The duo moved through the daunting expanse, soaring faintly across the conflagration of flames that roared below.
Each second led to a different level of flames sweeping through the city, a perfect reminder to Kailen and his companion that any moment could be their last.
Whoosh.. whoosh.
Sometimes the flames would rise like waves behind them, as if attempting to swallow them whole.
However, Kailen would make use of his vines to accelerate their speed.
His companion would control some falling buildings to obstruct the flames for a moment, buying them a small moment to at least widen the distance between them and the flames attempting to swallow them, or at least buy them enough time for the waves to die down.
The cycle repeated itself over and over again.
Their bodies would faintly recover from being roasted with the help of universe-energy recovering elixirs only for the same cycle to repeat itself over and over again.
Despite the pain and torture, they held on and moved.
Traversing the Odysseus region, after thirty minutes, during which Kailen had also managed to recover his spiritual power and could finally use his teleportation rune again, they finally noticed the teleportation gate far off from where they were.
"Damnation."
The teleportation gate, however, seemed unstable.
Kailen in particular, a Runesmith, knowing that teleportation gates were simply an application of rune technology, although he was not yet at the level to create one, had some theoretical knowledge on them.
He noticed it flickered with light in a moment, and then it seemed as if it would go off.
This meant that the teleportation gate would be out of business anytime soon.
The dwarves were probably behind this.
Thinking they had destroyed the teleportation gate to prevent the residents from escaping through it, so that the citizens would be trapped in the city and drowned in the fire, they had left the "destroyed" teleportation gate.
However, Kailen theorised that fortunately for him and his stranger companion, it seemed the teleportation gate had not been completely destroyed as the dwarves thought.
However it would be completely out of business any time soon.
He had to hurry.
"What?" his companion asked.
"The teleportation gate will be out of business if we delay further," he said, ignoring the frightened expression on her face at his words, then added,
"Anytime it glows, it means we can pass through it to the outskirts of the city. However, anytime the glow goes off, it means we can’t pass through."
She opened her eyes in shocked realisation.
"That means we only get one shot of leaving the city, which is to make sure we enter the teleportation gate as soon as it glows. We cannot afford the luxury of trying again, even if the faint glow appears again when we fail, as with the way the flames behind us are rising, if we hesitate or waste even a second to stay in one spot for a second, we’d be drowned in the flames and die."
Kailen gnashed his teeth in frustration.
She was right.
They had only one chance, and they couldn’t afford to miss it.
If they failed, that second wasted would be enough for them to be swallowed in the waves of the city.
They’d die.
Also, any second wasted would be a moment the teleportation gate could go out of business.
A determined glint flashed through his eyes though.
This was what he had been struggling for.
To leave this god-damned city alive, so that this hell could end.
’I could time the moments it takes during its glitches—when it faintly glows and goes off—and time my teleportation according to it. That way, I’d be able to pass through it when it glows faintly.’
"Here goes nothing," Kailen remarked.
He timed the glitches of the teleportation gate as they drew nearer to it at a pace where he could use the teleportation four times for them to be able to not only cover the distance to be quickly close to it, but also to move through it and leave the city.
’Now.’
Kailen teleported as the glow went off.
He teleported again; the glow came back on.
Another teleportation; the glow went off.
Another teleportation: the glow came back on.
But wait, they wouldn’t make it in time.
They’d land right before the gate and the glow would go off before they could shoot towards the gate.
What if it never came on again?
What if that moment would be all it took for them to drown in the flames soaring behind them—attempting to drown them into its depths?
A vine shot through the glow the moment they teleported and appeared before the gate.
Quickly they were sucked into the teleportation gate, disappearing from the city before the glow went off, leaving behind a teleportation gate that never glitched again, losing its function, in a city drowned completely in flames alongside its inhabitants. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs nοvelfire.net
****
Kailen realized he was falling from the sky towards the ocean.
The sky was bright and clear, with sunlight peering through the horizons.
Mountains stretched into the distance, their towering peaks peering through the clouds like towering sentinels.
"We made it. Hahahahah. We fucking made it!"
A feminine voice snapped his gaze towards her direction.
It was the female human he had left the hell of a city with.
Kailen ignored her.
He sighed inwardly in relief.
"I made it. But won’t this thing end?"
He has succeeded, so why was he still in the simulation.
"Spaceships! We are safe!"
The female shouted, happy and relieved!
She turned to look at Kailen, who seemed to be floating motionless above the ocean in deep thought as she was about heading towards the spaceships.
"Aren’t you coming along?"
"Right," he replied, then followed her, musing inwardly.
"I suppose the simulation will actually end when I get on the spaceship?"
The moment they made it to the spaceships, and entered one of them with several civilians and soldiers, the female saluted a very tall machinery lifeform male, radiating an overbearing pressure that proved that he was not someone to be trifled with.
The man asked what happened in the city and why she was the only one to return, and with just one civilian.
She went on and on about the city getting burnt and how Kailen and her escaped the city.
The man took something from his pocket—some sort of coin—and handed it over to Kailen.
"Thank you for saving my subordinate. Thanks to you, she was able to return with valuable information. If those dwarves want a war, it’s war they shall have. Whenever you get to any region where the machinery civilisation exist, show them the coin and you’d be treated as a guest."
Kailen nodded and took the coin.
The female human stared at him with a complicated expression.
She spoke softly, hugging Kailen and planting a kiss on his cheek, one that he didn’t see coming.
"You were a pain most of the time, but you saved my life. And for that, thank you."
The moment she said that, Kailen saw them all—the spaceships, the people—turning into motes of light, eventually disappearing.
[Congratulations for surviving ,and successfully completing the simulation. Revealing rewards....]