Chapter 35: (an unknown era) 1,999,999 Years Before Zero : Van vs ???

"Good grief...I didn’t expect to see an aurora under an ice sky and above a tropical forest."

The sound of the camera shutter was heard as Van pressed its button repeatedly, he whistled while looking around where he was now in the middle of plants with strange shapes.

Van repeatedly crouched down and tried to touch the plants and photograph them.

He, who was only wearing a white T-shirt, short yellow pants, and a pair of flip-flops, looked like the owner of a garden who was checking his garden.

"Too bad, are there really no animals here?"

Van picked his ear, perhaps he had missed the animals’ conversations, but after repeatedly picking his ear, there was no sound at all except the sound of his footsteps and his invisible raincoat rubbing against the leaves he passed.

Van walked quite far into the embrace of the forest without realizing it, even when he looked back, he could no longer see the Hell Gate that was tens of meters tall.

Now the only things accompanying him were plants that could not speak and the aurora dancing far above his head.

His steps never stopped as if it had become an addiction to enter deeper into the forest.

In a place illuminated only by the ice above and the aurora, shadows should have been difficult to appear, but with every step Van took, his shadow instead became darker and sometimes trembled.

But Van did not know it. Because a sound distracted his attention, the sound of rather strong rushing water made Van push through the forest faster.

His body stopped moving as soon as he moved aside the last strange plant, reflected in his gray eyes was a small waterfall that dropped its water into a small lake.

There were no animal sounds, only the sound of rushing water.

Van tilted his head, he tried to smell the aroma of the waterfall mixed with the aroma of the forest.

"A tropical forest without the sound of insects is already strange..."

Van tried to step closer to a row of moss-covered stones that became the boundary between the land and the small lake.

He climbed onto one of the moss-covered stones and crouched down to watch the monotonous performance of the waterfall.

Van tried to peek at the lake water whose bottom he could not see, he touched it slightly with his index finger to test whether the water would melt him or not.

"Everything is safe...is it true there are no animals? I mean...this lake is decent, how can there be no fish to catch? Yeah, a crocodile is fine too..."

Van tried to plunge his head into the lake water. His gray eyes glowed slightly, his adaptation potential began to activate, he began to see the bottom of the lake clearly and breathe inside the water.

Van looked around, the fish he expected did not pass by, even the crocodile he was waiting for did not open its mouth. What he saw were only the roots of aquatic plants dancing in rhythm.

Van clicked his tongue, he raised his head while shaking his wet head. As soon as he finished shaking his head, a figure could be seen standing behind him.

"Good grief...there really aren’t any fish, even though fishing seems fun, what if I ask Beluga-"

Van’s words stopped when blood sprayed out covering his mouth, a warm sensation was felt around his chest.

Van looked down, there was a stone blade piercing through his chest, his fresh blood stained his previously spotless white T-shirt.

’What? My invisible space was pierced?’

Van tried to look back with pain in his chest every time he moved.

However, before he could see the face of the figure that attacked him, another blade was immediately aimed at him.

’Shit!!’

Van flew toward the lake quickly, he pulled himself out of the cold stone blade that pierced through his chest.

Van turned around while floating a few inches above the lake.

His chest began to emit smoke as an effect of his regeneration potential.

His gray eyes showed the figure of a man in black armor, in his right hand was a sickle whose blade was covered in Van’s blood, while in his left hand was another sickle.

Van shifted his gaze to the man’s face. The man had a white beard with long white hair flowing down while his face was filled with cracks with one empty black eye.

The figure stood straight, from behind his back slowly revealed two pairs of black wings that spread out.

Van was stunned looking at the figure, he frowned, while the sound of rushing water became the background between them.

"Hey bastard!! Isn’t it rude to attack people randomly?! Are you the owner of the lake?! Shit!! I was just about to fish...if it’s not allowed you can say it bastard...why do you have to stab people randomly?!"

The four-winged figure stared at Van with his one eye, his face slowly cracked and bits of soil fell with every small movement.

Van scratched his cheek, the wound on his chest had now healed.

’What is that? Is he not human? No no...actually who is he-’

Van’s inner negotiation with himself ended when the figure flapped his four wings.

With only one flap, he appeared above Van, making Van reflexively look up while the figure’s shadow was reflected in the turbulent lake water.

Van gritted his teeth, he tried to create an invisible turtle shield in a short time.

But the figure suddenly disappeared, while his shadow remained present and that shadow trembled.

The figure came out of his shadow right beside Van, he immediately pierced Van’s body with the two sharp sides of his two sickles which made Van groan.

The two sickles easily pierced Van’s invisible raincoat.

Van vomited blood, he turned toward the figure who had only half of his body come out of the shadow.

’Good grief...what am I fighting?’

Van’s gray eyes looked toward the figure’s body coming out of the shadow.

’Shadow? He came out of the shadow? Shit! Is his power teleportation or shadow?’

Van groaned again as the figure moved both sickles as if stirring the contents of his body.

’Damn...turns out my invisible space is this fragile.’

Van exhaled, he hugged the figure tightly, both of his palms touching the figure’s back slowly released ice that immediately froze the figure.

Both of Van’s feet also began to touch the lake water which helped the freezing process.

Van blew on the figure’s ear where ice particles immediately froze his head.

Slowly an ice prison was created, making the figure eternally frozen together with the surrounding surface of the lake.

Van released his embrace, his regeneration smoke appeared again, he slowly flew quickly upward but still below the dancing aurora.

’What’s the point of having a tropical forest if there are no animals and I can’t fish? Especially when its inhabitant is aggressive...’

Van tried to fly away but he was confused about determining the direction where the Hell Gate was.

Meanwhile above the lake, the figure broke Van’s ice prison with his four black wings, cracks appeared more often on his face and also began to spread to his black armor and black wings.

The figure looked at Van with his one eye, he flapped his wings once again which immediately headed toward Van.

Van immediately sensed the figure’s presence while he was trapped in the dilemma of choosing a direction, he flew away while shooting an ice cannon toward the figure that chased him without saying a single word.

"Hey!! I don’t know who you are or what you are...don’t come near me bastard!! I already said I’m not fishing anymore!!"

Van’s ice bullets pierced through the figure where his body changed like a shadow.

Van, who looked back to check his ice bullets that he hoped would crack the figure’s head, was slightly stunned.

His gray eyes reflected the figure piercing through his ice bullets, his gray eyes began to see something that other people could not see.

Van saw every small movement of the figure, he clearly saw how the figure changed into a shadow every time his ice bullets began touching his body.

’Potential?! Is he a potential user?!’

Van was stunned for a few moments until he did not realize that his leg had already been grabbed by the figure.

Van gritted his teeth, he felt the cold grip of the figure that prevented him from flying farther.

’Whether it’s potential or not, I can’t learn it this quickly-’

Van was pulled by the figure, the figure swung Van in a certain direction, he released Van with all his strength like throwing a spear.

Van rolled through the air several times, his ears could not hear anything except the sound of the rushing wind, his vision kept spinning until finally he crashed into dozens of forest trees.

His body was torn here and there with every impact he experienced, his white T-shirt was no longer suitable to be called a white T-shirt.

Van rolled until finally he stopped at the mouth of a cave.

Blood came out of his mouth like a fountain, his ears rang while his vision looking at the aurora began to blur.

Smoke billowed from every part of his injured body, his irregular breathing slowly regained its stability.

Van felt the wind and the sound of footsteps, he did not need to turn around to know who owned those footsteps.

In the end Van began crawling into the dark cave, he decided to fight that figure in a narrow place.

However, his ears twitched when he could no longer hear the footsteps of the figure.

Van looked back, he began to stand with his trembling body and the smoke still coming out of his wounds that were beginning to close.

The figure only stood frozen with his two sickles and four wings spread wide.

Van exhaled, he swallowed and began walking backward into the cave.

’What is this again? He doesn’t want to come closer?’

Van held the cave wall, he felt pain throughout his body, he accidentally did not see his own shadow inside the cave.

Van wiped the blood filling his mouth, his chest rose and fell as his breathing began to stabilize.

’Does he not want to enter because there is no shadow? Shit...so it really is shadow?’

Van and the figure only stared at each other, they did not speak a single word until finally Van managed to regenerate his body.

He now began taking off his white T-shirt that had been torn apart, he swung his shirt around while telling the figure to come closer as a form of provocation.

"Meow meow...come here bastard...why? Are you scared?"

The figure did not move at all, he did not even move like a statue.

Van sighed, he, who was now not wearing clothes covering his muscles, finally began to smile widely.

’Yeah, at least we can go fishing.’

Van began creating an invisible gorilla behind him, the gorilla was as big as the cave until it almost covered the entrance to the cave.

The gorilla grabbed an invisible rope that kept extending, carried by an invisible mermaid that swam toward the figure.

Van’s smile grew wider, while the figure did not know what was happening behind the scenes.

Van’s invisible mermaid slowly began forming a knot around the figure’s left ankle, the knot was still loose which made the figure not notice it.

Van’s gray eyes began to glow inside the darkness, he licked his lips that still tasted of blood while the mermaid finally gave a thumbs up after finishing the knot and then disappeared.

Van combed his long golden hair which was slightly rough after repeatedly rolling on the ground and crashing into dozens of trees.

Meanwhile his invisible gorilla began pulling the rope connected to the figure.

The rope stretched quickly, the previously loose knot now began wrapping around the figure’s leg which made him look down, but exactly when he looked down, his body was immediately pulled quickly before he could react.

What could be heard in his hearing besides his body collapsing was Van’s scream that echoed in front of the cave entrance.

"STRIKEEEE!!!!!!"

The figure was dragged without being able to react until finally he entered the dark cave that had no shadow, he was dragged until he was right in front of Van.

Van then immediately jumped, he clenched his right fist, slowly his right hand began to be covered by an ice glove that made his hand several times bigger.

He immediately punched the figure who could not react in time until he shattered into pieces and every piece froze.

Van shouted in satisfaction, he did a high five with his invisible gorilla as his celebration.

He jumped several times before finally looking at the pieces of the figure that turned into ash.

Van smiled widely while scratching the back of his head.

"Good grief...so that means he wasn’t human, huh? He should have said who he was...was he someone’s statue or something? Shit! If the statue alone was this strong, then how strong is the real person?"

Van began stretching his body, his bones made sounds as his answer.

"But...who was he?"

Van rubbed his chin while looking at the frozen dust particles, he stayed like that for a while before finally shrugging both his shoulders.

"Ahh, I don’t care, better get out of here quickly before there is another one if there is."

Van began walking out of the cave, but a cold breeze suddenly caressed his bare back.

Van turned around with the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, his gray eyes began adapting to see in the darkness.

"Shit..."

In his vision that pierced through the darkness, he saw a staircase that went slightly downward.

Van swallowed.

"Good grief...what is this again?"