Lightning flashed, illuminating the layer for a single heartbeat before plunging it back into black.
A cold wind hit them both, raw and biting, pulling a shiver from Adrian's body that had nothing to do with fear this time. The silence that had defined the outer ring was gone now, replaced by the constant, distant rumble of thunder rolling through the clouds above.
Eric and Adrian stood still for several minutes, simply taking it in.
No matter where Adrian looked, the land stretched on without end — mountains folding into ravines, oceans bleeding into rivers, the horizon swallowed by more of the same darkness in every direction.
Eric's gaze fell on the center of the land and saw a long, dark ravine covered by dense black fog. There was a large amount of Darkness Pathway's energy coming out of it. All the black veins ended up going in that ravine, like how rivers meet to form an ocean. It was so strong that Eric could feel it from all the way up there.
"Whatever wrong is going on in this layer is definitely due to the thing in that ravine." Eric fixed that ravine as their main target for investigation. Adrian also understood where they were gonna go now without being told.
His gaze kept drifting back to the black moon, hanging vast and close enough to feel wrong, as if it had claimed more of the sky than any moon had any right to.
"How big is that thing?" he asked, pointing.
Eric studied it for a moment before answering. "About the size of Venus, I'd guess."
Adrian's expression sank slightly at that — though after learning the layer itself was larger than Earth, the number landed with less shock than it probably should have. He was beginning to understand that scale in this place didn't work the way he was used to.
They turned and started walking.
It didn't last.
Eric looked down and found the black veins thickening rapidly beneath their feet — denser now, more numerous, pulsing faintly with something that looked disturbingly close to blood.
He stopped.
Walking through this much corruption, blind to where the next vein might surface, wasn't a risk worth taking. He looked back at Adrian, several steps behind him.
"Do you know how to fly?"
He said it plainly, the way someone might ask if you knew how to swim.
Adrian stared back at him with nothing to say.
Eric blinked once, processed the silence, and exhaled through his nose. "Let's teach you, then."
Without further warning, Adrian's feet left the ground.
He yelped, flailing instantly, his body twisting sideways in the air as old, deep-rooted fear of heights surged up through him all at once. He had hated heights since he was a child, and floating weightless above ground that was actively bleeding black corruption did nothing to help.
Eric rose into the air beside him, unbothered, watching Adrian spin and flail with no real progress toward staying upright. His expression didn't change.
"First," he said. "Calm down."
Something about the flatness of his voice cut through Adrian's panic just enough. He stilled, suspended upside down, arms still half-raised from his last attempt to grab something that wasn't there.
A gentle push from behind righted him — Eric's Aura, quiet and precise — until Adrian hung upright in the air, breathing hard, both feet dangling over nothing at all.
"Now," Eric said, hovering effortlessly a few feet away, "tell me where your center of gravity is."
Adrian closed his eyes for a second, still wobbling slightly in place. "My abdomen part?"
"Yes. You are right." Eric nodded. "Flying isn't about pushing yourself up. It's about pushing the air around you." Eric demonstrated, dropping a few feet and catching himself in a single smooth motion, with no visible effort in his expression. "Push down, evenly, beneath your feet. Not all at once."
Adrian tried, but he ended up pushing too hard on one side.
His body flipped sideways, head over heels, and he let out a strangled yell as the dark sky and darker ground traded places rapidly in his vision.
Eric caught him by the collar before he could fully invert, setting him upright again with the same unbothered calm as before.
"Evenly," Eric repeated. "Not all from one foot."
"I wasn't trying to—"
"You were favoring your left side. Your right side is your dominant side, so your mind subconsciously tilts more to the left side to give it more support."
Adrian swallowed and tried again, more carefully this time, splitting his focus evenly beneath both feet.
He rose three inches.
Then dropped immediately, overcorrecting from sheer surprise that it had worked at all.
"You stopped pushing the moment it succeeded," Eric said. "Trust the result. Don't celebrate it mid-action."
"That's — that's a very specific note."
"It's a common mistake."
Adrian tried a third time. This attempt held — wobbly, listing slightly to one side, but holding. He grinned despite himself, delighted by the sheer novelty of floating under his own control.
Then a gust of wind hit him, and he spun in a slow, helpless circle, arms pinwheeling.
"Counter the wind with your balance and control, not your arms," Eric said. "Your arms do nothing up here."
"They feel like they're doing something."
"They are doing something. They are making you look ridiculous."
Adrian huffed but stilled his arms, focusing instead on pushing his Aura against the direction of the wind. The spinning slowed. Not fully — he was still drifting sideways, fighting for balance — but it slowed.
"Better," Eric said.
They continued like this for a while — small failures, smaller corrections. Adrian flipped twice more, dropped once nearly to the ground before catching himself in a panic, and overcorrected so hard at one point that he shot fifteen feet straight up before Eric calmly pulled him back down by adjusting the air pressure around him.
But each mistake came a little smaller than the last. Each recovery came a little faster.
By the time Adrian managed to hold a stable hover for a full ten seconds without drifting, sweat beading at his temple despite the cold, Eric gave the smallest nod of approval Adrian had ever seen from him.
"Good enough to travel," Eric said. "Stay close to me. If you start to fall, I will catch you — but it is better if you don't need catching."
Adrian nodded, still breathing a little hard, still faintly proud of himself despite the chaos of the last several minutes.
"Let's go," Eric said, and began moving forward through the dark sky.
Adrian followed — wobbling, drifting slightly off course every few seconds, but moving. Flying, in the loosest possible sense of the word.
It was, he thought, probably the most Eric way anyone had ever taught him anything: minimal patience, maximum precision, and exactly zero comfort given for free.
Eric and Adrian flew for a short while, often stopping because Adrian loses his balance or starts to fall. Eric had long requested the gravity around him to make sure Adrian doesn't really fall.
Adrian had to blink multiple times or look down due to dust entering his eye or the air drying his eyes out, and whenever he looked down, his heart started to pound even faster.
Eric was a walker of the Energy pathway; he was loved by the energies around him and could request them to do. Obviously, due to his Aura, he was the closest to and loved most by gravity. It had a much higher chance of accepting his requests. There have been countless times in his life when he often fell down the stairs, slipped, got stuff thrown at him, or had to help Max when gravity came and helped him himself.
The other energies may have affection for him, but they won't agree to every request of his and won't assist him as much as gravity does.
Eric had intended to make Adrian try using his Aura while flying, but he let it remain only a thought; it was still too complicated for him.
Eric and Adrian flew down and landed in the southern part of a forest filled with dark green trees covered by red veins. The branches intertwine with each other, making them turn into huge balls that bury themselves in the ground, slowly growing another tree of the same kind.
These were the Red-Vined Root tree.
This forest was a comfortable distance away from the ravine. Eric was a careful person; he would never go straight to somewhere which was the source of all the corruption in the layer. He also had Adrian with him, who was his responsibility to protect. He can't go and risk his life. If he were to really die, then who would take care of Adrian?
As they landed in the forest, Eric realized the first wrong thing.
It was too quiet.
Normally, the central land should be filled with all types of beasts and predators, and hunting prey should be as normal as people walking on earth.
Eric and Adrian slowly started to walk. Black veins pulsed beneath the roots, faintly like the heartbeat of something sleeping beneath the forest floor.
Howl!
With the howl of multiple wolves, the forest started to tremble as Eric, who had just thought that this layer was too empty, realized that they had been being watched.
ice blue eyes slowly revealed themselves in the darkness. Adrian saw dozens of huge hounds with white skin around him as lightning flashed; even the smallest one could tower over him. When the next lightning rumbled, they weren't there, as if disappearing in the dark.
Adrian and Eric noticed that these hounds had multiple layers of corruption on them, making them more hostile and aggressive as they gritted their teeth in pain.
A layer of ice suddenly started to form from the feet of these hounds and made its way to Eric and Adrian in under a second, like a wave. Eric's right leg was frozen, unable to be removed.
Eric had an expressionless face; he didn't fear these Frostbite hounds.
His gravitation Aura flashed in the form of a flame as the layer of ice around him melted. As lightning flashed this time, Eric was the one who disappeared this time.
In the complete darkness, only the pitiful wails of wolves, sounds of flesh being torn apart, heads exploding, and gushing out of blood were the only things that Adrian could hear.
As the lightning rumbled, Adrian saw Eric around a group of dead frostbite hounds.
Adrian didn't dare move from his place. Eric calmly glanced around the corpses of these hounds.
"These frostbite hounds had only one Auri Nova as the leader and still decided to attack me. It seems that the corruption has not only weakened them, but it has also diminished their intelligence and instincts." Eric had ignored as much corruption as he could while fighting these hounds, but he had to create some countermeasure; it won't be long before he actually catches it. He was still fine, but Adrian was even more exposed to this with no means to save himself.
But unfortunately, Eric's realm of understanding in the Darkness Pathway was barely ordinary.
Eric and Adrian kept walking. On their way, they saw a large number of pathway's beasts. They all had suffered from corruption, and many often attacked Adrian and Eric, but Eric killed them all.
Adrian continued to follow Eric with the lamp burning still in his right hand. He was still scared, but his body was much more composed now. He mimicked Eric's habit and started to loom around after every few steps.
As they walked, Adrian started to wonder why they weren't flying and asked Eric. "Trust me, the air is more dangerous than the land could ever become. You also don't know how to fly properly. I will be restricted."
Slowly but surely, Eric and Adrian reached closer to the ravine. Eric and Adrian looked at the ravine in front of them from a mound they were standing on.
Eric carefully activated his Abyssal eyes, but his eyes still nearly bled from the intense concentration of Darkness Pathway energy in the ravine.
Eric quickly deactivated his abyssal eyes and healed his eyes with his meditation Aura, quickly regaining his vision.
He then spent a long time staring at the ravine and often shaped his aura into weapons which he threw as some long-range attack to probe the ravine and the fog around it, but no matter what he does, the attack always seems to disappear in the fog, never to be seen or return. His connection to those attacks gets cut the moment they enter the ravine.
Eric sat down on the ground and closed his eyes, thinking deeply. Adrian stared at him simply, not understanding what Eric was trying to do.
Just then, Eric's eyes popped open as an inspiration hit him. He immediately started to take out dozens of charms of the energy and light pathway that he had gotten from the formation.
He started to place them randomly as he seemed to be building a formation, often inscribing multiple symbols in places. Adrian recognizes some while being unfamiliar with many others.
After nearly fifty minutes, a small formation was finally built as Eric entered the formation space. He activated his abyssal eyes and looked at the ravine again. As the corruption started to corrode his eyes, the formation activated and illuminated Eric in a white light, slowing down the rate of corruption. Eric was able to look at the ravine for a few more seconds before he reached his limit again.
"This formation takes too much time to set up and consumes too much aura, yet still has such low efficiency." Eric heaved a deep sigh. This was a formation made from a single inspiration; he would have to study more and modify it while running many tests to perfect it and reduce its flaws.
But for him to be able to make such a formation with just an inspiration, it was already very good.
Eric took out an Aura stone and started to absorb the natural aura in it, filling his reserve in case of any emergency.
Eric and Adrian didn't have a choice. They slowly floated to the ravine, and the black veins around the ravine were now like turbulent rivers, even before they had to float many times, but now they had no choice.
They landed near a small island beside the black fog, which had an oppressive aura and was completely dark inside. It seemed to devour light itself.
"Are we really going to enter this place?" Adrian had a grim face; it was obvious that he was scared.
Eric slowly nodded his head as he faced the black fog. "It's not us. It's me. I am going alone, if I don't come back. Make sure to do anything to leave and try to find a way back."
"I was the one who took you here. Naturally, I will also be the one who will take the risks."
Adrian tried to reason with Eric, but he was resolute and stepped into the fog, leaving Adrian out alone.
Adrian stared at the black fog, and anxiety soon filled his chest. He hoped Eric would be alright.
Eric was in complete darkness; the darkness put immense pressure on him, and he felt like he was walking in a beast's mouth. Every step was hard for him to take. countless wet and squelching sounds entered his ears, but he didn't dare activate his Abyssal eyes; he might go blind permanently if he did.
His breathing came out short and deep; it was getting harder for him to breathe.
Suddenly, a black light appeared and washed Eric over with itself. The darkness seemed to accept itself at this point. Eric was confused about this sudden change.
The darkness around him seemed to clear itself as the surroundings became clear to him. Eric no longer felt any pressure as he could breathe comfortably now.
He continued walking, the more he closer he walked to the ravine, the faster his heart beat.
Finally, he reached the ravine, which was long and deep; nothing inside it could be seen. In the middle of it was a stone bridge with many cracks on it now, connecting to an ancient temple that had rusted and was covered with dark green, thorny vines, entering the cracks on the surface of it, indicating it had been abandoned for hundreds of years.
Inside the temple, Eric could clearly see a skeleton. It was the decaying dead body of a human. At this moment, Eric realized that what he had been thinking was true.
"The dead body of a Hypernova..."
When an Aura user dies, they change the surroundings around them. The changes that occur after the death of a Hypernova can alter an entire solar system, let alone this layer.
The corruption, the black veins, and the changes to the layer now all made complete sense.
It was clear to Eric that this Hypernova was a walker of the Darkness Pathway, but it still didn't answer his question of why he couldn't contact anyone or teleport out of here.
Eric had no intentions of approaching the dead body of a Hypernova; it was way too risky with nothing in return. Eric may be someone who could take risks, but he wasn't stupid enough to take unnecessary risks.
Just as he was about to turn around and leave, the wet sound of someone eating raw flesh entered his ears. Eric's body froze as he looked to his left and saw that a humanoid beast with gray skin was eating a huge, colorful butterfly's dead body all along, while Eric was standing there, unaware of its presence. This fact made Eric's heart tremble.
What made Eric's heart drop even more was the fact that this beast was not just a Lysi Nova from the immense Aura pressure it put on Eric now that he finally noticed it.
Before Eric could think of his next course of action, the ground beneath him started to tremble. Eric tried to maintain his balance as the temple started to split further apart. The skeleton of the hypernova's empty eye socket let out an extremely dazzling black light as black liquid with white particles in it started to flood out of the ravine like a tsunami.
The black light and the black liquid started to merge on top of the temple as cracks appeared on the ground. The beast, however, kept eating his food as if nothing was happening.
Finally, after what felt like years, the black liquid and light merged into the shape of a humanoid figure.
It was a will.
The will was small, barely the size of Eric's palm, it was abyss black in colour and floated in the air calmly, its quiet and elegant demeanor made a huge contrast with the oppressive feeling it gave to those near it.
The will slowly opened it's eyes, shining with the same abyss black eyes. It slowly looked down at Eric, and a small yet arrogant smile appeared on its face.
It opened its mouth and spoke slowly, resounding around the entire valley. "Congratulations, Junior, you are the first one to find this inheritance of mine. I wonder how long it has been since my main body last set up this inheritance." The will crossed its arms as it glanced at the temple, shaking its head with a disheartened face.
It gazed again at Eric, seeing him take a small but noticeable step behind. It spoke warmly. "You do not need to fear anything. Just enter the temple and accept the inheritance. It also contains the method that can allow you and your friend to escape this layer."
Eric stared at the will with wide eyes. His heart pounded wildly against his ribs.
He felt an intense premonition of danger screaming in his body at this moment.
Something about this situation was not right...