Chapter 405: Chaotic Space

'Yes I can' W transmitted back to Ed having suddenly received a long distance transmission. He could have said more, but there actually wasn't much to say. Plus, he had his own problems to handle.

For one, Brennan Bosque might have acted quite stupid, but Ed could tell he wasn't sold on having a bloody slime like monster in his body. W could only infer he was trying to put up with it for survival.

His joke about a dragon the day before was probably just a way to cope with the situation. By picturing himself in different places, by imagining a better future, by selling himself a fantasy, Brennan could cope with having a monster inside him.

He was fine with a monster that could rob him of his hearing, his sight, his feeling, it was a monster that could leave him in total darkness. It was a monster that would force him to be alone with his own thoughts and reflect, and sometimes there was nothing scarier than peace and quiet.

But more importantly, the other issue W had to deal with now was the humans planning to leave the floor.

'This is what I want but…' The orcs would be left without an enemy and more importantly, the goblins would be left without a target. It was a real pity too since W was looking forward to seeing Pipsqueak's and the others' performance.

It wasn't like he could have Sharog and Shel lead a sudden ambush. He didn't share the spiritual marks with Ed and-

'I guess I could transmit to him so he can transmit to them' But that was still problematic. Without the presence of Ed, the humans did pose a real threat to Sanctuary. If they provoked them and things went wrong… 

Not just that, but this stood against his and Ed's goal of getting to the outside. W felt that this was one of those legendary damned if you do, damned if you don't scenarios.

'Maybe not that far…' It was just a matter of sacrificing one plan for another. Unfortunately for the goblins, getting outside was more important than their integration.

With his thoughts settled, W could now focus on what was going on around Brennan. A day had passed and the humans were planning to leave soon. They had packed everything and were now just waiting for the signal to start departing.

It was morning, a couple of hours before noon, so the wind was fresh and the sun was not glaring. It was good weather as always.

"Sigh… They must have died" Stuart said to himself as he exited his tent. The young people he sent back never returned. The time it took to leave and come back was not large enough to merit no response whatsoever. At the very least, they had to send back a scout.

With the reality of the situation right in their faces, the few that had realized could not smile even under the pleasant weather conditions.

"We will be setting out in an hour!" Stuart's voice shouted sternly. The new base was built closer to the exit portal and while they hadn't completely cleared the Aspiration base, they had cleaned it out enough.

They had also rigged it in case any curious orcs wandered in. This job was a part of why it took an extra day before they could leave.

The knights and few mages who heard Stuart's shout all did some final preparations and verified they were leaving nothing of importance behind for the umpteenth time. The hour flew by quickly just on account of these actions.

Brennan Bosque was completely fine physically, he was now standing outside the tent wearing a spare suit of clothing and armor. But he wasn't standing just anywhere, he was standing at the front of a crowd of people.

"My subjects, I will spare no effort in rewarding you for your bravery once we are out. With that in mind, let's do our utmost for this final push." Brennan spoke with eloquence and grace. His regal aura was plainly out on display.

Truthfully, the short speech was not all that motivating. The words sounded rather empty. How could a dead person claim rewards? So what gave the knights and mages the most hope and motivation was not the words of Brennan but his presence.

They effectively failed the main quest and were also on track to fail the side quest of rescuing the king. By a stroke of luck, however, the king came to them on his own. For them, it meant hope and it signaled an end to the nightmare.

After Brennan said his two cents, Stuart started taking the lead on things. They were finally leaving. This included the rather shifty Bob.

'Bob's looking rather worried' Ed really pitied the man. He was feeling bad for breaking him. Most of the knights were keeping their distance from him. A few also had the same thoughts of pity like W.

The entourage of knights and mages followed closely behind Stuart as they walked closer to the portal. Once there, W felt as though he was facing a formidable enemy.

The return portal was still the same pitch-black void, but if there was one thing worth noting was that it was much wider now. Of course, W didn't mind a little thickness, what troubled him was whether he could successfully cross the portal.

'Bloody might not make it if we are unlucky' The skeleton Martyr who died valiantly testing the portal for Ed was not missing from W's memories. Although one of the more easily overseen skeletons, Martyr's action of way back then was still fresh on W's mind.

W wanted to rack his brain and seek non-life-threatening alternatives to the teleportation, but nothing came to him. He was willing to take the risk as Ed had crossed the portal safely before, but Bloody might be in legit danger.

The fellow could be annoying to W, but he obviously didn't wish death upon one of his own.

If Ed had the system space, he could store away the consciousness of Bloody, but he didn't. Now he could only hope that partially integrating with Brennan was enough for Bloody to make the journey.

"Tarin, Bede…" Stuart started to call out the names of some knights and mages.

"We are all going in together with the king" With the portal being wide enough, they could try and safely escort the man through the portal. In the event that they encountered danger on the other side, they could still deal with it.

The people listened to Stuart's commands and they lined up properly. Brennan was in the middle, looking at the portal with some anxiety. He had never seen something so mind-boggling!

The portal felt like a glitch in the fabric of reality. Space magic was without a doubt amazing and Brennan had seen Eon enter with it rather often. Yet… something felt untamed and wild about the current one.

The funny thing was that it had been stabilized by Eon, so what Brennan was feeling was not even the peak possible. As for everyone else, they felt nothing special about the portal and didn't make a fuss about crossing it.

Brennan was looking around, unsure if he was the only one that could feel this strange feeling or if the others were simply used to it by now.

"Let's go in 3… 2…" But it was time to. Stuart was making a countdown!

"1! All in!" Stuart shouted. Everyone took a step forward and lost part of their senses after sticking a leg or a hand in. This was temporary as they soon plunged their entire bodies in.

This included Brennan.

'U- Urgh…' W was suddenly feeling rather sick. Why was he conscious?!?!

W could feel the chaotic space caress the body of Brennan as they floated towards what felt like a set destination. The senses of sight, hearing, etc. were all missing, but W had another form of sight.

He activated his sixth sense and tried to observe what was going on around him.

Pushing through the pain, the first thing W saw was Bloody's consciousness glowing an increasingly faint blue.

'No!!!!' W was keenly aware that something was wrong. Both he and Bloody seemed to be taking damage. At this rate, Bloody's consciousness might extinguish!

'Damn it Bloody, integrate with Brennan more!' At the end of his wits, there was only one solution to the problem. Let Bloody integrate more with Brennan! The fact that they didn't immediately die under the pressure of the chaotic space suggested that Brennan was sufficient shelter.

This still left W vulnerable, however. He grit his teeth and suddenly strained the sixth sense skill. It seemed to see past the cage that was Brennan's body and suddenly W felt a great migraine.

'AAAAAARGGGGH!!!!' It was a very painful migraine.

What W saw was a deep sea of endless red. But the endless red seemed to at times turn jet black and in others start turning to a more orange color. At some points, the black would collapse and a vacuum in space would appear before being quickly sealed.

'Wh- What is this?!' Was the dungeon constantly engaging in a difficult battle against space itself by creating a portal to another floor!??!