Nexus Awakened (An Isekai LitRPG Gender Bender Story)-Chapter 983. The Ascent Through The Maw of The World
“How is the view Captured Star!? Have you never seen anything like it!?”
Lammy phased in and out of existence. Her strikes propelled Frost upwards. Barriers formed above her, but they did little to stop her from crashing through.
The Aberration had stopped holding back. She burned the brightly the lower her HP became like a dying ember. Yet despite everything Frost did, Lammy operated as though she was full of vitality.
The wrath in her eyes, the strides she made, and the relentless lashes assailed Frost as she bounced back and forth. Purple and orange energy exploded around them as they ascended through the hundreds of meters wide chasm.
Beneath them was an island surrounded by sea. The sea was sloped at an angle, and it disappeared towards the horizon. There was a great drop off that led closer to the Eye of Elysia. But Frost could only marvel at the scenery below for so long before she looked up to find the ice-blue walls of the Subderma Layer.
The Maw of the World was not limited to the chasm itself. It extended further into the walls, reminiscent of the layered landmasses she had seen in the Derma Layer. It was chaos. Nothing here made sense, yet despite this, it was beautiful.
They broke through a narrow chokepoint, where water sprayed into a fine mist. Creatures of a colossal scale roamed the lower recesses of the Subderma Layer.
< The Seventh Layer: The Subderma >
< Maw of The World Depth: 34,000 meters >
Wingless dragons with long whiskers sailed through the skies.
Building-sized moths feasted on low-altitude clouds.
Their levels, much to Frost’s awe, were close to 140. That dragon in particular was level 160. Beyond this narrow segment was an expansive landmass that spanned several hundred kilometers out before it reached one last escarpment.
“The Subderma Layer is home to the largest population of life in Elysia! But you wouldn’t know that. You, who have never harrowed hell before!”
Tilted buildings littered the world. Some came from a bygone era. Some came from what seemed to be the future. They were arranged like clusters of crystals, and they connected fragmented landmasses together.
Cities, settlements… life could be found in the highest points of the Subderma Layer. Few dared to build their homes close to the lower sections. Each escarpment had its own clouds and a sky. Only those exposed to the opening of the Maw of the World were able to see the skies beyond the cave ceiling.
There was one place that caught Frost’s eye as she combatted Lammy.
It was a sprawling civilization. Homes made of salvaged materials, biomass, and the ruins of the old were built into the edge of the Maw of the World. Stone domes and massive hand-carved structures were made to complement it.
She imagined those to be trading halls. There were countless, and those were the only ones left exposed to the world.
How much more existed behind the walls?
Frost wanted to know.
She wanted to see who else lived here.
Would find human civilizations too? The Homunculi? She was certain that she could.
But so far, there has been only evidence of creatures that barely resembled human beings.
They were closer to monsters.
“Why do you look so surprised!? The real meat of the Subderma Layer strays away from openings leading to the outer world! For the same reason that humans turn to monsters when they take one wrong step outside of their precious Thresholds!”
Frost sent a hail of bloody lances. Several connected with Lammy, but they were ripped off by the punches of her ethereal hands.
“I’ve told you what I know… NOW TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT THE KEY!”
“You’re delusional if you think I know!” Frost tanked several dozen dimensional lashes. “Aren’t you too desperate? How fucking pitiful. Iscario and Lilith said they had other methods. They said Jury’s tail was redundant. Something tells me that they haven’t let you in on their little secret.”
Frost spat venom at her face.
In the off chance that Lammy couldn’t die even after her HP reached 1 or 0, then she at least wanted to drive a permanent wedge into her heart.
This only caused Lammy to giggle and land a devastating strike on Frost’s chest, sending her flying past the clouds and into the next layer above.
“They have they’re own way! As do I! G-Z7! Who do you think is the one who invaded their Site Core!?”
< The Sixth Layer: The Chasm of Souls >
< Maw of The World Depth: 28,000 meters >
It was twice as narrow as the previous layer, with a maximum width of 350 kilometers. A stronger blue tinge filled the skies of various sections of this chasm. Grand waterfalls gushed, and large pitfalls connected it to the Seventh Layer.
Besides this, it was a desolate, almost featureless place. Faceless individuals marched across cracked stone plains and steep crags to fulfil a purpose they did not seem to understand. Few gathered by the pitfalls, strapping themselves with rope to descend back to whence they came from…
… only to slip and plummet into the Subderma Layer. What became of them was not known.
The atmosphere blocked everything past 30 kilometers, but it was devoid of any meaningful structures as far as Frost could tell.
There were many pillars here, and over a hundred were broken down in minutes. The flames rendered rock. The slashes of [Atomic Splitter] destroyed tens at a time, and Lammy’s brutal assault saw them hurdling through pillar after pillar.
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Frost was gradually beginning to read Lammy’s attack patterns.
But it was not enough to stop herself from being thrown further into the heights of the Maw of the World.
Access to the next level above was rare, if not completely absent. She recalled on the notebook that this layer was the filter for most who attempted to ascend from the Subderma Layer.
“The Aberrations can’t seem to understand, in their infinite wisdom, that Elysia will swallow us up regardless of whose side they’re on! Dark Memoria never used to get her hands dirty! We even swore upon a pinky promise~ Hah… Who am I kidding. We made a formal deal. But she helped you, didn’t she? You both meddled with something that should not have been moved!”
Frost’s face didn’t contort. The mild reaction on her face, despite receiving hundreds more lashes, caused something inside of Lammy to wrench. It wasn’t guilt, but a deep resentment. Like herself, Frost was equally unfazed by her onslaught.
Nothing she did, no matter how many times her shoulders were ripped apart, her stomach split open, her legs minced: nothing garnered a response. At first it was rage and confusion, but now, there was an air of serenity surrounding Frost.
“By whose law? The way I see it, your group was bound to break whatever deal you had in place. Honor means nothing to you.”
“It is because of you!”
“Tell me a rhetoric I haven’t heard before! These mind games have stopped working on me for some time now. Nothing you do can damage me. But that’s never been your intention. You and I already know that your goal is to keep me away from the Site Core. That’s all you can do.”
Frost laughed.
They breached into the next Layer.
< The Fifth Layer: Chamber of Refraction >
< Maw of The World Depth: 23,000 meters >
But Frost was not afflicted by the strains.
The Ascent did not seem to affect her in the slightest unlike the Descent.
A violet world consisting of millions of Looking Glass and obsidian crystals dominated the world. It was a dark, crystal cavern that masked the light above. None of these Looking Glass affected Frost.
They were not powerful enough to mess with her psyche.
The truly dangerous ones belonged in the Timeless Ruins. Not here. However, there were sleuths, pillars, mountains of corpses belonging to those who had succumbed to the Curse of the Descent and the transformations of the Looking Glass.
Monsters feasted on their bodies. Some were still barely human, but they were taken anyway by monsters, either to be used as food, materials, or a seedbed.
Frost’s flames served as a mercy kill. [World Ablaze], [A Million Wicks and One Light], and even [Shattered Dreams] brought waste to the monsters of this layer. Predators fled the moment they breached into their domain.
They knew better than to trust the light in this desolate layer.
“Your only power over me is speed.” Frost proclaimed. “The ability to keep me away from your battlefield. But consider this. One day, I’ll have Warp too. I’ll have Infusion S levels of speed.”
She vowed as red mist burst from her chest.
The sprays of blood solidified into tiny shards and assailed Lammy’s body.
“I’m the one in control.” She asserted, and for the first time, she successfully blocked one of Lammy’s strikes that came from behind.
“Is that what you believe–!?”
“Yes. You have to keep me here. No matter what you say, what you do: It doesn’t change that you must rely on these methods to fight me. Bringing out Moons as collateral. Innocent people… Because there is no other way to beat me.”
Frost always had omnidirectional vision.
But Warp made it impossible to act in time. Turning on a dime was difficult, even with hands behind her back.
However, what if she was able to anticipate this?
“Ahahahaha! I really… really hate you…”
Firstly, Foresight only worked so long as the target was within her vision. This meant that Lammy could only feasibly attack her outside of her periphery vision. But there was more to this.
Frost had been summoning crystal shards for some time now, and the way her blood reacted to stimuli had only increased as her emotions soared. Her body would react to an oncoming threat before her mind could even comprehend this.
This was called a reflex arc.
Normally, the body had to send signals to the brain and return an order to the limb to move it.
But a reflex arc bypassed the need to contact the brain, and instead, worked at an autonomous level.
Her body took this phenomenon to its limit.
The smallest changes in stimuli caused her body to react instinctively. She was no longer fighting consciously, and it was thanks to her AGI that she was able to even pull off these abrupt movements.
Not enough to stop the onslaught of whip lashes that came from dozens of portals at once. But it was satisfying enough to be able to counter Lammy’s antics. It came to a point where Lammy could no longer shove her forward.
However…
“What game are you playing at Captured Star!?” Lammy questioned what was going through Frost’s mind as she began utilizing [Detonation] and [Starlight Barrier] to propel herself through the Maw of the World.
“I’m curious. I’ve been experimenting on the Impuritas. I thought it’d be nice to use myself for a chance of pace since I’m here.” She grinned.
Beads of sweat dripped from Lammy’s forehead. A look of perplexity washed over her. It was Lammy’s goal to destroy Frost’s psyche using the Curse of the Ascent and the Descent. But for Frost to lean into it took the thrill out of her plan…
… no, that was not it. There was more to this than simply robbing Lammy of her joy.
“I doubt anything will happen to me.” Frost’s Soul Quality was unmatched.
As a Level 400 being, she would be surprised if it managed to leave lasting changes on her body.
“But in the off chance that something does.”
Her grin became sadistic. A torrent of water spilled from above. Past the chasms was a world that was half submerged in water. Massive droplets fell from the distant ceiling like the tears of giants.
It bombarded the craigs beneath, leaving behind craters where critters swarmed to feast on the water, and the bodies it usually brought from the upper layers.
< The Fourth Layer: Deluge of Tears >
< Maw of The World Depth: 19,300 meters >
“Hey. Of all the times I’ve gained power and Light… it was never because I ate something bigger than me. I’m sure you’ve heard of the warning before. To not push me to my breaking point.” Frost warned.
“You’ll destroy yourself for the sake of spiting me!?”
“That was your plan to begin with to make me talk. Think of me doing you a favor. For kindly bringing me to this place.”
“Ah… Ahahaha… Do you know what it means to be afflicted by–!?”
Frost reached into her Dimensional Storage and retrieved a certain Lantern.
“You brought me here to test the limits of my psyche. Now I’ve become curious. It’s no secret that being thrown to the deep end is how I’ve consistently been gathering Light.”
“… You… Will not–!”
“I will.” Frost threatened.
She began cackling as Lammy retrieved another vial of Infusion S.
“I. WILL. NOT. LET. YOUUUUUUUU–!?”
The Lantern glowed with an incandescent light. A dark flame appeared within the pale-blue bars, and Lammy could not bring her gaze away.
“… Your fear…? And this is the measure you’ll take to win!?”
In the split second that Lammy froze, Frost utilized [Reign of the Amalgam] to launch her further up. The blow alone removed kilometers worth of atmosphere. At the same time, the vial of Infusion S was snatched by one of her ethereal hands.
She kept it in her Dimensional Storage for safekeeping and gave chase.
“It used to be a way for me to fight. To enrage myself just so I can manifest Corrupted.”
[Severe Combo]. Lammy was in a state of paralysis that allowed Frost to knock her around. They whizzed through the air, breaking into the crimson sinew of the next layer. Rock and biological masses did nothing to stop them.
< The Third Layer: Eternal hunger >
< Maw of The World Depth: 16,000 >
“But now I have to wonder why I don’t just go all the way. Push my mind to its limits. Keep on growing until all that’s left to do is to absorb you, your friends, the Impuritas, Corrupted… Even the Stars one day.”
“Captured Star… Are you threatening… to collapse yourself!? Ahahaha… Into an all-consuming body!? Like that black hole I saw in the Lantern!?”
Despite Frost’s words, this was her greatest fear.
She feared herself.
What she could become if her powers were left unchecked. She had already lost several things she had taken for granted, such as the experience of enjoying food like an ordinary human, and her presence reaching a level where it was beginning to terrorize normal people.
Then, there was the irresistible flavor of devouring memories.
But Frost refused to let it dictate her. Even if she were to become nothing but a dark flame like that in her Lantern, she’d at least know how to remove herself before she could become problematic.
Furthermore…
“You’re wrong, Lammy. I won’t collapse.”
< The Second Layer: The Plains of Fruits and Miracles > freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
< Maw of The World Depth: 7,500 meters >
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