Chapter 1292 Closing In On The Peak Author's Note: Unedited Chapter ----------------------- "Yes Orimon, we can use it now," In the next instant, their transparent skins emitted a dark blue glow as weird markings appeared on their skins. "Feather flutter!" A burst of wind bursted forth from their figures as the Xionsis charged forward. Fwwhiii~ It was like their figures had become as light as wind as they sped across the surface of the monolith. Their figures traveled across its smooth surface with ease as they crossed a very long distance in a few seconds. The other participants in the vicinity had shocked looks as the Xionsis disappeared from view in just a couple of moments. They were now unhindered by the manner in which the monolith was structured while the others had to head for the pathways. Gustav and the others had arrived at the bridge between the fourth and fifth layer at this moment. They once more found themselves walking through a golden path that led to a glowing doorway and a darkened cave like opening. "Aildris you're up," Gustav voiced as they reached this area. "Eh? Aildris? Wouldn't it be better to send someone else?" Matilda questioned from the side. "No, it has to be Aildris this time. He's the only one i trust that is capable of taking care of it," Gustav said with a cryptic tone. Aildris didn't question Gustav's decision and began walking towards the dimly lit cave like entrance. "I have no doubt that some groups will get stranded even if they reach here," Gustav stated. "Why though? Don't they just need to sacrifice a teammate?" Teemee questioned. "Its not that simple... It hasn't been since the start. Handler One didn't give us the full information," Gustav responded causing their faces to light up in bafflement. At the moment, Aildris was already walking through a dimly lit pathway within the dark cave like entrance. Up ahead he could spot multiple other alien participants as well as cryogenic like Chambers where the sacrifices were supposed to move into. Aildris arrived before one of the empty cryogenic like.chamber and placed his hand on it. Reddish rays shot forth from a part of the chamber which scanned the entirety of Aildris figure and in the next instant the projection of a blue glowing planet appeared on the chamber's surface. [Earth] The surface displayed the words while opening up. Thiisshhhh~ Aildris proceeded to walk in and immediately got strapped as a gas permeated the internal structure of the chamber while it closed up. Aildris soon went into a state of deep sleep and found himself in a different world entirely. Within this world he was required to get to the heart of storm where an access panel was located. ... "It sure is taking longer this time," Yonda voiced. "Give it time... Aildris will get it," Gustav stated with a tone of confidence. They had heard Gustav's explanation of why he had to make use of Aildris now but Yonda somehow still expected things to be easy. Every bridge where a person had to be sacrificed, there would be challenges the sacrificed participant would have to scale. After scaling the required challenge, the rest of the planetary group would have access to the glowing doorway. Gustav knew about this since the first layer due to Abestos. He had spoken to Abestos through Mental Connection and knew exactly what he faced there. The reason Gustav knew Aildris would be needed was due to the fact that with every layer, the challenge of the sacrificial lamb got tougher. He didn't trust anyone else with the task since failure would make them.get stranded here unless they decided to sacrifice another teammate. At this point more groups were arriving in this location and not a single planet had managed to go through even after thirty minutes had gone by. "If we spend too long here, we might run out of breath before we get to the peak," Yonda complained. "If anyone runs out of breath, they are free to drop out of the challenge," Gustav wasn't entirely bothered since he was the only one that needed to get to the peak. Teammates were pretty much only needed for sacrifice and there were still up to seventeen of them here. One group got access in a few and went through the doorway. The frustration on Yonda'a face increased after two more got access but at this point the bridge was crowded with nearly four hundred participants. "It is done," Gustav voiced while moving forward. The moment his body phased through the doorway, the others followed in suite with expressions of relief. They instantly arrived at the base of the fifth layer and began trotting forward. The fifth layer only had a few differences from the fourth layer and one of them was the fact that they would have to scale up to a hundred and fifty thousand feet. With obstacles in place, one could tell this would take hours and Gustav knew there were only a few teammates here who could stay more than twenty four hours without taking a single breath. Things were about to get a little sketchy but the aim was for him to get to the peak and at the moment he was only one step away. "Will there be another bridge where we need to sacrifice another teammate? Who will you choose?" Teemee questioned from the side. "I don't think they'll be another bridge since there is no sixth layer. I believe we just need to cross the fifth layer and the peak will be right there," Gustav answered. "Still, I feel like things won't be so easy..." Teemee responded. "Yeah, there are still a lot of groups before us and some behind us have the advantage of moving faster so we still have to pick up the pace," Gustav voiced while leaping off a detached platform. "Yeah at our pace a lot more participants might surpass us," Teemee stated while leaping forward as well. E.E conjured a vortex and stepped in while everyone else leapt forward as well. himself. They hurried and manage to evade as many obstacles as possible. They were also "I could always just take you to the peak at top speed and we'd get there pretty fast," Angy said to Gustav. "True but then I don't know what to expect yet... I don't want to be taken by surprise," Gustav still wanted to play it safe and arrive at the peak with everyone instead of just himself. They hurried and manage to evade as many obstacles as possible. They were also trying to make sure they were fast enough to avoid clashes from other groups who didn't want to be surpassed or who wanted to surpass them from behind. Things were getting heated for the groups since this was the last layer of the monolith and one mistake could make them lose a spot at the peak. Hours went by and Earth's group managed to make it through a hundred thousand feet after much hurdles. Surpassing a group that had no issues with breathing had been an issue as they conjured attacks without any problems and moved fluidly as opposed to earth participants. Holding your lungs from inhaling any air was in itself an arduous process so having to do that while fighting, evading, conjuring attacks, running and talking just made things a whole lot more difficult. Fortunately, E.E was still the best evasion weapon they had here and he promptly worked to make sure most the teammates weren't blasted off the pathways. As time went by, they began to close in on the peak which had a blinding glow that was close to the brightness of a star up there. The closer they got, the more blinding the light became. There was no doubt that the monolith ended where the star glow was situated and the participants moved even more faster this time. Battles became more frequent the higher they ascended and Earth group did their best to avoid getting into scuffles as it was the last thing anyone needed right now. Either ways, the other groups were on edge and had no idea how many groups were before them. Since they couldn't tell if the number of groups before them were up to two hundred, they showed hostility towards any group they bumped into. Almost everyone behind was trying to blast everyone before them off the pathways to make room for themselves to get ahead. Gustav and the others were very close to the peak at this moment when a loud whooshing sound whisked past them. Gustav had been a little surprised at first since nobody was supposed to be able to climb up the monolith walls this fast but before the group whisked past, his perception corrected that thought. This group weren't climbing, they were running up the walls. A feat that he knew only Angy was capable of performing was being done by this group. "The Xionsis," Gustav was definitely surprised but now wasn't the time to pay them any heed. The group was about to resume heading forward when an unexpected change occurred. fwwwhiii~