Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 454: Nothing a little acid can’t fix.

It was like time froze. And then everyone around them found some means of making themselves invisible or they stood still like the rocks on the mountain.

But one rock behind Nimo trembled. Veins of glowing magma split across its surface. Slowly, it unfolded into a creature of stone: jagged arms, buff chest, and a face curved by centuries of erosion.

Nimo smiled nervously. "Does anyone else hear cracking?" She whispered.

Alfred whispered furiously, "Behind you." He gestured behind her and tried to shout a new direction in which she should run.

But he could not shout as he wished because Sunshine was covering his mouth with her hand. She went so far as to seal it with ice. "We are in mountain territory, try not to awaken more stone men."

Nimo turned around meanwhile and stifled the scream in her throat. Her hand reached into her pocket for an acid grenade.

Sunshine was already on the move. Ice silently exploded beneath her boots launching her sideways while she hurled the hammer in a spinning arc, electricity screamed along its surface as it struck the creature mid-phase, the impact released a concussive shock that shattered the stone man into jagged fragments before the echo finished forming.

With quicker speed, she froze the shattered pieces before they could fall down.

Alfred stared, stunned by her speed, "How have you become so cool?" He whispered.

Sunshine smirked. She wanted to tell him that she had always been cool but something at them lunged from above. She spun on a single foot unleashing a concentrated jet of ice upward, forcing the creature to solidify for a split second.

Then, she shattered it into hundreds of little pieces. But the movements had awakened more rocks that were trembling.

The mountain echoed, like it was in pain.

"Well fuck and shit!" Nimo whispered furiously. "The mountain snitched on us."

"This is the part where we run." Sunshine made a good suggestion considering the situation. "I will cover the both of you! GO!" She bellowed.

She deliberately moved erratically, stopping, reversing, leaping without pattern as she froze and shattered every stone man that came to life.

Alfred refused to leave, his fire zigzagged wildly while yelling, " Suni, go ahead. "His eyes shimmering with unspoken devotion as if telling her that he was ready to sacrifice himself for her.

"I said go because I can handle it. No one is dying today." She barked.

Alfred, hurried off in the direction Nimo had taken, a path that she had seen others taking when more rocks awakened.

Sunshine remained alone in battle. The stone men lunged, she countered them with brutal precision, freezing and shattering or smashing them with her hammer.

To her surprise, flames re-joined the fight. Alfred had not obeyed her command. And neither had Nimo. They had simply found a tree and crouched behind it. From there, they were helping her as much as they could.

Nimo hurled two acid grenades, and they exploded softly in the faces of two stone men. While they did not melt the hard bodies of the creatures, they caused a simmering.

A minor erosion that bit into the rocky flesh.

Suddenly, the stone men came to a stop. The rocks that had been shaking also stopped. And just like that, the stone men staggered backwards.

The two that had been hit with acid faltered. The glowing magma like veins dimmed and cracks formed in their bodies.

They stone men found their former position and returned to a state of inactivity, their forms collapsing back into lifeless rocks.

The echo died.

Alfred exhaled shakily, "Why did they retreat?"

"Because acid erodes everything." Nimo declared with a grin.

Sunshine murmured, "Because retreating is better than fighting a losing battle, they live to fight another day."

She looked at her watch. One hour had elapsed so far and they had yet to reach their destination. At the speed they were using, they would use up all two hours without gaining anything.

And that was not a possibility to her.

"System, add an extra hour. I will pay for it."

[As you wish.]

She looked at Nimo and Alfred. "Let’s use the hoverboards. I noticed some people using flying gadgets or speeding ones. As long they don’t make a sound, it is okay."

The two nodded and took to the air again. Sunshine kept her eyes on the compass.

Nimo balanced gracefully, eyes wide as marveled over the fact that she was technically flying upside down.

Alfred held on to his with a firm grip, tense and sweaty. He hoped that his sweat would not drop on the ground and wake up a sleeping rock.

The hoverboards glided silently, soaring past cliffs that hung like teeth. They passed over a waterfall that poured upward into the sky. Sunshine wished for the opportunity to dive into the waters like others were doing.

She wished to explore the green gardens and resort which was built near the waterfalls. But she also had no desire to spend more time on this planet than she had to. But maybe someday, she would bring Ariel to experience it.

Before they reached the main forest, they flew over some trees that appeared to be rooted in clouds. Their leaves seemed to whisper, asking what their desires were in soft overlapping voices.

"We will grant all your desires." The wind whispered.

Alfred grimaced, "How do they know my name?"

Sunshine said, "Ignore them please, we do not know the consequences of them fulfilling desires. They are not genies. It must be the work of something monstrous."

They touched down where others were stopping and the hoverboards came to a stop with a hum. They had arrived at the entrance of the breathing forest-a place that had been quenched with more blood than water.

The forest grew upside down like the mountains and everything else on this planet. Trunks dangled from cliffs above. Roots stretched into the sky and leaves shimmered like lanterns in the mist.

Yet the ground beneath their feet was soft, covered in moss that seemed to glow softly. Stones at the entrance were curved with symbols. Some telling stories and others sharing warnings.

Sunshine leaned closer to one and whispered, "The forest lives, the forest eats. The forest speaks without sound."

Nimo shuddered.

"I think I liked the mountains better." Alfred muttered.

Despite the ill feelings, they forged forward. It was no surprise when the forest began to strike the moment, they ventured a little deeper. Tree branches snapped downward like whips and coils, tightening around Sunshine’s limbs.

Alfred shouted sunshine’s name. His flames surged as he burned through several vines.

Sunshine also fought back, cold flooded her veins and ice exploded outward freezing the vines solid before she shattered them.

Freeze and shatter were the simplest and most efficient skills she had mastered.

More branches lunged and Alfred set them on fire.

Nimo just hurled out acid grenades like she was spilling free jellybeans. "One for you, one for you, and one for you." She muttered. "Oh, did I forget about you?"

"Nimo, I don’t have an inexhaustible supply of those." Sunshine hissed at her friend.

"We will deal with that when we survive hell mode." Nimo replied.

Like that, they followed the directions availed by the compass and eventually reached their destination.

The three came to a standstill, disbelieving what they were witnessing.

"Oh, what fresh hell is this?" Nimo groaned.