The rest of the team stood in stunned silence, their eyes fixed in awe.
For a fleeting mont, the earlier admonition to control their emotions slipped from their minds entirely.
Kingsley had, with a single motion, obliterated the sky itself.
How could they not be in awe?
Anthony watched, his expression unreadable, his gaze impassive.
Conceptual Destruction.
It was just one of the myriad skills granted by the two abilities inherent in Kingsley's Talent.
The Divine Kata.
Kingsley didn't possess mana, or any other form of energy.
Yet, his Will alone allowed him to achieve feats that defied all logic.
Impossible things.
With a re exertion of his Will, Kingsley had dismantled the very concept of the sky, reshaping reality itself.
Anthony shook his head, observing the scene with a detached air.
He wasn't truly surprised; he had already known of this skill.
Even Dale, Seraphim, and Reynold, those who had spent the longest ti with Kingsley, had never witnessed him wield such power.
It wasn't that Kingsley had been hiding it.
No. It was simply that no situation had ever demanded it.
After a mont, the team gradually snapped out of their daze, their awe subsiding, though the weight of what they had witnessed lingered in the air.
"We should get going"
Reynold said, his gaze finally shifting away from the fractured sky.
"But where exactly are we supposed to go?"
Patrick countered, his tone laced with frustration.
"We ca here to uncover what the demons are up to, yet we've encountered only one of them"
"We should've kept that demon alive for questioning"
Seraphim added, her voice sharp with regret.
The words hung in the air, each one heavy with unspoken tension.
They couldn't return to their previous destination, whatever it had once been had long since been consud by the shifting, fragnted landscape of this twisted world.
Just as Anthony was about to speak, his head snapped to the side, a sharpness in his gaze that seed to cut through the air.
A split second later, the others followed suit, their senses all tuning into the subtle disturbance.
A tear.
A rip.
Space itself shuddered, cracking open briefly before expanding ever so slightly, as though reality itself was breathing in and out.
The team remained still, their bodies poised and their minds alert, yet they made no move.
Every one of them was prepared to spring into action at the slightest hint of threat erging from the rift.
For several seconds, nothing stirred.
The spatial tear simply hung in the air, ominously still.
Then, slowly, it began to contract, shrinking piece by piece, as if the fabric of reality was nding itself.
The team stood motionless, their eyes locked on the shrinking rift, every one of them ready to act at a mont's notice.
Finally, Anthony broke the silence.
"We should enter"
All eyes turned to him, expressions mixed with uncertainty and concern.
"We don't know what's in there. We could be walking straight into our graves"
Dale pointed out, his voice tinged with caution.
Anthony's gaze never wavered from the tear as he replied, his tone steady and sharp.
"We didn't know what awaited us in the Bleed Hollow Zone, did we? We arrived, saw the rift, and jumped in without hesitation"
The shrinking rift seed to beckon, its edges folding into themselves as Anthony's calm presence held steady.
"Besides"
Anthony continued, his voice steady,
"I believe this tear was caused by Kingsley's destruction of the sky. This might be the very ans through which the demons exited this place"
The team fell silent, each of them deep in thought, the weight of Anthony's words settling over them.
After a mont of stillness, it was Kingsley who broke the silence.
"We should proceed"
His voice was calm, yet it carried the unmistakable authority of soone who had already considered the consequences.
Dale, Seraphim, and Reynold's gazes shifted to the tear once more.
They knew ti was running short.
If they hesitated any longer, the rift would shrink to the point where none of them could pass through.
With a collective sigh, the three of them nodded, making their decision in silent agreent.
"Let's move"
Anthony's voice rang out, and in an instant, he shot forward with blinding speed, a streak of motion through the air.
His white hair stread behind him like a banner, untouched by the wind.
The rest of the team followed suit, their bodies moving in synchrony as they closed the distance to the rift.
There was no hesitation.
They didn't slow, didn't pause, together, they passed through the tear, just as it began to close behind them.
The mont they crossed the threshold, their senses were thrown into disarray.
The world around them seed to warp and buckle, struggling to keep pace with their sudden transition.
It felt as though the very fabric of reality had swallowed them whole.
And then, just as abruptly, the world regurgitated them back, solid ground beneath their feet once more.
Their senses returned in a rush, sharp and overwhelming.
Their eyes fluttered open, and they took in their new surroundings, the unfamiliar landscape stretching out before them.
Their feet sank into the murky ground, a mixture of wet sand and soft, yielding earth.
The sensation spread through their bodies, as if the very land beneath them was alive, shifting with each step.
But it wasn't just their feet, the entire plain was cloaked in a thick, murky haze, overgrown with strange, unidentifiable vegetation.
The air felt heavy, thick with moisture, and the landscape exuded a sense of quiet unease.
Before they could even begin to assess their surroundings, a voice pierced the stillness.
It didn't co from any specific direction.
It was everywhere.
Above. Below. Left. Right. Behind. In front.
It surrounded them from all sides, reverberating in the very air, yet impossible to pinpoint.
There was no trace of its origin, no indication of where it might be coming from.
It was as though the voice itself existed in every corner of the world, a presence woven into the very fabric of reality.
"Welco to my forgotten Fragnted World, children of the Blue Planet"
The voice resonated with an ancient weight, its tone imbued with a depth that seed to stretch across eons.
It felt as though it had existed before ti itself, lingering in the cracks of forgotten histories.
All of them felt it, the unmistakable sensation of a gaze.
A gaze that pressed down upon them, suffocating in its intensity.
It didn't attempt to hide its presence; instead, it was heavy, impossible to ignore.
Anthony's mind flashed back to the mont they had first entered this Fragnted World.
That very sa gaze had swept across them then, like an unseen force, examining them with impassive curiosity.
Now, it was stronger, more tangible, bearing down upon them with an almost palpable force.
"There are only five floors. All you need to do is climb and et . You are already on the first floor"
The voice continued, its tone regal, commanding in its quiet authority, as though every word was carved from the bedrock of ti itself.
As the voice fell silent, Anthony spoke, his voice cutting through the stillness with a calm yet piercing edge.
"Where are the other children of Blue Planet who arrived before us?"
He referred to the first team that had co to this strange, forgotten place, addressing them as children of the Blue Planet, a term the voice had used to identify them.
For a mont, there was a slight pause before the voice responded, its tone unchanged, still soft and deliberate.
"They are dead. Unlike you, they couldn't destroy the sky. They were used to nourish my monster, and they couldn't make it to the floors"
The words hung in the air like a chilling truth, their aning sinking in slowly.
Seeing that the voice had responded to his inquiries, Anthony decided to press further.
"Where are the demons?"
He asked, his tone steady, though his mind raced with possibilities.
The voice answered again, its presence imnse.
"So of them are dead. As for those still alive, you will encounter them in due ti"
Anthony fell into silence for a mont, processing the words that had been spoken.
The implications were clear, but the details were not.
From the voice's response, Anthony deduced the demons were scattered across the floors.
But which floor they occupied, he couldn't yet discern.
One thing, however, was certain: they were not on the first floor.
Before he could ask another question, his lips parted, ready to speak, but then—
The environnt shifted.
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