He was right.

It had indeed been a tear in space that had been in front of them, and with William starting to become a seasoned veteran in being teleported to places unknown, he didn’t even flinch as he passed through.

However, Princess Jin didn’t seem as prepared. She would have collapsed if not for her hand holding onto him for support. The gasps from the girl as she struggled to stay on her feet reminded him of what she had said near the start, of how this place would be a sight to see.

In a way, Princess Jin wasn’t wrong.

William had seen plenty of things that should have left lifelong scars on his mind, but he was quick to suppress the memories before any real issues could pop up. After nearly being sacrificed right when he was dropped into this world, it had become an effective way to function normally.

However, this scenery was something that even his worst nightmares couldn’t match. After all, it wasn’t possible for his mind to be cruel enough to conjure up everything he was terrified about after experiencing this world while enhancing it to a level that slowly broke his mental defenses. He wasn’t able to suppress this at any level.

The very first thing that caught William’s attention was the seemingly infinite number of brown and green vines that were attached to something on the ground. He didn’t pay much mind to what it was attached to since his eyes immediately tracked to where they originated from.

His head tilted until he was staring right at the sky.

One that seemed to be boundless stretched overhead, not a relaxing blue or eerie white that he was familiar with, but unfathomably dark. It should be simply called black, but that felt hilariously inadequate.

William shook slightly, or maybe it was the princess trying to get his attention. He wasn’t sure. The sky here was everything he feared about the void, and it felt like it was pulling him in. He wanted to break away, but it felt like that decision was taken out of his control.

“-P OUT OF IT!”

He sucked in a lungful of air, suddenly finding his vision filled with Princess Jin’s concerned eyes. Whatever spell was put on him by the sky was broken, and he couldn’t help but think she had again saved his life. The plan to be a hero isn’t going exactly as he planned.

“We need to leave!” Princess Jin was afraid, “This was a mistake. Someone must have sabotaged the text my family possesses!”

William blinked slowly. It was difficult to muster the effort to reply to the princess. Instead, in contrast to his screaming internal resistance, he could feel his face slowly tilting up, as if his subconscious mind couldn’t wait to meet disaster.

He grunted when his head was forcefully turned to the side by a hard slap that made his cheek sting. It was hard enough to snap his mind out of whatever suicidal tendencies this place put him in.

“Are you insane?” Princess Jin forced him to face her again, “Don’t look up unless you want to die!”

William had no intention of doing so, but neither was he keen on having his face this close to the princess. Still, he didn’t dare look away from her eyes.

“What happened?” He asked directly.

“I don’t know,” Princess Jin said with a shaky voice, “It looked like something was being pulled out of your body the more you stared at the ceiling.”

“Ceiling?” William repeated incredulously, “That’s no ceiling, princess. It’s the damned abyss.”

It sounded a little dramatic, but he felt the need to let her know how insulting it was to call that a simple ceiling.

“I don’t care,” Princess Jin spat, “Stop arguing like an idiot and leave. I’ll be going with or without you.”

William let himself be pushed back, presumably to the tear in space that brought them here. However, nothing, especially getting to a much-needed escape, would ever be so easy.

“NO!”

The princess was looking past him with despair overtaking her features. It wasn’t hard for him to guess that the tear had disappeared. It almost made the princess seem adorable for having such naive hopes.

“Why are you not affected?” William asked, trying to make her think about anything other than the lost exit. It didn't work. Then again, he did bring attention to the fact that they were stuck here.

“I-I don’t know,” she repeated the phrase, though this time it looked as if her mind was desperately trying to figure out how to leave.

William could remind her of what they had spoken of before they entered the tear in space, but since cultivating was necessary for that, it would be wasted words. Neither of them would have the correct mindset to be able to cultivate with the worries in their mind.

“I’m going to take another look,” William stopped Princess Jin’s protest with a sharp look, “It’s not like we have another option. Be ready to snap me out of it if something goes wrong.”

He didn’t expect that to happen. Unlike before, it didn’t feel like his thoughts were sluggish or affected by an external force.

William didn’t waste time and looked up, ready for his worst fears to return. However, what he saw wasn’t the abyss he expected, but the ceiling Princess Jin mentioned.

It was still dark due to the poor lighting, even with the lantern active in the princess’s hand. Still, he could see a rough, brown, bark-like texture on the ceiling when there were pulses of green light.

“You’re fine!” Princess Jin sounded surprised.

William hummed in confirmation as he followed one of the green pulses, originating where a vine started from the ceiling before racing down the entire length and disappearing into what it was attached to at the bottom.

“Princess, did you miss what’s in front of us?” William’s voice sounded faint. He gulped audibly as the dark surroundings gained a green tint with each synchronized pulse, but there was one area where the color didn’t match.

It was a deep, menacing red. And every time the green pulses of light disappeared into the charred body the vines were attached to, the red color grew ever so slightly stronger.

“I didn’t look at anything after what happened to you.”

“Well, I think we're fine on that front now,” William backed away slowly, pulling the princess with him, “You might be right. We need to leave immediately.”

Princess Jin turned to see what had spooked him but didn’t seem to understand his fear. “I find it concerning you are more terrified of an unborn beast than having your life almost ripped out of you.”

He had a reason for that. While it clearly hadn’t been completely formed, this was clearly a fetus that would grow into one of those giants that caused an apocalypse simply by fighting. Even if it wasn’t a baby quite yet, there was zero chance he would ever want to be near it. Besides, this thing was massive. As in, large enough to make it clear to anyone just how large it would grow when fully formed.

William didn’t forget how the sound that left the giants’ mouths had nearly killed him. If this fetus somehow had the ability to cry like a human baby, it might actually erase his life before he even knew it due to how close it was to him.

“Princess, try to cultivate and leave,” William said tensely, “If it works, I’ll follow soon after.”

She immediately gave him a jerky nod before taking a seat, likely understanding from his tone that this wasn’t the time to ask questions. He hoped she was successful because the longer he stared at the fetus, the more it felt like it was staring back.

IMPORTANT (PLEASE READ):

There has been a massive increase in people who steal from RR and post the book on Amazon. What makes it harder to detect easily is that the entire story is run through an AI like chatgpt. When I intend to post on Amazon in the distant future, this novel will be heavily edited to make it read more like a book instead of a webserial. What these pirates are doing is making a novel far worse than what you can find on free sites like RR since an AI will make the novel a chore to read with the changes in prose. More importantly, they are stealing the hard work of authors and trying to make a quick buck out of it.

I know several authors that were affected, and most were able to get the stories taken down, but it really depends on readers/authors keeping an eye out for this shit since it requires human detection. Some telltale signs are AI artwork, plain font for titles, and no author page on Amazon (When you click the novel's author, it goes to a search result of authors with similar names instead of their page.) If any of you are readers on Amazon and happen to come across a novel that you recognize, please DM the author and let them know so they can start a takedown.

This mostly affects novels with small to medium following on RR (up to 2000 followers), but that isn't always the case. I think there has been a novel that had a similar following to mine (around 5000), however, that was taken down quickly. I can only assume they are targeting this range of follow count to stay undetected for longer.

Sorry for including this in the chapter, but I felt it was important enough to do so. And thank you for reading!