My Talent's Name Is Generator Chapter 782 A Living Discovery

This time, passing through the portal felt entirely different.

No smooth folding of distance occurred, nor did colors stretch briefly or pressure snap back sharply. Rather, it resembled a descent. As if one were engulfed while taking a step.

The illumination altered initially.

Once my boots hit firm ground once more, our surroundings appeared shadowy and expansive. A vast cavern extended all around, its roof vanishing into darkness, its surfaces throbbing softly with an icy crimson light. The floor wasn't exactly rock. It seemed overly sleek in spots, jagged in others, like it had been molded instead of hewn.

North scanned the area deliberately, her blades partially materialized in her grip. Steve shrugged his shoulders, sparks of lightning flickering subtly under his skin. Knight remained motionless, his head angled, tail positioned low.

Lyrate shattered the quiet first.

"Where are we?" she inquired softly.

"I'm not certain yet," I answered, while extending my awareness outward.

Initially, it resembled charting a network of caves. One room led to the next, then further on, each more immense than the previous. Paths forked and wound, some squeezing into narrow corridors, others widening into enormous voids capable of engulfing entire metropolises. That crimson light permeated everything, seeping from the walls akin to glowing organisms.

Yet as my awareness extended further, a growing unease built.

No voids separated these areas. No real divides existed. All linked too seamlessly, too naturally. Those paths weren't mere tunnels. They functioned as conduits.

My awareness probed deeper, beyond the supposed edge.

Sudden understanding struck.

My breathing steadied.

"We're not in a base," I stated.

All eyes turned to me.

"We're within something."

Knight's gaze sharpened. "Inside... what?"

Before my response, the cavern trembled.

The surfaces undulated.

What we'd taken for rock bent, gently at the start, then fiercely. The crimson light intensified as the nearby walls tightened, making the atmosphere dense, laden with force and hostility.

Twisted power rushed forth.

Deathmist poured into the space from all angles, surging like waves, bearing an entity so immense it bordered on intangible.

A monstrosity.

A breathing container.

My awareness burst fully open, shifting from rooms to outline. A gigantic shadow floated in the emptiness ahead, its contour now clear in full view. Broad and level, featuring broad wings that sliced through the void like edges. An enormous ray-shaped beast, its form laced with strands of taint.

We resided within it.

The awareness had just dawned when the surfaces tore apart.

Tissue retracted.

Sturdy appendages burst from all sides, each tipped with a hideous maw ringed by twisting fangs. They whipped at us in unison, scores simultaneously, striking swifter than catapults.

I sneered.

Power erupted from my center, spreading in one broadening pulse.

The appendages dissolved in mid-attack, their forms dissolving into dust and mist before nearing us. The blast ripped across the space, clearing a zone around our position.

Yet the monstrosity didn't flinch.

It wailed.

The deathmist grew denser, forming a choking deluge that battered us from every direction.

"Ash," I uttered steadily.

Symbols ignited.

A see-through shield materialized around us right as the taint collided with it. The barrier endured, symbols glowing intensely while countering the immense strain bearing down.

With full concentration now, I noticed it.

The surfaces.

Symbols were inscribed right into the tissue. Intricate binding formations integrated straight into the monstrosity's frame, stacked so profoundly they warped the interior dimensions.

I attempted to shift us beyond the beast.

No effect.

The dimensions ignored my call.

I furrowed my brow lightly and tried once more, applying greater force, but my grasp slipped from a hidden restraint.

We weren't merely within it.

We were confined.

Ash's words sounded nearby. "Biological Sealing runes. This thing locks space internally. Once you're inside, teleportation is restricted unless it allows it."

I breathed out gradually. "That's incredibly stupid."

Yet another quake shook the space as additional tissue stirred, the monstrosity fully engaging now that it grasped our nature.

My awareness adjusted anew, probing its interior.

"Found it."

Farther inside, past veils of taint and symbol-fortified layers, a ripple emerged. An alien construct lodged within the beast, steady amid the surrounding turmoil.

A gateway.

Probably the relay's departure.

"That's our escape," I declared, gesturing at nothing. "A gate lies deeper inside."

Before replies came, the surfaces started contracting.

Tissue advanced, blocking routes, squeezing dimensions as the monstrosity sought to cut us off from its core. The route to the gateway twisted, constricting swiftly.

Steve eyed me. "So... plan?"

I surveyed the encroaching walls of animated taint and let out a breath.

"Do I just make this thing one of my summons?"

Silence hung briefly.

Then voices overlapped.

"No."

"Absolutely not."

"That's disgusting."

"Please don't."

I blinked, glancing their way. "Why not?"

Knight's tail flicked sharply. "Because I do not want to spend eternity traveling inside that."

North winced. "Also, no."

I regarded them briefly, then lifted my shoulders. "Alright. Your loss."

I advanced and lifted my hand.

The Star of Origin engaged.

A whirlpool formed, compact yet intensely packed. The attraction hit instantly. Deathmist tore loose from the monstrosity's frame, pulled to the star like metal shavings to lodestone. The beast spasmed, its taint coming undone as power strata were peeled off.

Its cry rang out fiercely this round.

The surfaces fractured.

The symbols blazed and extinguished sequentially as their energy faded.

As the deathmist cleared sufficiently to reveal the beast's actual shape below, I balled my hand.

Power amassed.

Moments appeared to drag.

I moved ahead and delivered one strike.

BOOM!

The collision erupted savagely.

A breach punched right through the monstrosity's core, precise and total, its frame halting momentarily before imploding. The huge shape started breaking down, its tissue fragmenting into particles as the taint holding it together dissolved completely.

The weight lifted alongside it.

Dimensions freed.

I acted without delay.

I bent space encircling us and relocated the team straight to the space I'd detected before.

We materialized before the gateway, its face already faltering as the beast perished nearby. Ash advanced at once, moving up while symbols lit on his palms. He input the relay details, adding binding formations to the gateway amid the failing framework.

The gateway ignited.

We passed inside.

And the relay base materialized abruptly beyond.