The road that led to and from Meblin village in Kethen was unrecognizable as nature had begun reclaiming the now unused area. Gardens once looked after and trimmed to perfection were now rough and overgrown, returning back to their chaotic natural state.
Most doors were either completely gone or mere remnants of rotten wood and rusty metal. The open doorways looked eerie as only darkness showed within. Paint crumbled off of the walls and was slowly replaced by vines that crawled their way towards the rooftops.
Meblin, once nothing more than a simple, quiet town, was now a ghost town in the truest sense. The air which was once filled with the many sounds of a growing community had grown eerily quiet. The silence was only broken up by the occasional animal sound and gust of wind. The once tranquil peace of mind people found in the park was now found by wild animals enjoying the sunshine and tall grasses. With nothing and nobody to bother them, they had grown into a huge community of their own.
One could go anywhere in town they wanted, walk into any home, and visit any previously private part of town, assuming it hadn't been destroyed by nature already. But not all was lost. In a way the legacy of this town lived on through the animals that lived here now, the spirit was still alive albeit in a different manner.
Strolling through this ghost town, Gaya entered a longhouse. The house was dark but the orb of light hovering in her hand helped her navigate through the corridor which she could clearly feel was leading downwards. The corridor was pretty dark, and after having walked for fifteen minutes in silence, a steel door appeared in front of them.
"What is this place?" Standing on Gaya's shoulder, Ayag asked.
Vedora felt surprised. They never expected a hidden place like this within a ruined house in a ghost town.
"There's a portal behind this steel room" Gaya placed her hand on the dust-covered steel door,
"Portal to the fire realm?" Ayag asked. After leaving the dark forest, Gaya only told them that she's going to a realm called the fire realm except she didn't tell them how or why.
"That's right."
She waved her hand, unleashed a beam of light onto the steel door. A click immediately sounded out from the door. It looked like it hadn't been opened for quite a long time, or perhaps it had only been opened a few times, which is why it produced such a rusty sound when opening.
Behind the steel door was a spacious secret chamber, and it was sealed on all sides. Right in the middle of the secret chamber there was an illusory portal. It was floating endlessly like water while emitting bright lights.
"How do you know about this portal?" Ayag asked,
"This place looks ancient yet this portal doesn't look old at all" Sarba looked curiously at the portal.
"There are secret portals all over this world made by cults before the guardians wiped them out. Now that I think about it, the order of death might be one of those cults" she cautiously walked towards the portal,
"Whoever built this was really skillful with formations, the portal is different from all other kinds of portals and formations, and it's related to the dimensional forces. Without advanced knowledge about runes, no one would be able to build this. Definitely, the work of a six-star Runemaster" Gaya said with a calm voice.
"So are you gonna tell us your plan here?"
Gaya sighed inside. Instead of stepping into the portal, she decided to let Vedora know her plan. Otherwise, she knew they would keep asking the same question until she answered them. However, she had no time to briefly explain her plan. Therefore, she only gave them an outline of her plan.
"Here's the gist. We go to this realm, find something called the Satanic Key, enter the Blood cave using the key, find the five-headed ancient serpent kill it, and absorb its soul" She made it sound easy but she knew it would take everything in her to survive inside the fire realm let alone defeating the ancient serpent. However, she was resolute in getting this done. If she could absorb the ancient serpent, her body and soul would go through metamorphosis, just like Nightmare, only her metamorphosis would catapult her cultivation level to multiple stages higher
"Why do I get the feeling we're gonna get our asses kicked soon?"
"I told you not to come" Gaya shrugged,
"Shut up and activate the portal. This place freaks me out" Ayag complained as Gaya rolled her eyes. She told Vedora not to come with her yet Ayag insisted on coming with her. In fact, Ayag gave Gaya only two choices, it was either bring them along or they would tell Michael about her departure. Since Gaya didn't want Michael to come with her as she didn't want to endanger his life, she brought Vedora with her.
"Fine"
With a flip of her palm, she retrieved a golden-colored token from his storage ring. It was about the size of a palm, and it looked to fit right into the slot located at the center of the portal.
She took a step forward, gently placing the token into the portal. An instant later, the portal produced a buzzing sound, then it started functioning.
Swoosh swoosh…
Followed by the activation of the portal, a wild wind swept across the entire secret chamber. Celestial energy was leaking out from the portal, making it difficult for them to breathe.
Buzz…
Not long after that, a pitch-black tunnel appeared right in the middle of the portal. Freezing winds immediately violently blew out from it. It was so cold that it felt like it was coming from eternal darkness, it sent a shiver down the spines of all who heard it.
Even the usually calm Cain's expression changed upon sensing this. Gaya, however, was standing right in front of the storm with an indifferent expression. Ayag stuck her tongue out and felt excited as well. Just like Gaya, Ayag did not fear danger, she became excited upon encountering danger. Both loved thrilling adventures, they liked the feeling of excitement.
"Let's go."
Gaya leaped forward, disappearing into the tunnel.
Click!
Right as Gaya disappeared, the tunnel instantly closed. The portal had also stopped functioning. The golden token popped out from the slot before turning into nothing but ashes.
Swoosh… swoosh…
The freezing wild wind never seemed to stop.
"Whooohoooooooooo!" Ayag screamed excitedly, putting her tongue outside.
"Hold onto ussssssss" Sarba on the other hand screamed into Gaya's ears. He wanted Gaya to hold them in her hands rather than letting them stay on her shoulders
"This is aaaaaaaaaawsome" Ayag kept screaming. She did not worry about getting thrown into the spacial tunnel. After hearing Sarba's scream, she lifted Vedora from her shoulder to hold them tight in her hand. Only then Sarba heaved a sigh of relief.
Gaya was moving along the flow, there were whirlwinds everywhere, and the tunnel looked variegated. The whirlwinds kept blowing into the tunnel, causing her face to hurt.
The more they traveled, the more the tunnel seemed shaky and unstable, as if it was going to collapse at any time.
"Quit screaming shithead, the portal isn't stable. We better be careful. I don't want to drift off from the tunnel because of your screams" Gaya flicked Ayag on the head,
"What will happen if we drift off from this tunnel?" Sarba politely asked. Behind his polite words, Gaya could sense fear.
"Nothing good. Best case scenario, we'll end up Outerspace, drifting forever. Worst case, our bodies would explode into a bloody mist"
Sarba felt even more depressed after hearing her words. He looked around and found out there were black holes everywhere. Also, from time to time, a massive dimensional typhoon would appear in their sights.
Blackhole was a place where coldness and darkness blended together. It was tough to find a dimensional node within. Even immortals wouldn't dare to treat a black hole carelessly. The dimensional typhoon within the black holes was the deadliest existence. It was just a dreadful monster that would cause anything that gets dragged into it to perish.
Within the teleportation tunnel, Cain was admiring the breath-taking dimensional turbulence around him while listening to Ayag and Sarba chit-chat. He noticed Gaya often looked over her shoulder. He could tell she was looking for Ghost. Although she didn't talk about how she's feeling, her eyes betrayed her, revealing the sorrow within her heart to the outside.
After staying for a full day in the tunnel for an entire day, the duo finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel.
"We're almost there."
Seeing this, Gaya informed Vedora
"I wonder what the flame realm looks like"
Ayag was so excited that she jumped up from Gaya's hand. The light at the end of the tunnel became brighter, and soon after, Gaya arrived at the end of the tunnel. Everyone held their breath as they were getting ready to enter the Fire Realm.
Right now, within the Fire Realm, someplace within an abyss.
It was a foggy place, and everything here looked gray. The abyss was a completely desolated area, and rocks were everywhere. A monster with a body fully covered with purplish scales was roaming around in this area.
This monster was over five meters tall, its whole body was fuming with frightening red mist. It only had one eye, which was positioned vertically right in the middle top of its face. It also only had one nostril and one huge mouth below the eye. The eye, nose, mouth were all lined up in a straight line, giving it a really fearsome savage look.
The monster was roaming around, its eyeball was rolling around in full alert as if it was searching for something.
Bang!
Suddenly a loud banging sound could be heard from the skies above. It was as loud as a fierce thunder strike. A hole in the sky appeared as a figure shouted out from it. The monster was startled by the sound. It raised its head to look in the direction. In an instant, Gaya fell straight onto its head.
Plop!
Everything happened so fast that this monster didn't even have time to react. Gaya carried a massive amount of force when she hit the monster's head. The monster cried out horribly while rolling on the floor.
Roar!
The monster was furious. After rolling on the floor in pain, it immediately stood up on the ground to look at the being that caused the pain,
"You are one ugly son of a bitch" Gaya's bow materialized in her hand.
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