Chapter 46: Void Plane
A world where there was no sun or moon, but both the light and darkness coexist like a mixture of a watercolor palette. A world where it was neither too bright nor too dark, full of all shades of a single color called grey, like it was a minute before a heavy rainfall.
A world where one would feel like the air had become cotton, stuffing one's lungs full. A world where one would feel like invisible hands pressing down from above as if forcing submission.
What are the odds one wouldn't go insane in such a world?
The Void Plane was a place full of the aura of death. If not by monsters, it would kill you slowly by eating away your sanity.
Never ending gloomy days, fear of when and where one might get eaten by a monster, as well as the fact that there's no way to see the sun or moon of the Primal Plane ever again…It was like a kind of mental torture.
Scrap. Scrap.
The sound of arrow heads getting sharpened by a pebble sized sharpening stone broke the silence. A young woman with chestnut brown hair cut into a messy bob and dark green eyes like a deep forest sighed as she glanced at the sky.
She was one of those people who was slowly getting killed by the Void Plane just by merely existing.
"Miss Marina!" A tender voice called out.
Marina—the woman with dark green eyes— softened her gaze and looked at the direction where the voice came from.
There stood a middle aged woman with snow white hair and ruby red eyes. She had two wolf ears on her head and a long fluffy tail with white fur slowly wagging back and forth as if it was swaying in the wind.
"Ah, Mrs.Romanov." Marina called out in a relieved voice.
The middle aged woman smiled broadly and sat down beside her with kind eyes. Marina's gaze naturally turned to Mrs.Romanov's extended hand.
"You should eat well, Miss Marina. With the situation you are in, be a little greedy." She handed over the roasted meat of a monster to Marina without hesitation.
'But being greedy won't bring me back to the Primal Plane. What good is there in eating well if I can't go back?' Marina swallowed her thoughts and forced a smile.
"...Thank you. You are too kind, but I can't possibly take your portion of the meal, Mrs.Romanov. Monsters without poison are rare. We must take the chance when it arrives, do not give away what is necessary to survive this godforsaken world."
"It's okay, my husband said he found a blue slime nest nearby. We might get to hydrate our bodies soon enough. It'll be enough for me."
"But—"
"I'm a wolf beastkin, remember? We can go without food for months." Mrs.Romanov pushed the meat, kindly making all sorts of excuses. Marina nodded and brought the meat to her mouth with darkened eyes.
It had been three months since Marina was accidentally sucked into a Dimensional rift and ended up in the Void Plane. About a month after she came here, she met the Romanov couple, leading a group of people to safe places in the Void Plane.
Honestly speaking, there are no safe places in the Void Plane.
Monsters usually take their own territories to command and live in. Once a prey walks into their domain, their fate is already in the hand of the monster. And then there are some monsters who don't take their own territories and lurk around on their own to catch prey.
To survivors, both types of monsters are nightmares. Every inch of this vast dimension was filled with deathly traps and blood.
The Romanov couple guided people with their remarkable senses, avoiding dangerous monster territories, finding resources and hunting monsters.
When Marina was about to lose her sanity, those two were the ones who extended their hands to give her a spark of hope.
Up until now, Marina had no relationship with any beastkin. Actually, most beastkin and humans have a line drawn between them, making it impossible to interact. She had heard it was especially true for wolf beastkin, who valued their pack.
The reputation of beastkin was rather violent and mysterious in human eyes after all. With the slave system where most beastkins were forced to kneel before humans, Marina was surprised to get help from those same species in her lowest point of life.
But aren't humans fascinating?
They'd grasp at a straw if it meant they could survive.
Marina was a human after all.
She wasn't narrow-minded enough to be a racist even back in the Primal plane. This made it possible for her to adapt to the ways of the two wolf beastkin within just two months.
It was merely three months since she was trapped in this gloomy place. But according to the Romanov couple, six months had passed in the Primal Plane.
Marina was a commoner. Knowledge was something she naturally lacked. The reason she knew she was in the Void Plane was only because she worked as an adventurer for a few years before she got married. Clearing dungeons made her aware of just this much information.
'But six months…' Marina's heart sank at the thought.
She was worried about her husband. She earnestly prayed to all gods she could think of so that her husband won't be too sad. But then again, would he be sad when he was the one who abandoned her just the day before she got sucked into this mess of a world?
She regretted so many things.
Things like stubbornly refusing her husband's offers.
Propose breaking up with him.
Not holding onto him when he left.
Clinging to her useless pride.
They all felt meaningless in front of this gloomy place where death lingered.
In the end, she couldn't go back to him anyway.
All she could do was to shamelessly pray to gods she never once acknowledged before.
"Hey, aren't you shameless? Showing favoritism to some people while others barely surviving."
Marina was pulled out of her deep sea of thoughts by a displeased voice of a man.
"High priest Warkan." Mrs.Romanov mumbled. Half sighing, half groaning.
The middle aged man with long priest robes looked down at the two women. His half balding head shone even under the gloomy sky. The robe, dirty and almost in tatters, was less appealing than a beggar's rag.
Looking at the usual humorless and petulant dispute coming her way, Marina felt a weariness so deep it seemed to melt her bones.
"This is unfair! I, the High priest of Apollo, is starving while a commoner woman is filling her belly all day?! Don't you dogs know how to pay respect to the children of gods?!"
"High Priest, first of all, what I gave to Marina was my portion of the meal we evenly distributed to all people here. And second, you also received the same amount as me and Miss Marina from my husband."
"And third, if there really was a god, you, out of all people, wouldn't be standing here with us." A second voice interrupted their conversation. Marina, Mrs.Romanov and the High priest Warkan all looked at the person who spoke.
It was a young Dear beastkin. From the look of it, he was no more than ten years old. However beastkin aged slowly, thus making it harder to guess their real age.
His short antlers that sprouted up from the head looked adorable. If not for his darkened face and emotionless eyes, he would have looked absolutely adorable in every angle.
"Wh-what did you say?! You heretic brat! This is why you beasts are lowered to nothing more than slaves in human society!" Red with shame, the priest yelled.
The boy openly looked at him with disgust in return.
"If we are so lowly, why not break free from this lowly group and survive on your own? The one protecting you right now isn't your god, but a wolf beastkin you always talk down on."
"H-how dare you! God sent slaves to me so that I could be protected!"
"Wow…what a load of bullshxt. Your educational background seems to be made up of delusions and lies."
"Oscar, that's enough." When Mrs.Romanov finally stepped in calmly, the deer-boy—Oscar, obediently closed his mouth.
"Tsk… slaves trying to surpass their masters. How impudent. Even little brats are trying to slander the name of God."
"I'm older than you, foolish human." Oscar mumbled, but the High priest was already gone, grumbling and yelling at all other people sitting around here and there.
"At least he's like this to his own kind as well." Looking at Warkan kicking away a human, Mrs.Romanov sighed. Marina nodded with a resigned expression.
There are all sorts of people in the world. Selfish ones are not uncommon.
Marina was about to continue her work, ignoring both Warkan's whining and the kind woman's meal offer. But before she could even put the meat away, Mrs.Romanov suddenly stood up as if she was on high alert. All the small-talks disappeared at the sight of one of the warriors that protected the group acting that way.
Marina threw away the meat she was holding and took the bow beside her with swift movements. Oscar pulled out his long staff with sunken brown eyes.
"Honey?" Mrs.Romanov looked at her husband, who was standing a little far away from them.
Marina observed him for a second. Mr.Romanov, with his usual quiet personality, said nothing as he kept looking at something a bit above them with astonishment.
His deep golden pupils trembled as if caught in an earthquake.
Badum. Badum. Badum.
Marina felt her heart beating wildly as she saw that expression she had never seen from the man.
He was always quietly protecting others. Even when he fought an EX rank monster to save the survivors, his face remained the same.
But now?
He was so shaken that Marina felt a lot of complicated emotions rampaging within her. She swallowed dry saliva as she unconsciously placed one hand over her belly. Her dark green eyes slowly followed Mr.Romanov's gaze.
They were inside a small rift formed into the ground. Over ten meters underground. It helped them as a shelter from all sorts of monsters and ever changing weather. Mr.Romanov was looking at the edge of that rift above them.
The moment Marina laid her eyes on the cause of Mr.Romanov's shock, she froze.
'Could that be a God?' was all she could think of. 'Or perhaps a descendant of one? Or a God's most beloved and proudest creation?'
She couldn't help it. Those thoughts didn't seem exaggerated in her eyes.
Long golden hair cascaded down like brilliant golden stars had melted into a waterfall, fluttering with the elegance of a dancer. Dazzling golden eyes like two Suns had risen in this sunless void, framed by long fluttering eyelashes, held untold authority.
Tear moles under each eye, looking like a tiny black obsidian among smooth moonstones gave her an appearance of someone mysterious and dangerous. Porcelain skin as if kissed by the moonlight itself and Rose quartz colored lips formed into a straight line, it was a breathtaking sight, enough to transcend the preference of all races, genders and age.
It was a girl. So small that she looked no more than five years old. But no one paid attention to her age. Because from the first glance, she looked extraordinary.
Her beauty was so deceptive. Too perfect to be real. On top of it, the aura surrounding her was almost divine.
Her presence was so intense it gave the strange idea of bowing down and kneeling in front of her. As if she was the sole ruler of their souls. Marina felt if she couldn't bow down, she might get crushed by that ruling presence.
The girl carried an air of mystery as if she was someone holding many secrets the world couldn't handle.
Gasps of admiration came from Marina's surroundings. She sensed how Mrs.Romanov held her breath. Marina agreed. It was an unheard beauty that could take one's breath away just by existing.
Obviously, she must have been made up of bones, flesh and blood like everyone else. But Marina couldn't think of the child on the same line as others. No human, no beastkin and no elf could match her mesmerizing beauty. The girl's beauty was so unique that Marina felt like her eyes were opening to a new world. Everything about her was simply otherworldly.
She absentmindedly thought;
'If I shape the summer sun and the scent of yellow azaleas into a person, will she be like this?'
It was a sudden thought.
Suddenly, the blue earrings on the girl's ears sparkled, like a dim lantern hung by a fox spirit. Her former detached and emotionless face changed, painting it with a faint, enigmatic smile.
'Ah…'
She confirmed it.
'This isn't a human.'
When Marina was caught up in her own thoughts, the girl parted her pink lips.
"-@&#_?" A dreamy voice, like tiny bells in a fairy's song soothed her ears.
But she couldn't understand a word she uttered. The mysterious words, like a language of the gods, disappeared gently into her mind.
At that moment, Marina knew; She was saved.
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