Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

Chapter 363 Yup

Small and large cracks gathered around, their colors either golden or silver. While glowing slightly, the cracks swirled about Kairen's fingers, whirling and spirling around his hand like tiny sparks of light. They all rotated around Kairen at a slow but steady speed. Standing at the center of the swirling light, Kairen looked like a black hole in the middle of a sea of stars, like a small portion of the galaxy separated from the universe.

The monster was restless. It had shifted its posture, destroying a bunch of abandoned buildings in the process, and was now facing Kairen. Yet, it didn't move nor did it attack the boy who was surrounded by the stars. It looked hesitant, as if it was in a dilemma, not sure if it had to attack or run away.

If it was in the past, the monster's behavior would surprise Kairen. However, he could more or less guess the reason behind the unusual act of the beast. He knew what were these monsters made of, and he knew that his soul contained the same power as those monsters. It causes some kind of attraction between the two, leading them to run into each other easily.

That was why Kairen faced unique monsters all the time and also why monsters didn't act normal when around him. That was the reason why one of the first monsters that he killed, the huge polar bear on top of an icy mountain that he and his friends hunted as a mission for the academy, acted like a little pet in front of him. He also knew why the centipede that came out from under one of the ancient ruins that he and his team visited was so violent and wanted to attack Kairen so much.

The monsters acted differently when faced with a power that was similar to theirs but at a higher level. Just like how normal animals and beasts behaved, the monsters also could choose between surrendering or fighting back. It was something like instinct in them. The higher the level of a monster, the higher its intelligence is. That's why the monsters which were stronger would act the most strange around Kairen. They could think to some point and consider if they wanted to fight the unnatural existence in front of them, surrender, or run away.

Similarly, the 'Dragon' in front of Kairen was in a state of considering its choices, weighing his options, and thinking whether it could kill Kairen or not.

However, Kairen didn't stand in the ceremony and wait for the 'Dragon' to do whatever it wanted to do.

With a flick of his hand, the glowing cracks that were swirling around his fingers expanded outward, toward the monster. A portion of the milky way kept increasing in size and it soon looked like a thread, one tip of it connected to the galaxy around Kairen and the other end, creating another galaxy around the monster. From a distance, it looked as if two milky ways were connected to each other through a thread of light.

Before the startled 'Dragon' could do anything, it was surrounded by cracks all over its huge body. The golden-silver sparks of light jumped around, whirling about the stone-like beast as if to swallow it.

Kairen flicked his hand once again. In a gesture as if grabbing the air, the boy clenched the cracks around him and pulled his arm. For a second, blazing light shot out from the cracks. Moving inside the galaxies, the light rotated inside the two milky ways that were connected to the other by a thread of cracks, before being swallowed by its two ends, by the two black holes right at the center of each galaxy, Kairen, and the beast.

GRRRRR

The 'Dragon' let out a growl, yet, it was unable to resist anything. The light and the cracks were faster than the high-level beast's reaction. In a split second, cracks appeared on the surface of the monster's body. No! It wasn't the usual cracks that Kairen controlled. They were new. The monster's body was starting to crack up little by little. Light surged out from the cracked parts of the monster's body as if the beast was a huge volcano about to explode at any moment.

However, it didn't. The huge beast didn't explode, but it gradually glowed, emitted light, and started to fragment. As if it was but a huge collection of sparks, the monster degenerated into golden and silver cracks and mixed with the wind like weightless dandelion, spreading in all directions before gradually fading from sight, silently disappearing as if it never existed at all.

It didn't even take a whole minute for the monster, the huge 'Dragon', the thing that scared everyone just by its size, to disappear into thin air. In from of the whole city's gaze, the dragon degenerated into light particles and vanished from the world.

The whole place was as silent as death. No one spoke. No one found the proper words to utter. Normally, the people who were saved from the huge monster's wrath would cheer and thank their savior, however, the situation this time was so out of or ordinary that no one knew how to react. While everyone was still stunned, Kairen raised his head to look at the gate above, frowning slightly upon feeling something amiss. noVe.lb-1n

'It feels different now...'

The gate was still huge, ominous, and evil-looking, however, it felt as if something inside of it has changed. Ordinary people might find it difficult or impossible to sense, but Kairen could tell for sure that the gate was different from before the monster emerged from it.

'It feels... less stable...?'

Before, he couldn't understand what was the gate made of or how was it formed, but now, he could make some guesses and all those guesses led to one point: The gate was definitely made of the same power that he had, but at a higher level and in a much more condensed form, and it also had mixed portions of other powers in it.

'Chaos and Space? It feels like these two combined can create such a gate... It can also have Time in it to some extent. I remember Alan saying that Time would be distorted for things and people that were affected by 'That strange power'... Hmm...'

For some reason, Kairen felt that he could grasp the gate if he just reached out his hand. It didn't look so high in the sky anymore, and it didn't feel as mighty and scary as before. Was it because such a strong monster came out from it? Was its power spent on creating that 'Dragon'? Kairen was not sure. He had zero knowledge about these things called gates and could only wait for Reynold to explain things to him.

Still standing on top of the path made out of cracks, a transparent step for Kairen that looked like a small portion of a galaxy, Kairen reached out his hand towards the gate. It was just a passing thought and an unreasonable feeling, but he just wanted to try, try if he could really clench the gate if he raised his hand.

Small cracks once again sparked at the tip of his fingers that were facing the gate. Just like before, the cracks gathered around each other, making a small and thin thread that lead up to the gate. The thread got longer and longer until it was hard to see the other end of it.

'Maybe it's still too high up for me to reach...'

Just when Kairen was about to give up on his stupid attempt to reach the gate, he felt a current run through the thread of cracks. And at the same time

BOMMMMMMMMM

The huge gate suddenly started vibrating.