Re:Ant Lord-Chapter 180: The Void Between

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He felt instant agony all over his body. The pain hit like a freight train, no, a collapsing galaxy, a storm of crushing pressure and tearing force.

Reality folded inward, then exploded outward in kaleidoscopic pulses as the dimensional seam swallowed them.

Kai gritted his teeth as the system’s last warning echoed like thunder through his mind.

[Warning! Turbulence Imminent.]

[Warning! Turbulence Imminent.]

[Warning! Turbulence Imminent.]

[Warning: Dimensional Flux is Unstable. Space is folding at unpredictable intervals.]

Every fiber of his Monarch frame shrieked, his exoskeleton flexing and hardening reflexively.

He twisted his arms and shielded Azhara, who was latched onto his back like a leech. A desperate, unconscious, but unrelenting.

Her arms clung around his torso. Her cheek pressed between his shoulder bones. Her legs had wrapped around his waist, her claws digging into the ridges of his armor like body. She was breathing... barely.

He could feel the trembling of her body, even in her unconscious state. Her instincts had overridden logic, her body wanted to stay on him, fused to him, protected by him.

A fresh rip through space yanked them sideways.

Kai growled. But he endured it, not for himself, but for her.

Even if his soul got scraped across dimensions, even if his body got spliced again, he would protect her. Because she was now... one of his.

Somewhere Beyond the Rift Gate. Everything was in darkness. Not the kind found beneath soil or hidden beneath dead roots—this was deeper.

Colder. Older.

It wasn’t just a lack of light, it was the absence of creation. It felt... cold. Not in temperature, but in memory.

It was Soundless.

Even his own breathing was muted, like it had been stolen from his chest.

It felt Endless.

Everywhere he looked, nothing had form. No gravity. No scent. No warmth. Only that hollow silence pressing on his carapace like a great cosmic hand.

His limbs drifted. He tried to move his fingers but the signal felt delayed, as if pushing thought through molasses.

His breath—was it even real?

The system had gone quiet. There were no colors. No textures. Just him and leach like a girl on his back.

Drifting in space.

Suspended.

Detached from all natural laws.

"Where... am I?" he asked himself.

He forced his eyes open. It didn’t matter. There was nothing to see. Except Azhara.

She was still on his back, her body limp, yet her grip refused to loosen. Her new antennae lay slack against her head, her mouth parted in unconscious tension. Her chest rose against his spine. Still alive.

Still holding on.

Her claws had left faint lines across his ribs, yet he said nothing. He wouldn’t let go either.

Then...Specks. Tiny flickers pierced the void. White. Blue. Gold. Crimson. One. Two. Dozens. Hundreds. Like dust motes in water. Like eyes blinking from beyond time.

"Stars?"

No. Not stars. They were... real. Distant celestial bodies. Moving. Shimmering. Watching.

Then the realization hit him. Like a meteor to the skull. They were in space. Or something deeper than space. Not a world. Not a plane. But the infinite passage between worlds.

The veil that separated creation from destruction. The pocket that existed before gods dreamed of the cosmos.

Azhara stirred faintly on his back, mumbling in her sleep. He clenched his fists.

"Hold on."

Because if he doesn’t find a way out soon... They might never stop drifting.

Nothing moved. Not the stars. Not the pressureless air. Not the two bodies floating in the current of reality’s deepest trench.

Kai drifted with his arms slightly raised, legs slack behind him, as if frozen mid dive. His Monarch body was cracked at the shoulders where turbulence had sheared his aura shields. His antennae hung limp. His chest still glowed faintly—each slow thump of his core sending out a dim pulse of reddish light that briefly painted the edges of the void.

His thoughts sharpened slowly.

"System...?"

No answer.

"Status...?"

Still nothing.

He shifted his torso slightly to test movement. Her chest squished against his back like two warm water pillows strapped to armor.

"Still glued on like a leech," he thought, grimacing. ,"And she said she wanted to be my subordinate, not a back-mounted accessory."

Kai focused inward again.

"System, wake up. Respond. Give me any signal."

Nothing.

The void pressed deeper into him. There were no planets, no suns, no winds. It was a graveyard of existence between the cracks of time.

Until... A sound. A single metallic chime echoed once in his skull.

[System Rebooting... Initializing Low Aura Mode... Error. No external field detected.

Emergency Protocol Active – Spatial Anchor Search Initiated]

Kai exhaled in relief.

At least something was working.

He waited. Seconds. Minutes. He couldn’t tell. Time moved wrong here. It drifted sideways or looped behind his back like a serpent that had no tail.

Then—’

[Warning: Host is adrift in a Non-Euclidean Interstice Realm. This is a transitional fracture between Realspace Layers.

Category: Dimensional Scar.

Stability: 17%. Collapse risk: High.]

"...You’re telling me we’re in a crack between realities?"

[Affirmative.]

Kai glanced again toward the blinking lights. Something was watching from the other side. Something older than time, draped in rules that didn’t exist anymore. Eyes that knew things. Eyes that waited.

Kai clenched his fists. "Then get me out of here."

A faint current of warmth threaded through the void, like a single heartbeat in the womb of the universe.

Kai felt it—soft, distant, but unmistakably real.

Then the system pulsed inside his skull once more.

[System Notification- Spatial Anchor Located.

Nearest Realspace Beacon: Weekend Unidentified.

Stabilizing micro-tear in dimensional veils...

Estimated Energy Required: 8,000 Aura. Source: Host Aura.

Processing...

Kai’s eyes narrowed. "Do it. I don’t care. When I am in apex Form, my aura increases by 120%. Right now I have 8000+ aura."

[Confirmed. Using host aura to trigger breach stabilization.

Energy spike successful.

Opening passage—duration temporary.

Warning: Exit location cannot be controlled.

After using aura, the Host will be returned to humanoid state.]

"I don’t care. I just want to leave this place." Kai replied.