Thoren had severely underestimated just how vast the Uncharted Territory truly was.
At the beginning of his journey, he believed that with the incredible speed of the Undead Iron Roar Komodo, reaching the deepest regions of the territory would not take long.
In his mind, the distance might require several hours at most.
But he had been wrong.
For the past twelve hours, he had been traveling almost nonstop. Aside from occasional short breaks to recover ntally, he had remained constantly on the move.
Yet the deeper he traveled, the more the world around him began to feel unreal.
The Uncharted Territory seed endless.
During the journey, Thoren had passed through nurous bizarre regions, each one more unsettling than the last.
Many of them made him question whether they truly belonged to the first floor of the Abyss.
The deeper he ventured, the stranger everything beca.
At one point, he passed a colossal mountain whose rocky surface bore the unmistakable expression of a human face.
The enormous stone formation seed to be staring silently into the distance, its weathered features twisted into an eerie smile.
In another region, rivers flowed through a valley of black stone. From those waters ca faint whispers, strange voices speaking in languages Thoren had never heard before.
Elsewhere, he crossed an area where a violent thunderstorm raged continuously. Lightning flashed across the sky without pause, and thunder roared like an angry god.
Yet, not a single rain drop.
Without the protection and endurance of his undead mount, crossing those areas would have been impossible.
Even powerful awakeners would hesitate before venturing through such dangerous regions.
Several tis during the journey, doubt appeared in his mind.
Did the Shatter Sky truly exist?
After everything he had encountered so far, it was easy to believe that each region of the Uncharted Territory was already dangerous enough to deter even high-level awakeners.
Perhaps the Shatter Sky was rely a rumor.
A myth.
A story passed down among the Knight Order.
But each ti that doubt appeared, Thoren forced it aside.
He had no reason to believe that Taren and the Knight Order would lie to him.
More importantly, his curiosity had already been ignited.
He wanted to see how far he could go.
At the beginning of this journey, it had been his desire to grow stronger that pushed him forward.
Strength ant survival in the Abyss.
But now, sothing else was driving him.
Curiosity.
The Abyss was filled with countless mysteries, and the deeper he traveled, the more those mysteries revealed themselves.
He wanted to see them all.
Standing firmly on the back of the Undead Iron Roar Komodo, Thoren watched as the landscape blurred past him at terrifying speed.
The undead beast dashed forward like a black storm across the wilderness.
Behind it, a massive trail of dust rose into the air.
After so ti, sothing appeared on the distant horizon.
A ruined city.
Thoren narrowed his eyes slightly as the outline beca clearer.
This was not the first ruined city he had encountered since beginning his journey.
In fact, he had already seen several scattered across the Uncharted Territory.
However, every ti he encountered one, he chose to bypass it.
Ruined cities often attracted powerful creatures. They were natural hunting grounds where beasts gathered in large numbers.
Entering one would only slow him down.
Within minutes, the Undead Iron Roar Komodo arrived near the outskirts of the ruined city.
Deep within the city, Thoren could sense movent.
Several creatures were hiding among the ruins.
They waited patiently.
Waiting for him to enter.
But Thoren did not even slow down.
Without a single glance backward, he guided the Komodo around the outer periter of the city.
Ten minutes later, the ruins were far behind them.
What greeted him next was an endless barren land.
Thoren stared ahead at the endless barren land.
And in return, the silent barren land seed to stare back at him.
Looking at such an endless and empty landscape could easily make soone dizzy. The monotony of the scenery alone was enough to crush a person’s spirit.
So people might even lose the will to continue.
But Thoren was not one of them.
Instead, he urged his mount to move even faster.
Since he had already decided to find the Shatter Sky, then he would see that decision through to the end.
Racing across the barren land, Thoren noticed sothing unusual.
There were no traces of human activity anywhere.
In fact, there were barely any signs of life at all.
It was as though the entire region had been forgotten by ti.
Except for sand and scattered stones, the land contained nothing.
Not even the smallest insect could be seen.
Everywhere he looked was devoid of living creatures.
There were no plants.
No trees.
Nothing.
Thoren’s brow slowly creased.
This was the first ti he had encountered a region completely devoid of life.
Even the most hostile environnts in the Abyss still contained so form of existence.
But this place was different.
It felt... empty.
Just as he was wondering about the strange phenonon, the scene before him changed abruptly.
Hmm?!
Thoren’s eyes widened instantly.
Every hair on his body stood on end as a powerful sense of danger exploded within his instincts.
Without hesitation, he reacted.
His hands grabbed the scales of the Komodo tightly.
The next mont, the ground vanished.
They were falling.
His lungs tightened violently as the air was squeezed from his chest.
For a mont, Thoren could not breathe.
He struggled desperately to draw in air, but the violent pressure crushed against his body.
His eyes darted around frantically, trying to understand what had just happened.
But everywhere he looked, there was nothing but darkness.
This was not the darkness of night.
This darkness was deeper.
Colder.
It felt like staring directly into the void itself.
Thoren tried to move, but a powerful invisible force slamd into his body.
A sharp groan escaped his lips.
His muscles strained violently as unbearable pressure crushed down on him.
His bones felt as though they were being squeezed from every direction.
Gritting his teeth, Thoren fought to endure.
Veins bulged across his forehead.
His body was rapidly losing oxygen.
Dizziness assaulted his mind, but he refused to let go.
His grip on the Undead Iron Roar Komodo tightened even further.
If he lost his hold now, there was only one possible outco.
Death.
Since entering the Abyss, Thoren had faced many life-threatening battles.
But never had he been in such a terrifying situation.
And with every passing second, things only grew worse.
Their falling speed continued to increase.
The pressure grew heavier.
Sowhere within his body, he heard the faint cracking of bones under the stress.
A tallic taste filled his mouth.
Blood.
His eyes had already turned bloodshot.
At this point, Thoren was surviving purely through sheer willpower.
Suddenly, the ground appeared beneath them.
Boom!
The Undead Iron Roar Komodo slamd violently into the surface below.
The impact shook the surrounding land as a powerful vibration spread outward like a shockwave.
The massive undead beast crashed flat against the ground. Several of its hardened scales shattered and flew in all directions like fragnts of tal.
Thoren could no longer hold on.
The violent jolt threw him off the creature’s back.
His body was hurled several ters through the air before crashing heavily onto the ground.
His back struck the hard surface with brutal force.
"Gah—!"
A mouthful of blood burst from his lips.
His face turned pale as his chest rose and fell rapidly. For several seconds, his body struggled to adjust to the sudden stop after the violent fall.
Every breath burned in his lungs.
Slowly, after recovering slightly, Thoren lifted his head.
And the mont his eyes focused on the scene before him, his jaw slowly dropped.
****
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