Published at 14th of February 2024 8:24 am

Chapter 729 Into The Portal III: The Voices

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"Aaaaaaa…"

General Dalgan and his son came falling from the sky behind Sylvester. Their throats had gone sore by then as they truly felt terrified. No matter how strong, the height Sylvester had dragged them to was dangerous for them.

"Calm down, you two. You won't die from something like this," Sylvester scolded the two and began to descend straight toward the Soul Tree of the Central Continent. Truly, they had crossed the sea with a simple jump.

Crack!

As they reached the small branches, the branches started to break apart and slow their descent. Of course, Sylvester avoided them easily, but the Demon father and son got hit on their faces a few times.

"Ah!"

"Slow down!"

Sylvester did not and eventually landed on a major branch of the tree, many meters down from the top. There, he allowed the two to get some rest and gather themselves.

'The nasty scents have vanished.' Sylvester noted. 'It seems like Julius cleared the place before leaving.'

"Let's continue." Sylvester kept the two demons restrained with the chains and dragged them all the way down to the branch where the secret portal existed behind the fake wall of wood. "Untouched, good. Tell me, are there any special requirements, or magical chants that need to be done to enter the portal? Be careful there. If you hide anything, you will be facing the consequences with me."

Dalgan and Lord Two looked at each other's faces. They both knew what was in the other's mind. They wondered if they were actually aiding a monster to enter their world and destroy it from the inside.

After having seen some of the things that Sylvester did without even batting an eye, they were sure he was absurdly strong. And what would his 'fighting with everything he got' be? It made them shiver a bit.

"No, there is no requirement. When we entered, we stepped in at the same time," Dalgan revealed and pulled his son closer to himself. "We should do the same while we enter."

"What should I expect after crossing over?" Sylvester asked.

"Death," Dalgan blurted. "The atmosphere of my world is the inverse of yours. If you don't die because of that, then there will likely be a major battle base set around the portal by now. The Grand Prince had placed a lot of hope into this project. He must be desperately waiting for our return."

Sylvester nodded and took his spear out of Chonky's mouth. "Then I'm prepared. Stand beside me and take your steps at the same time. If you try to act smart, I won't even flinch before killing you two."

"We understand."

With that, Sylvester removed the false wall of wood hiding the black portal. He sighed at the darkness ahead of him. Many negative and positive thoughts ran through his mind. He hugged Miraj to his chest and tucked him under the robes as well, not wanting to lose him.

'Chonky said this felt like his belly. If that's the case, then chances are, I'm about to enter a special void that either connects the two worlds or contains our two worlds,' Sylvester hypothesized and took the first step, which the other two matched.

Shhh….!

Just as they got as close as an inch to it, Sylvester began to hear the whistling sound of the breeze, but it felt much darker and deeper, as if it was devoid of any sensation. It was confusing and haunting.

"I'll count to three. We'll enter the darkness at three," Sylvester notified them and took a long breath, not that there were any lungs. It was just a habit he maintained to seem human. "One… Two… Three!"

Snap!

As soon as they stepped inside, there was nothing but absolute darkness. The hint of light behind also vanished, and they found themselves floating through nothing. There was no light anywhere, and Sylvester couldn't even see Darlgan or his son but felt them through the tug of the chains he had tied to them.

'What do you feel, Chonky?' He asked Miraj without bringing him out of his robes. 'Does this still feel like your belly?'

'Aye, Aye, Maxy. It feels exactly the same as my belly. But, this place feels much bigger.'

'Wait, you know how big your belly is?'

'No, but this place still feels bigger.'

Sylvester nodded and turned his face left and right to see anything he could or feel something. It truly felt like a massive void in space. He didn't even know if his body was in motion; other than waiting, there was nothing to be done.

'There's no such thing as solarium in this place. But I still feel energy everywhere… Like what Nehilius had.' He felt around and tried to absorb some of the unknown energy to feel its contents. 'It's like air.'

Time went by, and Sylvester eventually felt tired. He raised his left hand and created some light—a big mistake.

"What in God's name… is this?!"

Not only Sylvester but also Dalgan and Lord Two had the same reaction to the light. They looked around themselves and didn't find an empty dark space, but something mind-numbing, making them feel like their skin was crawling.

Countless, trillions upon trillions of black eel-like creatures were everywhere, below them, above them, all around. Intertwined into each other, they all constantly moved like slimy branches of a massive tree. There were no eyes, nor were any heads visible. What was it, they had no clue. All they knew was that this wasn't a place they could relax in.

Snap!

Sylvester immediately stopped the light and closed his eyes to calm his nerves. 'Where the hell are we? Is this inside Chonky's belly too?'

"Here…."

"Hmm?" Sylvester heard something all of a sudden. "Whose voice was that? Dalgan, did you hear that?"

"W-What, Pope?"

"A feminine voi—There it is again!"

Sylvester shut his mouth and tried to listen to the voice and focus on it. It was soothing and kind, holding not an ounce of repulsion of any kind.

"Follow me… Here… Hear me… John…"

"Diana?!" Sylvester exclaimed abruptly. "Is that you?"

Dalgan heard him talking to himself. "Who is it, Pope? We hear nothing."

'Then why am I hearing her? Hallucination?' He tried to make sense of what was going on there. 'It's not Diana's voice, however. But the name…'

"Maxy, I hear it too," Chonky spoke all of a sudden. "It called me Chonky."

'Now that's strange. Could it be some sort of a creature who can read our minds? Something like those singing creatures in the Darkpit Sea, meant to lure us?' He was alert and prepared himself to go all out at a moment's notice. He ensured his sense of smell was also reinforced with magic. 'No scent here despite those eels surrounding us.'

"Dalgan, how long does it take?"

"We don't know, Pope. The sense of time is lost in this place. We'll simply find ourselves abruptly standing at the destination. We can't predict it."

'That's not helping' Sylvester cursed and looked upwards, wondering what those eels were. He tried to feel their presence using Elder Magic and map the surroundings as if he had X-ray vision. 'They have no insides? I can see clearly… we're moving.'

He kept at it and noticed a peculiar thing. To confirm himself, while keeping his Solarium Mapping, he created light from one hand to illuminate the creatures. As if they all reacted to his light, their bodies became much more visible but remained translucent enough to see through.

He checked left and right, up and down, and came to one conclusion. 'These eels are paving a path for us… Only one direction of eels keeps moving further from us and creating space, leading us somewhere.'

"Space-eels?" Sylvester seemingly named the creatures of nightmare.

"Come to me, Johnathan…"

He ignored the calling of the voice and let the eels take them.

"This way… Quick!"

'This… the eels change direction whenever I focus on the voice.' Sylvester noted it with his Solarium Mapping. 'Should I follow? Is it a trap?'

Being a spy, and having an unhealthy amount of distrust towards everything, he couldn't decide what to do. He didn't want to be lost in that void of space, but at the same time, there could be some godly monster lurking in there.

"It's me… Diana…"

'Too direct now.'

"All this time… I waited for you…"

It was getting harder and harder to ignore the voice. The more it spoke, the more it felt like it really was Diana. Only she could know some things unless the monster could read memories—

highly possible.

"I searched for you for so long… Sent so many messengers… Centuries… Where are you, John?"

'Hmm?' The last bit alerted Sylvester. 'It's not a real-time call… Is it a leftover message?'

"Come to me, Johnathan…"

'Indeed, it's a leftover message.' Sylvester noticed the repeating words. 'If it's really you then…'

No more did Sylvester ignore the voice and focused on it with all his will. He noticed the eels moving madly and paving a pathway for them, faster the more he focused. The hope of meeting Diana grew stronger with each passing moment. His heartless chest seemingly throbbed again in excitement.

'We're close!' He noticed an end to the darkness in front of them as the eels parted and created some space.

Woosh!

And just like that, they felt land under their feet, and light all around them.

"No!" Dalgan instantly cried. "What happened here?!"

Sylvester rubbed his eyes and looked, seeing the sky bright red and the ground pale black. There was destruction everywhere in what seemed to be a camp with multiple small buildings and tents. However, there were no dead bodies or skeletons.

"Is this from where you entered the portal?" Sylvester questioned while glancing around. It seemed to be a valley surrounded by high mountains.

"Y-Yes!" Dalgan exclaimed. "Where is the Grand Prince? Why isn't he here?"

Clack!

"I think I know the answer," Sylvester commented, staring at the wristwatch that Ella had gifted, his face holding a shocked and haunted expression.

_________________

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