Author's Note: Unedited Chapter
Not only were they now in outerspace, the stairways no longer existed.
The sight before them wasn't just the endless expanse of darkness with clusters of tiny lights in the distance. The stairway had turned completely panned out. It was smoothened and looked more like a path that extended upwards.
This would have made things a lot easier but now one could not even tell where the traps would be situated and if everyone would be affected should a person trigger one.
Another issue was, there happened to be areas where the pathways were missing. The participants would have to leap towards wherever the sloppy pathways resumed when they reached places like this.
Leaping wasn't much of a problem but doing all of these while trying to fend off the illusionary maniacs with long whitish gown and paper box covered faces would certainly make things a lot more difficult.
These illusionary figured all had massive purplish scythes in their possession and to make things worse, it's was impossible to physically touch them. So one could only evade their strikes while they appeared randomly.
Occasionally, the broken off pathways that were laden across the monolith would vanish and reappear after some time. If someone was to leap towards a seperated pathway and they vanished at that moment, they would fall straight down to the start of the fourth layer.
The second Layer happened to be around a hundred thousand feet in height. With all the mechanisms in place, everyone had obstacles that would make them slower than normal so starting again was something no one wanted.
The group were currently holding their breathe as they made their way forward as quickly as they could. At this moment, no group had successfully made it to the fifth layer yet.
The second layer had too many obstacles in place.
Gustav and the group were successful in crossing about fifteen thousand feet in just a few minutes but once they arrived at a broken off pathway, things started to get tricky.
E.E conjured a vortex and was about to step in when Gustav grabbed his shoulder to pull him back.
The pathway seven hundred feet above where his vortex led to suddenly vanished.
"Yo what the hell?" E.E eyes widened as he noticed this.
The group were initially unaware of the vanishing pathways that would appear and reappear randomly. They were not allowed to leap past seven hundred feet so they had to wait for the pathway to reappear before getting on it.
The pathway above soon reappeared and everyone turned towards Gustav waiting for his signal.
"Not yet," Gustav voiced.
"Out of my way earthlings!" A group of white scaled beastly looking figures with massive horns approached from behind at full speed.
fwwwhiii~
They all leapt together towards the platform above which only extended for about ten feet. They had to leap again towards the next platform which was further above but the moment they did...
Thrriihh~
The platform above vanished while they were still in mid air.
"Hngghh!" One of them ripped one of his horns from his head which proceeded to emit a blinding red glow and stabbed it at the monolith to prevent fall.
Taaannggg!
The pointy tip of the horn slammed onto the monolith's smooth surface but failed to scratch it in the slightest, talk more of penetrating.
("It would take your strongest attack to cause a dent in the monolith... it has one of the toughest surfaces in the universe,") The system voiced in Gustav's mind.
'Yeah I noticed its pretty dense,' Gustav was still astonished even till now.
Bboiiinnnnggg~
A small ripple of energy burst forth from the monolith's wall and pushed the group further away as they plummeted downwards.
"Arrrrrggghhhh!"
The screams soon faded as the group disappeared into the clouds below.
Yonda who was about to speak earlier, swallowed his words.
The platform above vanished once more and earth participants as well as other groups that witnessed what had just happened, waited for a bit.
When it reappeared everyone stared at Gustav once more.
"Not yet," Gustav stated again.
No one tried to question him and they all just waited.
"Why are you guys also waiting?" Fildhor asked the group behind.
"We're not trying to end up like those guys," One of them voiced, obviously referring to the group that plummeted to the bottom earlier.
"These guys..." Fildhor had a stiff expression as he didn't want any of the groups following them.
After waiting two more times for the pathway to vanish and reappear, there were already more than a hundred participants behind the earth group.
"Now!" Gustav yelled while leaping forward.
Thoooommmm~
The moment he ascended across the air, the others followed in suit. They didn't waste a single second as the pathway below soon turned empty.
"Yossshhh!"
They instantly landed on the next platform and leapt once more, approaching the second.
Fwwwhiiii~
The numbers ascending across the air at quick pace, caused the air to whoosh loudly like a whip lashing out.
The groups soon realised that there were about ten different platforms seperated from each other with seven hundred feet distances each.
Their timing of choosing to jump had to be impeccable or one of the platforms would vanish even after they had gotten past some and they would eventually end up at the bottom.
Gustav arrived at the ninth platform before everyone as expected but the moment he did, the tenth platform vanished.
The temth platform would have been the last they would need to leap from before arriving at a consistent pathway that led further ahead without seperation but now it was gone.
"Connect," Gustav yelled as he turned to stretch his hand out.
The group grabbed each other's palm immediately as Gustav leapt sideways.
[Sprint Has Been Activated]
Twwwhoooosshhh~
His figure sped across the smooth surface of the monolith walls as the others dangled from him, all holding onto each other.
Gustav crossed a distance of seven hundred feet in an instant but he could already feel his feet slipping off the extremely smoothened surface.
Fwewhiiiii~
He swung his right arm forward, causing the entire group to sway upwards while still holding onto each other. Now Gustav was the last person while Angy was at the forefront with their hands still connected to each other.
Pah!
Angy's feet touched on the surface of the smoothened wall and now it was her turn...
Fwwwhoossshhh~
A burst of wind spread fotth acrosd the vicinity as Angy sped upwards at an extremely bizzare speed, dragging the rest of the group with her.
Gustav's feet had already slid off the monolith walls at this point but due to the hand connection and Angy's speed, he didn't fall off.
Angy dragged everyone with her to the next pathway anf they arrived on it in the blink of an eye, leaving the other groups behind to cater for themselves.
"Phew~ That was intense," E.E voiced as they peered forward.
"I thought we would fall," Teemee and the others also had a look of relief on their faces.
"Let's go," Gustav said to everyone, unbothered about the fates of the groups behind them initially.
Fortunately, a few of them managed to make it but the others... not so much..
Gustav and the others spent a whole hour scaling fifty thousand feet due to the many obstacles along the way.
Gustav had to be very calculating to avoid a lot of issues that could send them back, not just to the base of the fourth layer but to the very start of the monolith.
It already happened to some groups.
Right now they were crossing another seperated pathway, following after Gustav's lead.
Fwwhoosshh~
The moment Gustav leapt towards the consistent pathway that would lead further ahead without vanishing, a massive purplish scythe appeared before him.
Bang!
It had been completely unexpected and Gustav had raised his left arm at the last moment to block the attack but it was still powerful enough to change his trajectory in mid air.
Next thing everyone knew, Gustav's body was sweeping towards the right, off the direction to the pathway.
"Gustav!"
Angy yelled as the illusionary figure responsible for this attack, retrieved his massive scythe and swung it towards the others.
Wwwhrrroohhh~
A vortex suddenly appeared before them, and swallowed the whole group.
They reappeared on the pathway ahead in the next instant and found Gustav standing up ahead as well.
"Thanks E.E," Gustav voiced in appreciation.
"I don't think that guy is too happy about this," E.E responded while pointing at the illusionary figured with a robe, a paper box covered face and massive glowing purplish scythe.
The figure turned around and charged towards them swiftly.
"No, I don't think he is, go!"
The group sped forward in the next instant while Gustav explained to them that it is impossible to physically damage these illusionary beings.
They had to do their best to evade them especially since these beings had very powerful attacks.
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