The two gods woke up inside a dark room. Mina casted a lighting spell, revealing that the room was covered in red vines. Strange mechanisms surround them, making them baffle more on where they went after they got sucked in.

Mina: What… is this place…?

Taino: AH! This is annoying!

Taino angrily stretches his arms, casted a spear made of lightning. He charges at one of the walls of that room, and releases a powerful strike, shattering the wall and creating a loud thundering boom. The destruction of that wall led to a breach of blinding light. Mina covered her eyes and Taino lost his footing. Seeing himself about to fall from a very high place, he immediately grabs on the bent metal ‘sticks’ protruding from the broken wall, stopping himself from falling.

Taino: WHAT IN ELYN IS THIS PLACE?!

Mina looks to Taino and quickly casted a conjuring spell – a mana barrier underneath Taino. Taino slowly stands on the barrier while Mina ran towards him to help him back up inside.

Mina: OI! What’s taking you so long?!

Taino just points out – face covered in awe that soon spreads to Mina. They found themselves in an unfamiliar world.

Tall structures, seemingly covered in broken glass with overgrown red plant-like patches. Others have huge red trees inside of them but doesn’t have any leaves. They look at the bottom part, seeing the ground covered with grass like plants but colored in red and white. They look at the horizon, seeing ‘deformed’ mountains and a setting sun. They look left and right, finding themselves also inside of these strange structures.

Taino: Where are we?

Mina: I… I don’t know… we were inside that weird cave and then…

Taino: The ground suck us up and boom! We’re here.

Mina and Taino, both still dazed, went back inside the room. Mina casted a special magic that will detect any form of mana belonging to a sapient being, but she didn’t find any. With her godly power, she extended her detection magic throughout that world, but to her surprise only two of them were the ones having mana.

Mina: This… this is impossible! This place doesn’t have any people in it! Let alone mana! This world… this world shouldn’t be existing!

Taino: No mana? In this world?

Mina: That’s what I’ve been saying –

The two were interrupted when they heard strange noises coming from outside. They looked at the broken wall and saw the setting sun, the grasses below begin to stick itself the to the ground like snails, and the protruding trees on the tall structures emitted small dotted ‘lights’.

The strange noise they’ve been hearing became louder and louder, like a creeping beast behind them. The two gods turn around, fully prepared with their magic and strength, only to be greeted by a beast with many faces. It has four legs; each grotesquely have fingers of humans protruding on it. The many human faces on it have hollow eyes, tearing with blood, but all have different expressions.

It tried to pounce on Mina, but Taino pierced the disturbing beast with his lightning swords. The beast cries, with many voices, making the two fell more uncomfortable. Mina then casts a spell:

Mina: Hellfire!

The beast burns, with fire brighter than the sunshine. The cries never stop, as if it is asking for help, which the two gods never understood because they don’t know what the beast speak. Mina, still troubled with the sight of the unknown beast, continues to burn it until nothing was left but ashes.

Taino: Do you – know what that thing is?

Mina: It’s like conjoined human corpses? Perhaps an abnormal undead beast??? I – I don’t know… but it’s feels alive…

Taino: That?! Alive?! Really?!

Mina casts the same spell she casted when they were at the demi-wolf village. They saw several mirages of human souls wandering that room: carrying things, talking to each other in a language they couldn’t understand, doing stuff they don’t seem to comprehend. And then, all of these ‘people’ collapses on the floor, grotesquely ripping their own limbs and merging into single area, forming the strange beast they fought.

Taino: WHAT IS THIS PLACE?! THIS IS NONSENSE!!!

Mina: Let’s just get out of here…

The two gods look around and found a broken door. They decided to go there and found a staircase, a broken and ‘warped’ staircase. They could hear more growling, becoming closer and closer to them. Mina and Taino were about to cast magic bound weapons when they were dragged. Their mouths were covered, and they heard a whispering voice, a VERY familiar one:

“Ssshhhh. They’ll find us.”

The two gods, dazed, remained silent as they watch another strange creature walk through them – growling and in search of something to devour.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

They turned around, and when Mina was about to cast a light magic the shadowed figure lowers her hand gently, but she could feel its coldness.

“Don’t. they’ll spot us faster with that. Grab him and stick with me.”

Mina: Who are you? This is a different world, how did you –

“Questions later, let’s move first”

Mina grabbed Taino’s arm and she held tightly at the figure. They went down, exiting the tall structure, avoiding all the strange and horrid beings. The grasses that looked like glasses yet soft like silk, reflecting the shine of the moon sky, filled with humongous tentacled beings floating gently in the night. The two were shocked at the strangeness of that world that they haven’t noticed that they’ve arrived on a manhole. The shadow pushes the two down and grabs their arms as they ran.

“Keep up with my pace!”

They tried to not look back, but they could feel something was chasing them. They ran as fast as they could, until they found themselves on a dead-end where a circular metal door was located. The shadow knocks on rhythmic manner and the door opens. They immediately went inside, shutting the door close. The two were still confused, as they hear the being chasing them shouting like a human.

The room was still dark, until the shadowed figure casts light. Brightening the room, the two gods were shocked – it was Temis, the spear god. But something was off on her – her left arm was entirely made of metal, almost half of her body was scarred, her side of her face was replaced with metallic plates, and as for her right eye – it was red glowing ‘gem’.

Mina: Temis?

Taino: Wha – what happened? Why are like –

Temis: A lot of things happened… it’s – it’s been 50 years since we met in that forest…

Mina: How… how did this happen?

“Dimensional convergence – causing instability in spacetime locality.”

The two turns around, seeing a humanoid, of some sorts – a face of a mantis, skin of scaled jade-green, and a muscular body of a male.

Mina and Taino stands and prepares to attack the being, but Temis stops them.

Temis: Stop! He’s a friend!

Taino: Wh – what is he?! A demi… a demi-insect?!

Mina: The gods of the underworld didn’t create any… ‘insectoids’ as I remember…

Temis: That’s rude! He has a name!

The insect-looking human reaches out his hand to the two belwildered gods.

Shul: The name’s At-khan Shul, as spoken in your tongue, but you can call me Shul.

Temis: He helped me, about forty years ago…

Taino: Hold on, hold on… you said you’ve been here for fifty years, right? RIGHT?!

Mina: Explain, in every detail you can, everything after you and Zenus went through that floor.

Temis takes a seat, looking at her ‘metallic’ arm with a saddened expression.

Temis: After that time, me and Zenus got here… we… we found ourselves in an open field, full of grasses made white glass… there were mountains, plains, and these strange monsters that ignores us… then we saw this city –

Taino: City? This place?

Shul: It was.

Temis: We thought that people might be living here, but it’s only ruins… Zenus became mad… and – and - !

Mina: Are you alright -

Temis: He casted a spell, then he trashes things around him… then the ground was – was flooded by some sort of gooey flesh! Of course – he effortlessly fend those off like little critters, but the flesh grew more and more! And he – and he!

Temis’ tears burst out. Her face was fully engulfed with sorrow and fear. The two gods watches her, speechless and not knowing how to react.

Temis: I tried – to help him… but he shouted that I should get to the high ground and throw my magus hasta, which I did but before I got up… he’s already – been killed…!

Mina: A demon lord? Killed by this, flesh???

Temis: I saw it! With my eyes! That flesh seeps into his skin! His limbs were torn apart like bread! He shouted in pain, even his head was torn off from his torso! The flesh was – absorbing him… and I just watched him…

Temis sobs loudly, forcing Mina to get close to her and comfort her.

Mina: It’s – it’s alright… let it all out…

Temis: It didn’t stop – the flesh went up and caught up to… it absorbed nearly half my body… then it stops… I was stuck there… for five days… I tried to heal myself but nothing… until Shul came…

Temis looks at Shul, slightly removing the sorrow in her heart.

Temis: He took me, and ‘treated’ me… and learned things, many things on this planet… the things happened here… a fate we should stop from happening in ours…

Taino: Planet? What’s a planet?

Mina: Things, that happened here? Wait, wait, wait… how – what happened to your body? I could still sense your mana pool strong since we met back then, and it should be enough to regrow your arm… this flesh-thing has magic similar to soulcalibur?

Taino: Soulcaliburi? Can monsters have a magic that can kill an immortal? I doubt it.

Temis: I guess Shul should explain this…

The three Elynians lookat Shul, who’s eating a roasted sewer rat with his mandibles.

Shul: Ahem… apologies…

Taino: How can you speak with that mouth?

Shul: Well, it’s something about our biology that you people couldn’t understand.

Taino: Ho? Are you mocking me?

Shul: You take that as an intimidation? I mean, it’s totally different! You have a more humane body while I have an arthropodal structure.

Mina and Taino looks confused.

Mina: Planet, biology, arthropo – whatever it is… you speak our language, you’re speaking to gods who created the language you speak and yet we don’t know what you’re saying…

Taino: Are those made-up words?

Temis: I – I helped him understand our language by casting a spell on him. And in turn, he helped me understand this world, since he got here before us.

Shul: To be exact, I’ve been stranded in this planet for one hundred and thirty-four years… and whatever happened to all of you, on how you got here, happened to me as well.

Mina: What do you mean?

Shul: Going through a wall? Sinking through a floor? Getting a hint?

Temis: Inside that cave…

Taino: If THAT specific place was a gateway to this world… how come there’s no mana emanating from it?!

Shul: And there’s more than that…

Mina: What… exactly happened in this world?

Shul: A lot of terrible things…