The meantime, he began to examine himself.
"I really feel like this is the first time I've ever been tired... it feels strange. There's also the fact that I survived that fall, almost unscathed. Hmm... I really don't understand why Nora is so obsessed with being around a monster like me. Haah... well, she's the weird one.... Whatever. There's also that feeling I had before the eagle caught me. Is it something like a sixth sense?'
Cassian was discovering more of what his body could do, including that tingling sensation at the back of his neck that seemed like some kind of special sense... like a certain man who has spider powers.
He didn't know he had it. Maybe because he had never been in real danger. Although if he had to say, he didn't feel that the eagle was that dangerous when he took care of it.
And he didn't feel anything with the rhino-elephants, which seemed stronger.
Maybe it was the height factor... or something else. He still didn't understand it, but it was definitely something he felt and experienced; his body was an anomaly, outside the norm.
hmmm it's also a good thing that all that blood disappears in particles.
"!!!!"
At that moment, just when he thought that at least it was good not to be bathed in beast blood, he felt it again. Once again, everything seemed to slow down. He reacted instantly.
His body instinctively told him to jump, to get out of where he was. And he did so immediately, as a reflex.
"Damn it, what is it now?!"
He looked at the place where he had been just moments ago... and the rhino-elephant body had completely disappeared.
It wasn't because it had died and turned into particles—that was a gradual process. It was something else.
"Huh...? Another crack? Black?"
the possible cause of the warning. It looked like another crack.
There was no cracking sound like with the previous gray one. This crack simply appeared, beneath him and the rhino-elephant.
Furthermore, it was pitch black. It didn't reflect a single ray of light; it simply looked like a black stain, like the bottomless mouth of a great beast. And that... gave him a very bad feeling.
He didn't know what would come out of it, but the warning sounded intense and told him that this time, he could really die. He prepared himself for whatever came out.
The beasts, even the elephant-rhinos and the snakes in the distance, stopped dead in their tracks at the appearance of the portal.
They froze, as if sensing the presence of a superior predator.
That only increased Cassian's bad feeling.
He began to back away. He needed room.
"!!!"
And at that moment, he felt the danger again and leaped forward. As he did so, he felt a small suction force behind him, but luckily he managed to escape.
"Huh?!"
When he looked at what caused the warning, he saw again the black portal that had appeared out of nowhere just behind where he had been a moment ago.
He looked where the other one had been... and, indeed, it was gone. It seemed to be the same, but the strange thing was that he never lost sight of it... until he himself moved abruptly..
That could only mean that the crack had shifted instantly, and yet he could feel it before it did.
But the most important thing for Cassian in that situation was that the thing moved with the clear intention of sucking him in, just as it had done with the rhino-elephant.
One after another... Seriously, they don't stop.
Cassian was mentally exhausted. Since he woke up, unexplained events had been happening one after another, and there were no answers from anyone or anything.
He was really losing his patience.
"Ugh! So you're going to keep...?"
It moved quickly again, and a few moments later, the same portal appeared where he was.
Cassian didn't understand, but the third time was no coincidence. It was definitely coming for him.
After that, he dodged it once, twice, three times... many times.
In the midst of all that, some beasts were sucked in instead.
He realized that, rather than something coming out, that thing's target was definitely just him.
Cassian thought that thing really wouldn't stop until it caught him. His instincts told him so, clearer than ever.
Should I let myself be sucked in?
Finally, he asked himself that question. It didn't seem like that thing would give up, and he didn't want to spend his whole life running away from that unknown black crack.
Besides, if he thought about what he had felt in detail... besides the danger, there was a strange feeling of anticipation, and he still felt it even now.
Cassian didn't understand his own body, but that was how he could describe it: danger that could kill him... and at the same time, a deep desire to enter. It was contradictory, but real.
Damn it... whatever. I don't care. Maybe whatever's in there will kill me and send me to my isekai.
He really didn't want to keep dodging. Anyway, he had already fulfilled his purpose. It didn't matter what happened to him now.
He stopped dodging and just stood still.
The next moment, the black stain appeared behind him with a powerful pulling force—one that Cassian didn't resist.
As for what he thought... he knew that the only thing he would probably find were beasts. And even if he died, since he wasn't Truck-kun, he couldn't be transported to another world.
But, since it seemed inevitable, he decided to let whatever had to happen happen.
..
.
"...Ugh!... Did I faint?"
Cassian got up confused, with a slight headache. It seemed like a peculiar sensation to him; for starters, it was the first time he had ever fainted.
Although... headaches had been a common occurrence since he met Nora.
"Where am I...?"
He remembered everything, and he definitely lost consciousness when he crossed the portal. He looked around and found himself in a strange space.
He thought he would be surrounded by powerful creatures or something dangerous when he crossed over, but there was nothing.
He could see the surroundings clearly and realized that the sky was made of rock. It looked like some kind of underground cave.
The source of the light came from several blue crystals—or something similar—that emitted it softly, along with golden moss, which also seemed to glow on its own, scattered all over the walls.
He understood that he was, somehow, underground. But as far as he could remember, there were no such crystals or luminescent mosses in his world... or were there? Well, Cassian was no expert, so he stopped thinking about it too much.
His day was really getting stranger, but this was no time to be flustered. There was no one to explain what was happening, so he would have to figure it out himself.
He stood up and looked around. In addition to the aforementioned, there was a dimly lit hole: what appeared to be the exit from that space.
And not only that: as he focused his other senses, mainly his hearing, he picked up something else.
"Do...lk aw... fr... me..."
Cassian heard voices coming from the direction of the exit.
"...h... lit... dov..."
"Ha."
There seemed to be more than one person. That made him change his focus. Perhaps someone there might have some answers about what was happening or what kind of place this was. So, immediately, Cassian headed in that direction.
He moved quickly and entered what looked like a corridor. There were no light sources like crystals, only moss, which seemed to show him a kind of guide in that dark hallway.
But even without them, he could see relatively well, as his eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness.
As he moved forward, he again saw what looked like another, more intense light source. He thought that maybe it was the exit, and the voices were getting clearer and clearer.
"Hahaha! This little dove... her attacks are just tickling."
"On top of being crippled, she's weak. Hey, why don't we put her out of her misery?"
"Why are you doing this?!... I didn't do anything to you!"
"Why do you ask? Because you're a dove. That's why."
The problem was that, upon hearing this, Cassian got an idea of the situation... and he didn't like it at all.
When he arrived, what Cassian found was not an exit, but a space similar to the previous one, but larger, lit in the same way by crystals. One in particular, quite large, hung from the center of the ceiling.
"..." Cosplay?
There were six people, and the reason he thought that, despite what was happening, was because they all looked like they were in costume.
In one corner of the room were a man and a woman dressed in clothes typical of martial artists from ancient times in the Eastern part of his continent.
They weren't used much nowadays, but they were very common in martial arts novels. So he immediately associated them with that.
As for the rest, although he couldn't see them clearly—since they had their backs to him—if he wasn't mistaken, they seemed to be wearing demon costumes.
He could see wings, horns, and tails sticking out from their backs. And beyond those three, they seemed to be cornering someone.
He couldn't see the victim properly because the three were blocking his view, but for a moment he thought he saw what looked like a white wing. And from the voice... it was definitely a woman.
It looked like she was in a bad situation. Cassian thought about helping her. It wasn't that he had a hero complex or anything like that.
In fact, earlier, when the whole disaster happened, he ignored what was happening to the rest of the people because he couldn't help them.
He had his priorities. At that moment, all he could think about was getting Nora to safety.
But now it was different.
In fact, if he could help—and it didn't cost him much—there was no reason not to.
But the problem was that...