The vibrations were sudden and so intense he felt as if his body would be warped and twisted and torn apart. Even though his thoughts did not become reality, he still felt pain all over his body.
Whenever he crossed through the depression, all of which were vibrating intensely, he felt as if all the skin and muscles would be pulled out. His hair and clothes were the first to be torn out, though in the instance his jacket was going to be torn apart he sent it in the inventory along with the grenades that were attached to it, and the only remaining signs of his hair were the blood spots and the torn out skin. Both sword and pistol were gripped in his hands and he used the sword as a walking stick because the pain caused him to lose balance.
He weaved through the beads of depressions, they should have exploded by now but as the numbers that were in the chains increased the amount they could hold also seemed to increase. It should have been a good thing as it allowed him to create this large chain bomb. It should have been but the pain. It was maddening. As the time went on the pain increased as even the skin was starting to come off and as the warm feeling spread throughout his body he felt as if someone was rubbing salt and chilly and whatever else could cause most pain. His eyes were taught from concentration with tears coming out from them but as soon as they came out they were dragged out into the black oblivion after being pulled apart from all the sides.
He was at the edge by out, his eyes blurring and the only reason he was able to guess that was because there was significantly more light and, to his relief, the area was somehow completely calm. At one moment he felt being ripped from all sides and at the next moment it was completely calm.
Similar to a puppet with strings cut, he fell down. Thankfully at the edge there were significantly less depressions so his fall, though hurtful, was not fatal. He remained there with tears flowing down his eyes. He refused to make a sound though and only slight quivers made it to his expression. He was trying to do something to distract himself from the pain and the first thing that came into his mind was something he had been doing for years now, controlling his expressions.
He would have liked to remain there but even more than that he wanted the pain to stop and the only way for that was the white room, so he got up. Forcing past the pain he pulled the string to get his body to stand and stepped out of the depression. He was sick of it. The sun felt warm on his skin and only when the wind blew across that he remembered that he was completely naked. Taking out the jacket from the inventory, it was nearly torn apart thankfully though the grenades were all safe.
He controlled the grimace from showing up on his face. Even years of experience made it difficult to control his expression. He should have thought about this, it was obvious in hindsight that one day his clothes would not stand. In all his previous runs he had returned with tattered rags that were barely clinging on his body. But then he clearly could not bring clothes with him as the inventory space was already limited and the prices of the storage equipment all started from 100 CP and upwards. He decided to check clothes in the shop, something that would last all this beating.
He moved through the grassland with only the jacket covering him and only then did the things get even worse. The grass and its denizens all flocked towards his body. The skinless flesh that was all over his legs was too great a treat to miss. He ran and even though his body hurt even more, he only stopped when he reached the road that was tearing through the grassland.
He squashed any thing that still clung to his legs. His mood worsened but he still controlled his expression. His years of practice were being tested a lot these days. He laid down on the road that was leading to a gate that he now knew was an illusion. This did beg the question where did the monstrosities move in and out of the town and the bigger question was that how did this thing even survive. He remembered, still, the brightness of the bomb. It should have totally destroyed the ritual.
He kept swapping through multiple thoughts while he rested. One thing that constantly irritated him was that the grenade was not working as he had imagined it to. He vaguely remembered that when he was little the news about the bomb blasts often told how the people were torn into so many pieces that it was difficult to gather them all. He pushed further in that line of thought trying to remember why they were so devastating. It took some time but he remembered coming across an article online about the shrapnels increasing the damage caused by the bombs. He quickly took out a rack of bullets and from within it a packet of bullets. He tore off some cloth from his jacket and emptied the bullets in it, then placed the grenade in the center and tied the cloth into a lump with only the activation button of the grenade sticking out.
As he looked at the illusion of the town wall, he got up. He had work to do even though it was becoming more and more unpleasant. The constant pain was more exhausting than having his arm cut off. He moved parallel to the dome that was surrounding the town trying to create more distance between the previous chain. The river and the road were left behind as he circled and slowly came into sight the place where he had fought just previously. The big hole of light seemed smaller than before while the grassland itself had its peaceful harmony destroyed by the grenades that he had thrown before.
He decided to start the chain from the other side of the hole. As he was moving towards the other side circling the dome, he came upon a big group of monsters. Just then a thought crossed his mind. The crazy goblins that he had seen at the start of the previous mission, with heads floating around them, he had never seen again.
His musings were cut short as the exhausted and angry goblin bodies charged at him. As they ran towards him the chaotic group moved into an arrow formation pointed straight towards him. He looked behind expecting to see more of them there but it was a needless worry.
He grasped the pistol with both hands and fired at the arrowhead. He knew it would be impossible to get rid of it but his objective was something else. He changed the targets every few bullets. All the bullets seemed to have hit something impenetrable as they bounced off after hitting the targets.
As the group came closer, the members in the end started expanding away. He ran towards them shouting and making his expression fierce while firing with one hand. It did not matter whether the bullets hit because it made no difference. He slowly angled his free hand behind his back, hiding it.
Just as they were just a few metres from clashing he rapidly accelerated his hidden hand throwing something in the air. Some heads tried to turn towards it but the focus fired at them trying to stop them from using their powers but their numbers were more than what he could handle by himself.
Seeing it frozen in the air he shook his head with a depressed emotion on his face. He turned around and ran away. He had been counting the time and when the time was right he jumped down. The grenade that was frozen on the ground exploded. He kept praying and thankfully none of them hit him even though multiple projectiles flew past him. It was just a second, normally a very short duration, but in that short span of time the area was devastated. His attention was not on that though, he quickly pulled out a piece of cloth with a button sticking out from the top. Pressing the button he quickly got up and started running.
Hundred bullets plus the pellets inside the grenade, he hoped it would work and when it did, he certainly did not want to be there. Just as he had run a few steps, the arrow head tore the cloud of dust appearing to be completely unharmed. He kept an eye focused on their location and when he saw them cross the location he had hidden the grenade, he turned around and threw something in the air. Again it was frozen in the air just before it reached them while all of the goblins stopped for a moment but when they saw what it was they angrily crushed the stone through their telekinesis and started running again.
Just then he lunged towards the dome and entered it while rolling down. The time that he had estimated was complete and just before he entered the dome, he felt something hit his left arm. The pain was intense but it was nothing to what he had already been feeling a while ago. He tried to move his arm and winced as he felt intense pain spike from there.
After a while, he came out and looked at the monsters, full of holes but most still alive. Slowly, the broken bodies floated up and he felt dread because these things were already able to use their powers and he did not want to consider how much enhanced they were now.
He went deeper into the dome, even deeper than when he had created that gigantic bomb. This area was fully dark and the only reason he was able to move around here was that he could feel it when a depression came close. The suction that they produced alerted him.
No sound came here so he did not know whether they were following him or not. Seeing that he had wandered enough, he took out the depression and started creating a chain again now that he could no longer feel the disturbance caused by the previous chain. He did not start the chain where he currently because the place was so tightly packed that he would be committing a suicide. Moving out to a less dense location, similar to one where he had created the last one. Only then did he start it.
He kept moving and as time went on, his left arm became completely unusable. Even slight movement caused intense pain to flow out that was dangerous here. He hung his pistol in his left hand and used the right one to create the chain. It had been a long time since the fight and as he was moving, he saw blue light far ahead. It was very small but in the darkness it was clearly visible. After considering for a while, he moved deeper into the dome and continued onwards in the darkness.
It took a while for him to reach the big, blue oval of light. He saw the monsters with ragged bodies entering it and after he was sure all of them had entered, he took a look inside.
A war was wagging inside. In just one glance that he took he could see big chunks of buildings being destroyed every time he blinked and the blue lights covering them were torn apart like paper. Up in the air was a small ball of blue flame that radiated intense heat. It was located in the center of six figures. It seemed like they were going to move it when suddenly the oval collapsed. He did not have much regret though as he quickly ran back to the chain this time speeding up his work.
He knew not what was happening inside but what he wanted to be as far away from it as possible and the only way that was possible was to run back to his world. So he ran, embracing the pain that came with it. It hurt a lot, so much that he wanted to lie-down on the ground and cry but crying never solved anything. Never had for him, atleast.
This time it took a lot less time to complete the chain and as he came out of the dome, even more of his skin had been torn off his body. Blood and muscles were visible from his face making him look like a complete freak. He moved towards the first chain that he had created. The disturbance was so much enhanced by now that even the previously calm outer surface was vibrating while the illusion of the town blinked in and out of existence.
Once he had reached the middle of both of the chains, he mechanically started taking out the balls from the inventory, letting them gather until he had a small mound of black balls. Once he had enough of them, he took out his tattered jacket and cut off more of its pieces and placed balls inside them. In the center of each of them, he placed one grenade and tied the knot. He was planning to use all his remaining grenades in this.
The area between both of the chains was still quite large and both of them could no longer be extended so he was going to light up a spark that would cause both of them to meet. Picking up one of the sacks, he pressed the button of the grenade and threw it inside the dome with full force ignoring the cries of his body.
One
Two
Three
Four
As he threw the fifth one, it finally seemed like he had achieved what he wanted to accomplish as he started running though he did not know whether it would even be useful now.