Chapter 85: Immemorial Deadlands

“DIE!!!!”

Chaos erupted the moment a particularly large man tried to exit the cafe, almost everyone attacked him, all at the same time, and the next moment, he was nothing but blood mist.

Silence.

I couldn’t help but gulp at the silence that stretched, and the eyes that wandered looking for the the slightest hint of the next person who would dare to move towards the exit, made my face go grim.

’Seven hells!’ I inwardly cursed. ’What type of shit did this woman get me into?’ I thought while simultaneously activating my safety feature.

It was then, that I suddenly felt a hand grasping onto my elbow. I wanted to protest but before I could open my mouth, the dark haired woman did.

“Don’t resist.” she whispered.

’Huh?’ I thought in confusion. ’What did she mean by don’t res…’

Whuuum!

Before I could finish my thought process however, my body was dragged forward at a speed I had personally never gone before, except for that one time father took me from the castle to one edge of the Vorde continent in a second.

But unlike that time when it felt like teleportation and I couldn’t perceive anything, this time I could actually see everything, it felt like everything was moving so fast that they blurred, but also in a somewhat slow motion, if it made any sense.

In a moment, we had left the cafe, and were streaking through the city. And like she asked, I didn’t resist one bit, I let her move me at her own speed. I surely wasn’t close enough to match her speed, especially when her ability improved that.

And oh, did I forget to mention that those guys from the cafe were chasing behind us like rabid dogs? Not to mention the others that didn’t go into the cafe, but decided to wait outside, or in the way, to tag along.

But those along the way didn’t intercept us, they only followed after we passed. The reason? They of course hadn’t seen the map, and we were their navigation to where the tomb was.

I had no doubt that the moment the tomb was sighted, they wouldn’t hesitate to attack us. The city soon blurred past us, and we soon exited from the city wall, but the numbers behind us kept increasing.

Since there was a criteria that only fifty and above people could enter the tomb, I sure did hope that it should also have a limit to how many above that range could enter.

We raced, or rather, Sia raced through the increasingly glum forest, while dragging me along. It was somewhat embarrassing to say the least, but hey, no one I knew could see me, and also, I wasn’t wearing my real face.

Rrrrrrrumble!

A low distant growl, followed by a loud thunder clap that split the air, roused me from my embarrassment.

I quickly looked up, and in the distance, storm clouds lay overhead in a very low arc. They seemed as if I could touch them if I just raised my hand and reached. It was one of the unexplained phenomenons of the Immemorial Deadlands, which meant that we were getting extremely close.

Remember when I said that the Ashen Deadlands was one of the most dangerous Deadlands in Nahaar? Well, the Immemorial Deadlands might just be the most dangerous Deadland in the whole of Nahaar.

Just like the other Deadlands, the Immemorial Deadlands had been present since times immemorial – pun intended.

Like the Ashen Deadlands had its own quirks, the immemorial Deadlands also did. But unlike the undead puppets of the former, the latter had a chaotic time flow, and warped space. Not to mention, it also had its own share of ancient horrors.

One could mistakenly stumble into it, think they spent a day there, only to come out and find out a year had passed. There was once a powerful aetherial who managed to escape from it’s depths, and he said that; one could be in a different place at one moment, but mysteriously appear in a completely different place at the next.

Which made the fact that some fool came here to die baffling, and the fact that I actually came here for that fool’s treasures –which may, or may not exist– even more baffling.

Even though Sia did say the tomb was at the outskirts, I wasn’t convinced it was entirely safe. But there was nothing to worry about, for me at least. Even if we did get caught in a wrong time flow– which I would realize with my reflections outside–, or we got lost somewhere deep inside, I could simply get away with a thought.

The tomb was also another reason that expressed the fact that the insufferable woman was only alive because of me. You see, that was because in the novel, no tomb was ever found in the outskirts of the Immemorial Deadlands. But in this timeline that she was around, she had discovered it.

“What are you thinking about?” I heard her voice beside me.

’Hmph, the only reason you’re still alive is because of this one’s grace, yet you still have the guts to push this one around.’ I inwardly joked.

“Oh, nothing much, just thinking about what we could find there.” I replied.

“There’s something you should know.” she muttered as the atmosphere got increasingly glum the further we went. “The moment we enter the tomb we will be momentarily immobilized.”

“Say what?” my head snapped towards her so fast that it almost made me break my neck due to the speed at which we were moving.

“Relax, it’ll be the same for everyone.” She said. “If a minute passed without there being fifty or more people in there, everyone would be teleported out. At least that was what kept happening to me yesterday.” She muttered with a hateful expression. She was clearly frustrated by the fact that there had to be that godforsaken criteria.

“I see.” I said, while simultaneously trying hard to stop myself from laughing.

“What’s so funny?” She asked.

“Oh that, nothing.” I shook my head. “It’s just that your misfortune brings me joy.” I smirked. But the next moment, my smirk faded into a curse.

“What the hell?” I muttered as we came upon a divide. The glum forest behind us still had green leaves and everything, but everything ahead looked unreal in the sense that it looked normal, eerily normal, if that made sense.

And was giving off some kind of creepy vibes. Not to mention the chilly wind that was brushing past my skin, giving me goosebumps.

Yeah, now that I think about it, I had to have been out of my mind to agree to come here, greed for treasures or not. ’Maybe it isn’t too late to go back.’ I thought.

Hey say what you want, I was a coward, and I wasn’t afraid to admit it. I then glanced Sia for a moment.

’Is she not creeped out at all?’ I thought.

“This is the border of the Immemorial Deadlands.” Sia muttered as we zoomed past it.

’No shit.’ I thought.

As if on cue, a snake sized worm lunged at us which we promptly evaded.

“THAT’S THE FUCKING TOMB!” one of the people racing after us suddenly exclaimed.

“What…?” I looked ahead, and sure enough, the hill depicted on the projection was in my sight.

“THAT’S FUCKING…!” The person who exclaimed continued, but before he could say any more, a woman behind him whipped her scythe at his neck in a vicious sweep, lopping his head off in the process.

“You talk too much.” she said flicking the blood off her weapon.

And that was how the new chaos started, every man for himself, or rather every man and woman for themselves.

The smart ones though, didn’t stay to cut off competition. Instead, much like Sia and I, they made a run for it while the idiots were fighting.

With us at the front, we soon reached the bottom of the hill, and then traced our way to it’s back, where…..

“Is that a cave where the opening is the mouth of a weird creature?” I muttered to the woman still holding me by the elbow.

“What do you mean? That’s the entrance to the tomb.” she smirked.

I threw her a look that said; “You’re kidding right?” Around the cave was crafted the face of some monstrous looking creature. And I was not sure we should be entering the mouth of something like that.

As we closed in on the mouth of the statesque creature, I couldn’t help but sigh.

“Let’s just hope this is not some malicious ploy made by some ancient ghost to take over a genius’s body and come back to life.” I muttered. After all, I had read about that quite a number of times.

“What do you mean?” The dark haired woman raised a brow.

“Nevermind, you wouldn’t understand.” I said. ’Only my fellow readers would understand that reference.’ I thought as we jumped into the cave.

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