Escape and Opportunity

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Today's Song is: Panic! At The Disco - This is Gospel

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The space was vast and seemed to have no end, the environment was painted in dark and gray colors. In some places there were clouds of red, purple, yellow and even white gases that colored the environment more. The smaller ones would appear and disperse quickly and be devoured again by the darkness while the larger ones fought against the darkness itself for their space.

Occasionally it was possible to see some claws, tentacles or eyes lurking silently in the darkness. It seemed that this place was not entirely uninhabited and some beings of indescribable appearance called it home.

This place was not known and even less had a name, but those who understand can see that this place is the border between the order of creation, where all other realities meet, the outer part of the infinite omniverse, the border of the worlds, it is the beginning and the end of creation.

[I have found it, Sir!] 

And in the great gray space a point of white light shone unassumingly as if it were a firefly wandering in the darkest night. From the point of light a voice was heard, a robotic and emotionless voice.

'Which way?' Another voice was heard, this one more 'human' and emotive. The voice was deep, but it sounded excited.

[It's just behind that mass of red gas to our right, sir]

"Well, let's head in that direction before the beasts find us. The point of light then dimmed and camouflaged itself in the surroundings to avoid attracting attention before heading in the direction pointed out.

The ball of light that had once shone like a firefly gradually faded like a flickering flame in a storm, but it didn't disappear completely, it only shrank to an almost imperceptible size.

The little point of light began to travel through dark space while avoiding as much as possible the tentacles, claws and eyes that lurked nearby, and in time it came close to the huge mass of red gas.

As he got closer to the mass of red gas, he could see that it was getting smaller in some places and larger in others, as if it were in a tug-of-war against the darkness around it. The point of light had seen this countless times, so it simply ignored it and went around the mass of gas.

Going around the mass of gas would take longer than simply crossing it, but the point of light already knew what awaited him inside any of these masses of floating gases, so he preferred to take the long way around for his own safety.

If the darkness was already dangerous with these countless beasts and the darkness itself trying to devour everything in its path, the masses of gases were worse, because in order to survive in such an environment, they had developed their own defense mechanism.

They need to expend a lot of energy to simply survive here, so they have created their own way of 'acquiring' energy to survive here. Inside, it's like an endless storm that destroys everything that comes in and turns it into pure energy to try to expand or simply survive in this dimension.

And they manage to acquire this energy through an event that takes place in their center, also known as their core. Their core is a mass of unprecedented pressure that rips through the space of 'Chaos' and connects it to another dimension with 'Order', there they absorb some energy and bring it here.

But of course this is not without a price, just as 'Order' injects its energy through these gases into 'Chaos'. Chaos also injects its energy into Order to balance the scales. Thus they create a singularity that connects countless dimensions and realities and keeps the entire Omniverse functioning.

And the little point of light was simply unlucky enough to 'fall' into this dimension in one of these 'exchanges' of energies.

Of course, the point of light wasn't the first to find itself in this situation. Most, if not all, have gone mad and perished after spending a few years in this dimension. But for some reason this little point of light is different from all the others who have fallen into this dimension. 

Fortunately for the point of light, it managed to adapt and survive in this place.

And over time it continued to learn about its new home. The more it learned about its new dimension, the more it wanted to find a way out of it. It took a long time, longer than the poor dot of light can count, but he managed to find a way out of this dimension.

[We have arrived Sir!]

After a long time trying to get to the other side of the mass of red gas, the little point of light finally found its destination. Looking in front of him, he could see that the huge mass of red gas had a hole leading to its core.

The hole in the red gas mass looked like an ant's path, full of curves and irregularities, going up and down. But it was still possible to see that the path led to its core. It was also possible to see the mass of red gas trying with all its might to cover the crack that had formed.

'There really is a crack here.' The point of light let out a slightly tired and somewhat disbelieving smile.

'Come on Nexus, let's go in with everything.' The point of light decided to move on as quickly as possible.

[Wait, sir! It would be more prudent to study the path a bit more to avoid accidents]

'Nonsense Nexus, the sooner we get out of here, the better. We'll deal with any unforeseen circumstances later, the important thing now is to get out of here.' The point of light dismissed Nexus' advice and began to move towards the open path in the mass of red gas.

The ball of light lit up like a light bulb in the dark and attracted the attention of some of the creatures around it. But regardless, the ball of light accelerated towards the path in the mass of gas.

Some beings who saw the commotion decided to seize the opportunity, and a huge deformed black tentacle full of eyes could be seen moving towards the ball of light.

[We've drawn the attention of some chaos beasts!]

'Ignore them, they'll retreat as soon as we enter the gas mass.' The ball of light looked at the tentacle for a moment and then sneered before continuing to accelerate towards the path.

Fortunately, the ball of light managed to enter the opening of the gas mass. On entering it, he felt as if he had entered an underwater tunnel made of glass, where it was possible to see everything outside, but instead of water and fish, he saw an endless crimson storm trying its best to destroy the tunnel.

The huge tentacle approached and hesitated for a moment when it saw the ball of light enter the opening in the mass of gas.

'I knew that thing would retreat.' The ball of light looked at the huge black tentacle hesitantly and commented.

As if it could hear what the ball of light said and felt provoked, the tentacle advanced through the opening in the mass of gas. it tried to insert itself into the tunnel, but its tentacle was too thick to pass through the opening.

But he kept insisting and ended up bursting a part of the opening and managed to enter the tunnel, but this also ended up connecting the opening directly to the red gas mass which took advantage of the tentacle's presence and devoured it to acquire more energy.

A deafening screech was heard as the black tentacle was torn apart and consumed by the raging crimson storm and converted into extra energy. The beast itself retracted what was left of its tentacle and went back into hiding.

[Sir, the entrance has been compromised, the gas mass is closing the tunnel fast, we have to hurry]

'Ugh! Damn dumb beast.' The point of light grumbled and began to accelerate even more as the environment around it shrank visibly, some parts of the storm tried to hit it between the gaps it produced, but missed thanks to the maneuvers the point of light performed.

[There won't be time, sir]

Looking ahead, it was possible to see that the core was still halfway there and the tunnel wouldn't hold for much longer.

The point of light felt desperate for a moment, but managed to calm down after dodging yet another attack from the crimson storm.

'Damn, the tunnel is closing too fast, what does recommend Nexus?' The point of light had run out of ideas, and turned to his faithful friend and companion.

[Sir, there's no going back, the only way is forward anyway. So I recommend that we use our own energy to maintain the tunnel so that we can get through]

'What? No, not that. If we do that, how will we infiltrate the world safely? and how will we protect ourselves afterwards? not to mention that if we do that, the gas mass will be in danger of being consumed by other gas masses, so we'll die together with it.' The point of light rejected the idea immediately.

Using their own energy means that they'll be left weak and with no energy left to maintain themselves or even survive in the next world they go to, after all, what's the point of going through all this trouble only to be exterminated by the entities of the next world?

Not to mention that using its energies will also weaken the defenses of the red gas mass and consequently attract other nearby gas masses that will try to take advantage of the momentary weakness of the red gas mass to expand.

The mass of gas knows this and could stop its attack to protect itself, but unfortunately these masses of gas are not thinking living beings, they are just agglomerations of energy that act on instinct.

[We have no choice, Sir. There's no turning back, we must take the risk]

'And then what? hope that the entities of our next world are peaceful? Or may the masses of gases take pity on our little friend here?' The tunnel began to shrink even more and looked like it was going to collapse at any moment.

[We can go into stealth mode and choose a host at random to disguise ourselves for a while, and as for the other masses of gasses, we can take our time recovering and then we'll protect it when the time comes]

'Damn! We don't have much time... All right! Let's do it.' Then the point of light shone even brighter, if before it was like a light bulb, now it was like a huge LED panel glowing non-stop. The energy he emanated spread through the tunnel and drove the crimson storm outwards as he repaired the tunnel walls back to normal. 

The tunnel this time was much stronger and sturdier, and it didn't seem to break as easily as the previous one. The atmosphere stopped shaking, the mass of gas stopped fighting back for a while, and then the point of light began to dim.

The glow continued to dim until it looked like a mere spark that would go out before it even lit up. 'I hope it was worth it. You take over Nexus, I need to concentrate on recovering my energy.' The point of light made one last comment before falling silent.

[Understood, Sir!]

The point of light then continued on its way towards the core, but this time it was many times slower than before, and seemed to be staggering with every movement.

It took a while, but the point of light finally arrived in front of the core of the gas mass. The core was like a black hole, but instead of absorbing everything around it, it expelled countless waves of crimson energy every second.

It would be difficult to approach him normally, but all that use of energy from the point of light was not in vain, he had established a perfect gap to the core without suffering its repulsion.

[...]

Nexus stopped for a moment and observed his master's state, and judged that he was very focused on recovering his energy and could not be interrupted, so doing some quick calculations he decided to enter the core quickly so that he could help his master as soon as possible.

With a 'Swoosh!' the point of light disappeared.

...

Looking around, all that could be seen was darkness, a void with no roof or floor, no north, south, east or west. It was a space surrounded by boundless darkness.

'What's that? Have we failed Nexus?!' the voice was a little nervous, perhaps even apprehensive of its surroundings. It seemed as if he had returned to the same place he was thrown for the first time.

[No sir, it was a success, but it seems that the tunnel led directly to this location. It must have been the space left by the same person who made the hole in the mass of gas]

'I see... So let's find a way out, we need to get out into the world. Nexus, search the surrounding space for flaws while I- ' Before he could finish, Nexus interrupted him.

[Sir! An entity in the form of energy is approaching us]

'What-' Suddenly a translucent silhouette of a female figure formed quickly, the translucent silhouette began to stabilize and take on a clearer shape.

Finally the female figure came into full view, a beautiful woman with long black hair like the night sky, eyes as bright as the stars and an aura of nobility like no other.

'Nexus, what is this entity? is it one of the forces of this world?' staring at the slender figure of the woman in front of him, it was possible to see that this entity possessed great power and authority.

[Sir, from the way she is acting and her patterns, I speculate that this is the entity that manages this world]

'Damn, how did she detect us? We were in stealth mode.'

*...I've been waiting for you...* An echoing, emotionless female voice suddenly sounded from the translucent figure

,,,

"Fang Yuan, silently hand over the Spring Autumn Cicada and I'll give you a quick death!"

"Old bastard Fang, stop trying to resist any longer, today all the major righteous sects have united just to destroy your demonic lair. This place is already covered in inescapable immortal formations, this time you will surely be beheaded!"

....

On the highest peak of a great mountain, a huge commotion was taking place. Countless immortals gathered to surround a single man, some of these immortals had expressions full of hatred, others of disgust, but what they all had in common were extremely greedy eyes.

Among them, some hurled insults and words referring to justice and revenge. As if to justify that what they were doing was for the greater good of the world, as if they were heroes trying to save the world.

But everyone there knew that it wasn't what they really thought, it was all just empty words with no meaning. After all, who cares if one immortal has killed thousands of mortals, or if the purity of one has been taken away in her fragile moment, who has time to care about that in a world where only the law of force reigns supreme?!

But everyone still had to keep up appearances, because they are from the righteous path. So everyone had a tacit understanding among themselves of elevating their selfish purposes to heroic and altruistic ones.

The man who was surrounded by everyone and being accused of the most varied crimes was simply watching these immortals perform as if they were clowns in a circus; he almost let out a mocking smile when he heard their statements.

His clothes were drenched in blood and almost completely torn, and where those rips were you could see the wounds from all kinds of blows, showing that the battle had been devastating for him.

But surprisingly the blood on his clothes was receding and trying to return to his wounds as if to heal the bruises and cuts. 

But as soon as they got close to the wound, the blood didn't go back into the body, it actually kept circulating around the wound and after a while a darker blood was expelled out of the body.

This was one of the healing methods of the way of blood, it used the user's bloodstream to carry and repel the foreign attack, all the blood that was scattered on the mountain floor was not Fang Yuan's ordinary blood, but blood polluted with the Dao marks that had attacked him.

Fang Yuan looked at his body and realized how difficult it was for him to recover from these wounds; he knew he had no chance of resisting. His immortal essence was already running out, most of his Gu worms were dead, his mental state was at its limit, his soul was tired. 

He knew there was no way out.

But despite all this, his gaze was still calm and composed, his eyes were as deep and calm as the endless East Sea, his posture was still as firm as the mighty mountains of the Southern Border.

Everyone around was looking closely at Fang Yuan's movements, no one wanted to be the next victim of a surprise attack, so everyone just watched as they prepared to act if they had to.

Everyone was cautious, trying to instigate Fang Yuan, some hurled insults or affronts.

But no one really acted.

Time passed like this, with them staring at each other and waiting for an opportunity, and soon the sun fell over the horizon and dusk settled over the mountain.

At this point the spot where Fang Yuan was standing was completely drenched in blood, but it was no longer the dark blood that expelled the strange attacks, this time it was his red blood. His wounds stopped healing over an hour ago and his condition was only getting worse.

Fang Yuan focused his attention on his Blessed Land and inside it, on top of a scarlet mountain, a small green bamboo hut stood out against the background. 

In one of the rooms of this bamboo house, a small Yellow Cicada was resting on top of a small dish-like container. You could even hear the sizzle of her vitality.

Fang Yuan snapped out of it and flashed a rare smile. He suddenly raised his head, startling his enemies, and looked at the setting sun on the horizon.

His memories of his whole life flashed through his mind again, and he let out a sigh. "I failed at the end..."

His mouth said one thing but his eyes said something completely different, his eyes were more determined than before the battle. "If it really works out, then in my next life I'll still be a demon!"

"Be careful!"

"Advance, attack now!"

"Don't let him activate the Cicada!!!"

The immortals who surrounded Fang Yuan were startled to hear his words and tried to act quickly.

But before they could react, a huge bang sounded and Fang Yuan's body exploded.

The little cicada that was in Fang Yuan's Blessed Land woke up and absorbed all the energy provided by the explosion and entered the River of Time as if the space in front of it was translucent.

Swwosh!

But without anyone noticing, a small urge entered the cicada and took possession of it.

...

The waters of the river of time flowed and rippled at every moment, waves rising and falling as they pleased. The river itself flowed without limits. And within this endless mystical space, a small cicada jumped up and started flying upstream.

The waves of the river hit the poor cicada every time, but a small light surrounded the cicada and protected it from any attack the river might throw at it.

[I'm finished, Sir!]

'Finally, it took a lot more work than I previously thought to devour Fang Yuan's will. Now process everything you've devoured and compile it so that I can absorb it later.'

[But there was a little problem, sir]

'We do not have time, now the rest is up to you, Suggar Mommy.' The new will in the cicada spoke to a second will that shared space in the cicada with him.

The will on his side said nothing, but it was possible to see that the cicada's momentum in the river increased and it flew further upstream.

...