Monster Integration

"You all must have noticed the space runes on the lake and already had made your assumption about it being a gate, which we think 90% is true," Commander said.

"And since it is a gate, there are opportunities in it and also danger seeing its current condition." She said before stopping for a second as she looked at all of us.

"I will not stop you from going inside as it represents an opportunity, but note that there is a very high chance of death." 

"The elite Tyrant we have sent earlier inside might be alive or dead, so we will wait for three hours; in these three hours, you can decide whether you want to enter or not," The Commander said before turning back to the broken starry gate.

The Grimm Monster seemed to have to give the same lecture to around five hundred Grimm Monsters. These five Grimm Monsters are Tyrants; the sheer number of them is amazing; Pyramid could not allocate such numbers of Tyrants to such place like Scorcese Valley.

Time passed by, and everyone is thinking about whether to go or not. If it had been a complete gate, many people would not have thought so hard about entering inside, but this gate is broken, and there is a huge chance that people who entered inside it would get ripped apart by space tears.

Soon, three hours passed, and both leader class Tyrant has turned toward us. "Those who want to enter walk toward the broken gate with a second difference," Commander said directly, without wasting any words.

"I'll go first," A familiar voice said the moment commander is finished, and an old man wearing blue armor came forward and flew toward the broken starry gate.

It is old Ed, and I am quite surprised it is he. For three weeks I had known him, the man seemed like a coward who would rather hide from the Grimm Monster than fight against them. He himself had said that thing many times.

As old Ed left his place, three Grimm Monsters also left there. There seemed to be no surprise in the Commander's face, so it seemed to deal of entrance had already been negotiated by the leaders.

After the old Ed and three Grimm Monsters entered the broken starry lake, another group of one human and Grimm Monster entered inside, and this time, it is Elite group. Not only humans are Elite, but three Grimm Monsters that entered with him were also Elite.

In the next six seconds, six humans entered one after another before I finally took a step; as I did, I felt the heavy gaze of the Commander. I met her gaze with a calm smile and continued to fly toward the broken gate with three Grimm Monsters, one of which is elite. 

Seeing that, my expressions couldn't help but tightened up a little, but I am not scared as I should be. In the past three weeks, I had made huge advancements, filled little over one million and one hundred thousand hexagonal cells, which had space nearly four times that of the original honeycomb cells.

It had transformed my strength that now; I am just a step away from reaching the Elite stage, but that is too wide to cross.

The gap is huge, and the two million empty cells I have my not even able to bridge it, which is why I need to widen my body and these cells to their absolute limit before I fill these cells, that way I will have a sure chance gain the strength of Elite Tyrant while being an Emperor.

Soon, I approached the layer of the starry lake, where astral energy is so dense that it had liquified. This Astral energy is part of the formation and would not affect the body; I would have said it with even more confidence if not for it the formation being broken.

I did not stop and directly entered the starry lake with a deep breath.

As I entered the starry lake, I felt the intense cold assaulting me. This is cold completely different than the normal cold; that I even doubt whether I am being assaulted by the cold or something else.

This is not just a feeling but a real thing, and if my armor did not have the powerful defense, I would have already frozen into the popsicle.

This frozen energy that is assaulting me is definitely astral energy, and its assault is powerful. If it continued for a few more seconds, it would be able to pass through the defense of my armor, and I would turn into the popsicle.

Seconds passed by, and I have seemed to be stuck into some sort of restricted space which is beyond my comprehension.

If the gate had been working as it used to be, I would not have been stuck in this place, assaulted by the astral energy which is trying to freeze me to my soul, and I am powerless against it, and if something did not happen, I would die here.

Seeing my condition, a mirthless smile couldn't help but appear on my face. When I entered the starry gate, I had not expected I would be stuck in such a predicament. At worst, I thought I would be torn into pieces but never thought I would be trapped in place, like this slowly being frozen by Astral Energy.

As the seconds passed, the assault of astral energy became greater and greater, till few specks of it were able to infiltrate my armor and enter my body.

"See!"

I took a sharp break as the specks of Astral energy hit me, and they froze everything they stuck. It is worse than the frostbite and seeing that horror couldn't help but appear on my face.

It is my luck that I have something like Inheritance Runes, which is dealing with the astral energy; otherwise, the damage I had been receiving would have been much intense. Still, the runes would only prolong my death; they will not save me.

Bam!

I was having those thoughts as more and more specks of Astral energy assaulted me, taking me closer to death, when suddenly something hard and big crashed against me, sending me out of the strange, restricted space I had been trapped in.