Chapter 51: Beyond the Slette

*Branm, bam bam* Shry's body tumbled a few times before stopping after skidding on the floor for a moment.
It was then that Shry's vision returned to him; the light from his room lit up all kinds of cheerful mementos, while outside his door was a scene of tragedy, a hell within heaven.
"SHRY RUN! GO AWAY!" Kanum let out a guttural yell, grabbing his son's attention by using his name before demanding he run away.
As Shry's vision cleared and his mind began to return, he quickly tried to recover from being thrown, desperately stumbling on his feet, which caused him to tumble a couple times before he was finally able to get on his knees in a position for him to push himself up.
Shry was just about to look through the doorway he was just thrown from, but in the corner of his eye, something else caught his attention.
To his left were dozens of transparent black barriers in the shape of a double door lined up artificially against the left corner of the room, the only empty corner in Shry's disorderly room.
"GET READY, I'M ABOUT TO OPEN A WAY FOR US. L-look at thE UNUSED CORNER OF YOUR ROOM." Kanum's voice was loud and commanding, but for a split moment, his voice faltered, briefly unable to hide his emotions.
Hearing his father's voice, Shry felt his body relax, calming him down for a moment and momentarily forgetting about everything else besides himself and his father.
After seeing that there's hope to keep whatever he had left, Shry felt a rush of relief, which led to the unfortunate circumstance where he turned around and looked at his father...
...
…
.
Standing upright, half of Kanum's body was enshrouded in a wall of darkness, the infinitely spanning void that has killed trillions of people in their world alone, now catching up to Kanum, first taking his leg before slowly creeping up through his torso. 
The scene was mortifying; Kanum's body was practically being hung up on the Slette as it got closer, like a deer head strung on a wall. A hunter proudly displaying their kill.
"..." Shry was silent.
Although no words were spoken, the air around Shry felt extremely heavy, like gravity itself was crushing your soul as unspoken words drifted in the air.
Shry's face couldn't keep up with the rapid change of emotion. Inside, he felt his heart had stopped beating, clenching as his face slowly drained of the remaining brightness it had left.
*BANG*
The barriers made by Kanum began to collide, smoothly creating a double-door-shaped hole in the wall.
As the debris launched outside, Kanum, whose hands were still free, swiped downwards in a plucking motion and manifested a pitch-black leaf in between his fingers.
Right as the rubble began to fall, the leaf in between Kanum's fingers vanished, and what happened next was astonishing. 
As the rubble fell, one by one, dust and larger debris were trapped in frozen time, forming a cohesive pathway descending to the road in front of their house. All the rubble and dust stayed stuck in time, using time itself as support to uphold its structure, a support that is stronger than any material or person could provide.
"Please run away!" Kanum said strenuously, his voice visibly becoming quieter as despair began to cloud his mind.
Shry twitched, his father's trembling voice shaking every cell in his body, causing him to constantly shiver uncontrollably, frozen and trying his best to hold whatever little will he has left.
Tears began to form on the side of his eyes, and he unconsciously began to crawl toward his father, never letting his eyes off him, desperately hoping that this scene would pause or reverse.
However, again, the Slette is relentless, and seconds later, it took Kanum's chest, and later, his shoulder, only leaving Kanum's disembodied head and hands.
"Please run away..." Kanum said as uncontrollable tears left his eye.
Kanum looked at his son, his most precious treasure, and like a staring contest, both of them continuously stared at each other, hoping that the other's figure wouldn't vanish from their sight.
Kanum's hands were gone...
Kanum's neck was gone...
Kanum's ears were gone...
…
..
.
Darkness... that was all that remained, the image of his son gone in one final blink...
...
Shry kneeled on the floor, becoming all that remained of his family. 
His face was frozen in horror, and his body was unmoving, like he had given up everything. Even the tears came uncontrollably, forming a never-ending stream as each tear dripped onto the ground and soaked it.
The Slette encroaches, ever so ruthlessly, like the lives it just took meant nothing.
Shry breathed in and out in shaky droves, but... he never moved, even as the Slette got closer.
...
But suddenly, it all stopped...
The Slette stopped...
Still and unmoving, frozen right before Shry's eyes, like it had finished its job and left without even glancing at the carnage it had caused.
Almost mockingly, the morning light that was supposed to shine an hour ago finally revealed itself, shining through the window of Shry's room. Painting a magnificently bright image as rays of bright and untainted sunlight shone from behind Shry, beaming into his room and overpowering the ceiling light, shining onto him like a spotlight.
"..." Shry stayed silent.
*Cheep cheep* the birds began to chirp.
A peaceful, beautiful morning, tainted by an infinite wall of black, creating a contrast with Shry in between.
"...I... Wha... Why..." Shry tried to speak, but his words were caught in his throat; even his breaths were stuttering. 
Shry's body was twitching, like it wanted to move, but after all that happened, he couldn't even bring himself to lift a finger, as his eyes grew listless.
However, his body had other plans, moving by itself while his mind was overloaded with emotions. 
But no matter how much his body nudged him to move, none of those movements had any energy in them, and when his body instinctively tried to get up, he fell, tumbling forward, falling straight toward the Slette.
*Thud!*
Shry bounced off the Slette like it was an actual black wall, falling backwards after his collision.
This was the indication that Slette had completely run its course, and now, it enters a calibration state before anyone can enter its trials and reclaim the land the Slette took.
After falling onto the floor hard, it was like Shry was jolted awake, igniting a tinder within his psyche, an idea.
Though it was barely a spark, bumping into the now calibrating Slette inspired something within Shry, pushing Shry to regain some of his rationality.
"I can save them," Shry stated in a frantic voice, despite having no basis that can prove that his idea was possible; in fact, there was even something that happened just moments ago that disproves the possibility of the plan.
However, despite that, that was the last rope he could hang on to, so, without even acknowledging the flaws of this plan, Shry clung onto it for dear life.
Staring intently into the Slette, the tinder that brought Shry back from his terror was suddenly bombarded with a hurricane of gasses, igniting it and creating a blazing inferno that flared up all of Shry's emotions.
"Haaah... Huuuu..." Shry breathed in and out. 
*Tap tap tap tap!*
A flurry of pitter-patters rapidly grew, reverberating through the room.
And in the next moment, Shry's figure was gone, disappearing at the same time the footsteps stopped sounding, revealing that the footsteps actually belonged to Shry.
Shry had gone into the Slette, an impossible feat for anyone and everyone who tried it. But yet, unknown to him, as he leaped into the Slette, something was left behind, lingering on the black wall of the Slette in the shape of his silhouette.
White particles that moved intensely like flame. However, unlike fire, these flames can't be seen through. It didn't even have any shadows; all it was was pure white with zero blemishes.
...
"Mo-oom, daa-d!" The sound of Shry's voice became distorted, constantly shifting, like his voice had been split into two parts, one heading left and the other heading right.
Around Shry was a strange space, with parts of man-made objects floating everywhere in a seemingly unending dark space.
Floorboards, cars, and even whole buildings were scattered everywhere, even below, but yet oddly enough, all these objects were fully visible even though there doesn't seem to be light in this space.
But strangest of all, not a single one of these objects was completely intact; all of them were missing parts or scattered into cleanly cut pieces like they had been ripped apart molecularly.
"Whh-errree aaa-re yooo-oou?" Shry's voice rang out, but just like before, it ended up sounding incoherent and distorted.
Shry turned from left to right, analyzing everything that could possibly be visible from where he stood. But, even though he was unsuccessful, he did manage to spot some... people?
Floating near some buildings were a couple and their son/daughter, or that's what it looked like, because the only features that could be made out from them were their height and a vague human shape.
Their bodies were transparent and shiny, almost like that of a crystal, while dark, thick cracks aligned their bodies, spreading more and more as time passed, as all the cracks converged onto a single spot on all three of the bodies.
In the presumed chest of each of the bodies was a shining golden light, unlike everything else, as this was the only thing that remained consistent in this realm. It didn't crack, split, or oscillate; it just stayed still and constant, defying the reality of this realm.
Not being able to spot his parents in this mess, Shry unintentionally glazed over this sight, having his own problem to worry about.
"A-aahh" Shry let out an odd-sounding scream.
As soon as Shry took a step forward, he almost tripped over right off the bat; however, he was able to roughly recover from that, taking a while before he could stand upright again.
The moment Shry's foot landed during his next step, he felt a very weird sensation, like his foot wasn't landing on solid ground, which is to be expected since. By the look of this space, one would assume that they'll immediately fall into the infinite darkness below, but yet, as soon as Shry's foot landed, it felt like his leg was entering a body of water before making contact with semi-solid ground, kind of like how it feels to walk on a bouncy castle.
Shry swayed back and forth, as the odd gravity in this realm screwed with his balance, making him feel like he was constantly being pushed around by the space itself as it circulated between strong and weak constantly.
Finally gaining whatever grip he could, Shry did his best to run forwards, feeling like he couldn't waste even a single second.
"Mmmm-oom Daaa-aad" Shry's distorted voice rang out, hoping that he'll somehow gain a response...
But nothing came...
Pushing forwards, Shry's body moved in very odd directions; despite only walking forwards, the ground below him constantly changed direction, making him walk upward, downward, and even backward sometimes.
But no matter what, as long as he was walking forwards, he was somehow making progress, obvious by the sight of the landmarks that marked from whence he came getting closer as well as getting further. 
...
While Shry was running forward while scrutinizing everything around him, his body suddenly began to show cracks, like how glass would react whenever too much heat was applied to it. However, even as his body was cracking apart, Shry didn't feel a thing or even realize what was happening.
Suddenly, Shry's face, which hasn't changed since he came into this realm, began to curve, unconsciously forming a smile as his eyes widened, brightening as he finally found who he was looking for... his parents.
In front of him were two familiar human figures, one with short messy hair, a male, next to a female who had messy long hair to a much greater degree.
Both figures look disheveled, a tear-wrenching sight to anyone familiar with these two figures.
Shelt didn't have half of her right arm, while her face looked both peaceful and immensely pained, frozen in that state. 
Kanum was also in a similar state, but he didn't have injuries as severe as his wife's. His body was tilted sideways in a weird way with his left hand lifted to the same level as his head. His face expressed the same sorrow, but unlike Shelt, Kanum showed a determined but broken-down expression.
Additionally, another glaring aspect of both of their bodies was the color; although their appearance was still clear, their bodies had completely lost their pigments, replaced with a dark gray that glimmers.
"THEEE-RRRE YO-OOU AAA-RRE," Shry screamed out in joy.
Without care as to what was happening to his body, Shry accelerated his movements as a flush of excitement and relief powered his every step.
But then...
Some of Shry's body began to split apart from the cracks.
It began with Shry's hands, but that was easy to ignore.
Soon, it spread to his body, shifting his body constantly, which confused his mind and made him trip a couple times, but yet, even that wasn't enough to stop him.
Next was his head, splitting and drifting apart in two halves, a scene that would've killed him in a normal state, but inside this space, all it did was mess with his vision.
Finally, it was his legs...