Nick entered the cave and rapidly flew towards the ground, moving through it.
Yet, as soon as he touched the ground, he felt his ability deactivate.
Already?!
Yes, five kilometers wasn't far for Specters with their power, but this was really fast!
Out of reflex, Nick jumped out from the ground again, and his ability reactivated.
'It can sense me through the ground!' Nick realized.
This also explained how the Robe had been able to sense him without him being able to sense it.
This ability had probably allowed it to sense Nick from far further away.
In an instant, Nick's mind went through countless scenarios.
If that one deactivated, he would die.
Therefore, going through the walls, the ground, or the ceiling would immediately spell doom for him.
Going outside was also bad for him since there was nowhere he could hide.
It seemed like the Robe primarily relied on its sense of sight and its weird ground-sense.
Therefore, if he flew out of the cave and flew through the sky, the Robe would notice him, and he wouldn't be able to escape anymore.
That only left one possibility.
He had to enter the cave and lose the Robe without touching the cave.
Nick's perception stretched into the cave, and he saw countless branches.
This was a huge cave system.
Immediately, Nick charged down the cave.
However, while he was doing that, he tore off a piece of his body and threw it against the wall.
The piece of his body touched the wall and went through it like a ghost.
Nick's primary ability wavered, and his strength wavered between being three and five times as powerful as normal.
That was due to the strange nature in which the Robe could perceive Nick right now.
The Robe could see part of Nick's body, but that part was cut off.
And yet, it could still be remotely controlled.
Therefore, it was kind of part of him but also kind of not.Less than two seconds later, Nick lost contact with the part of his body that he had sent away.
During these two seconds, he managed to recover 30% of his Zephyx.
But on the other hand, the Robe probably recovered just as much Zephyx.
'The Robe is more powerful, but it isn't a Force Specter. Additionally, it also doesn't have a high-regeneration ability. That makes it more difficult for it to heal from injuries,' Nick thought.
A Force Specter's Zephyx was its health. Within ten seconds, Nick could recover to his peak condition.
Meanwhile, a powerful Demon Physical Specter needed minutes to heal from such a significant injury, even though its Zephyx would recover in just a couple of seconds.
Nick had already traveled deep into the cave network.
From time to time, he shot different parts of his body into different branches of the cave network.
All of the parts, including Nick's primary body, touched the walls of the cave occasionally.
Naturally, the Robe couldn't tell which cloud was the real one and had to attack them one at a time.
By now, Nick could tell that the Robe could travel through the ground like it didn't exist, just like him.
Usually, only Force Specters could travel through the tiny caps of sand and earth without moving them, but this Robe could do the same thing.
From what Nick could see, the Robe had a very ethereal quality that gave it similar properties to a ghost or a Force Specter.
Nick could tell that his primary body would be attacked next since one of his clouds in the neighboring branch had just been killed.
At that moment, he opened a maw portal below him and shot a part of him down the cave while his primary body went into a different branch.
Moments later, that part was destroyed, but not before it split up again.
By now, Nick was present in ten different caves.
Sadly, that would only help temporarily.
While there was essentially only a 10% chance that the Robe would choose the right one,and while there was only a 10% chance that the Robe would be able to kill him, that still left a 1% chance that Nick would die.
After enough rolls, that 1% chance would happen.
Even more, splitting into so many parts almost cost as much Zephyx as Nick was regenerating.
In essence, he was just flailing around in an effort to escape the Robe's clutches.
Of course, stopping this entire thing also wasn't possible.
If Nick stopped sending out parts of him, the Robe would reach him within a second and kill him.
Nick was trying to find a way out of this predicament.
Sadly, he couldn't think of one.
But then, he noticed something.
Most of the caves seemed to end at a certain spot or continue while avoiding said spot.
The spot seemed to be about a kilometer wide and about two kilometers high.
This couldn't be the outside since they were almost three kilometers deep in the ground.
Additionally, Nick couldn't sense what the spot was.
He could only sense its border.
At the end of three of the caves were walls made of… something.
It was a kind of green material that was made of many individual scales.
It was almost like this was a huge snake or some kind of insect.
Yet, the uniformity and lack of biological randomness meant that this was most likely not a living organism.
Additionally, Nick couldn't feel any signs of life coming from these walls.
Nevertheless, the walls seemed to be very bizarre.
'There's no other way to escape this Robe,' Nick thought as he approached one of the walls.
Several of his other parts were being destroyed while he was approaching the wall.
Nick couldn't see any point of entry on the green wall, but he was out of options.
So, he rammed into the wall with his mist body.
BANG!
The wall stopped Nick, but when he tried to continue pushing, he realized something.
There were actually small holes all over the wall!
'How did I not see those?!' Nick thought in shock as he looked at the holes.
Earlier,the wall had seemed smooth, but now, it seemed almost impossible for anyone to think that it was smooth.
The wall was covered in holes that were around one centimeter wide.
While the walls inside the holes were still smooth, the wall itself couldn't be called that anymore due to all of the holes.
It was almost like this was some kind of filtration system or something.
Nick wanted to find out how it was possible to hide so many holes from his senses, but he didn't have the luxury of time right now.
He rapidly entered through the holes and flew through the wall.
While inside the holes, he couldn't perceive anything just a couple of centimeters away from him.
Everything just looked like it was made of green walls.
Nick could touch the walls at the sides of the holes, but when he approached the "bottom" of the holes, the bottom just… never came closer.
It was like Nick was falling down a two-meter hole for tens of meters.
Nick felt like the concept of physics and perception stopped making sense.
'What is this?' Nick thought in confusion as he kept traveling along the short hole that seemed infinitely deep.
Nick kept traveling for a couple of seconds.
During this time, he felt more and more nervous.
He couldn't sense anything anymore, and he was sure that the Robe had already found these holes as well.
He had to continue.
But where could he continue?
It seemed like his surroundings had stopped making sense.
Everything around him felt identical.
There were walls all around him, perfectly encasing his misty body.
He could feel all of the walls, and whenever he tried to move in any direction, he felt like he wasn't moving at all.
Was he even moving?
'I don't know,' Nick thought as he looked at the encasing green world around him.
He felt like he was stuck in place.
He felt like he couldn't move.
No matter how he moved, he felt like he was pushing against an indestructible wall.
He tried to move.
He couldn't.He was encased.
Nick's mind began to panic.
'What is this place?!' he thought. 'I've never seen anything like this!'
'This is not a living organism, but it's also not some kind of machine. It most definitely is not something natural.'
'But then, what's left?'
'What could it be?'
'What is this material?' he thought as he tried to analyze the green walls around him.
The material was incredibly smooth.
'It's basically frictionless. It's like the smoothest glass in existence.'
'If anything entered this hole and if there were no air resistance or gravity, the object would continue going along this hole forever.'
'But-'
That was when Nick noticed something.
'Wait, there's no air in here.'
Since Nick didn't need to breathe, he generally didn't notice the presence or absence of air.
'Wait, can I actually feel up and down with my senses?'
Nick manifested a tiny part of his body and tried to feel if it was being pulled somewhere.
Nothing.
'There's no gravity as well!' Nick realized.
'But how?!'
'Where am I?!'