Zenon's eyes widened as he saw Vera getting up on her feet against her will. She tried to fight against it, but no matter what she tried or how hard her body won't cooperate.
She clicked her tongue while grabbing Sammie by the hair and began pulling from him. Just as she took the first step,
"I hope you rot in hell. There's no mercy for people like you."
"Hell? I always wanted to pay that place a visit anyways."
Aurea smiled at Vera, who was gritting her teeth while still fighting against the unknown will making her move forward. One second she was walking, the next one falling into the river.
Both Unseens watched as the girl and the dead boy fell into the deadly current of the river head-on. Not a single voice was screamed, or another curse shouted. The only sound filling the ravine was the water flowing.
And the next sound was Aurea's violent coughs, which filled her hand with blood. She looked at it for a while before cleaning her mouth and putting her neck warmer back on.
"We need to get moving. Let's try to sneak around the last Layer Beast. Avoiding a fight is the most logical option considering how many times I used my ability."
Zenon stared at her for some moment before muttering, "Y-Yeah, it's the best option."
The pair began walking back toward the corner, a weird sense of satisfaction settling in both their hearts. She did what had to be done, but the execution was so cold-blooded that Zenon subconsciously shiver.
Nonetheless, he felt a slim feeling of peacefulness knowing that Aurea never meant to betray him or anything similar. Now he realized how empty his words were, wanting to leave to fight on his own.
'I'd have gone back to eating raw meat… Not a situation I want to recall after it sent me to sleep for half a day...'
Going around the corner, Zenon saw the Layer Beast peacefully existing in the middle of the edge. He knew it was alive because of how wildly the void revolved around it.
Anything that was alive was prone to attract the Void in some sort of way, especially those regarding the element directly such as Leviathan.
Just as they got closer to it, both paces reduced considerably as they tried to take really small and silent steps. Zenon even tried breathing as silently as possible.
After five minutes of cold sweat and dread, Aurea and Zenon managed to get past the Layer Beast.
"Zenon." Aurea muttered, "The next ravines are averagely sized, let's turn left and avoid being in his line of sight."
The boy nodded as they continued taking small steps. Just as they thought they successfully escaped the Layer Beast…
*Rumble!*
Both Unseens fell to the ground due to the sudden earthquake and looked at each other, distress written all over their faces. However, it wasn't because of the Shifting…
Oh, how they wish it was because of the Shifting.
Looking back, Zenon's heart sank as they met with a… a trio of yellow eyes. His body started trembling not because of the movement, but rather fear.
He quickly got up as the rock Layer Beast revealed its true size, around four meters. But that wasn't the scary part.
Aurea looked backward as well when she got back on her feet, and Zenon saw for the first time a glint of fear in her expression. All three of them remained still in midst of all the rocks falling before the Layer Beast took a step forward.
"Zenon! Run!"
Both Unseens ran as fast as they could, followed by a Third-Rank Mindful.
A Layer Beast an entire rank ahead of them.
Leviathan and Phoenix instantly traveled to the top of the canyon in an attempt to find any opening ravines they could get inside. Sadly, the closest one was… far enough to be called a close call.
Having received this information, Aurea and Zenon ran as fast as they could.
The rumble of the rocks falling, the heavy steps of the Third-Rank behind them, the river current slowly becoming more and more violent. Every single one of their senses screamed danger.
A danger they couldn't fight against.
When they turned around and kept on running for a while, Zenon's mind recalled a very important fact about Instinctuals.
"A-Aurea! Didn't a Mindful have some sort of ability?"
The girl's eyes widened yet again when she realized what this meant. And - speak of the devil and he shall appear - a wall suddenly shifted just like jelly, and a golem appeared from it.
"Jump!"
Aurea jumped to the other side of the ravine to avoid getting caught by the golem. Zenon did the same, almost falling in the process because of the falling rocks.
They went past the golem, who didn't wait on running behind both Unseens while grabbing falling boulders and throwing them at a frightening speed.
Turning right, Aurea and Zenon continued running trying not to fall into the river. Suddenly, the golem appeared in front of them, making Zenon jump to the other side.
Aurea tried as well, but the golem threw a boulder to stop her from doing so. Not having any other option, Aurea faked a jump and slid under the golem's leg before summoning her sword and slashing his leg.
The sword merely slid across the rocks causing little to no damage, signaling its monstrous strength.
Getting back up, Aurea continued running, getting closer to the opening ravine. Both of them had to turn their body sideways to fit between the walls and jumped as they reached the end of the ravine.
Luckily, they landed safely.
Rolling on the hard floor, Zenon didn't waste a second on summoning his Sharp Fang in case the rock golem appeared. Aurea did the same, adopting a defensive stance while looking at the wall.
They didn't say a word or move their bodies until the ravine fully closed, making it resemble yet another mundane wall. When it did, Zenon took a deep breath while muttering,
"What the hell is a Third-Rank doing here…"
Aurea peeked at him, wondering the exact same question. It wasn't unknown that a Third-Rank could appear inside the First Layer even though it was a Layer Beast commonly found in the Second Layer.
Hell, even a Tenth-Rank could appear inside the First Layer and completely obliterate everything that dared to move in its presence. Layers are numbered based on an average, not on a scientific fact that must always be followed no matter what.
They could kill a Second-Rank with some time and skill, but trying to kill a Third-Rank while being both an Unseen and below a thousand Sacrifices was like a death sentence.
It'd take too much time and a single blow could be devastating.
Hell, the recommended Sacrifices to battle a Second-Rank is around five hundred, yet they landed in a zone with only Second-Ranks! They could still fight them, but no more than two at a time, maybe three.
"You know… I'm wondering if this place is truly from the First Layer…" Zenon said.
"Well, if we happen to get across something higher than Fourth-Rank… then we are probably in the Second Layer or in a really unbalanced First Layer. But that's just impossible."
"Aren't Unseens supposed to only land in the First Layer? What would happen if we jumped inside a Second Layer Rift?"
Aurea looked at Zenon and just shrugged. After pondering for a while, she said,
"Still, there's no way this isn't the First Layer. The fact that there are Second-Rank Layer Beasts here gives it away. If we encountered only Third-Ranks for the past week, then there would've been a chance of landing in a Second Layer.
But there's just no way of it happening."
Zenon nodded as he took deep breaths before leaning on the wall, feeling somewhat dizzy. Running at your max capacity while trying to evade a Third-Rank and falling rocks is not an easy task.
He lifted his head to look at the sky, feeling the dense air of the canyon caress his forehead. Suddenly, a small dot appeared, which slowly began growing in size.
Zenon's eyes widened as his mind comprehended what he was looking at, and shouted, "Golem incoming!"
Aurea quickly looked toward the sky and saw the four-meter-tall beast falling down. She summoned her sword as Zenon moved toward her before summoning Sharp Fang.
*BAM!*
The Third-Rank landed in front of the Unseens, lifting some small pebbles. In less than a moment, it gave a stomp to the ground, making both of them lose balance for a moment.
Not giving them a second to react, the golem kicked Zenon like he was a soccer ball and launched him toward the other side, making him pass out due to the smash against the wall.
He was left on the edge, where he slipped and started falling into the river.
"Ze-!"
The golem tried to punch Aurea, who used her sword to protect herself. Sadly, the blow was so powerful that it snapped the sword in half and threw Aurea toward the river.
She crashed toward the wall, almost destroying her armor and making her sight spin for a moment before realizing how close she was to the river.
Looking to her side, Zenon fell with his eyes closed and mouth open, a trail of blood escaping from there.
Aurea grabbed onto him and spun to fall on her back while hugging Zenon's body in an attempt to protect him. After some moment of free falling…
*Splash!*
Both of their bodies were dragged by the current.