Free Web NovelChapter 210: Investigating the Tear
"Don’t worry about it," Lucas waved her apology off, "I was also careless just now, and as far as unexpected situations go, this is probably about as extreme as you can get..."
Saying so, he, along with Christina and Eris all turned to stare at the strange scenery before them.
Without moving her eyes away from the out-of-place sight, Christina asked once more, "I know whatever is happening here is... complicated, but I think it would be best if you at least tried to explain it now."
Lucas frowned, but also agreed that things couldn’t go on like this. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
Looking around, the ’beach’ which had suddenly appeared was quite spacious and provided a wide, unobstructed view. The water also appeared to be draining away slowly, probably running down the hill the manor sat on, so it would soon be nothing more than a wet clearing.
Glancing up and still seeing a large number of Spatial Tears swirling about randomly, Lucas figured that this was just about as safe a place as they were going to find.
Keeping his Soul Sense expanded just in case, Lucas did his best to monitor their surroundings before motioning to his big sisters to follow him as he walked towards the ’ocean’, "I’m not sure I can explain everything in a way you’ll be able to understand, but I’ll try. Just keep in mind, all of this is me speculating. I’m not certain anything I’m saying is actually the truth."
.....
"So, what you mean is, Redwood Town and somewhere else far, far away have become linked, and pieces of each other are now swapping places every time one of these... Spatial Tears passes over?" Christina asked with a heavy dose of uncertainty.
Knitting his brow, because this wasn’t exactly what he thought was happening, Lucas wanted to try again, but he was quickly realizing the futility of his attempts to simplify things enough to make it understandable, so he simply nodded, "Well, something like that."
For the past 5 minutes, when he wasn’t leading Eris and Christina to dodge one of the Spatial Tears, Lucas had been trying to find a way to explain the phenomenon that was happening around them.
Eris had quickly given up trying to understand when Lucas began taking about a ’ruptured space-time’ leading to ’overlapping spatial coordinates’ and had just decided to nod along.
As for Christina, she was also struggling hard to comprehend what Lucas was talking about as even with all the lessons she had received in the past, everything he was taking about was far, far beyond anything she had dreamt of before.
Just the notion of different places being able to simultaneously exist in the same space was a concept so foreign to her that it was like she was hearing up was actually down, and right was actually left.
It wasn’t until Lucas made the analogy of the mouth of her Space Bag being like one of the Spatial Tears, separating two different spaces, that Tina somewhat got what he was trying to say.
Of course, this example wasn’t precisely the same as what was occurring in Lucas’ opinion, but it was good enough for now.
Shortly after the 5-minute mark, Lucas noticed that fewer Spatial Tears were forming than disappearing, a sign he hoped that whatever anomaly had occurred was abating.
Seeing this allowed the young boy to breath a sigh of relief.
It seemed that he and his big sisters were going to survive this catastrophe after all; but the less Lucas worried about the immediate crisis, the more he began to worry about the consequences of this disaster.
What happened to his parents?
Was his Uncle Charles alright?
Just how many people from Redwood Town had been whisked away?
Were the ones who were swallowed by the Spatial Tears alright?
If they were alright, where had they been sent?
If they had been sent to the other side of the world, would he ever be able to see them again?
And most importantly in this moment, what was he supposed to do now?
The only thing Lucas was certain of was that everyone else who had been in the Town Lord’s Manor tonight, from the Body Tempering Realm refugees to the Peak-Rank Spirit Initiate Sir Green, had all vanished.
While running across the newly formed beach, the trio had repeatedly called out, hoping someone, anyone would hear them; but so far, no responses had come back.
This result wasn’t surprising to Lucas, seeing how everything in the Town Lord’s Manor beyond the backroom he and his big sisters had been sleeping in was gone. However, just because he anticipated that being the case, didn’t make it any easier to accept.
The only thing that gave Lucas some hope right now was that they had encountered several other First and Second Order Beasts that were clearly foreign to the South-Western Province of the Rockwell Kingdom, so clearly living creature could survive being sent through the Spatial Tears.
Dad and the others must still be alive, they must be, Lucas refused to believe otherwise.
On the other hand, this ’Spatial Storm’, as Lucas had decided to call it, did explain a number of things, such as where Yuki had come from.
Assuming this was not a one-off phenomenon, nearby places being connected to far-flung regions of the planet multiple times in the past few days was clearly what led to non-native beasts showing up around Redwood Town.
Just as all these distracting thoughts were beginning to overwhelm Lucas, a new Spatial Tear began forming just a few metres away from him.
"Move back!" Lucas hurriedly shouted, drawing both Eris and Tina away from the tear.
All of the Spatial Tears so far had been quite large and moved about randomly, sweeping back and forth across the ground and sky. This time, however, the tear was quite small, only about 30 metres wide, and it remained relatively still.
Observing this new tear from up close, Lucas suddenly had a dangerous idea.
Signaling for his big sisters to remain still, he began creeping his way closer to the black gash in space, focusing his Soul Sense to try to pierce through it and see what was happening on the other side.
This was a rare opportunity to gain more information, so despite the obvious risks, Lucas felt it was worth it to try to probe this Spatial Tear.
At the very least, he had to find some clue as to where this Spatial Tear led; otherwise, he would have absolutely no clue where to go looking for his family and friends in the future.
Right now, all he knew was that Redwood Town was currently connected to a tropic beach somewhere, but based on some rough estimates he had made earlier this year, Lucas knew that Servist, the planet he was currently living on, was far, far larger than the worlds from the other universe.
In the universe the man Lucas’ inherited memories came from lived, habitable planets ranged in circumference from around 30,000 km to 60,000 km. Any bigger or smaller and they seemed incapable of naturally supporting humanoid life.
There might be exceptions to that rule, but his mysterious benefactor didn’t know of any.
Servist, however, seemed to be around 120,000 km in circumference, possibly even bigger!
When he first calculated this, Lucas was stunned, wondering if perhaps the laws of physics he understood weren’t the same in this universe, especially when it came to gravity and spatial mechanics, but that seemed to clash with his other lived experiences. It was something he had vowed to look into when he developed better measurement equipment.
Exploring the wider world was nothing more than a far-off goal to Lucas before today, but now it was a necessity.
What’s more, given just how massive Servist was, if he didn’t gather more information about where his parents and everyone still left in Redwood Town had been sent, there was a good chance he would never be able to find them again.
Lucas wasn’t certain what had happened to his mom or his uncle Charles as they were out in the town on guard duty, but he was sure his dad was now on the other side of this anomaly.
Just thinking about never seeing his father again, and Eris possibly losing her father forever, was enough to push Lucas forward towards the dangerous Spatial Tear.
At first, his efforts proved useless.
Although he could see the tear clearly, what was beyond its event horizon was completely obscured. However, after approaching to within just 10 metres, Lucas felt his Soul Sense begin to pierce through, and some vague details from the other side began to take shape.
Finally seeing some hope, Lucas stepped even closer, getting to within just 5 metres of the Spatial Tear. This was an incredibly dangerous distance, as while the tear was mostly motionless, it wasn’t completely stationary, and there was no guarantee it wouldn’t suddenly surge towards him.
Even so, Lucas felt the risk was worth it at this point, as from what he could make out, the location this particular Spatial Tear was connected to seemed to be another beach, overlooking a vast ocean where the sun seemed to just be setting.
Wherever this place is, it must be about 6 or 7 time-zones west of here, Lucas immediately reasoned.
Using the standard 24-hour clock and the rough diameter of the planet, 6 or 7 time zones meant some 30,000 to 35,000 kilometres of distance, which gave Lucas a basic longitudinal coordinate, though it did nothing to narrow down what latitude it was.
That being said, the very fact that it was a tropical region meant it had to be somewhere south of where Redwood Town was located.
This was a huge gain, one that would make a future search-and-rescue operation at least somewhat feasible.
Of course, such a venture would be astronomically expensive, filled with danger, and extraordinarily difficulty, but Lucas didn’t let that discourage him. As far as he was concerned, as long as he continued to grow stronger, gain more wealth, and increase his status, the day he could launch a long-distance expedition to the other side of the planet would eventually come.
Satisfied for now, Lucas was about to withdraw to safety when his Soul Sense pick up some kind of activity from the other side of the tear. At first, he wasn’t sure what it was, but a few seconds later, he could vaguely make out what sounded like a cry for help, one coming from a familiar sounding voice.
