Infinite Classes in the Apocalypse

Chapter 169: Finally

The routine continued.

They would enter the rift, kill the monster, absorb the core and search through whatever alien world they appeared in until they found the next one.

At some point, Damon lost track of how many worlds they had crossed.

Alien skies blurred together into fragmented memories.

Crimson deserts where the sand moved against the wind as if it had somewhere to be.

Endless black oceans with no shore in any direction, the water perfectly still and perfectly wrong.

Forests made of crystal that rang faintly when the wind passed through them, the sound somewhere between music and warning.

Cities long since reduced to ruins beneath the weight of uncontrolled mana, their streets still laid out in the careful geometry of civilisations that had believed they had time, their buildings collapsed inward rather than outward.

Most worlds they passed by were ruined. Small remnants of the worlds that once had been, which at times made him wonder if this was also Earth’s future.

The search lasted far longer than either of them had anticipated.

Days turned into weeks, though time itself felt strangely inconsistent between certain rifts. Some passed in hours. Others felt unnaturally long, leaving behind exhaustion that sleep never fully fixed.

Time passed differently in each world, so it was impossible to tell how much time really passed, which made the urgency of their situation even stronger.

With each absorbed core, Damon’s mana turned even more violent, which, if it wasn’t for the fact that he reached level 100 somewhere in between the rifts and used all available stats into vitality, would’ve been a death sentence.

But even then, it wasn’t easy.

The wounds across his forearms had stopped healing properly.

Not because his healing factor had weakened, but because his own lightning continuously tore the flesh apart faster than it could recover.

He found himself lost in those wounds as he chewed on a piece of grilled monster meat until Yuki’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts from across a small campfire.

"I miss proper food..." she let out a defeated sigh.

Damon glanced up from the piece of meat skewered over the fire. "It’s not that bad."

Yuki gave him a flat look. "Damon, this thing tried to eat us less than an hour ago."

He shrugged.

A moment of silence passed between them, broken only by the faint crackle of the campfire, before Yuki’s gaze trailed down toward his arms, and she spoke again.

"How many more times do you think you can do it?"

Damon paused for a moment, actually giving it some thought.

His last absorption knocked him unconscious for a day straight, which was twice as long as the one before that, which only lasted around twelve hours.

He was certain he could handle another core, maybe two, but with no goal in sight, what good would a couple of cores be in comparison to infinite worlds?

"As many as it takes," he finally replied after a long moment of pause.

Yuki’s expression tightened slightly at the answer, but she didn’t retort.

There was nothing much she could really say to him. He was their only chance of making it back, so she had no choice but to hope he could manage.

They sat in the quiet for a little longer, enjoying the grilled monster meat before Damon finally stood up.

"We should get going," he said, rolling his shoulders back a couple of times. "We already know where the next rift is so no point wasting any more time here."

Yuki didn’t have to be told twice.

Grabbing his stretched arm toward her, she stood up. "Lead the way."

***

They passed through a twisted maze of purple rocks and blue vegetation before, moments later, standing in front of the rift they had spotted earlier.

Looking at the rift, their expressions were completely flat, neither of them finding any more interest either in foreign worlds or the monsters hiding inside them.

What once would’ve inspired caution or curiosity had slowly become routine, one that each of them began to dread.

They exchanged a quick glance before stepping inside, their surroundings changing once more.

The new environment didn’t look any more interesting at first. It wasn’t anything they hadn’t seen before, just a mountain and dark sky above. The air felt fresh, which, considering the lingering smell of rot in the previous world, was a nice change.

Damon barely paid attention to the scenery as he looked around, his eyes searching purely for the next threat, which at first there were none of.

To him, it was just another day and another rift to close.

Yuki, however, stayed oddly quiet as she stepped beside him.

Damon raised a brow. "You okay?"

She didn’t answer.

Her eyes remained fixed somewhere further down the mountain path ahead of them.

Damon frowned slightly before following her gaze.

At first, he saw nothing unusual.

Then, he noticed a small structure standing in the centre of the path.

A shrine gate.

Yuki’s arms trembled at her sides for a moment before she forced herself to stay composed.

Her lips parted slightly.

"This..." Her voice came out quieter than before. "This is it."

Damon looked at her, then back at the lone shrine gate standing at the path ahead. There were no other landmarks, no indications of what this world might hold.

He wanted to trust her words, to believe they had actually found a rift leading to her world, but seeing only a single shrine gate, he couldn’t help but frown.

"Are you sure?" he asked, not really trusting that this was it. "It’s just a—"

"I’m certain," she replied, a bright smile flashing across her face.

The happiness radiating from her was almost contagious, enough so that Damon, too, began to question if this was really it. She moved toward him, her arms wrapping around him in a tight embrace.

"We did it!" she exclaimed, her head pressed gently against his chest. "I can’t believe we really found it!"