Chapter 181 - Escaping The Layer

Suddenly, a strong sense of pressure came down.

The piece of paper crumpled up slightly.

"What? This... This feeling is..."

The dragon that had been reduced to a skeleton just moments before suddenly stood up, with a bright blue light in its eye socket. It spread its skeletal wings apart proudly, like it was trying to show off.

I blinked a few times.

"That can't be good."

As though wanting to prove a point, the dragon roared, far louder than before and strangely distorted.

The three objects in front of me did not waste any time in running away, as did I. However, it was noticeably harder for me to run as lifting my foot off the ground became a struggle. As for the three objects, they seemed to be having even more trouble. Despite my already slow movement, they were going even slower.

The necklace trembled.

"Why... is it so... hard to move?"

I furrowed my brows. Though I could still teleport, there was no pressing feeling of danger. That might be quite ridiculous to say given the giant dragon behind me emitting extreme amounts of pressure.

But I seriously didn't feel threatened by it.

However, the same could not be said for the others, the pale grey light, in particular, was screaming really loudly. It stirred up gales of wind, sending them out as blades towards the skeletal dragon. They hit and were able to nick the dragon's bones, but not any significant damage.

The necklace also joined in, spewing black mass towards the dragon. However, other than slightly discoloring it, that attack could not accomplish much.

Suddenly, it lunged forth, shooting straight towards the piece of paper. Right as the jaws were about to snap onto the piece of paper, I felt the time slow considerably.

The red light from the piece of paper was glowing brightly, but it was also weakening by the second. Thankfully, this ability was actually effective on the dragon, or whatever it actually was.

The piece of paper clearly panted as it hurried off.

"Ok, that's not a monkey. Definitely not a monkey. What monkey's mouth opens that wide?"

I tried to raise an eyebrow, but the whole time slow thing made it difficult.

Nonetheless, I wondered what exactly Noah was seeing as opposed to me. Just a few seconds later, the effect of the time slow wore off. A loud snap rang out in front of me. The dragon turned to look at the three objects that were still trying to run.

However, they simply couldn't do so quickly under the pressure exerted on them.

In the process of turning, the dragon's head phased straight through me. It was definitely a strange thing to witness, almost making me feel like I wasn't actually here. The blue light coming from its eye was especially bright this close and also quite annoying. At this rate, I felt that whatever the dragon was probably going to kill the three objects.

Considering that I spent quite a bit of time and effort getting them out of the labyrinth in the first place, I didn't really want to see them die just yet. As for how, I thought of an idea.

"Hey, grab on to me."

I tried to step forward to get away from the dragon. On the other hand, the three objects obviously hesitated as it meant they would have to get dangerously close to the dragon to get to me.

However, the pale grey light decided to move towards me. Seeing this, the dragon opened its jaws up wide. As for the necklace, it chased after the pale grey light upon noticing that it left.

"Child!"

As for the piece of paper, it did something similar, charge towards me because of the necklace.

"Amy!"

As this was happening, my eyes widened and my pupils constricted. Right before the teleportation activated, I was holding onto each of them.

It was a close call, to say the least.

The dragon's jaws snapped down right before they disappeared. We immediately reappeared several meters away. I figured that since I took my clothes and things I carried with me as I teleported, the same would apply for 

Upon noticing that its targets disappeared, the dragon let out a furious roar. I wasted no time in channeling another teleport. The piece of paper was trying to say something, but my mind was focused on the rushing sounds of wind behind me.

I could tell the skeletal dragon was getting closer.

Once more, I teleported. This time it was roughly fifty meters or so, giving a good bit of distance. Though I was avoiding it for now, the dragon didn't seem like it planned on giving up any time soon.

At this moment, the piece of paper was sitting on my shoulder muttering to himself.

"This ability... isn't directly tied to magic, nor is it tied to a realm. It is almost like... it ears through the fabric of reality itself. But how? Every other similar ability relies on-"

I clicked my tongue.

"Hey, do you think there's any way to deal with these things?"

The necklace trembled.

"Um... maybe if you take off the glasses, they won't be able to hurt you?"

I sighed as I channeled another teleport. Upon reappearing, I responded.

"That thing can't hurt me in the first place! For some reason, it really wants to kill you guys almost like you are all tasty snacks."

The piece of paper seemed to snap out of his stupor.

"I believe that this isn't permanent."

I raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

The dragon directly crashed through several trees, prompting me to teleport once more. As for the piece of paper, it seemed unconcerned about the surrounding situation and methodically explained.

"It should be a temporary phenomenon where creatures in this place are able to cross over into different layers. From the creatures that were in this place previously, they hurriedly tried to escape as though they already knew the dangers that were coming."

I furrowed my brows.

"So do we just continue to run until this phenomenon stops?"

The piece of paper hummed.

"That, or we as soul based objects must find a way to take advantage of the destabilization and ascend in terms of layers, thus not allowing these creatures to interact with us. Though before it appeared as though we were actually existing in all layers at all times, that was not the truth. Rather, we were already deep within a few layers and were able to see the layers above."

I nodded before teleporting once more as the tree next to me crashed, feeling quite mentally exhausted.

"Well, I can't keep this up for much longer, so if this thing doesn't end any time soon, you are going to have to find a way to exit this layer."

The piece of paper began mumbling to himself.

"What if..."

I couldn't help but wonder if he even cared about his own life at this point. He seemed so calm despite his life being in danger. Perhaps it was this type of calmness that allowed him to actually figure out a way to perform resurrection.

Though it was hard because of the pressure, I pushed off the ground, darting to the side. The dragon passed by, crashing into a nearby tree. After teleporting once more, I took a deep breath.

"And if you do find out, don't forget to tell the other two how to do it as well!"

The pale grey light let out a cry as though agreeing. As for the necklace, it simply said various soothing things to the child.

Suddenly, the piece of paper gasped.

"Wait, I think I know what we can do! Those creatures seemed to be able to distort their soul in order to 'fit' into the layer above. If we just do that, then it should be very plausible to do so!"

The necklace took a second to respond.

"What?"

The piece of paper recognized the confusion, thus tried to clear it up.

"Think about it like this. We need to stretch out our bodies to make them thinner, kind of like... how certain things may fit only when they are rotated into a certain position."

I rubbed my temple with the base of my palm.

"Ok, please hurry up and try, because the pain in my head makes me really unwilling to do so right now."

At that moment, the pale grey light distorted. The light coming from it both brightened and darkened at the same time in different locations. Then, it disappeared.

The necklace cried out.

"Ah, I'm coming, child!"

Several cracks formed on the necklace itself as it moved strangely, squeezing against itself and being stretched out."

As for the piece of paper, it let out a soft sigh.

"Yes, it does work!"

Right after, the paper began to tear.

...Then let out cries of pain.

"Gah! Why is this so-"

And disappeared.