Chapter 280: The Desruction of Climber Rift

Gideon barely had time to react before another section of the ceiling collapsed.

He grabbed Aaron by the collar and dragged him away from the falling debris, narrowly avoiding a chunk of rock that struck the ground hard enough to crack the stone beneath it.

"Fuck! This is bad. I need to do something."

The hive mind continued moving toward the opening, its enormous mass squeezing through the damaged passage. Thick white strands dragged themselves across the ground, crawling over broken rocks as though the creature had no intention of leaving anything behind.

Gideon moved to the closest body of the hive mind and swung the Unbreakable Sword, cutting through another cluster of white tendrils.

The strands split apart cleanly, their severed ends writhing against the stone. For a brief moment, he thought he had finally made some progress.

Then the pieces began crawling toward each other. The white tissue reconnected, fusing together until the cut disappeared completely.

Gideon stared at it and swung again just to make sure.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

He could keep cutting the damn thing apart, but unless he found a way to prevent it from regenerating, he might as well be chopping vegetables.

Worse, the Hive Mind continued pushing through the mine, its enormous mass squeezing into every available space while the surrounding stone trembled beneath its weight.

Gideon’s gaze shifted toward the flames gathering in his palm.

Pyro should have been the obvious answer. If his sword couldn’t destroy the parasite, perhaps he could burn it until nothing remained.

Yet his instincts warned him against it.

He couldn’t explain the feeling, but something told him that using fire here would make the situation worse. Whether it would accelerate the creature’s growth or trigger some other reaction, he wasn’t willing to find out with an entire settlement sitting above them.

"Fine. Keep your disgusting body."

Gideon dismissed the flames and reached into his system storage, retrieving a teleportation scroll he had purchased from the Infinite Store with Paylatter while thinking what kind of weapon he could buy from the store, big enough to destroy it but not burn it. The answer was none,

He ended up buying only teleportation.

He pressed closer to Aaron, making sure the unconscious man was within the scroll’s range, then unfolded the parchment.

"Hang on Aaron, we will get out of this hell."

The scroll glowed, and space twisted around them.

A moment later, the darkness of the mine vanished.

Gideon and Aaron appeared on a rocky ledge overlooking Climber Rift. The canyon beneath them remained intact, its buildings clinging to the walls and its bridges connecting the various platforms. From this distance, he could even make out people moving through the settlement.

For half a second, relief washed over him. But as if the universe was mocking him, the western canyon suddenly blew up.

A violent blast tore through the middle part of the canyon, sending rocks and shattered supports flying into the air. The ground lurched beneath Gideon’s feet, forcing him to grab Aaron and steady himself against the cliff wall.

Before he could even process what had happened, the canyon began to collapse.

White tendrils burst from the ruined opening, followed by an enormous mass of pale tissue that surged upward like a wave breaking through a dam. The Hive Mind poured out of the mine, spreading across the western platforms before crashing into the settlement.

Buildings disappeared beneath the advancing mass. Bridges buckled, wooden structures splintered, and the white growth spilled over the edges of the canyon walls like an ocean of milk.

Gideon stood frozen, watching the destruction unfold.

’Oh, I’m fucked.’

Climber Rift was being swallowed right before his eyes, and he had no idea how to stop it.

If Jade survived this, she would absolutely kill him.

Honestly, he couldn’t even blame her.

Yet as the Hive Mind continued spreading, dread gave way to a different emotion. Anger tightened his jaw, and his fingers curled into fists.

He had fought countless aberrants. He had killed monsters capable of tearing through defenses and survived battles that should have left him dead.

And now, some soft-bodied mass of parasite tissue was causing destruction on a scale his abilities couldn’t handle.

"How the hell can something this squishy cause so much trouble?"

The Hive Mind continued devouring the settlement, indifferent to his outrage.

Gideon gritted his teeth. He hated feeling powerless more than anything else and right now, he had absolutely no fucking idea what to do.

"Jade! Where are you?!"

The shout came from somewhere below.

Gideon immediately turned toward the sound. Another desperate voice followed, calling for the Freebound and anyone who might still be alive.

He looked over the edge of the rocky ledge and spotted a man struggling in the white mass below, his body sinking beneath its surface before reappearing several meters away.

Gideon narrowed his eyes, "Is that... Kilian?"

The man was being tossed around like someone caught in rough water. The Hive Mind’s elastic body stretched beneath him, swallowing his legs before releasing him again, only for another wave of white tissue to drag him under.

Gideon didn’t waste another second and jumped down the settlement, to the body of the hive mind.

The broken canyon offered several exposed ledges and chunks of rock that had survived the explosion.

Gideon landed on the nearest one, his boots skidding across the loose stone, then pushed himself toward another outcropping before leaping again.

The white mass rose around his legs as he reached the final stretch, its surface stretching and rippling like a disturbed sea.

Kilian’s head emerged just as Gideon reached him.

"Hold still!"

"Gideon?! What the hell?! I thought you were dead!"

Gideon seized the back of his uniform and pulled him upward.

The Hive Mind stretched around Kilian’s waist, clinging to him like thick, elastic water, but Gideon planted one boot against a protruding rock and yanked with all his strength.

The white tissue finally released him.

Both men tumbled onto a broad slab of stone that had remained suspended above the worst of the destruction.

Kilian landed on his back, coughing violently while white residue slid from his clothes. Gideon rolled onto one knee beside him, breathing harder than he wanted to admit.

For a moment, neither spoke until Kilian sat up and grabbed Gideon’s arm.

"Where the hell have you been?!"

Gideon raised an eyebrow. "Nice to see you too."

"Don’t give me that!" Kilian pointed toward the settlement, where another wave of white tissue rolled over the ruined platforms.

"The western canyon exploded, the Hive Mind came pouring out of the mine, and half the settlement is being swallowed by this thing. Where were you, and what the hell happened underground?"

"That’s not important right now."

"Not important?" Kilian stared at him as though he had lost his mind. "Gideon, look around us!"

"I am looking." Gideon gestured toward the white mass. "Which is why I’d rather discuss something more useful. How are you still alive?"

Kilian’s expression changed.

Gideon leaned forward, his tone becoming more serious. "The Hive Mind can manipulate people’s perception. It trapped Jasper in an illusion and controlled Aaron’s body, and I saw what happened to the others. Yet you were practically drowning in that thing, and you’re still yourself. How?"

Kilian looked down at his hands. His fingers trembled slightly, whether from exhaustion or the memory of what he had experienced, Gideon couldn’t tell.

"I saw my parents," he finally said.

"They were alive. My family was alive, and the world was still peaceful. There was no apocalypse, no aberrants, no settlements struggling to survive every damn day."

Kilian swallowed, his gaze drifting toward the distant canyon walls. "I was back in the life I had before everything fell apart."

For a moment, his expression softened.

"It felt real. I could talk to them, sit with them, and pretend none of this had ever happened."

"And you decided to leave that paradise?" Gideon asked.

Kilian gave him a tired look. "I have a wife and a child, remember?"

"Hana and Olive, that devil kid."

"My son." Kilian’s jaw tightened. "I remembered them. I remembered that they were still still in your settlement, waiting for me to come back. Even if the place I saw was perfect, it wasn’t real. I couldn’t abandon them for a life that didn’t exist."

He drew a slow breath before continuing.

"So I stopped playing along. I kept looking for a way out instead of accepting what I saw. Every time the illusion reset, I searched for something different. I refused to follow the same sequence of events, even when it meant watching everything start over."

"And?"

"The loops became unstable. Small cracks appeared in places that hadn’t changed before. Every time I refused to follow the illusion, those cracks grew larger until the whole world started falling apart."

Kilian rubbed a hand over his face. "Eventually, I realized I was looking at something constructed to keep me there. Once I understood that, I could see through it."

Gideon fell silent. Then his gaze shifted toward the white ocean surrounding them.

"So the trick is to stop accepting the illusion as reality."

"More or less. I don’t know if everyone can do the same thing. I only know what worked for me."

Gideon considered that carefully.

At least the Hive Mind wasn’t simply killing everyone it swallowed. It was trapping them inside their own minds, keeping them occupied with whatever illusion it had created.

And if the illusion could be broken, then the Hive Mind wasn’t invincible.

A slow grin appeared on Gideon’s face.

Kilian noticed it immediately. "Why are you smiling?"

"Because I might have found a way to make this thing regret ruin my day."

"Gideon, the settlement is collapsing."

"I’m aware."

"People are still trapped in there!"

"I know."

Kilian stared at him, visibly struggling to decide whether he wanted to punch him or demand an actual explanation.

Gideon rose to his feet and drew the Unbreakable Sword.

"We’ll find a way to kill this disgusting bastard. That illusion might be the key."