CHAPTER 306: I AM NOT DONE WITH YOU!?

A flash of brilliant light lit up the figures of Grey and Eve as they slowly began phasing out of existence.

Just as the flash was about to vanish from this place, Grey roared:

"I am not done with you yet! Where the hell is my World Fragment?"

Boom!

The flash of light shattered in an instant, and the two figures gracefully landed back on the ground.

"Eh?" Eve froze in shock. Her skin tingled, as if a million tiny needles were piercing her at once, before she suddenly found herself directly embraced by Grey.

"Hold me tight," Grey said as his gaze swept over the fractured world. There was no point in coming here if he wasn’t going to claim a World Fragment, was there?

He wasn’t here out of kindness for the old man.

No, his purpose was the World fragment, and Grey never forgot his objective. If he could gain another title and merge the two, then a strange chill ran through his body.

"Turn into the World Fragment, Eve."

"...Okay." Eve hurriedly replied, her figure shimmering before she transformed into a shard of nearly invisible glass. She floated down to his chest, resting against him as a delicate locket that hung from his neck.

Grey looked around. His immediate location wasn’t collapsing yet, but the space fractures nearby were enough to make his heart pound, especially with that terrifying mass of black energy seeping from the fissures.

The space was completely unstable. He had no idea what consequences it might bring, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to stick around to find out.

"But I have a plan." He grinned.

A radiant light burst forth from his body, and a massive crimson grimoire materialized before him.

"Why did you call me, Grey?" Lilith asked.

"Of course, to use you." Grey raised his red quill pen and wrote on her page.

***

"Haha, that fool! I was allowing him to leave, but he still came back for more. He’s an idiot through and through."

"Now, face the collapse of space and die with it. Nobody could survive such a terrifying thing."

The voice dripped with mockery as it observed Grey. "Even if space itself refuses to collapse on you, that is nothing but a minor inconvenience. You will die, Grey."

It was the same dome, bathed in nothing but crimson light. The temperature of the place seemed to rise with every passing moment.

On a strange, colossal bed, so vast it could have held an entire football stadium, sat a stone woman. The massive structure was crisscrossed with bizarre miniature volcanoes that wound their way across its surface.

She gazed into the mirror before her, watching the scene of Grey unfold, while holding a comically massive book, almost as large as the entire bed itself.

Despite her delicate frame, it should have been impossible for her to even lift such a tome. But she held it effortlessly.

"This book contains every creature born in our world but there is no such strange being here." The stone woman frowned. With a flicker, the enormous book vanished. "Oh well. His fate is to die anyway."

Just as the world teetered seconds from destruction, a brilliant golden beam pierced through the roof.

And a terrifying pressure premeditated the space, causing the unstable space to instantly be frozen then become stable again and a god seemed to have entered the space...

"Eh!?"

***

"One soul, many paths!"

Grey shouted as his quill danced across Lilith’s pages.

This time, the silver-scaled dragon did not appear. Instead, a man emerged, bearing a resemblance to Grey but quite distinct.

His long, flowing golden hair shimmered with radiance, and his swirling blue pupils burned with power and boundless of the sea itself.

The moment Zarek appeared, the space itself began to bend. Cracks in reality sealed shut as if bowing before him.

Zarek’s blue pupils swept across the dome, and his World Will erupted, permeating every corner of existence.

The fracturing void froze in place, time itself seemed to halt.

In the next instant, all of it began to mend, the chaos knitting itself back together until stability returned once more.

"Not bad. Worthy of being the strongest among us." Grey gave Zarek a thumbs up.

Still, the feeling of talking to someone who looked so much like himself was undeniably strange, and the atmosphere grew more awkward than it needed to be.

After a few moments, Zarek nodded, his gaze sweeping over the unstable space. "It seems someone is stalking us."

"What?" Grey was startled at his words.

"Yeah." Zarek’s eyes narrowed as he observed in silence. After a brief pause, he raised his palm forward.

Telekinetic energy surged outward, and with it came the crushing force of his gravity manipulation.

Zarek glanced at Grey. "Endure it for a bit."

"Sigh..." Grey exhaled heavily, already feeling his body breaking down beneath the crushing weight of gravity.

He needed to find a way to strengthen himself, he couldn’t rely on enduring pain forever.

But for now, his eyes burned bloodshot, his organs felt as if they were tearing apart, and blue veins bulged violently across his skin.

Grey roared, his scream filled with agony unlike anything he had ever faced before.

There was no denying it, if this continued, he was going to die.

After enduring the crushing gravity for some time, Zarek suddenly halted. A small fracture of space opened before them. Unlike the fracture in space caused by the collapsing reality, this one was stable, shaped like a clear gateway, much like the one Grey had used to arrive here.

"This will lead us directly to where the stalker is."

Puff!

Grey vomited a mouthful of blood, his expression bitter. "I see."

"Shall we go, then?" Zarek asked calmly.

"Yeah, let’s go." Grey nodded, his body already beginning to recover. Even so, he seriously needed a Grimoire that could help him withstand this kind of damage.

He wasn’t a masochist who liked pain and if some misstep happened, then he could directly die from it as well.

At that moment, Kurogane’s voice echoed. "You know, Grey, if you want to endure the backlash, I could help you with that."

"What!?"