Chapter 182: Dimensional Collapse
Holden swung his Solar-Forged Sword at the Portal Anchor with every ounce of Rank 3 force behind it. The blade hit the black crystal dead center, and for one terrible second, nothing happened. The steel met the surface and stopped. The crystal was denser than anything Holden had struck before, harder than the Siege Turtle’s shell and even the General’s bone-armor.
Then a crack appeared.
Thin and hairline, it spread from the point of impact in six directions at once, racing across the surface of the crystal like frost spreading over a window.
CRACK.
Another followed.
CRACK. CRACK.
The crystal groaned and the dark energy inside it pulsed wildly, its steady rhythm breaking apart and stuttering.
Holden pulled his sword back and swung again.
CRACK!
The second strike was the killing blow.
The crystal split from top to bottom, and a seam of blinding white light burst from the fracture, cutting through the purple darkness of the cavern. The light was so intense that Holden threw an arm over his eyes and turned away.
Then the crystal shattered.
A million fragments of black glass exploded outward, each piece trailing a streak of white light like a tiny comet. The shockwave slammed into Holden’s chest and hurled him backward ten feet.
BOOM!
He hit the ground, rolled through the impact, and came up on one knee. His Phantom-Weave Armor absorbed most of the force, its Kinetic Dispersal passive spreading the impact across his body. His ears rang and his vision blurred for a moment.
Then the world started ending.
A huge crack stretched across the purple sky from one horizon to the other.
crack. crack. crack.
More fractures spread across the sky, branching outward like a mirror being smashed by an invisible hand. Pieces of the purple heavens began peeling away from the cracks, dissolving into black mist before they could reach the ground.
"EVERYONE OUT! NOW!" Holden shouted.
His earpiece crackled. Maeve’s voice came through the static, barely audible but unmistakably panicked.
"HOLDEN! THE DIMENSION IS COLLAPSING! THE READINGS ARE... I CAN’T... EVERYTHING IS... THE GRAVITATIONAL CONSTANT IS SHIFTING! YOU NEED TO RUN! RUN NOW! THE ENTIRE POCKET SPACE IS IMPLODING!"
"I HEAR YOU! SHUT UP AND LET ME THINK!"
The gravity hit.
It wasn’t the double gravity of the Abyssal Realm anymore. This was something far worse, multiplying so quickly that Holden felt the pressure in his legs first. His boots pressed into the floor hard enough to crack the ground beneath his heels. His muscles compressed and joints tightened.
Behind him, Emric dropped.
He didn’t stumble or fall. He simply dropped, his Rank 2 body hitting floor as though someone had thrown a statue from a roof.
"I can’t move," he said, his voice strained beneath the pressure. "Ten times gravity. My body can’t handle it."
Lyra went down next. She managed to stay on one knee for three seconds before the pressure forced her flat. Her spear rolled away as her arms gave out, her chest hitting the floor.
"Can’t... breathe..." she gasped.
Renna tried to run.
She made it two steps before the increased gravity grabbed her and slammed her into the ground.
"Ow! Ow, ow, ow! I can’t get up! I’m literally stuck to the floor!"
The portal exit was fifty yards away.
Fifty yards of open canyon stood between them and the shrinking ring of grey-white light that was their only way home.
The canyon walls were collapsing around them. Huge chunks of stone tore away from the sides and fell in slow, gravity-warped arcs before crashing into the floor with sounds like distant thunder. Above them, the purple sky was almost completely gone, replaced by the impossible void that made Holden’s eyes water whenever he looked directly at it.
crack. rumble. crack.
The portal was shrinking.
Holden could see it from where he stood. The ring of light was contracting slowly at first, then faster as the dimension continued eating itself. The exit was closing along with everything else.
Fifty yards away. Ten times gravity. Three teammates pinned to the floor.
Holden could still move.
His Rank 3 body strained under the pressure, muscles burning and bones aching, but he could move. His Aether-Steel frame was strong enough to resist the collapse.
But carrying three people fifty yards was another matter.
Not at Rank 3, 1-Star.
His 10,000x processor confirmed the calculation in a fraction of a second. The combined weight of three teenage bodies under ten times gravity, added to his own weight and the spatial pressure crushing everything from every direction, was more than he could handle safely.
He needed more.
Holden opened his System.
[Direct Breakthrough Package:]
[Rank 3, 1-Star to Rank 3, 2-Star]
[Cost: 100,000 KP]
[Includes: Energy Expansion, Aether-Steel Density Upgrade, Neural Pathway Reinforcement]
[Confirm Purchase? Y/N]
Holden looked at Emric, flat against the ground and unable to lift his head. Then at Lyra, gasping for air as her fingers clawed uselessly against the floor. Finally, he looked at Renna, pinned like a pressed flower with her bow trapped beneath her body.
He didn’t hesitate.
"Confirm."
The System took the points.
[100,000 KP Deducted.]
[Breakthrough Initiating.]
The energy hit him like a freight train.
It began in his chest, a sudden burst of raw power that spread through his body in a wave of concentrated force. His energy center cracked open, and something new emerged from within, larger, hotter, and denser.
His Aether-Steel body responded immediately.
The metal-infused tissue reinforcing his bones, muscles, and skin compressed and tightened. Its molecular structure realigned, packing greater density into the same space. His body didn’t grow. It condensed. Every fiber became harder, heavier, and more resilient.
The ten times gravity that had been crushing his teammates became almost meaningless.
Holden’s Rank 3, 2-Star body stood in the collapsing dimension like a mountain in a rainstorm. The pressure was still there, but it no longer mattered.
[Breakthrough Complete!]
[Rank: 3 (2-Star)]
[Aether-Steel Body: Upgraded]
[Neural Pathways: Reinforced]
[Kinetic Resistance: Significantly Increased]
[Current KP: 548,290]
Holden straightened.
The gravity pressed down on him, but he ignored it. The ground cracked beneath his boots, not from the pressure, but from his own weight. His body was denser now, heavier, and the floor could barely support him.
He flared his energy, unleashing raw Rank 3, 2-Star power that radiated from his body in a dome of blazing red light.
The energy pushed against the collapsing dimension and created a pocket of stable space around him.
The dome reached his team.
Emric felt it first. The crushing weight on his back eased, his arms stopped trembling, and he could finally draw a full breath.
"What... what is this?" he gasped.
"Holden," Lyra said, feeling the warmth wash over her as the gravity eased and her fingers finally unclenched. "He’s doing this."
"Of course he is," Renna wheezed. "He’s ALWAYS doing something impossible. It’s his THING."
Holden didn’t waste time explaining.
He crossed the distance to Emric in three strides, bent down, and grabbed him by the back of his armor with one hand. Emric’s body came off the ground as if he weighed nothing.
"What the..." Emric started.
"Shut up and hold on."
Holden grabbed Lyra with his other hand. She was lighter than Emric even with her spear, so he lifted her easily and slung her over his right shoulder. Then he reached down, grabbed Renna by the back of her jacket, and hauled her up beneath his left arm like a bundle of firewood.
Their combined weight would have been several hundred pounds under normal conditions. In ten times gravity, that meant several thousand pounds of force pressing down on them.
In Holden’s Rank 3, 2-Star arms, it felt like carrying groceries.
"I’ve got you. Don’t let go."
The portal exit was still shrinking.
The ring of grey-white light was thirty yards across now. Then twenty.
It was closing faster with every second as the edges folded inward and the collapsing dimension continued to consume itself.
Holden activated Ultimate Gale-Step.
The world stopped.
Falling chunks of ceiling hung motionless in the air. The cracks racing across the void-filled sky froze in place. Even the dust particles around him became fixed points, suspended in a single frozen instant.
In that instant, Holden ran.
His legs moved with the full strength of a Rank 3, 2-Star body enhanced by an Ultimate-tier movement skill. Each step carried him fifteen yards, the ground cracking and cratering beneath his feet. The air displaced by his movement created shockwaves that shattered the frozen debris in his wake.
boom. boom. boom.
Three steps.
Forty-five yards.
The portal was only five yards away. The ring of light was still wide enough for a person to pass through, but it was shrinking rapidly, the edges pulling inward like a pupil contracting in bright light.
Holden didn’t slow down.
He couldn’t afford to.
One microsecond of hesitation and the portal would close, leaving them trapped inside a collapsing dimension forever.
He dove.
All four of them went through together. Holden was in front, Emric in his left hand, Lyra over his right shoulder, and Renna tucked beneath his left arm.
The portal closed behind them.
Not after they passed through but as they were still going through.
Holden felt the edge scrape across his back, tearing through the outer layer of his Phantom-Weave Armor. The ring of light collapsed around them like a closing fist, and for one second, the world became nothing but white.
Then they were through.
CRASH!
They hit mud.
The four of them tumbled across the muddy courtyard of the Demon Mouth Outpost in a tangle of limbs, weapons, and armor, rolling end over end before finally coming to a stop in a heap.
Holden was on the bottom.
Three bodies were piled on top of him, pressing him into the mud. He could feel the rain hitting his face and soaking through his torn armor.
Behind them, the portal vanished.
One moment it was there, a massive swirling black hole that had been sitting in the earth for days, vomiting monsters, darkness, and death into the mortal world.
The next, it was gone.
BOOM!
The thunderclap from the implosion slammed into the Outpost like a physical wall. Windows shattered. Walls shook. Soldiers stumbled as the shockwave rolled across the compound and out into the battlefield, flattening the remaining monsters that had been pressing against the walls.
Then came silence.
No monsters roaring or cannons firing.
Just the sound of rain and wind howling.
Holden lay on his back with rain striking his face.
Emric’s face was pressed against his shoulder. His glasses were gone, and his shield was somewhere behind them in the mud. He mumbled something that sounded like "statistically improbable" before going limp.
Renna was sprawled across Holden’s legs, her bow still clutched in one hand. Her hair was full of mud, abyssal ash, and pieces of Centurion armor.
She wasn’t talking.
She was just breathing.
Lyra had landed on top. Her spear was gone, lost somewhere during the tumble, and her face was pressed against Holden’s chest. She could feel his heartbeat through the torn armor.
She slowly lifted her head.
Her glowing blue eyes found his.
"You’re stronger than you show," she said again.
The same words as before.
But this time, she wasn’t observing.
She was stating a fact.
Holden looked at her. Rain ran down his face and mud clung to his hair.
"I told you. I’m exactly as strong as I need to be."
He lay there in the mud and let the silence wash over him.
[Current KP: 548,290]
[Multiplier: 10,000x]
[KP Booster: 2x Active]
[Fighter Rank: Rank 3 (2-Star)]
The number glowed in his vision.
Five hundred and forty-eight thousand.
Down from six hundred and forty-eight thousand.
But he was Rank 3, 2-Star now.
The portal was gone and the war was over.
The Outpost was saved.