Once the last of the strange hulking eerie figures disappeared through the portal, the robed, hooded figure turned around and walked back to his seat. Only after he was gone and sat down did Sebas, the representative of the last bastion, the Masked Mistress, stood up and walked up to take his place next to the swirling gateway.

He gave a silent, but courteous bow towards the crowd, then turned and looked at the last group standing at the side Aiden and the Silver Howl mercenaries.

As their gazes met, Aiden gave a calm, collected smile, and turned towards his group.

"Come guys, let's go." He said motioning for his team to step up.

Unlike the others before him, he waited until everyone was up, and instead of standing at the front, he stood at the back, allowing Captain Don to act as the front of the group.

After all, it looked much more acceptable that a veteran was leading instead of a youngster.

Stepping up to the stage, the team stopped in front of butler Sebas. The elderly man, once everyone got close, flashed a polite-looking smile and bowed once again as he spoke.

"Sirs and Madams…" He began in his usual respectful tone. "The Mistress wishes you all good luck and wants you to stay safe no matter what. Watch out, stay together and work as a team. Only then can you survive this ordeal."

He gave a momentary pause in his words before continuing.

"The Mistress also wants to reassure you all that once we are able to, we will get in touch. Until then, stay close together and work to settle a base camp at a safe spot. Besides the other teams, there are many other dangers lurking in the shadows. Though they present this world as 'deserted', that term is far from the truth. Watch out."

Ending his speech, he bowed once more and took a step back giving way for the team to step up to the portal. They took a look at the swirling dark void before Captain Don, raised his hand, and gave the marching order.

Following his words, the team walked through leaving only Aiden as the last to step through himself.

Meanwhile, Sebas was focused on the portal, looking at it with a stern gaze, seemingly deep in thought.

Just as Aiden stepped into the swirling mass of space essences and half of his body submerged in it, the dark void suddenly flashed again, the strange eerie red tint flared up once more.

A violent torrent appeared, sucking greedily at the stunned teenage boy, causing his body to abruptly fall through the barrier and vanish from sight. Ripples traversed across the previously calm surface as his figure was forcefully pulled through the dimensional gateway.

A moment later, as the last of the contestants crossed through, the surface of the gateway began to violently churn and twist. The reddish hue faded a moment later, returning it to the previously dark ebony tint just before the entire spell began to lose the last of its power and crumbled into tiny particles in the air.

In a few moments, the grand display, the mighty portal was gone, leaving no entry into, or a way to escape from the other side where several dozens of soldiers, little chess pieces for the four pillars have traversed onto.

With a heavy sigh escaping his lips, Sebas looked at the strange, masked, hooded figure with a solemn gaze, as he walked back to his seat and took his place. At the same time, he could only hope that his worries were unfounded and there was no foul play involved…

—

Beneath the dark canopy of the trees, at another plane, the usually deep silence was suddenly disturbed. The air just a couple of inches above the ground abruptly began to twist and flicker. The lingering essences in the air began to line up and form a rugged line, as a vermilion, dark red line appeared. The strange-looking spatial tear rapidly expanded, in a couple of seconds, an amorphous hole hummed with an eerie noise. Ripples spread across its surface, growing in intensity with each passing moment.

Eventually, the hole spread until it reached the size of a window only for its surface to ripple with even more power and spit out something or most likely, someone from its depths.

As the figure crashed onto the dewy grass, the hole began to shrink, only to disappear just as swiftly as it came.

Taking a moment, the figure groaned on the ground, as he rolled over and with a bit of difficulty, sat up to look around.

His eyes flashed with a faint golden luster as he slowly took in his surroundings. One thing he immediately noticed, causing his frown only to deepen, was that he was alone.

Unlike what was explained to them before, he arrived alone, separated from his team. Also, different from the others, his traversal was rather intensive, violent as he was thrown to somewhere deep in this supposedly vast realm.

Heaving a sigh, the youth looked around, taking in the smallest of details as to make a mental map in his mind, as well as in the magical construct, the system that inhabited his soul and mind.

—

Looking around, he saw several trees of yesteryear's fallen and torn on the ground due to storms long forgotten. The seasons must have been rather harsh on them stripping away most of the bark and outer layers from them, leaving behind nothing but a dark, dreadful visage.

They had the appearance of driftwood, twisted patterns coloring their long-dead outlines. Unlike what one would expect, the woods, this dark gray, dark green biome that Aiden was thrown into was dead silent.

The leaves weren't nestled, the sounds of life under the undergrowth could not be heard. The air wasn't filled with the chirps, the beautiful, alluring songs, and the ballads of the birds. From a first glance, this forest was dead, devoid of life, leaving behind nothing but a few half-dead trunks of trees as they desperately tried to suck in the thin rays of the sun and survive in this wasteland.

Still, despite this obvious lack of life, the ground was still deep green with the thick blades of grass. Sparse red dots of what seemed to be unknown types of mushrooms glimmered, giving a deep contrast and controversy as this realm danced at the edges of life and death.

Aiden's eyes slowly scanned his surroundings, trying to make sense of whatever this place actually was.

Though he was thrown somewhere, probably far from his friends and team, he wasn't nervous, he retained his calm as he pondered his strange situation.

He couldn't understand what went wrong with his travel, how did the portal suddenly shift, and as if it came to life, suddenly sucked him in.

Suddenly, he recalled the strange events of that masked group before them. That eerie sensation he felt… the 6 weird figures…

"Could they be…"

Before he could finish his thoughts, suddenly the snapping of some nearby twigs could be heard.

---

AN: Hey there Readers!

Just a friendly reminder, that from wherever you are reading (although I wholeheartedly thank you if you are reading and enjoying the story through Webnovel), you can reach out to me using any of the below methods!

For you, sailors of the seventh sea (non-WN readers), be a bro/gal and throw me a cup of joe, show your appreciation!

Links:

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