Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix-Chapter 1442: Hilo

Everyone didn’t move from their spot, but soon they all raised their hands... Before the barrage could hit them, they disappeared in midair, and then the dark sentinels were hit from above by the same void bullets. The group redirected them with space magic.

Usually, only a handful of them would have been able to pull that off, but Rain created a domain with the power of space magic and a gem to improve the space magic skills of everyone around. The combination of skills improved their abilities... Rain’s hard work paid off.

The dark sentinels began to fall apart after they were hit by the void bullets, but that hadn’t been enough. Terra led the attack and then punched one of the monsters with a Barrage of attacks, and before the creature could recover, it exploded.

When Terra went to look for the next target, she soon found several of them being bit by lightning bolts and getting paralyzed... she charged toward them while thanking the opening that Seara opened.

The Space Manipulator path leveled up.

The Space Manipulator path leveled up.

The Space Manipulator path leveled up.

...

Dozens of the dark sentinels began to fall, and since they were operating automatically, they wouldn’t been able to tell that the skills of everyone were a lot higher than it was supposed to be... if Hilo had been there, he would have noticed that Rain hid a crystal somewhere to help his friends. Still, the battle had just started...

"We are leveling up too fast... while this is good... it feels like Rain isn’t getting any experience," Terra thought and then charged toward another target and passed through it.

Terra’s guess was completely right... the black hole prevented Rain from even getting experience, but she couldn’t confirm or deny that. Terra and everyone else could only keep fighting and getting stronger in order to help Rain as fast as possible.

— —

Rain immediately noticed that the black hole completely separated the universe from whatever was beyond its horizon. The crossing took several minutes, and while the battle was supposed to be going on the other side at full power, he didn’t get experience.

"This guy can’t be attacked from outside... I doubt that conventional attack methods would actually erase the black hole," Rain thought. "He should be ready for all kinds of attacks."

Eventually, Rain felt the gravitational pull weakning and his speed lowered a bit and eventually he reached the other side of the black hole. He immediately raised his guard and waited to be attacked, but nothing like that actually happened.

As Rain emerged on the other side of the black hole, he found himself in a surreal and disorienting landscape. It appeared to be a planet of sorts, but everything was bathed in an otherworldly light. The sky stretched endlessly above, devoid of any discernible features, its pristine whiteness casting an eerie glow over the surroundings.

The terrain beneath Rain’s feet was similarly strange. It lacked the intricate details and textures typically found on planetary surfaces, instead resembling a vast expanse of smooth, featureless ground. It almost seemed as though he was standing on a colossal sphere devoid of any landmarks or distinguishing characteristics.

Rain scanned the horizon, searching for any sign of the machine god or clues about his whereabouts. However, the landscape stretched out endlessly in all directions, offering no indication of where he might be or how to proceed.

The absence of the machine god added to the sense of unease and uncertainty that permeated the strange environment. Rain was left to navigate this unfamiliar realm alone, grappling with the enigmatic nature of their surroundings and the unanswered questions that were in his mind.

"Finally, some progress..." Elisabetha said. "The trip was rather unpleasant, too."

Rain didn’t have time to talk about that. He didn’t want to drop his guard for even a moment, after all. In any case, Rain decided to walk around with Impulse since Hilo should know that someone had crossed his shell, and no sane person would do that without the goal of eradicating him. Fortunately, Rain didn’t have to look for long.

Before long, the entire planet began to shake and easily fall apart... there were no explosions or massive parts of it flying around. The whole planet just opened in two halves. As if it had been shielded Hilo’s body until now... Rain began to fly above and soon confirmed that the sky was only an illusion, and it was also endless... he probably could get lost there if he went too far ahead.

From the middle of that fake planet, Hilo finally emerged... Rain had no idea what he would see when he met that machine god, so he wasn’t that surprised when he saw that Hilo was a massive purple mass that resembled a giant purple cloud. What actually surprised Rain was something flying above Hilo’s body; it was a red line... that was extending endlessly toward the horizon. When Rain focused Remote Viewing on it, he frowned since it looked like a health bar.

"You must be the man that Arel mentioned... I can feel a bit of Loks knowledge in you as well. So, he was defeated without making you need to rest for a few years. He truly had fallen behind..."

Hilo’s voice resonated with a distinct lack of emotion, its tone flat and dispassionate, as if the speaker was merely going through the motions. Each word seemed to drip with a sense of apathy and indifference, conveying a profound sense of detachment from the events unfolding around him. Rain couldn’t help but be taken aback by the sheer boredom evident in Hilo’s voice, a stark contrast to the gravity of the situation at hand.

Moreover, Rain was surprised to learn that Hilo was unaware of the defeat suffered by one of his allies. The revelation hinted at the possibility that Hilo had been isolated within the black hole for an extended period, cut off from communication, and unaware of recent developments outside its confines.