CHAPTER 559: ISOLATED

"Ugh..."

Lein slowly opened his eyes. A faint violet light flickered at the edge of his vision. His head felt heavy, as if it had just been yanked through a dimensional vortex. Groaning, he clutched his temple, trying to steady his breath and calm the pounding ache in his skull.

The ground beneath him was cold, hard, and dusty—not quite stone, but not earth either. As he pushed himself up and took in his surroundings, the reality of his situation quickly crept into his mind.

He stood on a floating landmass—perhaps ten thousand square kilometers wide—but there was no sky above, only a dense, dark gray void laced with streaks of violet and green that flared like lightning behind the mist. In the distance, dozens of other landmasses drifted like shattered cosmic stones, moving slowly and aimlessly as if guided by some invisible current.

"Where... is this?" he muttered, his voice hoarse from a dry throat. Narrowing his eyes, he scanned the landscape for anything—structures, creatures, even the faintest trace of life.

"The Divine Sky Realm...? No... this is different."

The situation reminded him of the first time he had been thrown into this world—that same sensation of being cut off from reality, disoriented, weightless... as if caught in an unstable dimension.

But this time, there was something worse. Something deeper.

He closed his eyes and spread his awareness outward, searching for even the faintest traces of Laras, Efan, or Dragnar’s energy.

Nothing.

It was as if no one else existed here.

He tried every communication channel—system-based, mind-link, direct spiritual relay. Silence. Like screaming into an abyss that swallowed sound whole.

"Completely isolated... damn it."

Guilt crept slowly behind the calm facade of his expression.

"If only I had better control over spatial laws... this wouldn’t have happened."

He exhaled deeply, trying to center himself. At the very least, he’d handed over his black and gold twin blades to Laras and Efan—high-grade protective artifacts that could block attacks from even a lower-tier King.

"They should be able to hold their own. They have to survive."

But his brief moment of calm didn’t last.

Muw...

A guttural sound echoed from the air itself—low, heavy, and ancient, like the groan of some prehistoric beast roused from eons of slumber.

Lein turned sharply. From a swirling patch of black mist, a monstrous figure emerged. Then another. Then dozens more.

Within five seconds, he was surrounded by over a hundred creatures.

And they were... not ordinary beasts.

Towering creatures the size of ten-story buildings, their bodies sheathed in hardened magma-like shells. Their gaping maws glowed with crimson fire that lit their throats from within. The very air warped around them, searing and fractured from the heat of their auras.

Lein’s jaw clenched. His combat instincts kicked in instantly.

[Ember Maw]

Type: Beast – Offense

Level: 150

Attribute: Fire

Skills:

• Flame Gorge – Spews molten lava, scorching a wide area and leaving blazing trails.

• Infernal Howl – A fiery roar that boosts other fire-type monsters’ attack and weakens enemy defenses.

[Abyss Leech]

Type: Parasite – Saboteur

Level: 190

Attribute: Darkness

Skills:

• Neuro Drain – Absorbs the opponent’s mental energy, slowing their reactions.

• Shadowmeld – Melts into surrounding shadows, becoming temporarily undetectable.

Lein stood calmly at the heart of the swarm, surrounded by colossus after colossus—snarling, shrieking, trembling the very air.

Even as their numbers swelled—hundreds, possibly thousands—he didn’t feel threatened. To Lein, these Grandmaster-class monsters under level 250... were little more than background noise.

One Ember Maw lifted its massive head—like a lava-skinned lizard standing twenty meters tall. Its burning eyes blazed behind a thick skull of stone. The beast’s jaw unhinged—

FWOOOSH!!

A torrent of lava burst out like a hellish waterfall, surging toward the seemingly ant-sized Lein.

"Argh..."

His response was more of a sigh—almost a yawn. He didn’t budge.

A faint smirk tugged at his lips.

It had been a while... a long while since he moved personally. Usually, threats like these were resolved by others—or simply crushed under the weight of his aura. But here, in this strange place—with no allies, no witnesses—he allowed himself a rare indulgence.

A moment of honest entertainment.

His legs tensed. In an instant, two blades materialized in his hands—his Gold and Black Twin Swords, legendary heirloom weapons capable of slicing through almost any known material.

Lein launched forward.

BOOM!

He vanished from sight—reappearing inches from the magma lizard’s massive face.

"Got a brain in there?" he asked flatly, almost bored.

Before the creature could respond, his swords swung in a wide X-pattern.

CRACKK!!

The twin auras carved straight through the beast, slicing magma, flesh, and bone like soggy paper. Its massive body split down the middle—and—

SHRRK!! SHRRK!!

Lein shredded the rest into chunks no larger than dice.

[Ember Maw killed. Level difference too great, NO EXP.]

The system notification floated at the edge of his vision. He ignored it. Expected that.

Creatures this weak had nothing to offer.

But he didn’t get a moment to breathe.

SREEEEKKK!!

A high-pitched screech tore through the air. Another beast emerged—taller, more grotesque—a pulsating blob of black sludge that trembled without a fixed form. Its voice didn’t echo—it drilled directly into his mind, an insidious psychic vibration.

"Mental attack, huh?" Lein muttered, amused.

He reached into his storage ring and pulled out a gleaming spear, three meters long, crackling with both lightning and fire.

With a casual flick of his wrist, he threw it.

SWOOSH!!

The spear tore through the air faster than a bullet, leaving a streak of light behind. It pierced the sludge creature—and the thing exploded into sticky black mist. But the weapon didn’t stop. It kept going, annihilating several more similar monsters hiding in the distance.

Lein moved like a shadow unbound by gravity.

He leapt from one floating landmass to another, slashing, piercing, cleaving. His movements made no sound but the whisper of steps and the ring of steel.

He soared through the air and landed squarely atop another magma lizard’s head. Without hesitation, he stabbed into its gut and tore his blades outward in one brutal motion. The beast shrieked as its body collapsed into molten rock and ash.

"Fuuuh..."

Lein wiped his forehead—not from fatigue, but annoyance.

"They just keep coming..."

His voice was nearly drowned out by the surrounding howls and roars. His left hand cleaved through a lunging magma beast while his right stabbed a black leech that had melded with the shadows.

His eyes narrowed, scanning the shaking void above and the trembling floating terrain.

"This isn’t right... There should be a portal or dimensional rift if this was a summoning."

But there were none. No spatial tears. No ripples of foreign energy. It was as if the monsters simply appeared—transported here without trace or trigger.

"At this rate... how do I even get out of here?"

He hovered mid-air for a second before slamming into the ground with catastrophic force, triggering a shockwave that obliterated dozens of monsters in every direction.