version of the pressure that had taken control of the area fell on the evolved warriors.

And, despite the distance, everyone in the elite team felt able to spot the figure’s every detail clearly, as if nothing in the world could obscure them.

The newcomer was a member of the Scarlet Eyes’ race with a single, bigger horn growing from the center of his forehead. He didn’t seem to have anything else worth noting. Yet, Liiza felt unable to breathe at the sight of his scarlet eyes.

After all, Liiza recognized those eyes, realizing that she was now in the presence of the God.