'This is the bloody gate... In the previous timeline, no one entered it till eight years from now.'

Maximus walked towards the gate and examined it several times to see if there had been a change of some kind in it: its shape, size, color, mana nature, flow...

"There is not the slightest change? I seem to be just nervous because of what happened yesterday."

He turned to his students who were several steps behind him, signaling them to advance towards the gate. No matter how much they stared at the gate, it remained equally strange. Even the strangest techniques, weapons and even ideas cannot approach the strangeness of this portal. Even if you understand what it is, you feel like you still do not understand anything about it.

'Enter one by one into the gate. Take care of them, Dante; I will catch up with you after a while. Just stay near the gate and don't go far.'

'Understandable, Master.'

Dante advanced first, followed by Aliana and then Orion and the others followed until only Maximus remained who had not yet approached or touched the gate for fear of something dangerous happening to his students.

'Should I touch it or simply enter? There probably won't be a problem.'

He approached the gate by one more step and then entered it with his right foot first, his fears came true, the gate was not normal... More precisely, it was Maximus who was not normal because he was not supposed to be in this timeline.

[Intruder, intruder. Activation of the safety system to eliminate the intruder body.]

Mana laser guns aimed at Maximus at once. A black spherical room free of gravity with a diameter of fifty meters, the distance was not accurate, the darkness completely englobed everything inside and examining the environment with mana did not work.

After hearing the alarm sound and noticing several bright spots around him from all directions, he surrounded himself with more than ten layers of mana armor with the maximum magical output.

The guns aimed at him simultaneously and penetrated the defensive layers successively... One, two, three... The bombardment lasted for thirty seconds, during which the shields were subjected to more than two hundred charged mana beams. Only three layers of magic armor remained.

[Foreign object elimination was unsuccessful. Launch of the following protocol: Observing the foreign object's behavior.]

"What is this place? Is it a separate magical space or something similar?"

Maximus turned all directions, looking for the source of the sound, but it did not work.

"It's as if the existence of things is obscured by itself. Only the effect or the result existed... Isn't it similar to what happened yesterday?"

A different voice from the robotic voice began to speak. The voice of a man with a boastful tone to the extreme.

[So you are the chosen one. Welcome to my private space.]

'Who are you? What do you want?'

Maximus felt pain in his chest and head, much less pain than yesterday but it has the same nature. Result without reason, this is its nature.

Maximus controlled himself thanks to his mental fortitude but his stamina is limited against this kind of things.

[Dazzling!! It seems that you have come close to the truth before, I advise you not to delve too deep into what does not concern you. Curiosity killed the cat as wisdom says.]

'What do you have to do with this? How can you have such a capability?'

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The voice sighed deeply, and there was silence for several seconds until the voice answered him.

[Our destiny is somehow interconnected. It is like two chess pieces on a giant board. You are the knight, not a strong piece but you have atypical movements. I am the queen, my movements are comprehensive and I have the greatest influence on the board. We may be the worst enemies or closest friends, all of which changes depending on the circumstances. Anyway, see you soon, boy.]

At another moment, he found himself on the other side of the gate and did not find his disciples as he had previously commanded them.

'The feeling of crossing this gate is really strange. Hey, why are you here, Master? How did you arrive?'

Dante walked out of the gate but was surprised by the presence of the teacher before him, although he had left him behind a few seconds earlier.

The others followed with an interval of ten seconds between every two. They were surprised to have the teacher here.

"There's something wrong with it... How did he arrive before us even though he entered after us?"

Their faces were filled with many questions, all directed at the heavenly magician. He was no different from them, as he had more questions than them about what had happened.

"There was a distortion in the fabric of space-time a little while ago. No, no, more precisely, as if he compressed the time on one side and dilated it on the other, stopping the flow of time is impossible even through the information mentioned in the Book of Knowledge."

'Won't you explain to us what happened a little? I mean – how?'

'I also didn't understand what happened earlier. Let us pretend that nothing happened. From this moment on, I cannot intervene to help or save you. I will accompany you but I can only watch. Your life is your responsibility.'

Maximus spoke terribly utterly with complete indifference, as if it did not concern him anymore.

'Let's not burden the teacher anymore, he is the one who gave us a push forward but the rest of the way is our own responsibility. What's next, Master?'

The heavenly magician rubbed his beard for a few seconds and then turned towards Dante.

'Isn't it clear? You have to cross through this forest. It is called the Travelers' Forest and is located at the entrance to the other world. Its difficulty and seriousness depend on who will cross through it. You may have a fun or disastrous experience depending on your luck.'

According to your luck, these words never give a sense of comfort as every time the teacher says them, disaster occurs.

.........

Only minutes have passed since they entered the forest and misfortunes have begun to gather around them from all sides.

'Lie down quickly.'

Dante yelled at others after he spotted a danger coming from the right very quickly. The others noticed the same thing but their reaction was slower than Dante's.

At a distance of hairs they managed to evade the undercover attack, several trees flew within multiple meters radius.

The bases of the trees remained in place without a scratch; it was not a violent blow but a clean cut. If it touched you, the result was clear: either a serious injury or death.

A sense of fear permeated them fighting an unknown or invisible enemy is a very dangerous task.

'Don't slacken for a moment, or we will all perish.'

Dante turned left and right, looking for the source of the previous attack. He could not pinpoint its exact location due to its rapid movement between the trees.

"The enemy is huge, but very fast. It's more dangerous than the basillesque to say the least; its speed is the most important problem in the current situation."

Dante rushed forward as Eric protected his back after charging a magic arrow to maximum capacity.

'Do not release until the shot is almost certain.'

Failure was not an option in this situation, as one shot can separate you from death and life.

Dante merged with the shadows and moved lightly towards the moving enemy. Its presence was almost non-existent after he mastered his fusion with the shadows properly; the target stopped moving forty meters from the group in a spot densely covered with trees and pergolas.

Dante overlapped with the shadow of the target, the target being a 'cheetah' twice the size of an adult tiger, white as snow. His claws are the size of daggers and his fangs are larger than the average size of swords. What really distinguished him was not any of the above, but his tail, which was several times longer than his body. The closest description of it is a flexible sword several meters long.

It is commonly called the 'sword tail'. Its distinctive characteristic is not that it is a cheetah, but rather that tail as a family of creatures is present in this forest with tails that mimic different weapons. One of them is this one they are facing now.

Dante did not hesitate to attack it and after their shadows overlapped, he came out from under its belly with a strong dash and a very sharp halo on his dagger in an attempt to stab the monster in the stomach. It did not go as planned in the end...