Chapter 238: Aftermath

Chapter 238

And then, without warning, space and time itself began to bend and warp directly above Sylph as a massive, swirling void, black as the deepest abyss and easily the ten meters big, tore open in the air. It was literally a black hole itself....

And the miniature black hole, despite its deceptively small ten-meter frame, behaved exactly like the real deal, and began pulling everything and anything within its reach toward its center with so much terrifying force that it looked downright insane.

If any person were watching, he or she would have seen how the water from the lake rose in a massive spiraling column, defying gravity entirely as it twisted upward into the void. They would have witnessed as chunks of stone tore themselves free from the cavern walls, and how even the air itself seemed to distort and bend as it rushed in to the center of the swirling abyss.

Hell, they would have even seen how light itself was not spared from the insane suction force.

Outside the cave, far far beyond where Alex had gathered the survivors onto the grass, the sight currently happening before his very eyes looked absolutely catastrophic.

The ground beneath his feet seemed to tremble ever so violently, as he watched in horror as the entire landscape surrounding the cave entrance began to warp and shift, with trees bending unnaturally inward, loose rocks and soil sliding across the earth as if some unseen god had tilted the world on its side and let gravity do the rest.

The pull was strong enough that even he could slightly feel it tugging at his clothes and hair even from this distance, as if an invisible hand was dragging at everything in its domain.

Is this really Sylph’s ability? The thought echoed through his mind over and over, with disbelief warring with awe as he watched the sheer scale of destruction unfolding before him. Sure he had seen her fight, and had seen her speed and her skill with a blade, but nothing and he meant absolutely nothing could have prepared him for this.

This wasn’t anything like other abilities he had seen so far. This was more like an annihilation on a scale that felt almost wrong for a single person to wield.

It was a good thing he had moved everyone as far back as he had, because even now, standing at what he’d assumed was a more than safe distance, he could still feel the pull tugging faintly at his boots against the grass. If he had hesitated even a few seconds longer back in that cavern, if he had cut it any closer with his evacuation, they would have all been swept into that devouring void along with everything else.

The pull raged on for what felt like an eternity but was likely only a minute or two, tearing through anything and everything alike without any mercy. Then, gradually, the monstrous pull began to weaken bit by bit until finally, the black hole began to shrink, folding in on itself before winking out of existence entirely, leaving behind nothing but silence and a haunting, gaping wound in the earth where the cave and its surroundings had once stood.

Alex slowly stood back up from where he had instinctively crouched low to brace against the pull, and stared out at the aftermath in both shock and silence. Nearly a kilometer of terrain, cave included, had been completely erased from existence, scoured bare down to raw earth and exposed bedrock, as if some cosmic force had simply reached down and wiped the area clean off the face of the planet.

It looked less like the aftermath of a battle and more like the site of some ancient, forgotten cataclysm. And standing alone in the very center of that hollowed-out crater was a lone figure he knew all too well. Sylph.

She still remained standing upright... though barely, because her body swayed slightly as if just the sheer effort of remaining conscious was taking everything she had left.

Even from this distance, Alex could obviously tell something was wrong, because her usually being felt dimmed somehow, and her skin, from what he could make out, looked a bit paler than it should, most likely a consequence of whatever monstrous toll that ability had taken on her reserves of primordial essence.

Without wasting another second, he activated Void Step and closed the distance in an instant, reappearing right beside her just as her knees began to buckle. Then he caught her before she could collapse entirely, and gritted his teeth before wrapping an arm securely around her waist to keep her steady, before immediately triggering his ability once more and teleporting them both back to where the rest of the survivors and his squad were waiting.

Once they arrived, he gently helped ease her down onto a patch of grass, propping her up against a nearby tree trunk. That was when he remembered something important, the bottle of body recovery water he had gotten from the system earlier, to heal his own damaged eardrums back.

He quietly fished the vial out from his spatial storage space, careful to keep the motion subtle, and held it out toward Sylph. She eyed the vial warily, glancing between it and Alex’s face as if silently asking what exactly it was supposed to do for her.

Alex simply gestured toward his own ears, miming the universal sign for hearing, trying to convey that it was meant to heal the temporary damage they’d both inflicted on themselves earlier to stop the creature’s song from affecting them.

Sylph still looked somewhat apprehensive, and furrowed her brows slightly with the same calculated suspicion she seemed to carry into everything, but after a moment of consideration, she accepted the bottle and drank it down without further hesitation.

Within a couple of seconds, a faint warmth visibly spread across her body, and she blinked several times before her expression shifted into that of surprise. Whatever that thing was, it had fully healed both her eardrums and had also made her recover all of her lost primordial essence.

"Thank you," she said softly, her voice a touch rough from disuse, but clear all the same now that her hearing had returned.

"No problem, Squad Leader," Alex replied, offering her a small, genuine smile before his expression shifted into something more thoughtful. "But I must say, I never knew you had such a powerful ability tucked away like that. With something like that alone, you would have been more than capable of dealing with the Bone Demon General and his entire army all by yourself, last time."

Sylph gave him a long, measured look, the kind that suggested she was weighing exactly how much she wanted to explain, before finally responding.

"I could have," she admitted quietly, "but as you can guess my ability drains an enormous amount of my primordial essence every time I use it. That’s why I mainly stick to close combat instead. It’s simply not sustainable to rely on something like that for every fight."

Alex nodded slowly, filing that information away. It made sense now, why she’d never once used it before tonight, why she’d fought with nothing but her saber and her own raw skill against threats that would have sent most people running. She’d been holding back something monstrous in scale the entire time, saving it only for situations dire enough to justify the cost.

******

Meanwhile, later inside the jet where it was heading back to the island, Mia rubbed at her temple with a tired groan, while still trying to process everything that had happened over the course of the night.

"So let me get this straight," she said slowly, glancing around at the others. "A sea monster creature was the one responsible for all the strange disappearances, and it was also the reason the rest of us got hypnotized in the first place?"

Allen, lounging lazily in his seat nearby, rolled his eyes dramatically. "Duh! Didn’t the squad leader and vice squad leader just explain literally all of that? Or do you need them to repeat everything word for word just for you?"

Tonya shot him a warning look from across the cabin. "Alright, alright, Allen, quit messing with our Mia. She’s had a rough night, cut her some slack."

Mia, not one to let the teasing slide without a response, stuck her tongue out at Allen with a playful smile tugging at the corners of her lips. Allen simply waved her off with an exaggerated sigh, pointedly ignoring the gesture as he leaned back further into his seat.

Stephanie, who was sitting quietly with her arms crossed near the window, finally spoke up.

"It’s a good thing the townspeople who got affected didn’t retain any memories of what actually happened down there. Combined with the cover story Squad Leader gave them before we left, I doubt any of them will still be in doubt."

Chris, leaning against the far wall with his usual composed expression, let out a small, thoughtful hum.

"Still, it’s a pity we weren’t able to recover the creature’s core. Something like that would have been incredibly useful research material at the very least. And the skin and bones would have both made decent shields and weapons."

Allen perked up almost instantly at that, waving a dismissive hand as if to brush away the disappointment hanging in the air.

"Eh, don’t sweat it too much. How about this, once we’re finally back home, let’s all head out to a bar and properly celebrate surviving tonight. Drinks are on me, no complaints allowed."