Chapter 394: Ryan Johnson
Zephyr concentrated on the rift for a minute. Even after so many monsters had poured out of it, many more were still fighting to come out. It was almost as if they were running away from something.
Zephyr suddenly widened his eyes. "No way... that can't be the case..." His gaze stayed frozen on the rift for a couple of seconds. Then he turned to Helena, who was the closest person fighting around him.
"Hey, I think we need to go into the rift."
Helena twisted her staff and dealt a final blow to the vicious four-legged monster that stubbornly snapped its jaws at her face-she smashed its head and fangs into smithereens, her black rod crackling with dark lightning.
She exhaled and gave Zephyr all of her attention. "I know, but getting up there will be very difficult. Besides, we can't all go into the rift when there's a horde of monsters here."
Zephyr shook his head quickly. "You don't get it. I think there are fewer monsters in the rift than outside."
Helena narrowed her eyes. "What?"
"But I also think there might be something incredibly strong in there. Strong enough for those monsters to be scared and want to leave at all costs."
Helena looked up, a drop of sweat running down her temple. She lowered her head and looked at Zephyr. "And what gave you that idea?"
Zephyr pointed to the sky. "Can't you see? They're fighting to get out. Surely our flesh can't be so sweet that they would be ripping themselves through the rift gateway just to have it."
He looked intensely at Helena. "Moreover, the rift was an instantaneous shatter, just like when this disaster started. The records said that immediately after the rift shattered, monsters started pouring out as if they were running away from something."
Helena stayed silent while thinking about what he said. She shook her head after a few beats and retorted, "You better be right. So who are the ones going up there and how do we even get there?"
"I don't know about any other people you have in mind. I'm going there with that monster." Helena looked at Night Terror, frowned, and looked at Zephyr. "You think I'm a fool? You're just playing things to have you and the monster placed against each other-"
She stopped abruptly, spun her rod, shifted one leg to the front, and swept her rod from below, cleaving a monster in an upward slash as it appeared in front of her.
Black lightning danced around the rod as she spun it and settled downwards again.
Zephyr continued, "I didn't say it has to be the two of us alone. I think that monster is the strongest. Whatever is in that rift is bound to be ten times stronger than these monsters. We'll need the strongest to deal with it."
Helena was silent. She stared into his determined eyes. She did not entirely buy his
statements, but it was true that Night Terror was the strongest.
Whoever would venture into the rift would be someone who could end things.
She sighed, "I'll get the message across to the others."
As she said that, she swung her rod and pierced forward, wrapped in black lightning.
Zephyr watched her cut her way to Annette before swinging his sword and cutting off a monster's head without even looking. He turned his eyes away from them and opened his other hand, materializing another katana.
Then he dashed forward with his blazing red scarf.
Annette was about to disengage the serpent and head towards Night Terror when she suddenly felt the entire ground tremble. Afar, a cloth of darkness obstructed them from seeing further.
The thing about this darkness was that it was foreboding and emanated an outrageous amount of fear, such that she felt like her heart was about to drop.
She was not the only one; there was a momentary pause on the battlefield. Even the monsters stumbled back in fear.
She suddenly turned in a certain direction and shouted, "Ryan! We need to end this now and enter the rift."
A pale-skinned boy fighting with ice shards for a dagger, his black hair dancing beneath the moon, suddenly stopped after cleaving the monster in front of him on its torso. He released both shards and turned away.
Zephyr, from where he was, wondered what was happening. 'I'm still trying to figure out a way to get us there... what is she saying?'
Every other Drifter that came with Gilbert and Annette began to withdraw from the monsters, which made Zephyr and his subordinates wonder what exactly was going on.
All of a sudden, ice began to sweep across the landscape, consuming any and every monster in its path-freezing them into a cone.
In a couple of beats, the entire battlefield had become an ice ground of peace, except for the rumbling of monsters above.
Ryan crouched and touched the ground.
As he did, ice stairs began to form out of nothing and prolong into the sky; they even grew pillars that stretched down to merge with the frozen ground and finally stopped a few meters away from the rift.
Shade's mouth trembled. "How do they have someone so powerful?"
"I don't know if to be happy or say we are fucked," the lady beside him said. She turned her attention to him and stated, "Have we been fooled? Where is the reinforcement Luinngard Empire is supposed to send us?"
Shade shook his head, "Right now, Lana... I don't know. But with Zephyr going into the rift, you and I have to return home and update Afkon on what's going on."
He took one last glance at Helena, glared, and said in his mind, 'You and I shall deal with each other when all of this is over.'
Annette began to call names, "Night Terror! Arlem, Vida, Ryu, and Myu, Zephyr. All of us are going into the rift!"
She looked at Helena and nodded.
Zephyr grinned and ran towards the stairs. In a swift motion, he moved like a blizzard across and lunged himself into the rift with explosive force.
All the monsters at the entrance of the rift were pushed back inside as he broke into it.
Night Terror followed, so did every other name Annette called, while the others stood on the ground and watched.