(Time-Stilled World, Unknown Underground Cave, Six Hours Later)
Six agonizing hours crawled by, each one slower than the last, as Leo lay motionless in the nest, counting every minute through the dull, pulsing throb of his half-healed body.
The darkness around him remained unchanged, the cold straw beneath him offering no comfort, as nothing in his surroundings shifted in the slightest—no flicker of light, no change in temperature, no sound to suggest that even a second had passed at all.
And yet, somewhere in that hollow stretch of time, the pain dulled just enough for his thoughts to sharpen again, as his clarity returned piece by piece, and with it came the realization that he needed to understand exactly where he was, if he had any hope of surviving, let alone escaping.
But he didn't rush.
He didn't even flinch at first, knowing full well that a single misstep could snap his fragile state and plunge him straight back into unconsciousness.
So he waited—patiently—until the pounding behind his eyes softened, until his thoughts no longer splintered when they formed, and only then did he begin testing each limb in silence.
He tested his fingers first, then toes, then knees, gauging carefully what the healing potion had mended, and more importantly, what it hadn't.
And thankfully, by the time he began checking, his fingers responded, his toes twitched, and his spine no longer felt cracked in six places.
It wasn't perfect. Far from it.
But it was enough to crawl.
And so, with a slow, deliberate roll to his side, Leo braced himself and began dragging his body toward the edge of the nest— keeping low, keeping quiet, careful not to disturb the monstrous eggs looming beside him, as he inched across cracked straw and broken fragments of bone.
Each movement he made ground against his will like steel against stone.
Each inch he earned came through clenched teeth and half-swallowed curses.
But eventually—he made it.
He reached the edge of the nest, just high enough to lift his head and see beyond the mound of scattered remains.
As at last, he saw the cavern surrounding him for what it truly was.
—----------
As he looked around, Leo realized that he was in a giant cave that stretched outward in all directions, with blue mana crystals embedded unevenly across the wet walls, as the blue crystals were the only thing providing the cave with a dull glow.
He wasn't atop some elevated perch or towering ledge.
He was only about ten meters above the main cavern floor, nestled in a crevice along the edge wall, with eight different tunnel mouths gaping before him.
Each tunnel mouth was carved with unique textures, each one promising its own brand of danger.
Some sloped downward into shadow.
Some curved sharply out of sight.
While some narrowed like the throat of a beast waiting to swallow anything that entered, as Leo couldn't make his mind on which one to enter through just a distant glance.
Next he scanned the floor, as scattered across the cave were piles of shattered bones and massive claw marks, that seemed to originate from two tunnels in particular.
Faint blood trails were visible beside the claw marks, suggesting that something had been dragged screaming and dying through them.
The air inside the cave was still, there was no wind flow whatsoever, and there was no sound within the cave either, as the loudest noise he could hear inside was the faint rustling of his own breath.
The cave felt almost too quiet to be natural.
The kind of quiet that only existed in places where predators hunted, or slept.
And Leo, though not yet ready to run or even rise fully, understood one thing with absolute certainty—
That it wasn't getting out of this nest that was going to be the hard part…..
The hard part was what came after.
Surviving the maze beyond.
Navigating blind.
Avoiding things that saw far better in the dark than he did.
And somehow, finding a way back to the surface without becoming another smear in the dirt.
'I'm not strong enough yet to get on my feet and explore the tunnels, so for now my best choice is to rest and let my body recover a bit more.
But if the eggs start cracking or I hear that giant beast returning from a distance, I'll bail out of here immediately—' Leo thought to himself, as he let out a deep sigh, and sat back down with his back against the nests edge, as he brought out yet another high grade healing potion from his spatial ring.
*********
(Meanwhile on the surface)
Meanwhile, on the surface, Raiden, Karl and Bob continued making their way through the floating islands, as they neared the completion of their journey, with less than 5 jumps left before they crossed over to the other side.
However, it was here that Karl decided to strike again, with Raiden as his next target.
It happened fast.
Too fast for anyone to stop it.
As while Raiden stood near the edge, trying to calculate the timing of the next jump, and Bob slept, trying to catch some rest, Karl decided to get rid of Raiden at once.
*Kick*
He kicked Raiden with all his Transcendent level strength, and sent him flying off the floating island's edge, in a shock move that Raiden never saw coming.
"Wha—KARL?!"
Raiden's scream tore through the stillness like a siren, echoing across the misty void as he flailed in the air— arms grasping for anything, legs kicking, terror twisting his voice into something primal.
"NO! KARL—KARL YOU PIECE OF—!"
But gravity didn't care.
And neither did Karl.
He stood there at the edge, watching the figure vanish into the pale fog, until even the echoes of Raiden's scream faded into silence.
By the time Bob woke up, feeling confused by the sudden noise—
It was already over.
"Where's Raiden?!" Bob demanded, eyes wide, as he scanned the ledge with panic in his voice.
However Karl didn't flinch.
He just let out a long, slow breath, feigning weariness, before lying through his teeth.
"He jumped." Karl said, as Bob blinked in disbelief.
"What?" Bob demanded, as if not buying this story, as Karl boldly doubled down.
"I tried to stop him. But he just… walked off. Like he'd given up. Said he couldn't take the gloom of this world anymore….. alas he wasn't strong enough to survive here." Karl said, his voice cracking with pain, as he tried his best to sell the story, however, Bob didn't bite.
Drawing his weapon instead, Bob pointed it towards Karl in weariness, as he said, "I'm sure I heard him calling your name at the end….. what did you do?"
As a slow evil smile spread on Karl's face.