Death... and me

The action of going for the Chasm wasn't completely madness. Back when Aelrie told Rean and Kentucky about the weakening of the Chasm, she said this weakening was coming from the bottom. The further up of the Chasm their perception was, the stronger the Chasm's power reflected in their minds.

As they approached the city, they became even capable of talking without having to find specific closer points in the borders to make their voices reach the other side. That meant the Chasm's Spatial Power was already lower at the exit, and the bottom was even more so.

Nonetheless, the power exiting the Chasm was still fearsome. Rean and Kentucky didn't know if something could happen if they tried to traverse it either. If not for this meteor shower, neither Rean nor Kentucky would risk charging into it.

As soon as they entered, the Spatial Powers of the Chasm assaulted them from all sides. Space was extremely chaotic, with Spatial Rifts and Storms going all around. If anything, the speed they were consuming their Sky Energy to protect themselves wasn't any slower than inside the meteor shower.

'Deeper!'

Yet, they knew this power was supposed to be easier to manage further down, so they charged through the Spatial Chaos with everything they had, quickly reaching several kilometers down.

At the same time, meteors that fell into the Chasm obviously fell in the same direction as them. Rean and Kentucky still had to dodge while dealing with the Spatial Chaos of the Chasm. Fortunately, the explosions had a harder time spreading in this environment, as a great part of their flames and power would fall into the spatial rifts and disappear.

Rean and Kentucky knew that their strength wouldn't last long, so they did the most obvious action. Since they are now inside the Chasm, they might as well join forces! They even got close enough that they could talk to each other.

"Come, Kentucky!" Rean shouted in a hurry.

"On it!" Kentucky flashed to Rean's side.

Immediately, Rean and Kentucky's Sky Energy merged together, creating an even more powerful Energy Barrier around them. It was much more sturdy, while it consumed less energy from both. At the same time, they dived even further down.

Only after Rean and Kentucky surpassed the mark of over twenty kilometers down the Chasm did the meteors drastically reduce in number. After all, the meteors didn't fall in perfectly straight lines, nor did the Chasm itself have straight and plane surfaces on both sides. The meteors would eventually hit one of the walls and explode, considering they didn't fall into the Spatial Rifts first.

By the time they went over thirty kilometers down, the Spatial Chaos of the Chasm further reduced in strength while only one or another meteor managed to get that deep. Finally, Rean and Kentucky could maintain their protection against the Spatial Powers and dodge the few meteors without spending more energy than they could replenish.

"Fuck! What the hell was that?" Kentucky couldn't help but complain. "Each one of those shit was enough to severely injure me if it hit my body head-on. Even the explosions that came after their impact to the ground were no joke."

Rean nodded, still highly alert to his surroundings. "I wish to know as well. From the look of the craters on the ground of the surface, this kind of thing happened in the past, but it was a long time ago. All those craters had been affected by long-

lasting erosion due to the winds and elements to the point they were quite smooth."

Aelrie understood Rean. "So it wasn't a coincidence. It happened because we stepped too close to the ruined city in the distance."

"Exactly," Rean looked up as he confirmed. "I just can't tell if it was some kind of automatic trigger or someone sent it against us."

"Rean..." Kentucky seemed concerned.

"I know," Rean understood. "If it was sent by someone, this someone must be at least in the Divinity Realm. There is no way someone in the Space-Time Realm could pull this kind of move..."

Rean then looked further down the Chasm. "The question now is to decide if we should go down and wait for the meteor shower to go up."

Rean and Kentucky didn't stop this deep because they felt safe. They were only barely able to recover slightly more energy than they were using to keep their Sky Energy Protection going. Since the Chasm's Spatial Chaos was getting weaker the further down they went, they obviously would choose to go deeper than they are at the moment.

However, Rean, Kentucky, and Aelrie felt another type of energy they hadn't felt in this Azum Dimensional Realm so far... Dark Element, and a lot of it! The only place they found any Dark Element at all was the cores inside the Soul Copying Devices, but it couldn't be compared to what they were feeling now.

Aelrie, especially, was already feeling quite bad. She was a real angel, after all. Even if she was a copy of the real Aelrie, that was an angel copy, a being of light highly weak against the Dark Element.

"The Universe Foundation Fragments have one thing in common: all of them have huge degrees of Light and Dark Element powers," Rean commented. "I've been thinking that this Azum Dimensional Realm's abilities existed due to the Fragment, but I always wondered where all the Dark Element potential of the Fragment went. Now we know. All the Dark Elemental Power of the Universe Foundation Fragment is deep down, while the surface is full of Light Element instead."

Kentucky looked at Aelrie. "I can protect her against the Dark Element, especially since Dark Element is not an issue to you and me. But, is it a good idea to go there?"

"Since there are Light Beasts, why not Dark Beasts, right?" Rean commented, seeing through Kentucky's thoughts. "Besides, we are so much deeper into the Azum Dimensional Realm. If there are Dark Beasts down there... they definitely won't be weak."