Chapter 126: Announcement

Zan no longer heaved, and nor did he feel anymore like vomiting. He still breathed laboriously, as one did when they were pushing their body to the limit, but instead now his breaths were rhythmic and streamlined.

If before he was like a rumbling junkyard truck, producing the sounds of loose bolts and caskets shooting around, then now he resembled the high-pitched revving of a sports car.

Zan of course had no idea what overtook him, although he was inclined to think…that maybe he had a breakthrough in his bodybuilding!?

‘Damn…’

‘I always knew this would happen…!’ Tears of joy shed themselves from his eyes.

He was quite proud of himself at that moment. Although he would be disappointed to find, that he would be unable to replicate the same mystical state ever.

Zan was of the belief that he had pushed himself enough physically and mentally, that he must have broken past a threshold within his body. He thought he had achieved one of those legendary and mythical transformations, which really was only ever mentioned in fantasy…or stories mistaken as such.

And while something as magical as a physical transformation, actually was possible…it would not be unlocked under any sort of mundane training.

Magical and mystical transformations required magical and mystical methods. Sadly Zan did not unlock a higher physical state, but instead something else was happening entirely.

Across the roaring waters and windblown grass, the stranger looked at Zan completely awe-struck. Last time he saw the red-haired boy was only a few seconds ago, when he glanced backwards to see him struggling to even breathe.

But suddenly he was now running side by side them with no problem at all. He even…looked happy to be doing so?

‘He’s smiling! Ar— Are those tears of joy!?’

“Hey hurry the fuck up!”

‘!!!’

The stranger shook himself out of his daze with urgency, and not a moment too soon. The sound of the roaring waters fading away into silence should have given him a sense of ease and relief, but it was instead chillingly terrifying.

He strained each and every muscle had had in his body and hurled the rope over. Obviously, this time he used both of his arms…

“Uuuurgh!”

Once again it flew into the sky with the sun shining right behind it. Oddly enough the sunlight falling into Zan’s eyes did not feel so harsh.

Two hands placed themselves in his vision, reaching for that goal of his, and then grasping it firmly within his hold.

His hands felt the rough yet wet texture, and the rope snapped tight and taut once again. Zan drove his feet hard into the soft dirt and grass, anticipating the weight of the two bodies, and the force of the rushing waters that were slamming into them.

The stranger had already wrapped his arm around Shelly’s unconscious body, while he had looped the rope around his other arm to make sure he wouldn’t let go.

Suddenly, the both of them felt the coarse burn of the rope, and the sudden massive force that came with opposing a great force of nature.

Although Zan had done his best to plant his feet deep into the dirt, he was yanked and driven forward towards the steep end of the cliff. Dirt was shoveled and thrown into the sky, as the floor was left with two long burrowed scars.

At the rate he was going he was also about to fall to his death. And unlike Shelly and the stranger, he for sure would not be landing in water.

Filled with anxiousness the stranger briefly glanced at the impending river’s end, and then back at Zan, who was still being dragged forward.

The red-haired boy grit his teeth, his eyes dancing as he looked for something to halt his momentum.

He looked everywhere. There were a number of trees and a few large stones— none within arms reach but he was nothing if not resourceful. He could figure something out…but then suddenly he didn’t have to.

The flats and heels of his feet, struck and broke something that was finally neither dirt nor grass.

Instead, he looked below him to see a strange overgrowth of tree roots.

The first few that his feet broke were thin and weak, but as the force of the river propelled him towards the steep cliff, the tree roots buried in the dirt became thicker and sturdier.

Now along with grass and dirt, splinters of wood were also shooting into the air.

Zan found himself oddly willing to bet on them stopping his momentum, but just in case, he made a few contingency plans in his head.

To the kind stranger looking at Zan, however, their treacherous situation did not seem to change.

He gripped onto Shelly’s body even tighter. His hold was so tight that he felt the boney ribs of her skinny body.

He kept glancing at Zan and then back at the waterfall, then back at Zan.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Finally his last glance landed on the waterfall, where his expression froze. Eyes opened completely wide and with a heart that skipped a few beats, he saw the water under him disappear.

Then, he felt the safety and solid groundedness of the log disappear too. Gravity pulled them all down, and the sight of everything below, shifted into a delirious blur.

The trees, the rocks, the water— all of it seemed to turn into a vague mix of swimming colors rather than actual, solid objects.

And he could feel— feel himself heading straight into that abstract and nightmarish blur. It was terrifying, knowing you were falling right into…your own deconstruction.

Although he could tell that he was heading towards his death extremely rapidly…it felt like an eternity of oblivion was passing by.

He fell and he fell…when suddenly a hard yank pulled him back into reality.

The nightmarish blur of colors, abruptly shook back into a stable picture. The swimming green turned into a forest of trees, and the bleeding trail of blue turned back into a rushing river.

It seemed his subconscious mind perceived, that he was not going to die after all.

Not too long after however, came the pain. The rope he coiled around his arm had snapped tight once again, and along with it, the sudden and potent force threatened to snap it into an odd angle.

A miserable moan passed through his lips before the air momentarily got stuck in a hiccup.

The rope swayed, as he and the girl he was carrying swung left and right above a hundred meters.

At the bottom of the waterfall, a bird perched upon a tree, looked up at both of them curiously. From afar the two were just smudges along the majestic waterfall, and their life-threatening ordeal added to a sense of pleasant tranquility to the bird.

Zooming in, a few tears fell out of the stranger’s eyes.

The tears were the result of both pain, but also because of relief. Although the pain was quite miserable, as he looked at the solid reality below him he was nothing short of glad.

The first thing that his eyes came into focus, was the rapidly descending log that they rode on.

Whilst it continued to fall, the stranger thanked Zan in his head for saving them from the same fate.

He watched it with an odd sense of curiosity, knowing that it could have been him following it shortly after. He half expected the wooden log to fall forever, just like he felt he would have, but suddenly…it snapped in half.

It didn't even reach the bottom yet so what happened?

Reaching his ears, was the sound of a thunderous collision. Wood dust and rustled leaves flew all over, but the wind blew in the next moment to reveal exactly what it was that the large log collided with.

What the stranger saw, were a sprawl of gigantic tree roots protruding from out of the now vertical flow of water.

They were massive. Some were the size of whole houses, while the smaller ones almost resembled miniature trees. The roots were just as fantastical as the towering goliath they came from.

Beneath the majestic tree roots however, was certain death.

The stranger watched as the split log finally descended towards the bottom of the waterfall, where the large pieces of wood then exploded.

While the water pooled enough for the river to begin again, massive jagged rocks poked out from above the water’s surface.

Of course, even if they landed in water the sheer impact would have shattered all of their bones.

Seeing what could be their fate, the stranger gulped nervously, and turned his head away to above him rather than what awaited below.

There, a red-haired boy stood at the very edge of the steep cliff. In his hands was the literal thread that hung on to their lives, but on his legs and feet was a similar sprawl of smaller tree roots. In the end, they did stop the three’s overall momentum, and conversely saved their lives.

“Th— Thank you!”

“Save your goddamned breath!”

The stranger’s face flushed red again, and Zan’s did too but for another reason.

The red-haired boy grunted, straining himself to pull two bodies up a vertical incline.

‘I CAN DO IT! I CAN DO IT! I CAN FUCKING DO IT!’ Zan yelled in his head.

And in the very next moment, the stranger felt himself being slowly hauled upwards.

Their ascent would start then stop, then start again. Zan heaved them up in a steady and sturdy cadence, as he lugged the rope over arm by arm.

Zan glanced at the stranger.

Despite being yelled at, the bald kid could not help but show an expression of thankfulness and gratitude, and Zan met it with a smug smile of his own.

If facial expressions could talk, Zan’s would say something along the lines of: “Don’t you see my mighty strength? Witness me motherfuckers!”

But then, his focus shifted back to Shelly.

She was unconscious, so obviously she could not meet him with any sort of gaze.

But…he was free to glare at her. And the emotions that rose within him like waves, were directly opposite of the powers running through him.

Although he decided to save the pitiful stranger, she, on the other hand, was still only a byproduct.

If the bald kid couldn’t manage to fetch her, Zan himself wouldn’t make any effort to do so.

Even after pushing her into the river, he had not felt a shred of remorse.

Guilt? What reason would he have for feeling guilty?

Up to this point he still wished her misfortune and misery. Afterall, Zan felt justified in his hatred and scorn. To him, it was only right to inflict suffering towards those who would bring it upon you.

Zan continued to pull them both up, but the longer he looked at her, the more that hatred he passionately held onto, festered…

Then, without warning the stranger suddenly felt his surroundings drop.

He gasped in fright, feeling the deathly pull of gravity, but luckily soon after the rope holding both of them whipped stiff and rigid again.

Both the pair’s bodies bounced from the momentum, and the stranger panicked momentarily as Shelly’s unconscious body started to slip from his clutch.

Frantically he adjusted and tightened his grip— coming way too close to actually dropping her.

He breathed a sigh of relief— too many now to really count, and in the next moment he turned his head upwards.

There he saw Zan’s face flushed totally red, his teeth were bared in the same way as an animal’s were when they were tense.

He…was frustrated, but more than that…he was struggling.

Gritting his teeth, Zan managed to grindout some words, “Wh– What the fuck?”

Only a few seconds ago he had the awesome strength to raise them both up.

Now, he was struggling to even hold on to their weight. His legs strained to keep themselves buried in the ground. His arms and his back muscles trembled, now trying their best to keep Zan from falling down with them instead.

Their combined weight surpassed Zan’s, and there was the awkward angle, position, and leverage of the trio to consider.

None of it would have been a problem though, if the power strengthening Zan was not dispersing…

‘Fuck! If only that stupid bitch didn’t add to the fucking weight!’ He thought to himself…

…And not too soon after, Shelly’s body twitched.

The stranger felt her body move, and turned his head.

‘Is she awake?’

He tried to get a look at her expression, but she was facing away from him towards the ground. Her long hair, also covering her face.

“Umm…he– hey are you okay?”

…An uneasy silence filled the air, only interrupted by the scratching friction made when the rope almost fully slipped from Zan’s hands.

“…Fuck!”

Another short and sudden drop affected the two, before Zan caught the rope again. His hands burned from the friction.

Feeling the quick and sudden drop, the stranger panickingly held on even tighter.

Although it was not to the extent that Zan was feeling, both his arms ached too. They were tensed the whole time he had to hold onto the unconscious girl at his hip, and the hanging thread above him. With his below average fitness, the only reason his muscles had not given up yet was because of the resonant light within his heart.

Dangling by a thread, the rope began to swing them again, left and right. He waited patiently and anxiously for it to settle still, and just when it was about to lull…Shelly's unconscious body convulsed.

Once again the two were like an unsteady pendulum set into nervous motion.

But dangling left and right just below three-hundred feet…the girl’s body convulsed once again.

Her chest unnaturally rose and fell. Her body started to twitch over and over, before starting to spasm.

If any of the two boys were in the position to observe her closely, they would find that the source of it came from her chest.

More accurately…from the darkwater that was still inside her lungs.

Zan’s arms began to tremble out of control, while the stranger struggled to keep his grip on her. It felt strangely like an animal trying to break out of its cage.

The convulsions and spasms only became more and more violent before…the girl’s body suddenly just stopped all motion.

“The hell are you two doing down there!?” A voice from above shouted.

Stuttering, the stranger tried to reply, “I— I don’t—“

Before he could utter a response, a massive force erupted from his side. Shelly’s body broke violently out of his grip, and like a thrown toy doll she flew whistling down below.