Shoujo Hater-Chapter 60 - 55: The unknown

Ok, everyone is here.

Shall we start?

It was none other than the voice of the stone dragon Rockmill booming through the air.

Everyone knows that the journey we are heading into is a road to death, which means our chances of survival depend entirely on how cautious we are.

I will be the one in charge of this expedition, since I am the strongest and have some information about that place.

I do not want any conflicts.

We will set our plan here before moving. That place is unstable, and we might not be able to form any strategies once we arrive. For safety, we will decide everything now, and if something unexpected happens, I will adjust according to the situation.

Alright. Our current number is nine dragons.

Hmm...

Let me check all your power levels.

Rockmill closed his eyes and began borrowing the energy vessels of everyone around him.

Not bad.

We have four dragons at the star level, including myself, the royal delegation of temporal dragons, and that newcomer, a Supreme Dragon.

That means we are fine as long as we do not encounter creatures above Yossence Two.

Once we enter, our formation will be as follows.

The royal delegation will stay in the center. Their mission is simple. They will cover us with a backup temporal barrier and provide mana support.

I will take the front to face any danger and buy time.

Stormy will stay above to detect long range threats, since he is the best at ranged techniques and sensing.

Dragal will take the right side, and Asaria will take the left. Your task is to protect both sides.

And you, newcomer, will stay in the rear and guard the back.

Rockmill pointed at Escanor.

Now I will explain the route. We will take one of the spatial gates from here to reach the forests of Asmaria, then pass through the Valley of Dryness.

The Valley of Dryness will be our most difficult point, since it leads to that cursed thing.

Keep in mind that we have a high possibility of facing strange and unstable phenomena once we get close.

And one final warning. Anyone who causes trouble, I will kill him and devour him.

Since a useless obstacle only puts the rest at risk, he will serve a better purpose by increasing our chance of survival.

Rockmill released his energy. The pressure shook the entire area and caused a massive crack in the ground.

You all know that none of us wants to take this mission, but you also know the punishment for disobeying the King.

Alright, let us move.

Everyone took their humanoid draconic forms and flew until they reached the Dragon Teleportation Gate.

Open the gate.

Rockmill’s voice echoed, making the sleeping guards jump to their feet.

Is that you, Rockmill? Very well, the supervising guard answered nervously.

Open the gate now.

Everyone passed through the gate and began transforming into their dragon forms.

They flew in a straight line at speeds surpassing the speed of light.

Three days passed before they reached the edge of Asmaria, where they rested for one day.

Rockmill followed a strategy of preserving as much strength as possible with maximum efficiency.

After their rest, the next morning Stormy hunted a few beasts for them.

Everyone ate, then they continued their journey and began flying across the Desert of Dryness.

They flew continuously for six months, always alert and ready.

They knew the Ma’hul was somewhere in this region, but no one knew its exact location.

Until they all felt a wicked aura at the same time.

Now.

Rockmill’s anxious voice echoed as he warned the others to start the plan.

They took their agreed formation, but before they could finish, a white and black light appeared.

It was an unstable spatial tear.

In an instant, they were transported to a place they had never seen before.

They could not tell how far they had traveled because of the tear.

They examined their surroundings, only to face the unknown.

A gray land, and an enormous barrier appeared above them as a giant sphere made of a strange black void like material that seemed endless.

The air surrounding it was suffocating, and the external mana was almost nonexistent.

As their thoughts and assumptions grew, something suddenly disrupted them.

The gravity increased and forced them down to the ground, canceling their transformations.

In that moment, a natural instinct to escape was born within all of them.

Asaria, test that thing.

Rockmill shouted, wanting to identify the material without risking their lives.

Sunfire Wrath.

Asaria raised her hand and formed a massive sun, then hurled it at part of the dark sphere.

The sphere absorbed it into the void like darkness as if nothing had ever existed.

At that moment, none of them understood the consequences of this action.

Some believed it was a smart choice, but the truth was that it marked only the beginning of a great calamity.

Suddenly, they began hearing a strange undefined voice.

A voice that drove them insane and caused immense pain.

Mmmmmm

Mmmmmm

Ma’hul... Ma’hul... Ma’hul...

Fear entered the hearts of Stormy and Dragal.

We are not taking part in this. To hell with the orders of the Dragon King and the tribunal.

Both of them transformed in an attempt to escape.

They knew that entering that place meant death.

But before they could even change direction, a cursed force pulled all of them inward like a black hole.

They tried to push upward with their wings, but they could not fly.

And worse, their transformations were canceled again.

Rockmill shouted, Hold on to me.

He extended his tail.

Everyone grabbed onto each other, connecting through Rockmill’s tail.

But the gravity increased again and again.

Rockmill crashed into the barrier, but he activated a special shield, a stone barrier made from a strange type of rock.

It allowed him to open a gap just wide enough for all of them to enter without touching that black void matter, and then the place swallowed them all inside.

As the darkness closed around them, everything vanished.

No sound. No light. No mana.

Only a merciless unknown.

A faint black mark suddenly appeared on each of their bodies, pulsing once like a heartbeat before fading into nothing.

None of them knew what it meant.

But the Ma’hul did.

In that moment, they understood a single truth: they had truly entered the Ma’hul. And that declared silence was the evidence of a birth of a nightmare none would ever forget or imagine, even if they survived.