Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix-Chapter 1338: Dead worlds

"This place doesn’t look like it is being monitored, so a fight might reveal our location," Sakaki added.

The group was moving quite fast, so it made sense that if the machine gods were monitoring them, they would have a hard time pinpointing their location after they left the prison. Still, space magic consumes a lot of energy, so maybe it was impossible to hide anyway... it was better to try with at least the regular domains.

After activating his domain and the water mirror technique, Rain began to walk around to get a good feel of the territory. The terrain was a bit hugged, and Rain couldn’t see any signs of plant life... he could see a bunch of trash piles, and when he climbed them, Rain was able to see some weird creatures flying in the sky.

"Winged centipedes?" Rain furrowed his eyebrows. "Wow, their bones are exposed."

"Their flesh looks like it has been corroded... it is this atmosphere," Sakaki said. "The amount of oxygen is low, and there are many toxic gasses here. We can’t afford to let the others stay here... even you are losing health over time as well."

Rain checked that and confirmed the same effect of the final zone of the prison. Most likely, Arel created that environment considering this one as the basis... The flying monster passed above the area after slowly down a bit since it seemed that it tracked Rain’s presence to some extent. Soon enough, other similar monsters appeared... they were giant, and they also had corroded parts of their bodies. But they all didn’t look like flying centipedes...

Some of the monsters looked like bees, some sort of four-legged insects, and some even looked like pterodactyls with their long and thin wings... all of them could fly for some reason.

"Did they do a half-assed job exterminating the creatures of this world?" Rain asked.

"Considering the size of all those piles of trash in the distance, I would say that the monsters survived after mutating this environment," Sakaki said. "Perhaps they were brought here half dead instead and managed to get used to this place."

Indeed, necessity is often the catalyst for evolution, driving species to adapt to their environments in order to survive. In the case of the creatures encountered in the hostile environment, it’s likely that they underwent significant mutations to endure the harsh conditions they found themselves in.

Mutation, in biological terms, refers to changes in the genetic makeup of organisms, which can lead to variations in physical traits. When organisms are exposed to challenging environments, such as low oxygen levels and toxic gases, those with genetic mutations that confer advantages for survival are more likely to thrive and reproduce. Over time, these advantageous traits become more prevalent in the population, leading to evolutionary changes.

This process of adaptation demonstrates the resilience of life forms in the face of adversity and highlights the role of mutation in driving evolutionary change. Rain wanted to obtain control over that kind of thing, but it wouldn’t be simple or easy...

The piles of trash looked like the same ones Rain found in the underworld of Earth. Unlike those there, there was no conscious entity in that world that tried to hide the vestiges of the end of the planet... they didn’t have an overseer there. In any case, Rain checked the trash there, but he didn’t find anything useful.

"The trash of other civilizations is truly trash... the machine gods took out everything that could be useful," Rain thought. "This is only stones and burned metal."

"Shouldn’t you get a core of one of those monsters?" Elisabetha asked.

"Maybe later, when I am sure that we won’t leave any traces behind," Rain said. "If they find us, I can return here and turn their life force into cores without a care."

In the end, nothing major happened while Rain was on that planet, and he soon had the chance to use Portal Conjuration once more... just as Sakaki had said, his progress was off the charts, and he was able to move to the next planet with ease, just by knowing the direction and the distance between them... Sakaki did the math for that to be possible.

The skill Portal Conjuration leveled up.

The skill Spatial Manipulation Mastery leveled up.

The skill Portal Conjuration leveled up.

The skill Spatial Manipulation Mastery leveled up.

...

The next planet looked even worse than the previous one... there weren’t many signs of trash like broken stones and metals, but Rain found himself standing in an endless sea of bones.

The bones across the landscape varied in shape and size, exhibiting a diverse array of forms. Among them were curved, long, and spiked bones, hinting at the existence of creatures with formidable physiques and diverse anatomical structures. Despite being partially buried under layers of sand and dust, many of the bones appeared remarkably intact, indicating the resilience of the creatures they once belonged to. Strikingly, there were no discernible signs of decomposition or further decay, suggesting that these creatures possessed unique biological properties or were subjected to environmental conditions conducive to preservation.

This time, the group didn’t sense any living presence nearby, so they just stayed silent while watching all that... Rain had planned to keep everyone relaxed, but with a sight like that, there wasn’t much that he could do.

"This made me recall something from my previous life..." Rain thought. " When my father entered my room, he would always say: Son, I have a question. Why, when I always enter your bedroom, are you always looking at the wallpaper on the computer screen?"

"As usual, I don’t get your sense of humor," Elisabetha said, and Rain could imagine her rolling her eyes. "Still, I can understand the feeling of trying to think about anything else while looking at this scene."

That was the power and the result of the actions of the machine gods... they always created places like that, filled with nothing but death.