酷视

"So you are going to step through with us?" I asked once I myself calmed down from the agitation of letting other people, practically strangers, know about my most important secret.

"That's right," Makary replied without even a second of hesitation. "I can't confirm all the things I need to if I won't see that… another world with my very own eyes."

It was hard for me to argue this point. Given what I was asking of him, it was pretty natural for Makary to wish to confirm the situation with his own two eyes.

Starting from the validity of my claim that this strange, purple artifact actually led to another world, through all sorts of things and goods he could gain by working with me and at the tactical and strategical situation of the ongoing invasion ending.

There were a lot of things that I knew Makary needed to check for himself and more than likely far more things that I wasn't even aware he considered crucial to know about.

That's why, as risky as it might be to have Makary be within the first group of people I would bring over… I could also see quite a few benefits to this arrangement.

"Are you sure you have all of your affairs in order?" Just for cautiousness' sake, I asked. "As in, nothing will happen to your group if you go missing for three or four days?"

Makary opened up his mouth, ready to answer straight away. Yet, rather than speaking up, he ended up closing his mouth and taking a shallow breath, buying himself some more time to think my question through.

"Why do I get the feeling that you are really, really unsure about how all of this will work?" Makary asked in a slightly hushed tone as if trying not to share his worries with the men he basically recruited for the task of scouting the other world.

In the end, this was the only common denominator all of those picturesque people shared. The only quality that they all represented in spite of how differently they appeared.

And it was the fact that they were all veteran soldiers of Makary's outfit. And judging by how relaxed they were around the man… They might not be that far below him in terms of their ranks from before the global collapse of greater civilization.

Thinking about Makary's question and waiting for his men to finish all of their preparations, I couldn't help but let my thoughts wander for a bit, losing focus of what I was actually trying to figure out.

"You see, it was precisely at the times when I thought I knew what to expect, where things were turning in ways I could hardly fathom."

From how the very second existence I met upon entering Fay's world turned out to be also the forest's strongest protector. How I was so damn lucky to stumble upon Fay in her fox form, to begin with when I was pretty much lost and powerless in a foreign world.

'Thinking back, was I to encounter literally any other celestial or divine…' I thought, only to heavily gulp my saliva when I played such a simulated scenario in my head.

And to say the least, the end result wasn't something I would be satisfied or happy with.

In the end, just like before, Makary's men proved to be pretty humble with the estimates of how long they would take to finish the job. Before I could even get myself mentally prepared for what was about to come, they split up their roles and moved to carry out the last task.

The job of hauling all the resources, materials, tools, supplies, and weapons they needed through the portal while still somehow holding hands to form a relatively short, human centi… human line.

"Everyone ready?" Standing at the very front of the formation, I held both Makary's and Fay's hands. That, in theory, put me at the second spot in the line, but I had no plans of letting Fay step through the portal and into potential danger first.

I asked the question out loud, but my answer came in the form of a simple squeeze Makary gave my hand, something he likely received himself from the man he was holding hands with.

"Okay then," I took a deep breath, "let's go!"

This wasn't the first, the second, or the third time for me to cross the portal. Not even crossing it in a group was a new experience. But doing so with fourteen people in tow was definitely a first for me.

Still, things worked pretty much as usual. Upon stepping into the purple swirl of the gate, I momentarily lost orientation…

*Ding!*

A noise rang in my head as a new notification window appeared in the left, upper left corner of my vision.

And just like that, with my shoe falling down and hitting solid ground on the other end of the portal, I've completed yet another crossing.

This time, however, I couldn't afford to stand around and do nothing but enjoy the fresh, unpolluted air and adore the beautiful sights of nature all over the place. This time, I had to hurry up and keep going forward, pulling all those behind me into the bloody world Fay hailed from.

Find more adventures on m-v|-NovelFire

"Welcome to… a world I have yet to come up with a name for," I said as soon as all fifteen of us crossed over. As soon as I confirmed that everyone arrived without any trouble, I rushed to inspect the new system message that popped up in my log.

[Placement of the stable gate successful.]

[Placement for the exit of the stable gate failed: no suitable anchor]

[Assesing the location]

[Mending the location]

[Found a suitable anchor for the stable gate]

[Please, cross over through the portal to confirm the location of the exit of the stable gate.]

This short list contained a world's worth of information. Yet, it's the very last part…

"Shit…" I cursed under my breath while turning away my eyes from the ominous-sounding last part of the log and directing them towards the place where my portal opened up.

And it was different.

Back when I first raised it, right before heading back to earth, it simply stood in between two trees and at the edge of a relatively small clearing in the forest.

But now?

Now, the two trees somehow bent over, their branches mixing roughly a meter above my head, as if in an attempt to merge those two huge trees into a single organism.

And just like the metal frame before, this live-wood structure was flashing up in purple that matched the color of my portal.

"What's wrong?" hearing my curse, Makary was quick to move over and ask.

"It's just like I thought," I muttered, holding my voice back as if to not alert the rest of the group so quickly. "We will have to take about three days to come back."

"It's a lot worse than you thought," Fay spoke out, slightly cutting into my own words. And as I turned my eyes over to her, I saw the girl point at her ear with the forefinger of her right hand. "Listen."