Tension and Nonchalance
The greatsword "Thousand Peaks" hovered at the edge of the storm. Ahead lay the churning Sea of Chaos and the roaring storm wall; farther beyond was that bizarre, fractured realm filled with shattered spacetime and violent energies—the forbidden domain known as **Starfall Land**.
Kayla stood on the cold, dark-gold blade spine of the giant sword, her beast-like pupils fixed intently on the nightmarish scene. Twisted floating islands, kaleidoscopic spatial rifts, frozen battlefield afterimages… every inch radiated lethal menace. She gripped her Thunder Claw tightly, knuckles white from the force, veins faintly visible beneath the tough, fine-scaled back of her hand.
"Father…" she murmured, her voice shredded by the howling gale, leaving only a barely audible tremor, "Are you really… in a hellhole like this?"
The rough amulet symbolizing beastkin honor was clenched so hard in her palm that the cold metal dug painfully into her skin. The retired general of the **Blazing Claw Empire**—her father—had entered this absolute death zone ten years ago with a Star Fragment and six of his most trusted subordinates, and had never been heard from since. Now, finally standing at the rumored threshold of **Starfall Land**, instead of the anticipated excitement, her heart carried only a heavy dread and confusion. Was this cursed place—where even the stars had fallen and time itself twisted—truly somewhere a flesh-and-blood being could set foot in and survive? What exactly had happened to her father back then?
A cool yet steady hand gently rested on her tense arm. Fa had somehow appeared beside her without a sound. The star-like pupil of her right eye reflected the chaotic spatial turbulence ahead, deep and calm.
"Kayla," Fa's voice wasn't loud, yet it cut clearly through the thunderous roar, carrying a strange soothing power, "Look at that shattered spacetime. Feel the violent energy within. They scream, struggle, destroy everything… but look closely." She pointed to a fragment of an island stubbornly floating at the edge of a spatial rift, covered in clusters of purple crystals. "Even in the most chaotic core, some fragments can still hold their shape and find a sliver of balance amid the storm of destruction."
Her gaze shifted to Kayla, the light in her star-like eyes gentle yet resolute: "Your father—the 'Thunder Claw General' of the Blazing Claw Empire—was able to venture deep into this place carrying a Star Fragment. His strength, wisdom, and will were far beyond ordinary people. He dominated battlefields in the Empire, uncovered the conspiracy of **Doomsday Rebirth** after retirement, and resolutely stepped into this forbidden zone feared by all… He himself is a thunderous behemoth capable of standing proudly in a storm of annihilation! The terror of **Starfall Land** may devour countless weaklings, but it could never easily erase someone like him!"
Fa paused, her tone growing even firmer, carrying an unquestionable force: "Believe in him! Just as we believe in each other to reach this point! He must still be somewhere in here, waiting for the truth, waiting for us! This cursed land cannot trap him. One of the purposes of our journey is to bring him home!" She squeezed Kayla's arm firmly, conveying silent support.
Kayla's rigid body slightly relaxed. The confusion in her beast pupils was replaced by a rekindled flame. She took a deep breath of the air mixed with the aura of destruction from **Starfall Land**, nodded heavily, and let out a low, beast-warrior growl from her throat: "You're right, Fa! My old man isn't someone who goes down that easily! Let's go! Even if I have to flip this damn place upside down, this lady is going to find him!"
Rhea Medusa's lazy voice drifted down from the sword's tip: "Done with the family reunion? Then hurry up and get down here, little ones. 'Thousand Peaks' is making too much noise. Fly any farther and you'll wake up those 'big guys' who are sleeping. I really don't want to fight the whole way in." She waved casually, and the tri-colored energy shield enveloping the group slowly dissipated.
No one hesitated any longer. They took a deep breath and leaped down from the edge of the greatsword, landing on a relatively stable floating giant black metallic rock below. The greatsword "Thousand Peaks" emitted a low hum; its dark-gold light flowed as it rapidly shrank back into a pendant, hanging once more around Rhea Medusa's neck.
The moment their feet touched this legendary forbidden land, an indescribable sense of chaos wrapped around everyone like icy seawater. The air was thick with violent stellar energy—no longer gentle and pure, but filled with factors of ruin, sorrow, and madness—seeping into pores and stinging nerve endings. The energy here was like tens of thousands of venomous snakes tearing at each other—chaotic and aggressively hostile.
The scene before their eyes pushed the limits of perception. The ground beneath was not continuous land, but countless shattered islands suspended in chaotic currents. Their materials were bizarre: some like melted and re-solidified dark-gold boulders flowing with metallic sheen; others flowed with crimson lava, radiating terrifying heat that distorted the air; not far away, a massive iceberg covered in pale frost and exhaling bone-chilling cold hovered in stark, eerie contrast to the lava island; Further away, a landmass covered with enormous crystal clusters emitting an eerie purple light casts a mesmerizing shadow.
Between the islands lay deadly "gaps"—not mere emptiness, but visible, multicolored spatial rifts! These rifts were like living wounds, constantly twisting, opening, closing, writhing. Some spat scorching particle storms that vaporized passing debris instantly; others poured out soul-freezing deep-blue cold tides that crystallized the air into ice flakes; still others radiated dizzying mental corruption ripples, or pure light-devouring darkness. Even stranger was the distortion of time: to their left, a waterfall's flow was frozen mid-air like a gigantic crystal sculpture; ahead-right, one area played out like fast-forward footage, lightning visibly generating and extinguishing in rapid cycles; and at the boundary between the lava island and the iceberg, a hazy, mirage-like ancient battlefield phantom flickered in and out—giants clad in strange stellar armor wielding light spears clashed silently with octopus-like star-behemoths bearing bony wings, their mute roars seeming to pierce through time and shake everyone's souls!
"This place… how is it so bizarre…" Yuyuer clutched her trembling crystal orb tightly. The blue light struggled to penetrate the chaotic energy field, illuminating her extremely grave expression. "Shattered space, disordered time, berserk energy… every step could be fatal."
Kayla's sharp beast pupils swept across the chaotic absolute domain, nostrils flaring slightly as if catching something in the air. Her heart pounded uncontrollably, a deep bloodline resonance mixing with thick worry.
"Everyone stay close, eyes sharp, move fast." Rhea Medusa's voice came, carrying her usual laziness but unusually laced with a hint of warning. The group followed closely behind, nerves stretched to the limit. Arya's perception magic spread out like a spider web, vigilant for any energy fluctuation; Rex's electronic eyes scanned at high speed, marking safe landing points and energy traps; Lin Ya's animated roots stood ready to catch any companion who slipped; Celestia's six wings were slightly spread, poised for explosive high-speed rescue at any moment. They kept Rhea Medusa's warning firmly in mind—never casually glance around, never touch anything that looked unusual, whether it was the alluringly glowing purple crystal clusters or the massive, artistic-looking skeletal remains frozen mid-air.
By contrast, Rhea Medusa strolled forward as if taking a walk in her own backyard, completely ignoring the deadly spatial rifts and energy turbulence around her. What made everyone's eyelids twitch even more was that she occasionally reached out to poke the edges of particle-storm-spewing rifts or flicked the tip of a huge, glowing purple thorn-like spike extending from a purple crystal island. When touched, the spike's tip flared with dangerous purple light and emitted a faint "zzt-zzt" sound.
"Hm… these 'Void Thorns' are a bit harder than before, and their energy corrosiveness has increased. Interesting." Rhea Medusa commented, as if appraising a piece of craftsmanship, utterly unconcerned with the tense stares behind her. She even bent down to pick up a faintly blue-glowing strange ore with what looked like a nebula swirling inside, weighing it in her hand. "Oh, star-marrow ore? Decent quality, but too many impurities. Last time I passed through the Shattered Star Plains, the star-marrow there was truly pure—a fist-sized piece could drive dwarven smiths crazy for years." She casually tossed the extremely valuable ore backward; TISK caught it in a frantic scramble, feeling the violent yet refined stellar-metallic power within, his beard trembling with excitement.
"Lady Rhea Medusa… is it really okay to touch things so casually like that?" Lin Ya couldn't help asking, watching as Rhea Medusa reached toward another slowly rotating, mentally disturbing ripple-emitting vortex-like spatial rift.
"What could possibly go wrong?" Without turning her head, Rhea Medusa's fingertip had already probed into the edge of the vortex and stirred it a few times. The vortex's fluctuations instantly intensified, emitting a low hum; several invisible mental shockwaves spread outward, causing everyone except Fa and Rhea Medusa to feel a slight dizziness. "This level of 'mental rift' might drive ordinary people insane, but for people at our level, it's about as threatening as a mosquito buzz." She withdrew her hand and shook it casually. "You lot, just keep your hands and curiosity in check. A lot of pretty-looking things here will kill you the moment you touch them."
Everyone was speechless and could only follow her steps even more cautiously, avoiding the rolling energy turbulence and twisted spatial folds. They traversed between the bizarrely colorful islands, leaping across relatively stable black crystalline rocks. The sights along the way were breathtaking and bone-chilling: in mid-air spatial fragments sealed like huge amber, half of an ancient starship wreck of a style unlike anything modern remained, its armor covered in ferocious claw marks; in another fragment, the skull of a star-behemoth resembling a dragon but with a head covered in bone spikes and compound eyes stared emptily at the intruders; above a drifting crimson lava lake bloomed strange "lotuses" burning with golden flames, radiating alluring yet deadly pure fire-energy fluctuations.
Mysterious Gaze and Mockery
Yet the first half of the journey was eerily "smooth"—so smooth it felt wrong.
Along the way, aside from the environment's inherent lethal threats, none of the anticipated guardian behemoths or frenzied monsters appeared—not even a shadow. This unnatural calm only made the atmosphere more oppressive.
"Strange…" Celestia's six wings spread slightly, her wind-thunder perception sweeping the surroundings like radar, ice-blue eyes filled with vigilance. "It's too quiet. I can feel… something watching us… a lot… so many!" Her psychic sense crashed against an invisible wall of malice, receiving only cold, greedy surveillance in return.
"Yeah, definitely," Arya said. Her emerald eyes scanned the dark gaps in the crystal clusters and the shadows of twisted space; the keen senses of a light-dark elf made her skin prickle. "It's like thousands of eyes are hidden in the darkness… observing, waiting… Why aren't they attacking?"
Rex's electronic eyes scanned rapidly, low-frequency alarms sounding inside his armor: "Detecting high-density, high-intensity life signals… distributed within a three-kilometer radius… quantity… impossible to accurately count! Energy signatures… multi-attribute mix… threat level assessment… high! But… activity state extremely dormant… logical contradiction!"
An invisible pressure enveloped the team. Being surrounded and spied on by so many unknown, hostile entities—yet with no attack forthcoming—was more suffocating than facing enemies head-on. Even the most reckless Kayla restrained her aura, the electric arcs on her Thunder Claw suppressed and flickering.
Medusa, however, remained utterly bored and uninterested. She even yawned, her amber eyes filled with disappointment: "Tsk, what's going on? Have all these cowards died out after decades? Or have they been scared out of their wits by something?" She kicked aside a piece of ore that was blocking her way and flickering with unstable electric sparks. The ore rolled into a spatial rift and was instantly pulverized. "Back in the day, at least a few brainless 'Star-Devouring Juveniles' or 'Void Predators' would've rushed out to attack. Weak, sure, but at least good for warming up. Now? They've all learned to be turtles. So boring!"
She stopped, hands on hips, surveying the colorful yet terrifyingly dead-silent shattered land, her face screaming "I'm very annoyed." Seeing her like this, the taut string in everyone's hearts loosened slightly—with this big shot around, those skulking things really didn't seem that threatening. Fa even caught a flash of "finally hugging a thigh" relief in TISK's eyes.
Provocation Roar
Just as the group smoothly passed the first half and continued into the mid-section—
Rhea Medusa suddenly pursed her lips, hands on hips, threw her head back, took a deep breath as if drawing in all the surrounding chaotic energy, then unleashed a roar filled with boundless power and absolute provocation. It exploded like thunder, drowning out the eternal storm's howl and violently shaking even the nearby spatial rifts:
"GET — OUT — HERE — !!!"
"You bunch of sewer-hiding idiots, trash, spineless maggots!!"
"Just drooling at the smell of strangers? Not even the guts to show your faces?!"
"Haven't been here for decades and you've already forgotten how to hunt?! Or did some passerby scare you so bad you pissed your pants and can only tremble in your dens?!"
"Get out here! Let me see just how pathetic the 'trash-smashers' of **Starfall Land** have become!!"
The ferocious sound wave, carrying Rhea Medusa's mountain-heavy, blade-sharp, volcano-explosive, lightning-swift terrifying presence, slammed outward like a tangible shockwave! Visible dark-gold sonic ripples spread in all directions—wherever they passed, small spatial rifts were forcibly shaken closed, floating dust was instantly cleared, and even the churning energy turbulence was briefly suppressed and calmed!
Rhea Medusa's roar was like a spark thrown into boiling oil, instantly detonating this long-oppressed, deathly silent absolute domain!
BOOM——!
The black crystalline rock beneath their feet shook violently! The seemingly dormant islands, crystal clusters, and lava zones around them erupted like awakened beehives—countless sharp, hoarse, violence-filled roars and shrieks!
"ROAR——!"
"HISS-GA——!"
"ZZZ-ZZZ——!"
"WUUUU——!"
Accompanied by hair-raising sounds, countless grotesquely shaped monsters poured out from their hiding places!
From the lava zone: dozens of giant pangolin-like "Molten Burrow Beasts" whose back armor was formed of cooled lava with crimson magma flowing through the cracks burst from the ground, their claws tearing up streams of scorching lava. At the same time, hundreds of fist-sized "Netherflame Firebats" with bodies burning blue-white flames and wings of pure fire element rose like a fire cloud from the magma lake, emitting piercing shrieks!
From the purple crystal forest: behind massive purple crystal pillars surged dozens of calf-sized "Crystal-Armored Venom Scorpions" with shells gleaming dark blue, drill-like mouthparts, tails raised high and dripping highly corrosive purple venom. In the air danced hundreds of palm-sized, translucent jellyfish-like "Void Electric Jellyfish" with cores pulsing purple lightning, drifting unpredictably and emitting strong mental interference waves.
From the pale iceberg zone: ice cracked open as over ten three-meter-tall "Frost Construct Golems" built of solid ice with dark blue cores embedded in joints lumbered out, their heavy steps cracking the ice. In the iceberg's shadows lurked dozens of pure-white "Polar Ice Pythons" nearly blending into the environment, flicking icy tongues, snake pupils locked on the intruders.
From the twisted space zones: several spatial folds violently fluctuated as hundreds of shadow-flowing, formless "Shadow-Realm Hounds" that shifted between wolf shapes and dispersing smoke silently surged out, dimming the surrounding light by their very existence. At the same time, floating debris lit up with countless disembodied, malice-made "Void Gazers" eyes!
In an instant, lava danced with ice, poison mist intertwined with electric light, shadow coexisted with solidity! Thousands of mid-tier monsters of various attributes, brimming with aggression, swarmed from all directions toward the team's position! Their target was clear—filled with rage at being disturbed and bloodlust ignited by Rhea Medusa's taunt!
"Ha? That's it?" She exaggeratedly dug in her ear, face full of disdain. "Waited all this time just for this bunch of ugly freaks? Not even enough to pick my teeth! Too weak, too weak! Total waste of my emotions!" She waved impatiently like swatting flies at Fa and the others standing ready behind her: "Hey, you sandbags over there! Stop standing around like idiots! This appetizer is all yours to practice on! Deal with them quick, don't waste time! And make it look good—don't let this trash dirty my eyes!"
With that, she actually stepped back a few paces, found a relatively flat black boulder, sat down casually, pulled a metal flask from her waist, took a leisurely swig, and settled in to watch the show!
Fa, Arya, Kayla, TISK, Celestia, Zhamisi, Lin Ya, Yuyuer, Rex, Salsa: "..."
Everyone was dumbfounded! It felt like ten thousand thunderbolts were galloping through their minds! This ancestor! Where did the promised bodyguard go? In the blink of an eye she turned into the one who pulled aggro and then sat back to spectate?! And she even complained the enemies were too weak?! These were thousands of ferocious, multi-attribute mid-tier **Starfall Land** monsters!
"Damn it! This lunatic!" Kayla was the first to curse, the dark blue electric arcs on her Thunder Claw instantly surging with crackling explosions! Her beast pupils burned with humiliated fury and battle intent.
"…Prepare for combat!" Fa took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the absurdity in her heart. Her star-like eyes locked onto the enemies rushing from all sides as her calm voice rang across the comms channel: "Stick to the planned tactics! End it quickly! Don't let Rhea Medusa look down on us!"
Fa's command was resounding and firm, instantly pulling everyone's attention from Rhea Medusa's outrageous behavior back to the overwhelming monster horde before them. Though shocked by Rhea Medusa's "unreliable" antics, the long-built rapport and trust allowed them to remain calm and efficient even in the most chaotic moment.