Chapter 90: The Other Side
Multiple explosions went off around the small room, blowing out a relatively weak fire in the process. One let itself be known from below, and two more broke apart the surrounding walls.
Instinctually, I raised a barrier of starlight around me and leapt into action. My goal was to kill the last Dominous Hood guy before anyone else entered the room.
The metal walls collapsed inward, and they curled and tore from the ground after the explosion broke where the different metal plates connected.
There was no worry on my end about the explosion doing any damage to me. They were strong enough to break apart the walls, but not enough to worry me. On the other hand, a few that were near the walls were sent flying and became injured. Luckily for them, nothing was fatal because they were all wearing armour, but some had a hard time getting up.
I stormed through the fire and caught the other Dominous Hood members off guard as they were in retreat. Once again, the arrow made short work of any defensive properties their armour may have provided.
Three more people broke into the room as the explosions died down. Of course, none of them were allies, three Dominous Hood goons with assault rifles rushed in, firing heavily concentrated mana rounds.
These mana-expensive bullets were not enough to shred through armour with one shot, but the repeated rounds blasted through two of the standing, dizzy guards.
My starlight shield morphed into a triangle, with a sharp edge in front and two sides branching off. The bullets that slammed into the shield had their energy dispersed, while the rest were blocked momentarily, but the shield wasn’t going to last longer than a few more seconds at best.
I moved in to rush the three goons. Fire flew out of my body and spewed into the room. It was harmless, and I made it to block their view, but I could turn it up if necessary.
The flames danced in the air as I shuffled around to my first target. My spear of starlight–covering the arrow–plunged into the stomach of the first victim. Fire burst from the spear, and I flung the body into the third target while I went towards the second.
While I was fighting the newcomers.
The man in the yellow suit, with zero regard to the safety of his guards, yelled, “Let’s get out of here!” And he leapt without hesitation through the portal.
A small, tiny section of my mind paused when I saw him do that. The Dominous Hood goon who I flung through earlier had been incapacitated by the two guards–I did make sure to throw him hard into the ground with my throw, and the guards were ready for something to happen.
Anyway… Time to play a guessing game for how long he will survive.
I could see a week with the guards helping.
(“ True, though it depends if they are patient or forgiving ”)
The guards didn’t immediately follow him. Not because they didn’t want to, but mostly because they couldn’t. He was already close to the portal, while the rest had been either flung away or shot. He had just gotten lucky keeping his head to the ground when the booms happened.
I didn’t mess with the guards or the man in the portal and instead finished off the last two Dominous Hood idiots. Neither was a challenge and it appeared they were already a little exhausted from earlier fighting.
It is very strange to see it up close…
Once I was done killing, I moved towards the portal, where I could see but not hear the man in the suit yelling. My soul pressure wrapped around it, and he got sucked in, as if it were magnetising to something.
This portal and the item that created it were what confused my soul pressure sense. However, it was definitely not a portal dungeon–if the effect on my soul pressure wasn’t obvious enough.
The gate to a portal dungeon could be of many shapes and sizes, from large doors to a simple crack. However, one thing that was consistent was that you couldn’t see through the door. Being able to see through it should’ve been a massive red flag for anyone expecting a normal dungeon.
There was the line of thought that this was simply another reason that made this portal special, but the further it drifted from the norm, the more caution was required.
The portal door to the other side was a perfect circle, and at the bottom was a small, perfect blue sphere that projected the portal. On the other side of the door, I could see a similar item on the ground where the portal was being generated.
The man in the suit yelled this way, angry that the rest of the guards hadn’t followed him. He walked to the portal and bounced off.
The conscious guards in the room who weren’t rolling in pain froze as they watched what happened. On the other side of the portal, the two that were with the man also froze as dread most likely washed over them.
I grabbed the marble and looked into it. From a distance, it simply looked like a deep blue with a few lighter spots, but upon closer inspection, numerous lights filled it. These lights bounced around, collided, fused, and split into sparkling colours.
I held the blue energetic crystal ball in my hand and recalled the conversation I held with Espr when the item was first revealed in the auction.
Espr, a short while ago, you said if I got my hands on this, you would tell me more about it.
The man got up and slammed his fist at the portal, doing nothing, as he kept screaming angrily before his face switched to one of complete panic.
Then where does it lead?
(“ The Other Side of Existence ”)
I knew they were; Espr wasn’t going to lie about this. It was something Epsr only talked about once and vaguely mentioned a few other times. Espoiramissa said the universe was one side of existence, but never gave any clear details on what the other side was supposed to be.
(“ Yes, one of its domains at the very least ”)
It feels like a dungeon.
From the dregs of my soul pressure that tried going through, it felt like the other side was a world of thick mana. Kind of like a Dungeon, but simply more. It also reminded me of the lower reaches of Espoiramissa’s planet's body.
(“ Unsurprising, but as I said, don’t go through. Going through it is easy, coming back, well–”)
He began to cry as he finally bounced off the portal after slamming his body into it.
(“ I wouldn’t try it ”)
I didn’t ask any more questions. I could, and I had a few most likely correct guesses, but they could be saved until after I was done fighting.
“I’m keeping this dangerous thing; any complaints?” I waved the marble around.
No one replied. It was good to see that they were all happy with my statement. I hid the marble within a compartment in my armour and moved out of this blasted, confined space. Going back outside was my main priority for the moment.
Before I left, I asked, “Now, if anyone wants to provide aid, do that now.” A few people moved and threw some survival supplies through the portal; no one went into it themselves.
With that, and no one stopping me, I turned around and left.
After a few minutes, the portal slowly vanished from the room.