Just some random banter before i begin the chapter. for those of you who also upload your own fictions, is it just me or do you also constantly refresh the new chapter page after you upload to see how many people are reading it?

And also, i find myself doing this other thing quite often. I would see my follower count one morning at 1171. then i check again at lunch and it becomes 1170, and then my heart breaks for a second. then i refresh the page a couple minutes later and see it's become 1173 and im happy again. Do you also experience these mood swings?

“Ohhh.. so that’s what that was..” Rashael remarked, staring at the red orihalcom wall within the cave. “I’d thought there was something strange here, with the void in mana and all. Just didn’t get the opportunity to check it out for myself.”

Kiefer swiftly undid the wall, revealing the floating portal on the stone ledge. Isana, Sher and Feir were behind Rashael, watching his cautious and curious movements, carefully inspecting the edges of the portal. It had been a month since they reached back to Mutatis and Kiefer decided it was about time he explored the portal.

They had taken a direct route back to Mutatis from the snow caped lands in the north, with Kiefer drilling a large tunnel straight through the mountain range. Rashael lit the way through the dark tunnel while the dwarves hurried behind them, securing the tunnel entrance and putting up support beams at parts of the tunnel that seemed likely to cave in. They would use this opportunity to develop a straight road through the treacherous mountains and secure a stable trading route for the future.

“Seriously man, you never fail to surprise me at every turn. Even that dome you built for the dwarves was a masterpiece. I’ve never seen runic markings like the ones you inscribed. To think that the dome was only warm inside, not even radiating the heat out to the surroundings, it really intrigues me how you think up such things. Although it is weird seeing a clear distinct line where the dome ends, marked with the snow that remained frozen right outside the border of the dome. And now this portal, without runes? I’d always thought the netherworld and the Picket dimensions are the only places that portals could lead to. Now you’ve proven me wrong once again.” Rashael revered in awe, making rounds around the portal.

“So how do you think we should proceed? And we need a plan once we are on the other side because every minute we waste there is 7 minutes lost here on Aioa.” Kiefer implored, hoping to get Rashael’s opinion.

“Well, we are in uncharted waters here, so it’s not like we have any choice but to test things out step by step. It’s better than many of the other horrifying scenarios that you described to me earlier, about being stuck there and what not.” Rashael replied, justifying that Kiefer’s worries were unavoidable.

“So you wanna go in first?” Kiefer asked.

“Haha. Nice try, but it’s your world, you lead. I don’t want to risk being stuck in a foreign world all by myself.” Rashael laughed back.

“Ya hear that? Grandu? Not even a Titan wants to wind up alone in a strange new world.” Kiefer mumbled, before approaching the portal. Within his PD, he had stored a plentiful amount of fully charged moonstones and his completely charged armour, in case he is unable to replenish his mana on earth.

“Wait Kii, I’m coming with you too. I don’t want to risk being separated from you if the portal closes behind you.” Isana cautioned, stepping up and grabbing his arm. Sher also stepped up and grabbed his other arm, only looking at him with uncertain eyes and nodding, not saying a single word.

“Well then, see you on the other side Rashael.” Kiefer bid Rashael a temporary farewell as he held onto Sher and Isana’s hands tightly before stepping into the portal.

Immediately, the 3 of them began falling face first towards the ocean. Kiefer struggled to realign himself vertically before managing to eke out a mana platform beneath his feet, just short of the water surface. The three of them looked at each other in a silly daze, smiling that they had one of their worries lessened. They could use mana on earth.

Kiefer looked down at his feet and double-checked that the mana foothold was steady. He saw the same silvery platform, only it was disappearing from the edges really quickly. Without any choice, Kiefer quickly reinforced the foothold by supplying more mana into it. While he could control the mana within his body to prevent it from leaking out, there was nothing he could do once it left his body and was rapidly absorbed by the surrounding.

“AHHHHH!!!! WHATHEHELLLLLLLL!!!” Rashael screamed as he plummeted towards the trio from the portal above. Kiefer quickly shot out one of his mana ropes, only to realise that his range of control was now reduced back to approximately 30m. Anything further, the mana rope simply dissipated too quickly to maintain a physical form. Kiefer managed to catch Rashael as he fell within the 30m range, bringing him onto the mana foothold.

“Umm, Kii, I think we have a problem…” Isana muttered, tugging on his sleeve. “It would seem that we titans can’t use our skills. I can’t even transform or fly. The surrounding is quickly eating away at my mana no matter how much I produce. And Since our skills come naturally to us and they involve manipulating the mana around us, we are unable to do even the simplest things, such as fly.”

“So this is what it feels like to be a human…” Rashael croaked, readjusting his robe and massaging his waist where Kiefer had caught him in a tight grip.

“Hmm, don’t worry though. Another one of my worries has just been blown away.” Kiefer reassured Isana, his hand rapidly converting Isana’s mana into his own. “I seem to be able to replenish my mana from yours, so I don’t need to worry about running out of mana since I have 3 of you with me. I just hope Feir does his job and protect Mutatis while we’re gone.”

“So, what do we do now? Find civilisation?” Rashael asked, looking into the distant horizon, seeing nothing but sea.

“Well there’s been something bugging me for a while now. I’d had thought the wormhole would have linked me back to where I was taken on earth, which would be over land, but seeing as we are floating over the ocean now, it seems that something is off. Why don’t we get a better vantage point to orientate ourselves, then we’ll set up a sort of beacon to mark out the location of this portal.” Kiefer suggested, looking up into the clear sky. There it was, hanging high up, the crescent shaped moon that he was so used to seeing for the majority of his life.

Extending his mana ropes, Kiefer gently lifted Isana and Rashael, while Sher chose to cling to his back tightly in a piggyback ride position. Then, he set up mana footholds and sprinted upwards, against the slightly higher gravity that he wasn’t used to. With his enhanced legs muscles and circulatory system, Kiefer soon reached the bottom of the cloud line, able to get a good view of the immediate surroundings.

There, in the very farthest edges of the horizon, Kiefer saw what looked to be land. But for now, everything else was just water, with white foamy waves flickering in and out of the surface. Descending back down and opening his PD, Kiefer pulled out Icarus and set it floating right next to the portal where there was mana flooding in from Aioa. The modified Icarus was inlaid with a new set of runes that bent photons around it, mimicking Rashael’s optical camouflage skill and rendering it invisible to the naked eye. He positioned it to point towards the sky and checked that it was in normal operating conditions before setting off towards the land that he spotted earlier.

“haah… That was further than I thought.. so tired..” Kiefer huffed, as he set foot on the sandy beach a few hours later. The sun was rising and it gave Kiefer a sense of direction, allowing him to orientate himself. When he tried using the moon earlier, it was in the middle of the sky so he had no clue which way was east. Then he was too busy traveling to the land to re-orientate himself again. At least now, he knew which was east.

“Sorry Kii.. I didn’t think we would be such a burden. If only we could fly on our own.” Isana apologise.

“Sorry master…” Sher followed after Isana, climbing down from Kiefer’s back and standing on the sand.

“Don’t worry about it. You are my family. This much is only natural. And besides, without you 2, I probably won’t last that long myself considering I can’t recharge my mana any other way. The only burden would be that guy over there.” Kiefer consoled them, pointing at Rashael who was now busy trying to climb a coconut tree.

“What!? Don’t blame me, I didn’t know we wouldn’t be able to use our skills. Heck! Even you didn’t know.” Rashael yelled back from halfway up the tree, looking like a cat stuck high up and unable to climb down.

“Wait here, let me get some refreshments.” Kiefer said, as he extended his mana ropes to pluck some young coconuts from the nearby trees. He went on to crack them open and offered each of the titans a coconut each. They savoured the taste as the refreshing water touched their throats, giving them a brief reprieve from the salty sea air.

“So, do you know where we are?” Rashael asked, putting the coconut down and wiping his chin of the excess water that dribbled down.

“I can’t tell for sure. I don’t see any landmarks that will give me an idea. You guys wait here while I get some altitude to reorganise our bearings.” Kiefer instructed, as he took to the skies once more.

“This is weird… I don’t recall earth having any landmass in this shape or size… This looks too big to be an island, but it’s too small to be a continent. Maybe I’ll go and check out some of those smaller islands and rocks further up north.” Kiefer thought as he descended again only to find the 3 titans fleeing into the waters.

As Kiefer came closer to the ground, he could make out what was chasing the helpless titans. It was dark green colour and around the size of a wolf. The creature stopped about 1 metre away from the titans, its legs submerged in the water. Isana was hugging Sher while Rashael was peeking out from behind Isana, looking at the creature with great interest and fear.

Kiefer came down from the sky like a comet, causing a large splash in the water and quickly wrapping his mana ropes around the struggling creature. What he saw stunned him beyond words. Right in front of him was a dark green praying mantis with its razor arms wildly thrashing about trying to cut at the ropes.

“Ki-Kiefer! What is that?!” Rashael exclaimed from behind Isana, the titans keeping a safe distance from the giant praying mantis. Its bulging orange eyes seem to rotate about carefully scrutinising its surroundings as the mandibles constantly moved about, like it was chewing on something.

“Umm.. honestly… I’m not too sure. They are insects, but not like the kinds I remember. They were the size of the palm of my hands at most. This is the first time I’m seeing something this big.” Kiefer replied, flinging the mantis back into the jungle that was a short distance from the beach.

“Why’d you throw it back!? What if it returns with more of its kind?” Isana asked, concerned for their safety.

“Well, Mantises usually hunt alone so I don’t think we need to worry about more showing up, even if they have grown a little. They are also highly intelligent so I doubt it will come after us again. Finally, I don’t want to risk attracting other scavengers if I kill the mantis, since I’m not sure what kind of new chemical defences these insects have developed. They seem to have evolved quite a bit from last time, so I don’t want to recklessly engage them without being absolutely sure.” Kiefer explained, as he guided the titans back onto dry land.

“So? What did you find out when you were up there?” Isana asked, relieved that kiefer was calm as ever.

“Bad news.” Kiefer replied, pausing and considering whether to tell them or not. Finally making up his mind, Kiefer quickly continued. “I don’t recognise this land that we are on right now. It doesn’t look like any of the islands or continents that used to be on earth. I think something might have happened to cause this geographical change while I was gone, so I intend to look around and try to see if I can find any landmarks that will give me a clue.”

“So where are we going now, master?” Sher asked, separating from Isana and now holding Kiefer’s hands, looking up at him with her adorable child eyes.

“There were some islands higher up north that I saw earlier. Why don’t we head there for now?” Kiefer asked, loking at the group for their opinion.

“”Anything is fine I guess. It is your home planet after all, and we are quite powerless, so we can only follow you.” Rashael sighed, as he squeezed the seawater out the ends of his robes.

The 4 people travelled along the coast quickly through the air, sticking close to the ground I case they see anything interesting. Kiefer’s objective was the group of small islands and rocks just off the coast about 30 km north. They arrived in a little over an hour, and began trasversing across the water away from the coast line towards the rocks.

“No way… what the hell happened after I left?” Kiefer muttered in disbelief. He was standing in a mana platform high above the supposed ‘rocks’ and ‘Islands’

“What is this Kiefer? They look different from normal islands and rocks that we have seen on Aioa or on earth” Rashael questioned, unable to make out what Kiefer was thinking.

“That is because they are not natural rocks Rashael. These were man-made. That there, is supposed to be a crown and next to it, is a torch. It used to be a very famous landmark on earth. What’s intriguing though it that the ‘island’ is actually a massive pile up of concrete, steel and glass that probably came from hundreds of buildings. I wonder what really went down while I was gone…” Kiefer replied, thoughts of apocalypse running through his head.

Sorry this was late again. teehee. was busy as usual, but i will try my best.