Angel Monarch-Chapter 450: Twilight Zone

Will began moving again, quickly gaining speed. The over hundred kilometer distance disappeared in a few seconds.

The closer he got, the more gigantic the beast became. He felt like a speck of dust next to its enormous size.

Its long tentacles swiped at the surrounding pinkish water, pushing the creature forward, while examining the surroundings.

When approaching the beast, Will slowed down and began maneuvering around them. He didn’t know what would’ve happened if he touched a tentacle, so evading them was the safest option.

He soon arrived near the ray’s main body. It was very dark blue, almost black, with lots of small glowing white spots. The creature probably dwelled deeper, maybe in the Endless Abyss, since its skin would provide ample camouflage.

Will took a deep breath through his gills, then opened his first two maws. Henry and the others were inside his fourth, and each one had lips sealing them from water leakage.

The second maw snapped out, pulling away a sizeable chunk of meat and skin out of the enormous ray. His first maw then bit down, separating the chunk from the beast.

After the first attack, Will stopped and glanced around. The ray didn’t care about losing a chunk of flesh, which made sense, since compared to its massive size, the bite was only about a hundred meters across.

It’s like getting stung by a mosquito, but the ray had fewer receptors in its skin, so it didn’t react to Will’s bite.

A bit gingerly, Will moved towards the bite wound, and took out another few chunks, digging deeper into the beast. Still, it didn’t react at all, letting Will carve through its body without repercussions.

After a few minutes, Will’s digging became efficient. He used his enormous jaws to separate flesh, and with his long tentacles, he carried it away from the dig site.

The raw ray blood and flesh tasted disgusting. He didn’t swallow any of it, but he also couldn’t spit out the chunks of meat stuck in his mouth.

Henry and the others also felt uncomfortable. Their air bubble smelled nauseating, and even Sarah’s valiant efforts of summoning winds didn’t help.

The carving continued, and soon Will dug through the initial layer of muscle tissue. He entered something like a large blood vessel... Well, large compared to Will, which meant it was quite small and unnoticeable to the giant beast...

Through the endless blood, he moved towards the other side, and continued the digging process.

In the next few minutes, he moved through multiple organs, the worst one being the intestines. While these organs were even more disgusting than the digging, it also cut down their journey a lot.

However, one organ proved more difficult to get past than the others...

Will neared the beast’s other side when he dug into another organ. He wasn’t certain which one at first. Regular ocean water filled its inside, and it was also much larger than most organs.

He moved through the organ, preparing to continue the digging process, when lots of small glowing white spots appeared around him. The water filled with loud shrieking noises, and Will soon realized where he was...

The ovary, filled with hundreds of smaller rays ready to devour anything and everything!

’Hey everyone! I suggest you hold on to something! This will be a bumpy escape!’

They all glanced at each other upon hearing Will’s words, but before they could’ve grabbed onto something, the smaller rays attacked.

These rays were much younger than their mother, yet they matched Will in size. There were also dozens of them, and they were very aggressive.

Will shot out, making his way to the ovary’s other side. A ray’s tentacles snatched at his body, but he used the air cylinders to rapidly change directions, evading the attacker.

Two more rays closed in from above and below. He made a barrel roll while pushing out more air. His fast turn created a small cloud of air bubbles, which held back the rays.

He soon arrived to the other side. With his mouth, he took out chunks of flesh while tearing the hole wider with his tentacles.

The rays moved closer. Their tentacles attached to Will’s whale-like tailfin, and they began gnawing on his flesh. However, since they were regular creatures, their teeth couldn’t pierce Will’s Transcended scales.

The carving continued. He shot out bubbles to fend off the rays while digging further into their mother’s flesh.

It took him less than a minute, but eventually, he escaped the ovary, and soon he found his way out of the giant ray.

The blood mixed with the pinkish-red color of the water, creating a strange and disgusting hue. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Will floated below the giant ray, his many eyes scouting the surroundings. No other creature moved nearby, and the ray children stayed inside the ovary.

’Is everyone alright?’ He asked and began moving deeper towards the darkness.

’Yeah... That was indeed a bumpy ride, but nothing we couldn’t survive... Anyway, are you alright? What the hell happened?’

The enormous beast chuckled as he explained what happened in the ovary in vivid detail.

’Well, that’s disgusting, but we’re glad you survived! It would be a pain in the ass to reach the bottom of the Twilight Zone otherwise!’

Will chuckled again at Sarah’s words of encouragement. He then increased his speed, heading deeper into the darkening red water.

’Oh, by the way. What direction should I be heading?’ Asked Will and Henry soon answered.

’For now, continue straight down. I only know the general location of the ruin we’re looking for. It’s right below us, but I don’t know exactly where.’

They continued heading deeper. The water changed from pinkish-red to bright and then darker red. After a few minutes, it began turning purple, which also darkened the further they ventured.

While moving, Will kept his eyes peeled for any large sea monsters. However, every creature stayed far away, which didn’t fill Will with confidence.

The water darkened further until the dark purple set in, meaning they finally reached the Twilight Zone’s bottom.

Will glanced down and regretted his decision immediately. Below the eternal darkness of the Endless Abyss stretched wide.

A loud shrieking roar echoed throughout the water, and Will saw something even larger than the ray move through the darkness.

A shiver went through Will’s massive body, but he kept his focus on the darkness below, afraid of something jumping out and swallowing him whole.

’Okay, Henry... I’ve arrived to the bottom part... Just so you know, the Endless Abyss is fucking terrifying!’

Another roar rose, but it sounded different, which only increased Will’s anxiety. It meant there were at least two horrible-sounding creatures in his proximity!

’Good job, Will. Now, start looking for the ruins. I don’t know its exact shape or size, but since there aren’t many ruins in the Twilight Zone, finding it shouldn’t be an issue!’

Will groaned in annoyance. He couldn’t see any ruins nearby, but he would rather wander aimlessly than stay in the same position, waiting for a roaring beast to eat him.

He sped away in a random direction while keeping his eyes open for any possible sources of danger.

However, barely a minute had passed before he had to stop. While swimming, the water currents began to change. They moved upward instead of flowing in a random direction.

Before he even realized what was happening, his enormous body was already speeding away from the source of those currents.

A loud roar rose behind him, and through his back-eyes, he noticed a dark shape moving towards the Twilight Zone. It was a large arm-like appendage, which tried to grab anything nearby.

The arm had dozens of elbow-like sections, which meant it could bend in any direction. It had ten fingers in a circle, with small appendages growing from them, like branches on a tree.

It dwarfed Will’s massive size, so it didn’t even attempt grabbing him. Instead, it reached upward and grasped a few dozen kilometer long eel-like beast.

The eel shrieked and bit down on the creature’s hand. The arm dragged it down into the Abyss with ease.

Will continued moving away as fast as possible while the shrieks became more desperate and soon turned into crunching sounds.

In the next ten minutes, Will saw more horrors than in his entire life. Their closeness to the Abyss meant that the creatures dwelling below happily hunted the peaceful beings in the lower part of the Twilight Zone.

Even worse, no creature wanted to eat him, since he was too small and didn’t contain enough calories to be worth devouring. However, he still nearly got eaten when he impeded a maw and its prey.

His entire body trembled with fear as he moved towards the structure near the edge of his vision.

’Henry... I think I found it... Please, let this be ruins... I can’t take it anymore...’

Will sounded tired and stressed. In hindsight, they could’ve used Bea’s healing ability and nature sense. She could’ve made Will’s job much easier, but Henry wouldn’t dare mention this to the friendly sea monster.

’Yes, that must be it! Keep closing in on the structure. They should spot us soon!’

A few seconds of silence passed before Will’s murmuring echoed in everyone’s heads.

’Huh, what a strange ruin. It has a long metal body with lots of long metal rods sticking out of its midsection. There’s even some cloth-like tarp on the rods, which continues to blow on phantom winds...’

His voice suddenly turned astonished and shocked.

’Wait!... Is that a ship? An underwater ship surrounded by a bubble of air!... Uh, Henry... Why’s the ship heading towards us?’