Chapter 251 - The needle's surprise!

The team made it to the twelve-thousand kilometer mark in no time! As birds, the distance they were making, with little to no effort was exemplary, and in a way, it was also unexpected! Timothy wouldn’t have ever thought that birds, or the bodies of birds were this useful, it was beyond him.

However, just after they hit that mark, they ran into a problem that was not related with what they’ve faced throughout their travels so far. There was no simple way to prepare against it.

The team was hunting for fish, near the sea, and they’ve grown accustomed to swimming near one another, so they fished as a flock. Out of a sudden, a massive wyrm leaped out of the water in front of them, with its mouth wide open. It was not a normal Sea Orc, per se, but its species didn’t matter at the moment, because it tried to swallow the team whole regardless of the collective consensus!

They’ve already been through the throat of a wyrm before, and they were not fans, so they didn’t want to go through any similar experiences again. However, they could not escape the wyrm’s line of trajectory, not with so little time on their hands, so most of them simply floated forwards, and hoped for the best!

Timothy wasn’t as cooperative, however. He opened a portal within a mere second, the only kind of portal he could open, that is, and he did so in front of the team, and himself, which allowed them to cross through it, before they could even reach the throat of the monster! He got them into the needle universe of Purpureous Mundi, almost effortlessly, just because he timed the moment right, so he evidently saved all of them from what could've been a brutal death!

“That was close,” Arvena sighed, as she tried to regain her composure.

Afterwards, they hoped across the ground to regroup, and they looked like mischievous crows as they regained their composure, unsurprisingly so. They might as well be mischievous, because in a way, they’ve escaped one problem, and flew into another, so they had to be smart regarding how they acted within their surroundings from this point onwards!

“Your mini universe is red again?! Doesn’t this mean that we’re in the bug world now?” Gustav asked, frantically, as he was not a fan of giant bugs, even though he dominated them during some previous encounters. “I’m not dissecting another giant mantis!”

“We don’t have to fight anything, we can just go back through the portal.” Tim followed along, “But… Come on, man, the timeline of my needle universe changed, without my acknowledgement. Don’t you wanna know if there’s anything new for us to see?”

“Nope,” Gustav said, and flapped his wings around, very cartoon-like. “To me, giant bugs are more terrifying than they’re special, so, let’s just turn back. We were making some great distance back there!”

After a lengthy debate, Timothy ultimately convinced everyone to explore the needle universe with him. He was difficult to argue with, and overall, his senses of curiosity would win against any challenge, so it wasn’t surprising that he won them over!

To be more safe, the five of them shapeshifted into goblins. Most of them shifted into Degranus Goblins, because that was the race that they were comfortable with. Gustav turned into a Fal Goblin, which was his original species, it was what he was born as. Overall, it was simply easier to fight with a pair of either arms or legs to their aid.

Timothy also knitted sets of bone armor for everyone, because they did not want to know what a nasty, giant bug bite felt like. They were hoping to avoid it.

Anyway, after they were shifted, suited and booted, they started exploring the land around them. The exclusively crimson features of the vegetation around them was a true eye-sore, but they didn’t care much about that, or at least, Tim did not.

Timothy was more interested in the time-related aspects of the matter, and he wanted to figure out just how he got back to this specific timeline of Purpureus Mundi. There was little to no context supporting the situation that they were in!

After killing a few bugs, they made it to that castle that they had visited a few months ago. The castle was just as they remembered it, and since it was the only thing in this universe that wasn’t crimson-colored, it was quite easy to spot.

“Oh…” Gustav sighed, “Do we have to kill those humans again? I wouldn’t feel so great about it.”

“Let’s hope we don’t have to,” Tim said.

The team approached the castle with caution, and when they saw that the door of the castle was still closed, they didn’t know how to feel about it. This could be a positive thing, or a negative thing, the latter being that there still were inhabitants within the castle. The last thing they wanted to see right now was a bunch of powerful humans!

It was best not to put themselves at risk in this particular situation, because the telekinetic mages that inhabited this place during one of Tim’s past visits, could explode the hearts, and organs of their enemies if they wanted to, all from a far distance! It was unwise to fight them head on, not without a plan, at least.

Thankfully, Tim figured out a very decent plan. He lifted the team to the top of one of the castle towers, and he did so by making fragments of bones do all of the heavy lifting, which was a bit uncomfortable, but effective. This tower had a hatch on it, and with little effort, he pried it open!

This way, they could enter the castle in the sneakiest way he could think of. If there were humans in there, the team would be able to catch them by surprise, and massacre them once more if the situation demanded it.

Eventually, they made it all the way down to the main hall, where the long dining table was set. At this point it was certain that there weren’t any humans around here, because if there were, they would’ve run into a couple of them already.

To be more safe, they had to check every corner of the castle, and make a conclusion as to where they stood in regards to the passing of time! With that considered, they spread out, and explored the castle.

Timothy’s first instinct was to make his way to the main gate, and see if there were any dead corpses over there. He vividly remembered leaving the corpses of those humans there, because he believed that they wouldn’t decompose, on the count of how differently time passed here, in Purpureus Mundi.

In his head, if he did find corpses near the main gate, he would be the happiest man in the universe, which was twisted, but appropriate to their current situation. He made it there, and to his luck, he did find the corpses!

“Great! They’re still dead.” He sighed in relief.

Out of a sudden, a thick, gravelly voice sounded out from the darker portions of the main gate’s hall, and it said. “Celebrating the death of your enemies? You are truly embracing the Devil’s Kiss… I am impressed.”