The next day…
The Sun rose once again, a fire lit by God that wouldn't extinguish in a hundred million years. The enforcers groaned and woke up from their slumber but…a few didn't. Major and company slept, not realizing it was time to wake up. Maple didn't wake them. She knew what they had been through and knew they needed rest. The enforcers woke themselves up and began prepping dinner as water poured from the background.
The generals searched for the supreme commander who had been on night patrol just the other day. They panicked as they couldn't seem to find her.
'Did she really die…?'
Lancelot thought, looking left and right but eventually, they found Nyx sleeping under a tree. The two stared at her for a moment. Then, David shook her.
"Hey! It's 6 o'clock. Wake up, you dim wit!"
Nyx opened her eyes, saliva dropping from her mouth. She wiped it off and stood up, stretching her arms.
"So…" Lancelot asked. "Did anything happen yesterday?"
"Yesterday?" Nyx yawned. "No – Nothing happened actually. So, I just slept."
Lancelot blinked. "I'm sorry. You slept?"
"Yeah, there was no danger so I just…took a nap." Nyx replied, calmly.
'Oh, yeah, right. 'Took a nap' in the middle of a continent that's extremely dangerous so much so that it killed every other expedition team before us. Huh? Is your brain not working because you're the strongest person here? Oh, please your merely second-rate compared to sir Dante so, don't go around acting like that.'
While Lancelot was cursing Nyx in his mind, he put on a gentle smile on the outside.
"Is that so? Then, we have nothing to worry about?"
Nyx shook her head. "No…Maybe it didn't come after me but it will come someday."
"I see…" David muttered.
"Anyways, what are sir Sterling and sir Charles doing?" Nyx headed back to the camp.
"Those scientists been exploring the temple since waking up." David answered.
"I see…" Nyx fluttered her hair. "Make sure they have breakfast."
The generals nodded as they arrived at the camp. Nyx prepared the take a nap, sitting on a chair and dozing off as the enforcers boiled the water. Matthew and Josh once again handed out the meals and saved some for themselves. As they gave David one, he grunted and whispered.
"Do you think I don't see you two snaking off? Give me another."
Josh shuddered. "Y-Yes, sir."
He secretly handed his superior another pack. David smirked and tucked it into his coat. After the water boiled, they passed it amongst themselves and after a few minutes, began eating breakfast. The enforcers munched their food down – eating it like the beasts they fought. After that, they finished their breakfast as the clock struck eight.
They jolted up and started pulling down the tents. They rolled up their sleep bags and loaded them into a truck. After that, they folded the chairs and loaded them as well. Major poked at Nyx who was snoring. Nyx was jolted away and met by Major's dead eyes.
"Huh?" She exclaimed.
"Supreme commander…" Major said in a tired voice. "We're leaving."
"Right…" Nyx stood up, noting his sad demeanor.
Major folded the chair she slept on and pushed it into storage like the rest. Nyx entered her car with David and slammed the door shut.
"Y'know…" Nyx muttered. "I've never actually seen an enforcer die before…have you, David?"
"Why would you have? You were instantly promoted to General once you joined the special ops. Then, it was all uphill from there." David replied in a raspy tone.
"Benefits of connections and family, I guess…" Nyx leaned against the glass.
The trucks started moving, passing the temple and weaving between the trees. But somehow, they had forgotten some people who were very important to this expedition.
"God dammit, Sterling! I told you we shouldn't have spent much time exploring the temple!" Charles cursed, slamming the car's door shut.
"My apologies. I got a little excited and couldn't tell the time." Sterling did the same as the Driver quickly started up the vehicle.
Beside the Driver was massive cooling machine meant to cool down the car as it used its nuclear energy. The balance was fragile, both heat and cold were fighting over reign but none won the battle.
As Nyx leaned on the window, seeing the trees she had being seeing for the last five months – a sense of boredom eclipsed her.
'I wish this expedition would end and we could go back…'
But her boredom would soon be eclipsed by fear and utter incomprehensible dread.
October 28th of the year 2983 of the Modern Age.
Humanity would discover something beyond what they could understand. Eclipsing what they knew and what they would eventually know. Something, their ancestors hid from them for their own safety. The reason why the forbidden continent was given its name in the first place.
In a microsecond, Nyx's senses surged to the max. She was altered greatly as if her own life was in Danger.
'Chaos?!…A dangerously large amount at that…'
But that wasn't the end…as they continued to move forward, the chaos kept climbing higher, defying every expectation Nyx could make. The enforcers shuddered at the amount of Chaos they could sense. Their breath became stiff, sweat pouring down their faces as their hearts jumped at their throat. The non-chaos incarnates couldn't feel it but they definitely felt an unease crawling in their hearts.
Nyx blinked, her vision going black. She appeared again that same void – that same darkness. The woman in the star-strewn veil didn't wait longer, approaching her. She gripped Nyx's shoulders and shook her violently, blurring her vision.
"Run…don't wait…turn around while you can…Otherwise, I might lose you…"
The star-covered entity became increasingly blurry as Nyx's ears rang. Then, she snapped back to reality as the Chaos around them continued to surged forward. Then, as she was about to tell the rider to stop…he stopped himself.
"What in the actual…?"
He couldn't even finish his sentence as his gaze was locked onto what was Infront of him. Nyx and David jumped out of the vehicles. As the turned their heads, looking forward, their eyes widened and arms dropped.
Lancelot as well as the other enforcer also jumped out, thinking a delta-class chaos fragment or something worse had spawned.
But no…they were severely wrong.
As they halted near the supreme commander and general, their expressions that of shock, fear and dread.
"What in the name of Pangea is this shit…?" Nyx muttered in utter shock.
Infront of them was a rupture in the earth itself that was wider than any crater they had ever seen and seemed to stretch to the ends of the planet. More interestingly, it wasn't any normal rupture. It's inside was filled with unfathomable darkness that even Nyx's eyes couldn't pierce. The darkness swirled like the clouds in the sky, changing but never revealing its true nature.
Then, a small part of humanity realized in that moment…the world was far bigger and far stranger that they had imagined.