(Written while listening to: "World on Fire" by Les Friction on YouTube)
<<<>>>
Laito exploded with movement.
Like a projectile flung from a fling he flew away from that gigantic skull.
He didn't read far enough in the novel to know what exactly was hiding within – but it was hinted to be something ridiculously powerful…
He had no intention of finding out… at least not yet.
Since the veil of clouds closed-off the incinerating sky it was now perfectly possible to move.
Unforunetly – that also meant that other things could also do the same.
And oh boy – what a mayhem.
It took just few seconds for the weaker abominations to run out from the hollow spaces of giant skeleton.
Then they started to devour each other – and in consequence: hey grew stronger, while constant influxof newer creatures filled the gaps in carnage, making it like they were never dwindling in numbers.
'The famed Scarlet jungle… in real life it looks… well… exactly how I have imagined… but only because I have an elaborate imagination!' Laito thought nonsense.
Despite that it looked bloody, it represented no threat at the moment for our flying lightbulb.
According to novel it would take weeks of clouds constantly covering the deadly lasers of destruction, before any Great beings appearing on the surface.
Which would give Laito plenty enough of time to search for a Gateway here…
But again… Laito couldn't recall any citadel existing on top of the skeleton!
The Namless Temple was only put there temporarily by Sunny…
And Laito had no intention of diving into the hollows – thank you very much.
Dealing with Asuras of Condemnation… or maybe even with Condemnation itself, was definitly out of question – not mentioning other potential horrors hiding there.
So Laito had really only one choice with this incarnation of his:
To leave.
Escape Godgrave into one of the neighboring regions as fast as he could.
Thankfully that strategy had a major advantage compared to his situation in Stormsea:
Godgrave was awfully easy to navigate.
Seriously – as long as you have an even basic idea about human bone structure… and a good vantage point, you could easily chart a direction and follow it.
But where?
From what he remembered, the surrounding regions could be separated into four categories:
South from Godgrave was…
Stormsea!
–
Not that useful – considering he already had an "agent" there… one that would rather get out of there himself.
In the north were the Hollow Mountains…
Nope!
Although the Spell said that Laito was somehow a kin to Nothing, he still had no intention of facing the deadly white mists over there…
He still remembered the embrace of Nothing during the end of his first trial…
It felt really… like nothing at all – which made sense, but he had no intention of repeating that.
And there were no gateways there really(at least ones that he knew off) so it would have no point.
That left only the directions of the skeleton's left and right hands: – the directions in which there were regions that Laito referred to as "former Anvil" and "former Song" domains…
Although from what Laito had tried to guess from conversations with Damian – the antagonistic Sovereigns that would rule humanity for a time, were probably not even born yet.
Regardless:
Both of these directions were more or less similar both in difficulty and a consequence of choosing.
Both possessed various – possibly unclaimed yet, citadels with working gateways.
So which one to choose…
From Laito's perception it was mostly a question of a coinflip.
There wasn't that much of a difference.
But Laito felt more familiar with "former Anvil" lands since that was where Sunny was hanging around in the parts of the novel that he has read, so because of that…
–
Laito traveled into the "former Song" direction!
Why?
He felt a little "contrarian" at the moment.
Beside that, "former Anvil" had Chained Islands, which had the Crushing, and Laito felt that it would restrict him immensely, since apparently gravity had a grudge with him.
Not that it mattered much. But still.
Onwards he flew away from Godheart(A skeleton's chestpiece) where he was, in the direction of the skeleton's right arm!
Towards Ravenheart and the Jade Palace… though he would probably just stop at the first citadel he found.
But then…
Laito saw a parting in the clouds some distance ahead of him.
'You can't be serious.'
The nebulous veil that protected the bony surface was fickle, but not that much.
The truth was that since Laito was not moored to "normal" way of travel – in other words he could fly and quite fast at that, combined with the fact that most Nightmare Creatures couldn't even detect him – he traveled fast.
Very fast. At least considering the standards of Sleepers.
So he just ran into another parting in a place that was quite removed from where he was stuck previously.
So.
As unwillingly as he was:
Laito dived straight through the bone ground. Downwards – as he was unwilling to waste more time being stuck.
He hoped to hide within ground and avoid getting into the Hollows, while still moving further to the west.
Unfortunately, he felt himself slowly pushed away from inside of the bone tissue.
The material was simply too high in rank and it rejected Laito's intrusion on a mystical level.
Now it was dangerous, since if he was ejected: he would fly right into the killing light…
So he forced himself more and more…
To move down and down further from the possibility of losing his Core…
And what Laito planned against happened exactly in a way that hoped would not happen…
He suddenly popped out of the ceiling.
Right in the middle of a spacious and suspiciously empty space of cavern-like structure that was supposed to be filled with crimson jungle growth… but it wasn't.
Anyways…
A forced change in plans happened…
Laito entered the Hollows.
<<<>>>
[16 months left until MHA plot beginning]
[Chapter End] The story is not over yet
My tipping jar: buymeacoffee.com/marasis
---
Author notes:
I realized that I forgot to post Damian's and squid monster's images yet, so here they are:
I'll also add them in chapters when Mc met them.