The angle at which the Shadow-Crossing Shuttle cut in was precise to the point of cruelty.
The instant its bow plunged into the pitch-black "wall of water," the devastating impact they had anticipated did not come at once. The surroundings abruptly sank into an absolute darkness and silence so viscous it seemed capable of freezing even thought. Only the constant, fine scratching from outside the hull remained, setting their teeth on edge—the sound of highly condensed dark energy currents eroding the outer shell.
Every display inside the ship went dark in an instant. Only a few emergency lamps remained, casting a sickly green glow over everyone's tense, pale faces. Even sound itself seemed to have been swallowed by the darkness.
Neji kept his eyes closed, wholly immersed in the perception of his Divine Eye. In his "vision," the outside was not pure darkness, but countless violent, surging currents of dark energy. They were like hundreds of millions of intertwined black pythons, colliding, crushing, and annihilating one another. As he controlled the Shadow-Crossing Shuttle, it threaded through the gaps between those writhing serpents, searching for a fleeting path through a "wave trough."
Violent tremors and groans constantly ran through the hull. The protective coating made from Chaos True Essence and crystal dust was visibly being ground away and thinning. Xuan stared intently at an ancient energy Compass in his hand, one they had found in the ruins. After the needle spun madly, it would occasionally point in a particular direction, and he immediately transmitted the information to Neji through mental waves.
"Turn left seven degrees! The energy density is dropping!" Xuan's voice was especially clear in the dead silence.
The Shadow-Crossing Shuttle suddenly rolled sideways, barely avoiding a torrent of dark energy that crashed across its path. The hull tilted, and