Chapter 68 Antimatter
"What the hell is happening?!"
Adam felt like he was disconnected from the world, from reality, and was alone inside of a dark and vast space.
He waved his hand, but he couldn't feel anything and his feet didn't touch any kind of ground.
However, this situation was different from the time when his consciousness was brought to a mystical world, or more exactly inside of a pocket version of the mirror dimension.
This time, he was just sinking deep inside the ground, literally, and it was because he managed to survive and manifested a new form of his power without knowing it.
"I need to do something about this because I begin to not feel my hands and my body feels like it's made of air! Something is messing with my senses!"
Adam tried to feel the ground by limiting his power, but even if he didn't do that, he was about to run out of time.
"It's cold!" Adam finally felt the ground, but he couldn't still feel anything with his hands, so he was still puzzled by the situation. "Did I fall inside of a hole or what?"
Then, he decided to jump upward to see if something happened.
Unexpectedly, he didn't feel the gravity again as he jumped, and he didn't even notice that he was underground.
It didn't even take him a second to emerge from the ground and appeared on the surface, but his momentum was too strong and he continued to soar to the sky, passing through the monsters like they were made of foam.
"What the heck!?"
Then, Adam stayed afloat, unable to feel the gravity. He flapped his legs as if he was swimming, but instead of doing anything, he created cracks in the space around him.
"Huh?" Then he also realized that he was completely naked and didn't have the bag that contained the stone or his plasma sword.
"Oh no, where did it go?" He was more concerned about the stone than his nakedness.
He couldn't see his external appearance but the commander, Zax, and Dastre who looked at him opened their eyes wide.
"I guess the goddess of luck hasn't forsaken him yet or did my action contribute to creating this kind of oddity?" The commander wondered.
Without a question, he had already used his power to stop Adam, as soon as he saw him emerging from the ground, but nothing happened.
Adam's hair appeared to be on fire but not a normal fire. The flames had a platinum color, similar to the aura that covered his body, so from their point of view, his hair had changed color all of sudden.
Adam didn't know about it yet, but this platinum color was actually not a substance, but just the effect of the antimatter obliterating everything that came in contact with him, whether it was some kind of force or some kind of substance and even space itself.
This power was not for show, and if Zax or anyone else touched Adam while he was in this state, they would lose their hand.
At first, Adam also couldn't breathe, but he suppressed the power around his face first, although he did it instinctively since he couldn't fully control the Antimatter.
It was fortunate that he did that because if he didn't do that, his brain wouldn't be able able to process what he would have seen after he emerged from the ground.
The antimatter was not visible, or to be precise, humans couldn't see it with naked eyes, and they could only see the fabric of reality being destroyed in the most convincing way that their brain could come up with. Consequently, no one knew what Adam would see if he looked at the world through the antimatter.
Still, Adam felt like the platinum flames around him began to fade away. He could feel the wind caressing the upper half of his body, and he was slowly coming down to the ground. He understood that he didn't have much time.
As soon as he touched the ground, the remaining monsters rushed at him again, but Adam just waved lightly and his hand penetrated the monsters' bodies like they were made of bubbles.
"I don't know what's going on, but there's no time to waste! Let's finish this!" Adam said and leaped toward the commander.
And as he did that, he made a hole in space without knowing i and cracks formed on his trajectory, revealing different kinds of incomprehensible images.
"Is this some kind of sign?" The commander said. He had tried to stop Adam by using almost thirty black orbs, but Adam's speed didn't decrease.
The commander was with the Lord since the Lord was young, and in a way, he was his mentor, but, he couldn't do anything, and no one could do anything about the catastrophe that befell them and their entire world.
He witnessed the day the young man that was a symbol of hope for many people turned into an abomination, losing everything that made him himself, for the sake of bringing everything back to how it was.
The commander always wondered if such a thing could even be done, but in pitch-black darkness, a little glimmer of light could make the difference, or so they all hoped as they continued day and night to convince themselves that they could bring back what they lost.
But was such a thing even possible? At least, the Lord appeared to be convinced that it was the case.
"Rudeus, I hope we weren't wrong…"
Adam's movements were precipitous and before he knew it, the commander was already dead, torn apart into two.
"Master! Suppress that power immediately!" Cristal said as Zax and she followed Adam who couldn't stop his momentum and headed towards the castle.
As for Dastre, his eyes widened as if he couldn't believe that the commander would lose. "Tch! How many of us still have to die? Well, the Lord will surely win… Won't he?"
Then Dastre flew away with his dragon. It seemed like he didn't want to end up like the commander. However, he didn't know that the Lord and he were the only ones left, and all of his companions were already gone.
"I still need this to save Liu! I don't know if I could manage to do this again after this. I am already… Kuh!" Before Adam could finish his sentence, he felt like his interior was about to burst out.
"Cristal? What's going on? What's up with Adam and what is happening?" Zax asked in a panic, losing her composure.
However, Cristal was more preoccupied with Adam's situation because unlike Zax and Adam himself, she had more or less grasped the situation.
Firstly, if Adam didn't suppress his power and moved recklessly as he did, he might end up somewhere else outside of this world, and in his current state, it would take a long time to find his way back if he somehow managed to come back without dying.
Moreover, Adam had already spent almost all of his life force, pushing his body to the limit, and his cells were being subjected to an extreme charge of unknown energy that was beyond their limits so they were breaking apart very fast.
After all, Adam's body was still mortal, and he couldn't use his power to create an indestructible body. Thus, Cristal knew that at this rate Adam only had a few weeks left to live, and if he continued to strain his body, that time limit would decrease to only a few days.
Still, even if Cristal didn't warn Adam, his body gave up and he fell to the ground.
"Adam!"
Zax rushed and caught him.
"I am fine, let's not waste time. I don't think I would be able live with it if I let Liu die," Adam said, trying to stand up on his feet.
However, Zax knew that Adam was anything but fine.
"Why? Why do you go this far for someone that you just met?" Zax asked with tears on her face.
"Because I am stupid… And I don't want to stay stupid forever," Adam replied, but he stumbled as he tried to stand up so Zax supported him.
She didn't understand Adam's words, but again, a mysterious smile appeared on Adam's face.
Adam had many flaws as a person, and he wasn't always honest with his feelings. Most of the time, he even appeared to be pathetic.
But all of that was because he was afraid, he was afraid that people would reject his true self when they learn about his desires. However, he didn't want to admit that he was scared of such a thing, thinking that it was pathetic to be afraid of such a thing, so he hide it, creating a wall between him and the others.
In the end, it was not the rejection from these girls that scared him even in his previous life, but it was the thought of what would happen if they accepted and discovered his true nature.
That was why he tended to go for girls that were actually out of his league. He always tried to convince himself of the opposite, but that made him more pitiful.
However, this time, it was different. He wanted to save Liu and tell her his feelings, not out of fear, but because he wanted to face his fear.
But when they finally arrived inside the room where the Lord occupied, it was already too late.
Even after all of that, they still underestimated the reality of things.
Liu was lying on the ground holding Verte tightly, and her hair turned white and began to deteriorate, her skin full of wrinkles and her body was nothing but skin.
Adam felt something that he couldn't explain with words alone.