The deeper we moved into the Crimson Zone, the more the surrounding void stopped resembling space altogether and began feeling like something alive.
The crimson mist thickened continuously around us until it no longer drifted gently but moved in slow currents like enormous rivers flowing through darkness, pressing against the senses with a suffocating heaviness that even my restored perception struggled to properly push through.
The asteroid base and the Blue Spiral behind us had long vanished from sight, swallowed entirely beneath endless red haze while the silence around us became increasingly unnatural.
Then suddenly Vivi raised her hand.
Violet essence surged outward from her body in spinning layers before wrapping around both of us in the shape of a rotating shield. The moment the barrier stabilized, I immediately felt the pressure around us lessen slightly.
"The corruption density increased," Vivi said calmly while continuing forward through the mist beside me. "At this depth the Crimson Zone begins actively eroding anything that enters it."
I looked toward the outer surface of the shield and saw faint crimson particles continuously colliding against it before dissolving into violet sparks.
"You can hold it?" I asked.
"For now," she replied. "But it consumes essence continuously." Her gaze remained focused ahead while the rotating shield cut through the mist around us. "It should take another ten minutes to reach the concentration point I sensed earlier."
I nodded lightly and continued moving beside her while allowing my perception to stretch outward again.
Even after recovering my complete soul and laws, the Crimson Zone still restricted my senses heavily. Normally my awareness could sweep across entire planets effortlessly, but here it barely extended a few kilometers before the crimson mist distorted and devoured it completely.
The deeper we moved, the stranger the surroundings became.
At certain points shapes almost seemed to move inside the mist around us before vanishing again, silhouettes too distorted to properly identify while faint whispers occasionally echoed through the crimson haze only to disappear the moment I tried focusing on them directly.
Then suddenly, something slammed into Vivi’s shield. The entire barrier trembled violently while crimson sparks exploded outward across its surface.
Both of us stopped immediately. Another impact came a second later from behind. This time strong enough that the rotating violet shield briefly distorted under the force.
Vivi’s eyes narrowed sharply. "Something is following us."
I spread my perception outward instantly despite the suppression around us, forcing my awareness through the mist while searching for whatever attacked us.
Then I finally saw it and paused.
A figure stood silently within the crimson fog several hundred meters away.
Red hair, red eyes, flowing crimson robes and top of that my face.
Vivi looked toward it as well and her expression shifted immediately.
"What..." she murmured softly. "What exactly is that?"
The figure stared at us silently for another second before suddenly moving. Its body shot forward through the mist with frightening speed, crimson energy trailing behind it while the surrounding haze distorted violently around its movement.
I raised my hand calmly. The moment the replica reached the shield, I tapped directly into the Law of Repulsion.
The space in front of my palm twisted. Then exploded outward.
The crimson version of myself didn’t even have time to react before the force struck it directly, its entire body blasting apart violently into chunks of crimson energy and mist that scattered through the void before dissolving completely.
Vivi continued staring at the place where it vanished.
"That thing looked exactly like you."
"I noticed."
The crimson mist around us churned again afterward. Then two more figures slowly emerged from within it.
Both identical. Again wearing flowing crimson robes with glowing red eyes fixed directly on me.
"So maybe the zone replicates intruders," I muttered quietly.
The two replicas attacked together this time.
One rushed from the front while the other circled through the mist behind us before emerging suddenly near the shield, both movements eerily similar to how I myself would normally approach combat.
The frontal replica raised its hand and a crimson slash tore through the mist toward us. I stepped forward before Vivi could even react and punched directly into the attack.
The slash shattered apart instantly. At the same moment the second replica appeared behind me wielding a crimson staff already descending toward my neck.
I twisted sideways smoothly. The staff passed beside my face. Then my hand shot upward and grabbed the replica by the throat.
The moment contact happened, my essence churned automatically. Destructive energy bloomed through the crimson body instantly. Cracks spread across the replica’s skin before its entire upper torso disintegrated into glowing fragments that scattered into the mist.
The remaining replica tried to retreat immediately after witnessing that.
I didn’t let it.
Space folded and I appeared directly in front of it using the Law of Spacetime before driving my fist through its chest. The replica exploded apart violently.
The crimson mist swallowed the remnants again.
Vivi exhaled slowly afterward while stabilizing the shield around us once more.
"This place is absurd."
I looked deeper into the mist ahead.
"Yes," I replied quietly. "This place is adapting. I wonder how it knows about me wielding a staff."
The deeper we moved afterward, the stronger the replicas became.
Another version of me appeared several minutes later, this one carrying an actual imitation of my laws. Lightning surged across its body while crimson spacetime fractures spread around it during movement, but even then the difference between imitation and reality became obvious almost immediately.
The replica attacked with overwhelming force the moment it emerged, a lightning spear tearing through the mist while crimson lightning exploded around its body.
I met it head-on.
Our fists collided in the void and the surrounding mist detonated outward from the impact, but the moment our laws touched, the replica’s imitation destabilized completely. My Law of Harmony surged automatically through the clash and tore apart the unstable replication within its body before I chained the momentum directly into Absolute destruction.
Its body split apart before dissolving back into crimson mist.
Then finally Vivi slowed.
"We’re here," she said quietly.
The mist ahead suddenly thinned slightly.
And beyond it, a massive transparent barrier floated within the Crimson Zone.
Unlike Vivi’s shield, this one wasn’t formed from essence at all but runes.
Countless glowing runes rotated across its surface continuously while layers of intertwined laws reinforced it from within, forming a gigantic dome stable enough to resist the Crimson Zone directly.
Inside the barrier there was a battle going on.
Five separate figures fought continuously against crimson replicas of themselves while law energy and essence exploded throughout the enclosed space.
One giant armored warrior slammed his replica backward with a massive hammer strike before the crimson copy immediately retaliated using the exact same technique.
A winged figure fought another version of itself high in the air while spatial distortions spread through the dome.
Everywhere inside the barrier, the same pattern repeated. The Crimson Zone had replicated all of them.
Then my eyes shifted toward the center.
A woman floated there in a meditative position several meters above the ground beneath the transparent dome.
Long black hair flowed freely around her while a sleeveless black gown covered her body, the fabric moving softly despite the absence of wind. A massive serpent tattoo wrapped around her right arm all the way toward her shoulder, glowing faintly with dark green energy.
And behind her a gigantic spectral serpent projection remained coiled silently around her figure, its golden eyes half-open while immense pressure leaked from its phantom body continuously into the surrounding runic barrier.
The moment I saw her, I understood immediately.
The Naga Matriarch.