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Snapped

The pentagon-shaped room gradually developed an air of panic as the workers tried everything they could to address the error of that anomaly.

People were surrounding the ordinary-looking worker who operated the region, offering solutions for that worker to try. But to no avail, none of the methods seemed to have worked.

The worker had lost connection with that anomaly but the energy and the links were still present. Furthermore, energy is still being transferred despite the repeated attempts to shut off the transfer of energy from the other anomalies.

To make matters worse, the worker was now receiving warnings of link instability and energy overload. This situation happens when there is too much energy in a link which causes it to become unstable.

"This isn't good! It's going to snap!" The worker's face was sweaty from the overwhelming pressure as he typed away for solutions.

If a link becomes too overloaded, it will 'snap' from the anomaly, coiling up and causing a rebound effect where the energy is instead redirected in the opposite direction.

This kind of situation is something they are trained for despite the extreme rarity of it happening. The only other way of this happening is if an anomaly linked up is destroyed such as the one a few weeks ago.

However, there is not solution but to simply prepare for a backlash since they happen so fast.

At the thought of a backlash, the worker's face turned pale from despair.

He knew the consequences.

Standard procedure involves being fired and returning to society after their memories have been cleaned.

...

As George stood by the blood-red lakeside shore, he coldly watched the outside realm barrier.

The energy ripples had become so intense that the air itself was beginning to compress, creating random brilliant flashes of explosion as air molecules fused with each other like in a fusion reactor.

Like a constant explosion going off, this naturally creates a huge ruckus detectable by satellites.

The 'links' themselves which are within those ripples were shaking in every direction at rapid intervals like a rope flapping in the wind. George knows nothing about them but he could tell that the link is rapidly growing unstable.

Despite the growing energy densities, the realm barrier rippled at a steady pace that did not grow for some unknown reason.

"George?! Is that you George~?!"

The sounds of someone calling for him caused George's ear to twitch. However, he did not look back despite recognizing the voice.

"There you are George! Are you okay?"

Everyone in the party had arrived, or well, Amanda and Bernice were carrying them.

Bernice's face was pale with exhaustion from running with someone on her back.

Amanda was perfectly fine and in good condition.

Seeing George's back by the lakeside, she felt a deep fear and respect well up in her heart.

Her vision is excellent due to her rank and skills, so naturally she witnessed the expansion of the ring before the appearance of the orb. This was the first time encountering such a powerful human who could control a dimension of their own.

The government, military, and the rank SSS adventurers do not possess such an item or ability.

...

Contrary to fantasy novels/movies, the fabric of spacetime can be infinitely stretched without being torn which even black holes cannot accomplish. Merely bending space itself requires a tremendous amount of energy/mass.

Concepts such a 'dimensional rifts' and 'dimensional tears' are purely fictional since they make no sense. A 'tear' in reality would likely destroy the entire universe according to science.

Concepts such as 'dimensional pockets' and 'dimensional rings' in fiction that manipulate space somehow to create more space are possible but would require more mass/energy than gas giant planets. As such, thinking they exist is absurd even when talking about magus.

The Diabolus realm is the exception because the realm has connected to Vita through wormhole-like gates across the realm. Those are based on science and are theoretically possible despite the many issues they come with since it merely involves manipulating space.

That is the reason there is a military base in the deepest part of the Northern Mountain Range outside of keeping away the demons. The place is heavily funded by researchers and scientists who wish to understand the principles behind the sealed wormhole-gate.

..

"George?" Bernice concerningly called out to him again after approaching a few feet away.

"Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts. It's good to see you are okay."

George slowly turned around to face them.

Bernice gasped in shock at his appearance and put her hand up to her mouth with her free hand.

His silky shoulder-length hair and full-beard were messy and dirty.

His face and hands looked overwhelmingly frail.

The bones on his face and hands looked as if they had no meat and just skin attached to bone. If the heavy clothes were not hiding most of his body, he would likely appear like a walking stick.

His visible skin also appeared rough and wrinkly, having lost its elasticity as if he had aged.

Of course, this is actually because the fat beneath has disappeared loosening the skin.

Even so, this would be an alarming situation to anyone because it would mean he is severely underweight and at risk of starvation.

Bernice gently put down Emma and walked in front of him with a concerned expression. She gently reached up to feel his rough wrinkly face which caused George to frown slightly. She stared into his eyes and asked softly:

"George, are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm fine. Some stuff happened." George felt a little uncomfortable at the moment.

Amanda looked at Bernice with a strange expression seeing how uncomfortable George looked. She thought they were in a relationship for a brief second before George's expression told her otherwise.

'Why is she feeling up his face like that? Is she that concerned?'

Amanda felt the atmosphere switching to an awkward area.

She loudly coughed to gain their attention.

"I protected Bernice and her party members like you asked, Sir- I mean George."

"Oh, thank you for that." George gently removed Bernice's hands from his face.

"So what happened to the giant flaming ape?"

"Oh yeah, what happened? Where did that ape come from? Why are we in this demonic realm? I'm so confused!" Bernice's eyes lit up as she asked a barrage of questions, forgetting the awkward face feeling she had just done.

"It was absorbed by the trees here after it lost its connections to the link." George only said this one sentence before going silent.

Out of nowhere, the ground shook slightly as George looked outside the realm again.

One of the links snapped with an explosive force like a whip as it slapped the realm barrier, actually causing it to tremble for the first time.

The link, having snapped, rebounded by coiling up on itself with the energy before disappearing into the sky.

The other link snapped with explosive energy and recoiled upon itself as well, followed the third final link. After they snapped, the outside world finally began to calm down.

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Notes:

* I did not mention this in the previous chapters, but there is only three 'links' to this anomaly.

Sorry for the stale chapter today. I'm suffering from a bad case of eye strain that has plagued me ever since I returned home. My mood has been kind of low due to homework as well.

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This should pass with time and I'll be better again.

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