While falling, Zenon found himself in a situation similar to being submerged in hot water. His fears and anxiety ceased to exist for a moment and he admired the nothingness around him. Though it was short-lived.
The moment the Voice gave him the way toward the First Layer, that sensation went away. This time, he was lying on something really hard, like a rock.
Not only that but even breathing felt hard. It was as if the air was so dense and heavy that he had to make an effort only for breathing.
Opening his eyes, Zenon got blinded by the sudden sunlight coming from everywhere and subconsciously moved to the left, trying to avoid those blinding lights.
And then started falling.
"Wh-!"
Acting on pure instinct Zenon tried to grab whatever he could. Luckily, he managed to grasp the same rock he was lying on and slowly opened his eyes, letting them get used to the light.
He clutched the rock firmly and prayed for his fingers not to slip. When his eyes managed to analyze what was in front of him, he realized how lucky he was.
The rock where he was lying was part of a wall, and it was wide enough for his body to lie on. A little bit more to the left and he would've fallen.
"Where... where am I exactly."
Applying void to his arms, he got up once again on that narrow edge. It was so small that his entire foot took all the surface. Hugging the wall, he analyzed his surroundings.
First of all, he was butt-naked, something that always happens whenever you enter the First Layer…
'I didn't expect to summon my new armor in this scenario.'
Zenon summoned the Carapace, and in less than a second his entire body up to the neck was entangled between thin and thick white vines. Yet his movement was far from restricted!
It wasn't as spiky or uncomfortable as he may have thought. Instead, the unusual softness of the Vines took care of his stiff muscles and relaxed his entire body!
Luckily, those vines covered his entire body up to the neck. Meaning, his feet were also covered by the magical vines in some sort of boots and his hands in fingerless gloves.
Now, he looked around but could only see the same not-so-straight line made out of rocks. Not gaining much information, he looked upward and saw how the light came from an opening the rocks had.
However... This opening was at least a hundred meters away from him.
'Hold on... is this?!'
To confirm his suspicions, Zenon looked down, and... his legs almost gave up.
Probably around fifty... perhaps even sixty meters, a river violently flowed. Not only that, the flow it maintained was so violent the water could even jump up to twenty meters high.
And this was just by looking, there was a chance it could be even higher than that!
The walls were jagged and steep, towering hundreds of feet above the rocky floor, and not only that, those rocks that Zenon managed to see were razor-sharp!
Falling was officially a death sentence.
"Agh! What is this place?!" He shouted.
Zenon rested his head on the rock when something suddenly appeared on his right. His survival instincts instantly activated and his body became more alert than ever.
Quickly looking, he was relieved to see it was Leviathan.
It looked somewhat disoriented but managed to quickly regain composure by moving around for a while. However, when he analyzed where he was, he ended up as confused as Zenon.
Not only that, when he saw how narrow the walking space was and how wide the space to fall was... he really feared for Zenon's life. But now Zenon had a single thought in mind,
'Please, tell me you can transform into something good.'
However, Leviathan just groaned and sent Zenon into a spiral of dread. The first thing he tried to do when they reached this place was to transform into that weapon, but a massive headache assaulted him and almost sent him back to Zenon's Soul.
"Oh fuck… fuck, fuck! Are you really that Familiar with the need to consume a weapon? I thought they were extremely rare! Agh!"
Leviathan nodded, making Zenon sigh before clutching the wall even stronger. This place… just even being summoned inside here almost killed him, so it wasn't something to laugh about.
Still, not knowing whether to go right or left, he asked Leviathan to fly to the top of the canyon and scout the surroundings. He did as asked, quickly flying towards it.
The distance between him and the opening was considerable. Not only that, but the way the walls were formed gave him little to no chance of ever making it to the top.
The longer you climbed, the steeper they became until the last few meters became completely horizontal. And the rocks were so sharp that a bad grip would completely pierce his palm.
Yep, this looks like an amazing place to be thrown to.
When Leviathan managed to get out and fly a little bit more to get a better perspective...
'-?!'
The surface that Zenon thought would be flat was anything but that. The vast distance that the Leviathan's eyes and his void-augmented eyes could see was filled with nothing but enormous ravines.
This left no space to walk on the surface! Not only that, the little space that was available was filled with razor-sharp rocks! Well, there were some places to properly stand, but still.
Going to the surface became a mustn't.
Not only that but there was a mist preventing them from looking any further anywhere they looked. Some of the canyon's openings would get across each other in Xs or Ys, leaving even more options for either exploration or death.
As much as the Leviathan scouted, he only managed to see more openings to another pit with a violent river awaiting them.
"Fucking hell... what is this place?"
Zenon sighed as he clutched the wall firmly, not daring to take a single step. As much as he wanted to deny it, his situation was becoming worse and worse.
It wasn't wrong to say that a false step would bring him to his doom. So he better play his cards wisely unless he wants to become one with the river's current.
'I can't stay here forever... something may come!'
Zenon began moving with a slow pace, just as he trained, across the narrow edges. Within a few seconds, he found a good pace and kept it for a while.
Leviathan was sent to scout ahead of his path and try to find something like a cave to set up for a moment and properly make a plan.
The ravine sometimes had easy-to-get-through paths, and sometimes he needed to have his body dangling from nothing to pass through, but still, it was nothing too bad to lose his life.
But, after half an hour of trying not to fall...
*Rumble!*
Due to a sudden... earthquake? Zenon's hand slipped and almost fell down into the river. He was left dangling with just a foot and a hand gripping the wall. After regaining composure, he frantically looked around the place to see just what was going on.
It felt as if an earthquake assaulted the canyon and a sentiment of dread assaulted Zenon's body. Was this going to bring the canyon down?!
Suddenly, the wall he was holding started collapsing.
"Oh, great!"
Increasing his speed, Zenon began moving across the ledge almost running sideways.
Several small rocks crashed on his head or hand, sometimes breaking his momentum and trying to make him fall. Slowly, bigger rocks began to fall and the water began to increase as well.
Leviathan screeched at Zenon, signaling to go right.
Augmenting his legs with the void, he started moving even faster, and just before the black water rose high enough to touch him - before he was crushed between two walls - he made a sharp right turn.
And the ravine closed, splashing water everywhere.
Zenon landed on a wider edge that could handle his whole body and didn't need to grab at the wall. However, what just happened left him in a state of shock, making his legs give up at the thought of being crushed alive.
The walls weren't collapsing... they were closing.
Leviathan started talking to Zenon, explaining what happened. And this left him in an even bigger state of shock.
When he heard the rumble, his first instinct was to rise to the surface and see what was happening in the canyon.
That's when he saw ravines slowly closing and letting new ones emerge.
'Are you... are you telling me this canyon is alive?!'
Zenon covered his face with his hands before taking long deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. His legs regained the strength they lost and Zenon took a good look at the fresh-new ravines.
It seemed like nothing changed. But being almost stuck between two unstoppable forces... that was a memory that will get carved inside Zenon's mind forever.
'What a great place to be trapped in... I need to find a Rift as soon as possible but... where should I start?'
Leviathan appeared in front of him - scaring the shit out of Zenon - and pointed toward his eyes while making a groan.
'Huh? How would the void help me in this situation?! Like, sure I can make me stronger, but what?'
Leviathan hissed at him and Zenon had no other choice but to comply and focus on the Void. He worked diligently inside the shelter to make these thin purple veils almost invisible to his eye so that he could properly focus, and after a week he managed to do so.
Now he could make them appear and disappear at will.
When he focused on making the appearance of these veils, he must say that the result was surprising. The once-immobile violet void of the void was now moving in a general direction, following the ravines.
It caught Zenon off guard because this is the first time he has seen them do something else rather than just... exist.
'And you are saying we should follow the path they are following?'
Leviathan enthusiastically nodded. Honestly, he wasn't so sure about it, but what other option did he have?
Zenon shrugged before preparing his body and mind for a possible, near-death experience.