Chapter 96: Beyond the Highest Peaks

Chapter 96: Beyond the Highest Peaks

No matter how Kai strained, he couldn't stop his legs from moving forward. On some level, he didn't want to. Some of the others didn't seem to even notice, just strolling alongside the strange man as if this was perfectly ordinary.

When he exchanged glances with Zae Zin Nim, she looked downright miserable. He felt her try to use her qi to escape, then surround herself with her corona, but neither had any effect. There wasn't going to be any easy way out of this. If his brief glimpse had been right, the old man was more powerful than anything he'd ever faced before. Likely far more, even stronger than the Frontier elites.

"Now, I don't want to hurt you fine young fishies." The strange man stepped ahead of the group, then turned around, putting his back toward the charging horde of monsters and walking backwards. "Hello there! My name is Koleiman the Magnificent, but you can just call me The Magnificent. It's wonderful that you're going to investigate the center, because so am I."

"Are you with the Frontier elites?" the leader of the southern group asked. Koleiman blinked at her, turned his head to the side, then kept turning until it was fully horizontal.Nnew n0vel chapters are published at novelhall.com

"Is that a type of fish? I've already forgotten what you said, to be honest. But come along now!"

Strength wouldn't work and Kai didn't want to pit his willpower against this Koleiman either. His only chance of not being marched into the monster horde was to change something within himself. He reached for the island of monsters in his soul and for the first time his essence gained a little leverage. The vision was inside him, he just needed to coax it out...

"Did you know that your world is flat?" Koleiman was standing just beside him, but all he did was stare around with wide-eyed wonder. "I feel like worlds should be curved. Just a big ole ball. But I flew pretty high and it looks flat all the way to the edge."

Having said that, he skipped off. Kai wasn't capable of breathing a sigh of relief, but he focused internally again. If that hunger deep within himself could just become active again...

Suddenly his feet swung freely. Kai nearly stumbled as his momentum became his again abruptly. He looked around to see if the old man had noticed, but Koleiman was currently walking in front of the group and babbling nonsense. So he was free... and it might not matter.

As the horde of monsters drew near, it began to turn toward them. Whole packs of twisted dogs, all of them shivering unnaturally, with worse monsters behind them. It was far too many for any of them to fight and some in the group began to cry out even though they kept walking.

Rainbow light flowed from Koleiman and wrapped around the entire group. Outside it, the monsters seemed to slow to a crawl, their legs moving as if through molasses. Even stranger, they seemed to forget about the group they had been attacking the moment before.

"Don't worry, fishies!" Koleiman danced in front of them and clapped his hands. "I'll get you all to the hole safely. Everything will be clear then. Or maybe it won't be, but that isn't my problem."

Kai grimaced and kept pace with the others. He was free of the strange control, but it didn't do him any good since leaving the rainbow aura would mean his death. If only he had any idea how, he'd free Zae Zin Nim. The most he could do was meet her gaze again and put a finger to his lips. She stared, then frowned, which was honestly a relief compared to her previous agonized expression.

All of the monsters around them continued moving slowly, yet Kai didn't think they were the ones being affected. It was their group that was moving unnaturally quickly. When he looked to the back, he saw the dust the last hunters kicked up suddenly slow to a crawl when it left the rainbow aura behind them. That was enough for a basic theory of what was happening and he had no time for anything else.

It seemed like she might be winning. Kai had no idea how close they were to the center-point of the wastelands, but if that was the goal, it seemed she would get there first.

That was when he began hearing a rhythmic beating against the earth. He looked to the west and spotted a muscular man with blue skin charging toward the battle. By normal human standards, he was enormous, but he looked small compared to the giants. That proved irrelevant as he reached the monster hordes and stomped his way through them.

Every time he touched the ground, he released more power than Kai possessed in his entire body just to throw himself into the air again, releasing a shockwave that killed monsters who were too close by. The power felt like some cross between mana and chakra... Kai refused to even consider opening his spiritual sight to learn more because the sight might blind him.

When he drew near, the muscular man took an enormous leap that sent him sailing toward the cultivator. For the first time in the fight she actually dodged, an elegant twist through the air that allowed her to strike the muscular man with a burst of qi. This bolt was so intense that it looked as though the blue-skinned man had dissolved into the light.

Yet when Kai could see again, he saw the man skidding back through the earth. The force created a furrow through the ground and sent boulders the size of houses flying, but he was still on his feet. In fact, when he lowered his arms it looked as though he hadn't even been scratched. Kai could only guess that his Physique was so impossibly advanced that even such overpowering attacks slid off his body.

The impact had pushed him at an angle, but he seemed to be even closer to the central goal. Several of the red armored giants began to sprint, the cultivator stopped fighting to fly forward, and the muscular man began leaping again. Their point of convergence must be close, almost within sight...

Then reality twisted, worse than Kai had ever felt before. New monsters flooded out, moving just as swiftly as all the warriors, trampling directly over their slower brethren. The muscular man began tearing them apart with his bare hands, but he wasn't able to ignore them so easily any more. Even the cultivator flying overhead was forced to stop as several flying monsters began to harry her, emitting great bursts of light from their mouths.

More warriors were arriving all around, too many for Kai to keep track of. Every single one of them was more powerful than anyone he'd seen before, but none of them could move through this new wave of monsters easily.

Actually... he realized that only their group was still moving forward. None of the monsters appeared able to see anyone within the rainbow aura. Koleiman walked at the front, directing an invisible orchestra with his hands and occasionally spinning a pirouette.

He seemed mad, but if this was a race to the center, the madman was winning.

The sheer scale of the battle had begun to overwhelm Kai... and then his gaze was captured by what lay before them. As they slipped through the battle, the unbelievable sight unfolded. He knew with absolutely certainty that they had reached the center of the Frontier... and the reason for its existence.

A hole gaped in the earth, larger than the entirety of Monskon city. He could barely see the other side and the edges looked perfectly sheer. As if the world was a thin sheet of cloth that someone had poked through with a needle. Worse, he had the inexplicable feeling that the hole extended upward as well. From the corner of his eyes he could almost see a column of distorted air rising into the heavens. The mere concept of looking over the edge filled him with dread.

"Almost there! Hurry, fishies!" Koleiman gestured for them to follow and the group began to speed up.

All around them, more armies from around the world emerged. Fighting over the depthless pit that Kai was suddenly certain the entire Frontier had been built to contain.