And after three minutes…
They continued running, with Ares already far ahead of Hikari.
Hikari gritted her teeth and thought :
“He’s incredibly fast!”
“How can he run this fast without caring about his balance at all?!”
“Why does he make everything look so easy?!”
“Damn it! He’s getting smaller and smaller. I’m already about to lose sight of him!”
Her thoughts were interrupted when Ares suddenly stopped…
Hikari’s expression tightened for a moment, and she increased her speed even further, thinking:
“What disaster has he discovered this time? I’ll hurry and get closer. Perhaps I’ll catch some kind of clue…”
Ares lowered himself onto his knees, with both his knees and feet firmly against the ground, and gripped the two edges of the wall tightly with his hands…
Hikari immediately realized what was happening.
She turned around and shouted at the people who had followed them up the wall and were running behind them, raising both hands as she yelled :
“Get down and hold onto the wall!”
She immediately lowered herself as well and gripped both edges of the wall tightly.
And suddenly…
Both walls began shaking violently and gradually moved closer toward each other !
The shaking was so violent that Hikari’s hands nearly slipped several times.
Meanwhile, among the people who had followed her and Ares, some listened to her, lowered themselves at the right moment, and held on tightly enough to remain steady.
Others failed to realize what was happening quickly enough.
The shaking began, and they fell.
As for those below, some were already in the lead and close to the end of the walls.
They managed to break free and get out before the walls completely closed.
Some were overcome by panic and began screaming until their vocal cords gave out, then started running randomly until they were crushed between the two walls.
Others desperately tried to climb the walls, but to no avail.
They simply continued slipping until their end came.
Hikari quickly pulled her hand away, and the two walls slammed together.
Ares stood up and continued running a short distance until he reached the end of the wall.
Ares stopped and began looking around and downward.
Hikari looked at him and thought:
“The exit!”
“I became so preoccupied with the two walls moving closer together that I completely forgot about this.”
“Now that the two walls have closed together, we’ve lost the last obvious way down!”
Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw Ares take several steps backward and fix his eyes on the massive forest of trees that was now extremely far away…
She continued thinking :
“Don’t tell me he’s going to…”
And in a completely insane move, Ares suddenly sprinted and leaped toward the forest !!
He landed on one of the branches, and it immediately snapped!
He tried to grab onto another branch, but it snapped as well.
Finally, he caught hold of a large branch and regained his balance!
He easily descended from the tree at great speed and continued running.
Hikari opened her mouth in shock and slapped her head with her hand until she finally came to her senses.
She took a deep breath and told herself :
“Pull yourself together, Hikari.”
“I know this is completely insane, but there is no other way.”
“If things go wrong, I’ll use the Yurvana immediately…”
Hikari took several steps backward and fixed her gaze on the massive tree, still pressing her hand tightly.
Hikari took a deep breath and relaxed her hand…
She ran several steps and made a huge leap toward the massive tree…
At first, fear overwhelmed her, but gradually, she began to feel a strange exhilaration…
As if she had been freed from all the restraints that had always weighed her down…
Perhaps that exhilaration lasted only a few seconds, but it was more than enough to imprint that feeling into her memory—a feeling she would never forget for the rest of her life…
Luckily for her, she landed successfully on a large branch.
It did not break; it only bent slightly.
Hikari quickly descended from the tree and continued running…