Transcendent Gene
Chapter 234: Trapped [2]

Chapter 234: Trapped [2]

The world looked nothing like what Gio was expecting to find.

To begin with, it was mostly flat.

The ground itself was rocky and not anything close to flat, but its actual elevation never changed more than a few inches. It was a dark purple and black color and had the texture of rock, creating a bland scenery when combined with the dreary sky.

There was nothing for kilometers on end. Gio felt like he was alone in this world of nothingness.

’Was the actual world underground?’

He even had that thought, but he decided against retracing his steps. Instead, he looked as far as he could into the distance, seeing the shadows of structures existing to his north, and moved towards them.

’Something’s off,’ he thought as he ran.

There was a concerning lack of monsters in this Riftworld. Usually, it should have been filled with them. He was able to move far too freely, and if there was anything to be worried about, he would be able to obviously see it in this kind of environment.

’I wonder if...’

HONG!

Suddenly, an ancient bell rang through the air.

Gio’s brows furrowed as he looked around, finding nothing of note. He flew into the sky and got a better vantage point, but there was still nothing visible.

’Strange...’

Such a bell wouldn’t ring for no reason, but if he couldn’t see any effect, how was he supposed to find it? The bell rang from the atmosphere itself. Its sound couldn’t be traced or followed.

’Maybe I’ll be able to see something if it happens again.’

He couldn’t say anything else about it. His mind refocused on the original goal and he returned to running until the vague shapes in the distance became...

’...a city?’

It wasn’t like the cities one saw on Earth. The "buildings" were shaped like natural spires and looked almost like tentacles. They were purple like the rest of the world and had various shapes and sizes, but a human wouldn’t ordinarily recognize them as buildings.

Gio was only able to do so because what connected them was undeniably a collection of streets.

HONG!

The ancient bell rang again when Gio reached the outskirts.

’Roughly an hour.’

He frowned and looked for its effects once more, only to find nothing.

’I feel like I have to be concerned about it. That kind of sound never means anything good.’

Despite such a thought, he continued into the city and explored its deserted streets.

’It’s so stale. Has anything living been here in the past decade?’

He walked around, marveling at the sights. Some of them had glaring similarities to human structures. There was a certain "building" that looked like the bulb of a flower that he swore was a convenience store.

’This one...’

Arriving at the base of something he could consider a "skyscraper," Gio knelt down and put his fingers to the ground.

’The wear here is different. Hekat, are these your senses?’

Hekat vibrated in its pendant state, confirming his thoughts.

’If this is a sign of change...’

He walked into the building and followed the trail of change up several flights of what he assumed to be stairs until he was near the top of the building.

There weren’t "doors" to separate the "units" of this "apartment building." Instead, when Gio walked by, pieces of the building’s almost fleshy insides opened up like sphincters, revealing the spaces beyond.

’These look uninhabited.’

Every single room was empty until he reached the end of the hall.

There was only a single sphincter that didn’t automatically open for him. He used some energy to pry it apart and entered the room beyond.

There was...a scene. Still, there was no life, but for the first time, Gio saw signs that life once existed.

A living arrangement that seemed to house multiple people. A room sectioned off with items that looked like they were made for adolescents.

Without a doubt–

"–a family used to live here."

He felt a sinking feeling in his heart as his steps unintentionally hastened his arrival at the final room in the "apartment."

He pried open the "door" with somewhat unstable hands.

He didn’t want to see it.

He didn’t want to humanize the creatures that he would never be able to sympathize with.

Even if they were humanized, he knew he would kill them without hesitation, and that only made it worse.

But he could not avoid the truth.

In this random Riftworld, in this random rocky plain, there was a city.

And in that city, there were once "children" and "families" no different from the ones existing on Earth.

That was the picture the "photo" on the wall was trying to put into his head.

HONG!

The world rang its bells again. Gio’s head snapped to the "window" of the "apartment" just in time to realize that this was nothing like the other two times.

RUMBLE!

There was a huge sound. He dropped everything he was doing and rushed to the window.

He could see it now.

He knew what the world had been warning him about.

The entire city was falling.

No, the entire world was falling.

RUMBLE!

It wasn’t the sound of an earthquake. It wasn’t the sound of an explosion.

It was a cacophony of sound that came from every single building, every single piece of the ground and world, and every single piece of the sky came crumbling down at once.

The horizon came closer and closer. The space it used to occupy was replaced with blackness; a reflection of nothingness.

’Shit.’

Gio didn’t waste a single second getting away from the window. He rushed to the other side of the "apartment" with his shoulder forward, crashing through its walls and into the open sky beyond.

RUMBLE!

The sound was directly under him. As virtual wings grew on his back, the "building" he’d been in only moments ago came crashing down, its rubble falling directly into the void and turning into nothingness.

WHOOOOOOSH!

The sound was unbelievable from the outside. It wasn’t just a matter of the ground breaking apart. Even the sky and atmosphere were being crushed into shards of glass and destroyed.

Without hesitation, Gio pushed himself through the sky like a speeding comet.

WHOOOOOOOOOOSH!

The winds around him roared and whipped. If he looked at the ground below, he could see it being replaced by blackness just seconds after he passed it.

Still, he chose not to look back and rushed. He didn’t think about how much time was passing and focused only on his energy.

The city below became a memory of the past. He flew over the expansive rocky plains as they disappeared. His speed was constant, but the destruction was constantly speeding up. It caught up to him within minutes and threatened to overtake him. He felt the sky evaporating around him, leaving him without air to breathe into his lungs.

He took one final deep breath and circulated his Aether to compensate for the air he could not get.

Gio could not fly. He’d said it before, but real flight was impossible with his current amount of energy.

With the ground erased as an option, he had no choice but to fly as far as he could before letting go of his energy and starting again. Every time he lost altitude, he felt the terror of falling into the abyss.

The world in his vicinity turned black. He chased the land in the distance, feeling as minutes turned into almost an hour. He was dangerously close to it. With only several meters separating him from ground level, he knew that he would fall below the line soon enough.

’I’m running out of energy.’

If this continued for much longer, he’d have no choice but to plummet. His stamina was already worn low. He was using Aether as a supplement and even that was running low.

HONG!

Finally, he heard another bell.

BANG!

Instantly, as if the laws of physics held no relevance in this world, the destruction stopped. A clean line was drawn as the world’s new border, and Gio pushed himself towards it with all of his remaining power.

"Khhh...!"

Bzzt!

His energy fizzled out, dropping him through the blackness. He reached his feet out for the ground that was only a few feet away, using the small spurts of energy coming out of his back to cross the final distance.

"Hup!"

Boom!

His toes clipped the land and scraped against its border. Before he could completely lose himself to the abyss, he grabbed the ledge, hauling himself over the edge.

’I have to thank the universe for not letting me slip.’

His palms were producing their own ocean. It was a miracle that he didn’t fall.

"Huu..."

Nevertheless, he made it. He stood up and looked out at the blackness.

’This is...an interesting Riftworld.’

There, he stood; one step away from falling off the edge of the world.

He had no idea how many more times he’d need to escape the abyss before he found safety.

And he had no idea what other sights this Riftworld would show him before he found a way out.