Several days after the unexpected progress in their investigation, Der and Roley found themselves back in front of the interdimensional portal. With them, the vast planet Roley had inherited from Daniel, which now housed the entirety of both the Immortal Armada, and the Elemental army.
Alongside a few of the highest ranking elementals and cultivators, Der and Roley observed the large portal with stern expressions.
The large portal, wide enough to swallow Roley’s planet whole, was surrounded by an enormous formation. One very similar to the one engineered by the scientists of the Immortal Armada, but while just as capable, less advanced in more than one way.
While the runic formations were still present, to fuel the formation’s power was not the concept of space contained within the spatial treasures the Armada had gathered, but those embedded within the existence of the spatial elementals themselves, who had been required to replace their inanimate counterpart due to the loss of the latter at the hands of the aspect of Horror.
Luckily, such a sacrifice had been made willingly.
While not born from the ancient and most archaic concepts of space, like their late traitorous ancestors, most of the spatial elementals were extremely old beings, second only to the ancient members of their kin. To them, being forced into a stasis for a few years, or even several centuries, would have meant as much as a long blink for a human.
Naturally, Roley would have never allowed them to sacrifice themselves for too long, as he had already planned for new spatial treasures to be looked for, allowing them to slowly relieve them of this burden.
While finding such a substitute was in his plans, however, that was only a project for the near future, for in order to prevent the domain of Sacrifice from fighting back while they searched for the Archives of Blood and Bones, Roley had had no choice but to not only seal the interdimensional portal and seal his people inside, but also to forcefully collapse all neighboring shattered universes, making them impossible to traverse.
“Are you positive that we cannot cross a collapsed universe? You are still in possession of that ancient spatial treasure.” Der mentioned as the scientific team of the Immortal Armada made their preparations to deactivate the formation.
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Roley, obviously tired of hearing the same question, shook his head. “I can wield the power of the treasure, but it is not stable. If I lose my focus even for a moment, whatever barrier I create goes down instantly, leaving us facing the power of collapse.” As he reached this point, Roley turned to look Der straight in the eyes. It was clear that he meant for what he said next to really sink in, “That means instant death. Even for me.”
A low grunt emerged from the depths of Der’s throat. The answer he had received was not beyond his expectations, and yet, he could not help but feel slightly nervous. After all, their invasion of Sacrifice’s oldest universe was not a secret, and that meant, more likely than not, that what was waiting for them beyond the portal was not a welcoming party. Or at least, not one they would have appreciated.
“I just.. Mhh.” He muttered as one by one, the spatial elementals were removed, and woken up. “Are you sure this is the only other path?”
“I was only given two feasible paths. A very difficult one, which is ‘traversing a collapsed universe’, and a very easy one, which was to disable the formation and simply leave the universe.”
“You’ve told me this. I just cannot understand how facing Sacrifice’s domain head on can be considered ‘very easy.’ I struggle to wrap my head around it.” As he raised his worries for what was the tenth time already, he looked at the millions of cultivators and elementals who fell into formation, ready to fight to the death.
How many of them would survive this fight, he wondered.
While slightly annoyed, Roley did not refuse to repeat himself. He knew that despite the way he looked and behaved, Der was an extremely worrisome individual. He had led armies into countless battles, and not once had he signaled a charge or a retreat without second guessing his own plans. Even a victory was not a source of relief to him, for in his mind, there was always a cleaner path to victory. One he was too much of a fool to consider.
Learning of this side of him was what had garnered him Roley’s respect.
Unfortunately, this time, such worries could not be discarded as the overthinking of an old commander, but rational fear.
This had become clear when Roley, in an attempt to verify how big of a fight awaited for them on the other side of the portal, had been met with silence. The same silence he was faced with when the answer to his questions included a creature of existence.
Despite Der’s concerns, the members of the Immortal Armada continued to awaken the spatial elementals one by one, causing the formation to weaken. He too had faith in Roley, and knew that had there been a safer way to leave the universe, his old friend would have found it.
Bit by bit, sections of the formation lost power, until finally, after several hours of work, the unmoving surface of the interdimensional portal began to wave slightly. The faint ripples, as if formed by the first gust of wind to ever grace an otherwise solid body of water, became larger and larger, until the watery spatial power regained its original fluidity.
“Prepare for combat!” Der yelled to the joined armies, who braced for the assault of Sacrifice’s domain. His words echoed from the mouths of his admirals, followed by those of his commanders and captains.
Nervously, the cultivators wielded their weapons. The last time they had faced an army of champions of existence, they had been forced to live the worst horrors their minds could concoct. The trauma of such memories was still vivid in their minds, and making its presence known in the form of large beads of sweat that lingered on their foreheads, waiting for an abrupt motion to detach themselves and float away in the vacuum of space.
The elementals were also not strangers to fear. They were born, and lived with the constant realization that they existed as a resource for those who, like them, inhabited the universe. For meek and friendly creatures such as them, to have formed an army capable of facing the worst the multiverse had to offer, was already a miracle. One that would have had even less chances of becoming reality had their lord not been there to guide them, and give them hope for something more.
While completely opposite in nature, the members of the two species found themselves sharing a sentiment. The two entities that stood at the front, ready to be the first ones to engage in a fight.. If those two beings died, everything would be lost. Every elemental would be turned into elemental treasures and material scraps, and the humans would become sacrifices.
Anything. Any creature, monster, champion or deity that dared step foot through the portal, had to die. On that, each member of both armies could agree on.
Soon enough, the blue surface of the portal became covered in small shadows. Small silhouettes that bit by bit made their way into the portal, growing in size and gaining definition until finally, once the size of a grown human, the gelatinous substance parted ways, allowing for the hundreds of thousands of bodies to step into the universe.
Like he had done thousands of times before, Der lifted his arm, ready to chop the air down to commence the charge.. But he never did. Instead, he kept observing in silence as the hundreds of thousands of creatures, all humanoid in appearance, darted away at a random trajectory the very instant their bodies would successfully step into the universe.
With the highest speed their cultivation allowed them, they would barge through the sphere of stable space, and once out, rip a portal they could dive into.
Surprised by such behavior, Der allowed for the fleeting cultivators to teleport away, until finally, several minutes and millions of portals later, not a single more crossed through. “What in the world was that?” he asked, confused beyond belief.
“They were all champions of Sacrifice.” Roley said, as dumbfounded as his companion was. “Did you see their faces? Those weren’t the eyes of someone ready for slaughter.”
“Eyes of terror.” Der agreed while slowly lowering his arm. Seeing this, the army of cultivators and elementals started to relax. They could not understand what had changed, for they did not have the understanding of a gift of Destiny that Roley and Der possessed.
“Do not lower your guard!” Der roared all of a sudden, causing a shiver to run down the spines of anyone present, including those who did not possess a spine to begin with. “Companies 7 to 9, track and capture as many of those fleeting champions as you can. I want them interrogated, then report to me when I come back. The rest resume the defensive formations.”
Immediately, a small portion of the entire army turned into flashes of light that shot out in every direction like shrapnel, disappearing in the distance before anyone could even begin to question the Overlord’s orders.
Satisfied with the reaction, Der turned towards Roley. “Let’s head in.” He said in an overly relaxed tone. A tone that even to Roley, felt quite odd.
“We don’t need to know what happened from them. We should bring the rest along. I don’t agree with leaving them behind, not in a universe inhabited by an unknown champion of Destiny.” Worry was clear in Roley’s voice.
This was not the first encounter he had had with a champion of Destiny, and he knew perfectly well how manipulative and vindictive they could be. In his eyes, the Immortal Armada and the Elemental army were in as much danger being left alone in this universe, as they would be in following them to the Trigate. If they followed, at least, he could have done something to protect them.
Seeing the doubt in Roley’s face, Der slowly removed his helmet, and with a calmer tone added, “Don’t worry, I think I know what is going on.” He then started heading towards the portal before his friend could do anything to stop him.
While still uncertain, Roley trusted Der, so when he left, he followed suit right after, leaving behind orders for his closest elementals to collaborate with the cultivators as much as possible in his absence. After leaving behind these few words, Roley sped up towards his friend, reaching him just in time for the two to barge into the large portal together.
The water-like surface of the portal surrounded them, and embraced them for a few moments, after which a bright white light made its way into their eyes. In the following seconds, the white light grew more defined and homogeneous, until finally, the two emerged in the Trigate, a universe of white space filled with uncountable portals, each connected to a different universe.
The sight of the Trigate was always shocking to people, even to those who had seen it personally more than once. And that was due to the large number of creatures that would cross from one portal to another. Each visit presented a different sight, one more spectacular than the other.
This time, however, the sight was not particularly spectacular, for it consisted of just a few individuals. Three men and one woman, each dressed in unique and luxurious attires, and a young man. A single look identified the four as champions of Sacrifice, kneeling at the mercy of the young man they were facing, while the latter was, of course, Daniel.
“Of course.” Roley muttered under his breath after a long and deep sigh.
