Endless Evolution: Last Star

Chapter 1924: Path to the Bottom

Gusts of wind swept across the rocky plain as a single man hovered above the ground.

For a long time, Midgar’s expression remained unchanged. He stared fixedly at a single point – the rift filled with dark water that led straight to the Dark Field.

Neither he nor the more powerful Lords would have dared to go there, but… a K4-Phantom had just done so.

The hardest thing for Midgar was to understand why Adam had done it.

“W-Why? Why didn’t he try to escape? He would hardly have succeeded, but he just stood there staring at that rift until the very last moment.”

His fingertips trembled as a flood of thoughts raced through his mind.

“Did he plan this from the start? Is this some kind of plan? No!” Midgar shouted at himself. “Nothing but death awaits him there! But… But that doesn’t make sense either!”

He clutched his head, staring into the void.

‘Adam Vinter… He’s one of the candidates to be the next Second Rank Phantom. Many consider him the top candidate, and for good reason. And you’re telling me that after everything he’s been through, he decided to end his life by committing suicide?’

Midgar was confident in his abilities, but he realized he wasn’t the kind of threat that could break Adam’s spirit.

He and the other hunters knew that Adam would fight to the very end, no matter what. If that weren’t the case, he would have died long ago or wouldn’t have been able to reach such a high power level in just two years.

These thoughts led Midgar to a single conclusion:

“This isn’t a plan. He definitely didn’t know I’d show up or who the guy he was fighting was. But… There’s a reason he came to the Grand Abyss, isn’t there?”

His eyes dropped to the rift.

“If he keeps fighting, it means he’s trying to find something in the Dark Field. But what? Maybe he needs some kind of Pearl?”

In fact, Midgar did not doubt that this was the end for Adam. It simply couldn’t be any other way in this situation.

So, Midgar could have just left and reported to the Befallen Crown that Adam Vinter was dead. He’d seen many Ascended Lords set out there to find the Pearls, but few of them returned alive.

But… There was just one thing that made Midgar stay here instead of heading to the Dark Shore.

He was only 99% certain that Adam was dead.

“Tsk. In his case, 1% is too much. I can’t take that risk, but…”

Midgar gulped as his gaze fell on the rift.

“I’m not going to die just to stop him.”

A few seconds later, Midgar nodded deeply as he made up his mind.

“Fine. I’ll stay here. I’ll wait as long as it takes. Still, I need to increase my odds from 99% to 99.99%.”

Tap.

He thrust his arms forward as his eyes narrowed. The gray energy flows surged toward his outstretched palms as he aimed directly at the rift into which Adam had vanished.

For this ability, Midgar used more than half of all the energy he had. It would have been enough to defeat several ordinary Viscounts, but he was certain it was worth it.

“Find him and kill him!” Midgar exclaimed as the dragon’s head burst out of the gray vortex. It was larger and longer than the previous one, but most importantly, it was enveloped by black energy flows.

The flows would prevent the Dark Field from destroying this dragon head too quickly, so it would have enough time to find Adam and inflict a critical wound on him.

“Maybe now he’s able to escape the Dark Field if he’s lucky, but wounded and bleeding to death, it’ll be impossible even for him!”

…

Adam didn’t know about Midgar’s plans. When he decided to descend into the rift, he stopped caring about that and any other threats.

Now he could think of only one thing:

‘It’s so dark in here…’ Adam looked around, but he saw nothing but darkness.

It was only thanks to the thick layer of his aura that he could breathe, and the pressure hadn’t crushed him yet.

“So this is what the Dark Field looks like?” Adam thought as his eyelids grew heavier. “I see… This is the real Grand Abyss. The Light Field is nothing more than an entrance…”

For a while, Adam had no thoughts as he continued to descend lower and lower, not knowing where he was going.

How long would it take him to reach the bottom, and was there even a bottom here?

Adam had no answers to any of these questions.

Soon, he faced another problem that demanded his full attention.

Brrrr!

He hunched his shoulders and tucked his chin into his chest.

“It’s so cold…” Adam muttered as the tips of his fingers and his cheeks began to form a thin layer of ice.

The water of the Dark Field easily withstood these temperatures, but his body could not. He couldn’t stand the cold here.

Ripple!

A slight tremor came from the side, causing Adam to turn and open his eyes.

On the other side, he met two large green eyes belonging to a monster that was even bigger than Prasyx.

But… for some reason, nothing was reflected in the monster’s eyes. It was as if Adam weren’t even there.

Wanting to warm up, Adam turned away, and the monster moved on. They both decided that their encounter had never happened.

“No… Adam, you have to pull yourself together. I have to find the Bottomless Void… What should I do?”

He kept falling deeper and deeper.

‘The Silver Weaver, Lone Blaze… Lakma… anyone… Why are you all silent?’

It was unclear how much time had passed. The only thing Adam knew was that he kept descending lower and lower, and it was getting colder and colder.

He was trembling all over, both from the cold and from fear.

‘Agh…?’

Suddenly, something caught the corner of his eye as he glanced to the side.

Amid the darkness stood a figure with long black hair and green eyes.

The figure smiled gently and waved to greet him.

“It’s good to see you, Adam.”

Adam blinked slowly as his heart beat with difficulty.

“S-Silvana?”