Water Door

Whoosh, swish... rustle~, wheesh- whoosh~.

Heian Ciemnosc was peacefully flying through the evening as stars began appearing in the Semi-Dimension. Hearing a sound somewhere below, Heian Ciemnosc directly changed his trajectory. His body descended in a rigid arc towards the middle of a forest with pine-like trees with a width of several tens of meters from its trunks to the tip of most of its branches. In this little forest, Heian Ciemnosc found himself looking at many 'stars' flying around. Some were fast, and others slowly moved around.

‘So many…’ Heian Ciemnosc looked from atop a tree, holding himself from its side as he looked at these little thingies, the size of two fists of his to his pinky’s nail. Some fat stars were accompanied by miniature ones. Heian Ciemnosc continued observing. He evaluated these fireflies’ intelligence at a high level with how social they were behaving. After a few minutes, he finally fell from the tree and landed on a free spot.

Fireflies were initially startled, but after his scent spread and he didn’t move, they started swarming and circling him. It wasn’t hostility but some kind of excitement, gladness. As Heian Ciemnosc felt bathed in these things, he frequently tilted his head slightly to the sides, blinking and setting his darkest eyes in specific directions. Reading nature on them, he realized these fireflies were a millionth generation of this Semi-Dimension.

If it wasn’t for this being a Semi-Dimension and not a full-fledged Dimension, and Heian Ciemnosc hadn’t entered this Semi-Dimension knowing what it was, he would’ve totally believed he was inside a Dimension or a Divine Dominion if not a Space. Deciding to move, Heian Ciemnosc raised his left hand, lightly flicking a firefly with the back of his index finger. The firefly stopped and looked at him. It had 2 large orange eyes and a tiny mouth with lips. Heian Ciemnosc’s eyebrows rose, but these were still just Fauna.

They weren’t an aberration, such as insects, arachnids, and other incredibly different smallish creatures whose sizes and capabilities all changed. After it looked at Heian Ciemnosc for a while, it floated backwards to join the rest. Heian Ciemnosc looked around after getting the firefly’s anatomy to its fullest. Realizing he was now simply being accompanied like those fat fireflies, the oldest and probably strongest among them. Heian Ciemnosc suddenly grabbed a tiny one and ate it. He took another 3 under their eyes, but they were unfazed.

After getting a more detailed clue of these fireflies after tasting them, confirming what he learned and seemingly knew about them as if he had always known about them… Heian Ciemnosc started walking around, wanting to take a look at the meeting place of these living beings. The fattest fireflies looked at him with lazy, orange eyes, showing him peacefulness and great emotional intelligence, astounding him.

Step, crgh. Step, step- crgh.

As Heian Ciemnosc walked around, he felt the ground he was stepping on to be incredibly comfortable. He didn’t need to use any scanning or even have a cultivator’s knowledge to figure out this place was great for farming or gardening. Deciding to study this place, how it came to be, and what was needed, Heian Ciemnosc started nature reading the shit out of everything, including the steps he just made, just in case.

When he passed by the fattest fireflies, the firefly following him and those around the fattest fireflies suddenly glowed like never before. This amazed Heian Ciemnosc, but after studying them, he continued with his furtive search for answers and for science!

After 4 hours, Heian Ciemnosc was satisfied with his work. He had already gotten all the information he needed when the first hour was completed. However, being the motherfucker he was, he continued extensively researching to find whatever seemingly unnecessary bits of knowledge he could wring from this place. He was a ruthless scientist, knowledge-manwhore. At last, he sat down to clean his sweat and looked at his Universal Conveyance without opening it.

After his wives’ faces flashed before his eyes, and he remembered a few Soul images newly stored in his head, he shook it before taking a deep breath, almost sniffing inside a few fireflies, and relaxed. Just as he was planning to meditate, Heian Ciemnosc felt a voice call him. He looked towards it and found a couple of fattest fireflies bringing something with them towards him. It was a broken coconut, not evenly cut, with the shape of a semi-rectangle.

Gurgle, splash. When it arrived before him, Heian Ciemnosc saw its orange liquid. Looking at the fattest fireflies’ eyes, he saw them not grow nervous. This wasn’t juice made from their eyes or other fireflies’ corpses. Although these buddies seemed peaceful, they’ve had horrendous civil wars over their generations. It just happened that they had been in peace for the past few dozen generations when Heian Ciemnosc found them.

Heian Ciemnosc just needed to glance at it to know it wasn’t made from living beings such as Fauna, but flora and some other materials. Taking the ‘jug’ with his right hand, he nodded towards the fattest fireflies and raised it. Heian Ciemnosc took a long gulp, not wanting to down it all in one go. But the moment he tasted it, he couldn’t control himself and took several more. Towards the end, he stopped too late, and the jug was a few sips from being empty.

BUZZ! Buzz, buzz, buzz… buuzziiess~!

The fattest fireflies seemed more than content and glad. They buzzed once, loudly and clearly, to the other fireflies, then several times more in quick succession. The fireflies following them got to work as they quickly returned. Meanwhile, the fattest fireflies looked at Heian Ciemnosc excitedly, and slowly, somehow, Heian Ciemnosc seemed to start a mental connection with them. He was, but not at the same time, using his dark Soul to do so.

A few minutes passed before Heian Ciemnosc could see a few dozen jugs coming his way. His darkest eyes shone. He wanted it all… The fireflies had no intention of sharing it with each other. It seemed as if they also wanted Heian Ciemnosc to drink it all. Knowing something, Heian Ciemnosc gave no fucks and accepted the bribe. His belly received juicy nectar time after time as he let those jugs become empty. He could feel they were recently broken to be made for ‘people’ to drink from. But even if they brought crude cocoon shells, he would still drink from them.

… An hour and a half later, a ‘drunken’ Heian Ciemnosc, whose belly was all content and his mouth honeyed to no end, ushered the fireflies away. Content and brimming excitedly, the fireflies left the place as they kept looking back repeatedly. Heian Ciemnosc cracked his neck and then stood up. He looked down at the jugs with an expressionless face and then at somewhere else amidst the forest, seemingly becoming paralyzed, uttering no sound.

… … Whish, whish…

After a sudden pause of everything losing sound, Heian Ciemnosc heard a ringing sound of wings flapping in the wind, seamlessly and without confrontation in-between. As he looked towards a place where trees suddenly acted like a gateway, showing a sudden, small, empty spot within the forest, a tiny figure finally appeared from the right to the middle of that gateway. It was the length of an adult’s head and a thin body build of having one’s pinky fingers as legs.

However, despite how possibly enchanting something like this could look, floating in the middle of the night, in a forest, and where wonderful things occurred. The thing that failed to reflect in Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes was ghostly. This creature had a whitish, luminous aura around her body and a beauty to her image as she faced Heian Ciemnosc’s left and was 7 meters before him.

Slowly, she turned towards Heian Ciemnosc, exposing her silky, long white hair and spectacular garments, showing a lot but still appearing angelical. Once her pale countenance and dull black eyes were seen by him, with her head tilted to rest on her right shoulder unnaturally, she stared at Heian Ciemnosc before moving forwards. Stopping after 2 meters, she looked at him without moving a muscle or making any diminutive sound.

She moved again. Her light, little wings with a width equal to her narrow waist flapped behind her whenever she moved like a hummingbird but completely immobile whenever she looked at Heian Ciemnosc without moving. They were just a third shorter than her height. After visualizing Heian Ciemnosc for 2 minutes, she advanced another 2 meters before stopping. She repeated this action once more and stood 1 meter before him.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She no longer moved and only continued looking at him from that distance. Heian Ciemnosc had already confirmed this being to be a Fairy. When she stopped a meter before him, he still remained quiet, looking at her without uttering a noise. She, by fair means or foul, was suddenly closer as if she had teleported. However, Heian Ciemnosc maintained his calm and looked at her, continuously shortening the distance between each other.

Guuuoooooo- … OOOOOOO.

A noise seemed to ring off at once inside Heian Ciemnosc’s head. His eyebrows frowned at the beginning, slightly, before easing as his face returned to standard appearance. Suddenly, the little fairy’s right eye was everything Heian Ciemnosc could see. It was as if he had closed in on a monitor out of stupidity and was looking at a single spot in particular. The fairy’s eye reddened, with squirming, red veins coiling and shaking as if saying ‘no’ from the last extremity visible of each.

The fairy’s lips followed suit, appearing in Heian Ciemnosc’s eyesight and inside his mind. His senses were receiving alarming sensations as her lips obscured everything but its eye and mouth. Through this ‘darkness’ which Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t see. His darkest eyes tremblingly focused on the fairy as her lips turned gorily dark and had a touch of red glow. She opened them, seemingly about to take a bite. Heian Ciemnosc suddenly felt his body paralyzed, but in all this disorder, he still maintained calm.

Shuaaa~... shua~... shasha…

Suddenly, Heian Ciemnosc’s eyesight rewound, distorting until his eyesight returned to the ‘real’ world. His lacrimals were bleeding blood that wasn’t his. It was red, and it was thin, also streaming down his cheeks with slim threads. Heian Ciemnosc looked at the fairy as his right eyebrow sunk. Yet, he still said nothing as he looked at the Fairy beauty before him, suddenly holding a box in her hands.

Her face seemed to cry out loud, but she restrained it forcefully. Extending her arms towards Heian Ciemnosc, she presented the box to him. Heian Ciemnosc looked at her lively expressions and nonexistent tears. As the red blood continued streaming down his face, he took the box and opened it. In it, he found the Fairy’s pale hands gracefully moving, elegantly gesturing several times before revealing what was inside.

Twinkle~~. Heian Ciemnosc was amazed by the sudden sight of the Fairy’s hands, but the box’s contents left him more pensive. There were quite a few awful things. They were all joined, viscous, and had a foul smell each. They were tiny and slightly larger, obscured, green balls looking like eggs. Heian Ciemnosc placed his dark Power Energy and Spirit Sense around it to keep the scent from spreading any further.

… whoosh whoosh… … When he looked up, the Fairy was already gone, carrying whatever silence her appearance brought. Heian Ciemnosc looked at the vacant, little spot of emptiness in the distance. And on the other extreme from where the gateway, which Heian Ciemnosc stood far behind, a tiny little hand seemingly returned to underneath as if rewinding. Dirt and grass fell back onto place from their supposedly previously disarranged placements. When every dirt grain was set where it belonged, a sudden, white noise-clap went off as Heian Ciemnosc was deafened by the sudden ‘recreation’ of noise itself.

“Huuh…” Heian Ciemnosc let a breath out, still looking at where someone’s tomb might be, not intending to go there, and looked backwards to see a plethora of fireflies excitedly rushing towards him at an adult knee’s level. Some were carrying up to 3 jugs of nectar, almost failing to maintain balance and falling on the sweet ground. Meanwhile, in Heian Ciemnosc’s head, he was still engrossed in the earlier experience.

‘Ghosts can… also act like this… I still know nothing of the world yet.’ Heian Ciemnosc thought. Immediately, he felt so lonely, as if nothing in the world could be enough for him. Standing alone like this, he was shaken away from that sensation as he looked at another huge batch of fireflies coming behind the first, carrying even more jugs and barrels! Heian Ciemnosc’s face fell when he saw this, not because of the quantity but because of the notion.

You motherfuckers. Didn’t even believe me in the first place, huh? Nice! Well done. We’ll see.’ Heian Ciemnosc was planning to dry these fireflies’ storage until there was no more orange nectar left. He already got the recipe from them anyway. Since they didn’t believe Heian Ciemnosc might survive, not originally planning to bring all that juicy beverage, he might as well take it all for himself!

… In the end, after Heian Ciemnosc downed several dozen more jugs, the fireflies told him he could only continue drinking inside this place. Banned from bringing this delicacy away, Heian Ciemnosc decided to meditate here for a few hours and drink it all in one go before the next day. Thus, Heian Ciemnosc spent hours after hours inside this place, enjoying the deep, silent nighttime with fireflies forming an elongated glowing mantle around him, treating him like a sanctuary as they waved up and down in dancing synchrony.

. . .

The following day, on his way still to the north.

Heian Ciemnosc stopped in place in midair as he looked far ahead. However, to his left, a couple thousand kilometers away, his Spirit Sense caught on half a team trying to return from where they came from. Their backs faced the general direction Heian Ciemnosc was headed. One of them was being supported over the shoulders of another 2. He was covered in some ice, and both sides of his ribcage were slowly turning into putrid water.

The ice around his legs, knees, and shins was painful to look. Red blood seeped out constantly, and purple skin could be seen through it. This person would die in under a few hours if not treated correctly. Besides pills, he would also need the correct usage of Elemental techniques, the correct ones, and the correct order. Without it, the pain would only prolong, and depending on the medical attention, he might still die.

Heian Ciemnosc looked on for a little more before resuming his flying. During these few days, he had sighted a dozen teams, from which only 2 had at least 1 Neutrality realm cultivator. Now that he saw a few more specifically around here, with some of their members with Water elemental affinity, among them with content smiles and attitudes, Heian Ciemnosc felt sure what kind of place these continents were.

That of being the best at gathering resources was just for show. The Fourth Step organizations wouldn’t even bother granting Supreme weapons to the best teams in the first phase. But only this Semi-Dimension’s dangers and gained experience could make those starting in the Second Step, or close to it, become used to the things to be aware of. For example, a large margin of all 10,000,000 participants would’ve already turned apprehensive about the outside world’s dangers. That’s if they weren’t experienced or trained before.

Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t be worried about his team, only those others from the Wrath Nihility Academy. Although the war has given everyone in the Academy a good hold of fighting experience, and the Academy itself proportioned considerable bouts of vital information, that was all theoretical experience. As he thought of this, Heian Ciemnosc’s attention was garnered by a sudden call-like glow in the distance.

The north wasn’t icy or warm and was majorly humid. But it was fresh and had a strong sense of vitality. However, this vitality was vastly different from the Earth element. It was a kind of vigor that came from the results of every organism in this continent’s area that was substantially fed unconditionally. Even then, Fauna still fought others for treasures and unique food. Flora kept competing for space and territory, as well as rights to the other sub-species below them.

It was all like a self-sufficient balance between raw investment and survival. After spending a few minutes flying to that call-like glow’s source, Heian Ciemnosc descended onto the only spot of color than everywhere else in this area. Everything else was of a darker tone, be it green, blue, yellow, red, and even pink or violet. However, in this one intricate spot, it was all snowflakes floating around and ice flooring. This singular place seemed like the zone’s core, but not at the same time.

It wasn’t in the middle and was at the far end of its biome. There was a long wall-like mountain standing behind this snowy and icy plot of land, with trees and boulders made of ice. This wall was truthfully long and had markings as if countless Fauna tried jumping over it to cross the other side. It wasn’t that tall, merely 177 meters into the sky. But for some reason, no Fauna lived near the snowy land or the wall-mountain.

Crugh crugh. Heian Ciemnosc’s feet landed on the snow, covering his dark coat a little as snowflakes crashed against him. Each one, even through his clothes, prickling Heian Ciemnosc with deathly coldness. However, he couldn’t feel it even if they landed on his pale skin, nor if he wanted to. Strangely, these snowflakes would only land on his clothes and spread the sensation to his body, but never directly on his skin. After a minute of latching onto them, they would actually depart, not losing mass or turning into gas, liquid, or falling to form part of the ice.

It fitted this continent’s area very well. Self-sufficient. The snowflakes were the ice, the snow lying in some places, and the boulders and trees. Heian Ciemnosc walked through the snow, finding what he had been looking for quite easily. After trekking for a couple minutes, he arrived at a place with a lot of wind. From a distance, his eyesight was strangely altered, incapable of seeing through the few snowflakes passing around him.

As he took slow and heavy steps forward, seemingly already being tested on his patience and commitment, Heian Ciemnosc finally saw a change. Far to the front, the corner of a moderately obsidian-colored upper corner of a door appeared amidst the misty snow and ‘heavy’ snowfall.

‘Hm,’ Heian Ciemnosc lightly hummed inside his head. What would he encounter this time?

…