The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 263

Chapter 263

Chapter 263: Cornered

Panic began bubbling up in the pit of my stomach as the platform disappeared from view. I didn’t have the confidence to say that I’d survive the impact after hitting the ground at this speed. Worse yet was the fact that I might not hit anything at all. Knowing that aether was involved in making this place, the possibility of falling indefinitely was all too real.

I remembered the helpless void that I had trapped myself in before waking up in this dungeon. The sheer numbness and darkness that had swallowed my mind and soul was something that brought chills down my spine at the mere recollection of it.

The impact I felt on my back, however, snapped me back to reality. I had landed on a platform.

The otherworldly surface glowed a soft white underneath me. As my mind tried to process what had happened, another crash resounded behind me.

“Sonova—”

“Regis! Are you okay?” I asked as my companion swaggered back up into the air, hovering a few feet above the glowing white platform.

“I don’t know... but for someone incorporeal, a lot of shit sure can touch me in this godforsaken place,” Regis groused.

I cracked a smile, happy to see my companion complain...and happy to have solid ground beneath me. However, what bothered me was the fact that, behind us, there were no other platforms. Just like when we had first arrived here.

With little choice but to walk up the lone staircase up ahead, we made our way across the platform and climbed the stairs to see the familiar glow of red on the platform in front of us.

I stared dumbfoundedly at the view ahead, struck with a sudden sense of déjà vu. “Regis. Please tell me you’re thinking the same thing I am.”

“If you’re thinking of a certain Italian plumber with a mustache, and what happens to him when he falls, then yeah,” Regis muttered.

“Crude metaphor of an ancient video game aside, I think you may have a point,” I replied. “But we’ll find out for sure once we step on it.”

“You mean once you step on it.” Regis shot toward me, disappearing into my hand.

Letting out a sigh, I stepped onto the platform. Almost immediately, I felt the sensation of aether being sucked out of me while the glowing red platform stretched out in length.

“I’m not even surprised,” I muttered, trudging forward.

I coalesced aether from my left hand this time, limiting the rate at which aether left my body as I neared the staircase.

‘Easy,’ Regis scoffed.

I stopped a few steps short of the staircase.

‘Wait, no. Please don’t tell me...’

“Where else am I going to find another environment that naturally pulls aether out of me?” I asked before smirking. “Besides, didn’t you just say it was easy?”

Despite having experience launching a destructive blast of aether from the palm of my hand, the second time wasn’t any easier. In fact, because I had become more accustomed to coalescing aether in my right hand, I had an even harder time with my left.

Needless to say, I walked up the staircase to the next platform with a shattered left hand, a near-empty aether core... and a smile on my face.

Regis glared daggers at me, his size once again shrunken from having to inject his aether into me. “Masochist.”

Ignoring the potential psychological repercussions of my dangerous actions since waking up in this dungeon, I stepped onto the orange platform. I dodged the invisible centaur beast once more, but rather than making the mistake of killing it and letting it disappear, I pinned it down and absorbed its aether first.

The great thing about expanding my aether passages was that I was no longer limited to consuming aether using my mouth. I could now absorb through my hand with dignity and poise.

Stepping up onto the blue platform, recovered and brimming with energy, I patiently solved the spinning platform puzzle.

My heart finally calmed after stepping onto the staircase leading to the next platform. The memory of the ground flipping from straight beneath me and sending me down a void had been seared into both our minds.

“Please let this next one be the exit,” Regis prayed, his horns practically drooping.

As we reached the top of the stairs, I couldn’t help but grow anxious.

The platform was about twice as big as the previous platforms and emitted an ominous black light.

I pushed aside my worries as my hand subconsciously reached for the bag carrying Sylvie’s stone. Despite the state she was in, my bond had become an anchor for me and a constant reminder of what my goals were. _{ƒreewebɳovel.com}

Steeling myself, I stepped up onto the black platform with Regis following close behind. As soon as my feet were both planted on the glowing black surface, the entire platform began to thrum deeply.

My eyes scanned my surroundings, my senses on full alert for any dangers coming our way. The thrumming grew louder to an almost deafening degree until, suddenly, hundreds of black wires shot out from all four edges of the square platform, criss-crossing with each other to form a fence-like enclosing that stretched high above us.

Regis looked up and around. “That can’t be good.”

A thick layer of aether clung evenly over my body as I stepped toward the center. Seeing that we were blocked from moving forward meant that we needed to solve some sort of puzzle...or kill something in here.

As if reading my thoughts, the ground a few yards in front of me began rippling as a large mound of glowing black began growing from the center of it.

The expanse of purple surrounding us darkened as a towering figure burgeoned from the very ground we were standing on.

I gazed up at the shadowy giant looming over us. The bipedal creature was at least five times my height and looked like it was wearing a full set of armor of the same shadowy material as the rest of its body, along with a viking helmet with two horns curling upward. As it stepped toward us, causing the entire platform to tremble, I said the only thing appropriate for a situation like this.

“Look, Regis. It’s your dad.”

My companion regarded me for moment, deadpan. “I liked you better when you were depressed.”

The glowing black floor shook furiously as I effortlessly dodged the crashing strike launched by the shadowy sentinel. Its movements were slow but I knew that getting hit even once could spell death.

“Regis.” I held out my hand. “Gauntlet Form.”

As Regist flew into my hand and I siphoned aether through him, a sinister voice screamed at me, driving a nail to my brain.

‘Kill it. Slaughter it!’

I buckled from surprise and pain, just barely managing to avoid the low sweep of the golem’s arm.

With no time to wonder and question, I clenched my smoky-black fist and struck the giant golem’s leg.

A muted explosion resounded from the impact, but the golem only stumbled back a step.

The tight grip I felt around my core reminded me that the number of times I could use this was limited, but it seemed like even a hundred of these wouldn’t be able to kill the giant beast.

The golem let out a deafening roar, apparently pissed that I had managed to give it a bruise.

I grimaced as I clenched my shadow-clad fist once more. “Again!”

Channeling even more of my aether through Regis, I let the destructive power build. The smokey-black aura from Regis began to spread, slowly climbing up my arm.