Chapter 301: Into the dragon's den
Mira watched from the Void dimension, her breath caught in her throat as the Galephant's attack obliterated the surrounding forest.
The shockwave had torn through trees like they were twigs, and the ground itself was scarred from the force.
She had only seconds to analyse the destruction though.
A sudden, bone chilling sensation washed over her, that forced her to reconsider any thoughts of further checking out the scene in the real world.
An aura.
A presence so powerful that it made her earlier confrontation with the Galephant seem insignificant by comparison.
Mira froze in place, completely unable to even move a muscle.
Her body had completely separated from her thoughts, even if she wanted to move at this point, her body wouldn't listen to her commands.
Her heart pounded in her chest, as a power that she had never felt before flooded the area surrounding her — a level of power that dwarfed even the mightiest of C tier beasts.
The aura was the most powerful that she had ever felt in her life, not even Principal Farne's aura compared…
It wasn't just her body that held her in place though; it was like the very fabric of space itself around her had been altered, binding her to the spot.
Her mind raced, trying to process what was happening, but the sheer magnitude of the forces present wasn't something she could comprehend.
She couldn't think clearly.
'W-what is this?'
Her thoughts were jumbled, struggling to make sense of the situation.
This was far beyond anything she had encountered before.
The aura wasn't just powerful, it was ancient, vast, and filled with a primal malice that made her skin crawl.
It felt like an ocean, deep and dark, with unfathomable depths that could swallow her whole without a trace.
And it was close.
Too close.
'I knew this wasn't a good idea…'
Mira's earlier confidence evaporated like mist in the sun.
She had been so focused on the Galephant, that she had failed to consider whether her luck in the Void dimension would continue.
Well, it hadn't.
Now, she was facing something far beyond her current capabilities.
In fact, she doubted anyone in the entire human race had the capabilities to face whatever it was that had her locked in place.
She escaped the tiger's grasp, but in the process she had thrown herself into the dragons den.
She went form one bad situation to perhaps the worst situation imaginable in a heartbeat.
Thud.
But then she heard something off into the distance.
It sounded like a footstep, but from something so big it dwarfed even mountains.
Thud.
The footsteps grew closer to her, slow in their pace, but considering the size of whatever it was that was causing these footsteps, the distance covered with each one was probably extremely vast.
Thud.
After the third one though, something came into Mira's view.
Something utterly gargantuan.
But she couldn't move her head, not even her eyes.
The only thing she could see was a single long appendage, probably over 10 kilometres long alone, maybe even longer since she couldn't even see the full thing.
'A tentacle…'
The first thing that came to Mira's mind when she saw this appendage enter her vision was that it looked like a tentacle.
Which only further increased her tension.
'Fuck Fuck Fuck FUCK I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!!'
Mira had never felt so scared before, not once in her life had she ever felt so terrified.
She was glad that she currently had no control over her body, otherwise many embarrassing things would have happened…
'Leave, LEAVE PLEASE GOD DAMMIT I WANT TO LEAVE!'
Mira tried teleporting back to the real world, but whatever spatial lock had been placed on her didn't allow it.
Her despair only increased more and more.
Thud.
The huge tentacle moved closer again, this time revealing even more of its length.
It was at least 20 kilometres long at this point.
'CALL OF THE VOID! ACTIVATE GOD DAMMIT!'
However, after she uttered the name of her talent itself, something completely unexpected happened.
She disappeared from her spot.
Thud.
And just in the nick of time, it seemed.
As the tentacle moved once again, this time slamming down directly on top of where Mira was previously locked in place.
Back in the real world, Mira appeared back in the same place she had disappeared, only this time the area was barren and the tree she was leaning against was gone.
Because of the tree's absence, and the fact that Mira was leaning on it when she disappeared, she fall onto her back immediately as she appeared in that same spot again.
But that wasn't her main concern at the moment.
She was still frozen in place, still in shock from her previous encounter.
It took her 10 seconds to snap out of it, and she looked around herself with concern, as she realised that the Galephant was still very much a threat to her in this place.
But when she looked just 20 metres to her right, the Galephant stood perfectly still.
Mira would have investigated this confusing turn of events, if it weren't for the fact that she was in a similar state herself.
They were both frozen in shock.
The only question was, who would wake up from this shock first.
Mira's thoughts were churning, too busy trying to figure out how she had somehow made it out of that spatial lock, rather than trying to free herself from her frozen state.
'How, just how did that work!?'
She could only ask herself, speechless.
[Nothing is above the System. The fact the #@;#$ tried to lock you down in space, trying to overwrite even the System's own power actually saved her. A severe punishment will be dished out to it shortly…]
The system responded to her, but the whole thing was weird to Mira.
It was like the System's response was more like the inner musings of a person rather than the System actually acknowledging her question and answering her.
But whatever the case was, Mira had to put it aside.
Because she was waking up from her shock.
And it seemed she bad beaten the Galephant to it.