The Doomsday Dash

The Feast Sea was only a fragment of a world. It had held together solely because of the Sealing.

While the Sealing imprisoned the Great Demon, it also stabilized space. It was like a pillar holding up a roof: remove the pillar, and the house would collapse under the pressure.

"This is bad! This world's about to collapse. We need to leave, now!"

Hawkins saw the enormous crack in the sky and shouted to everyone.

He rushed to Mani, scooped up both Manis, and sprinted toward the Challenger. The others came to their senses and hurried after him.

Many people might imagine that a crack in a world was like a crack in an eggshell: at worst, the yolk and white would spill out.

But that was not how it worked.

Once a world cracked open, one of two things could happen.

Energy from outside could flood in, even spatial energy.

When the concentration of spatial energy reached a certain level, space would turn solid. Weaker living beings would be frozen inside it, like insects encased in resin—specimens preserved in place.

Or the spatial energy inside could leak out. Matter existed within space, so the escaping space would tear it apart.

That tearing force was tremendous, essentially on the same level as a spatial cut.

No one there—not Hawkins, nor Mani and the others—could withstand either outcome. Only the Challenger could save them.

Fortunately, although the Challenger had been caught in the earlier tsunami, the ship itself was undamaged. Once they started it, they would be safe.

"Faster, faster! All of you, run!"

Hawkins shouted back as he ran.

Not far away, a golden, gleaming Dis clung to a huge piece of driftwood. He had finally made it up from underwater. The moment he spotted Hawkins sprinting across the nearby