Hailian Continent, February 4, 4068 A.D.

At the Portal of the Other World

They arrived at the cliff's edge, and an unlit portal surrounded by black obelisks came into their view.

Six black megaliths encompassed the unlit portal. The metallic walls were embellished with Shallakhian symbols - enchantments engraved by Imbuers of the Northern Hailian Continent. Shallakhs were mostly adept at spatial magics, so it was a common thing to find Shallakhian runes in portals and dimensional warps.

Meldy performed a ritual beside the nonreactive portal. It needed an activation code to actuate the gateway. Too bad he didn’t possess any; the only thing he could do now was to force energize the portal by destroying its protective magic. Luckily, he was somehow familiar with complex spatial spells. Forming hand seals, he tinkered the array as he chanted.

"Dad, is it done? We can't afford to stay any longer." Elena finally made a sound after an hour of momentary silence. Turning back, Meldy saw her appeasing the baby who was now crying nonstop. “Please, brother dear, please stop. Hush, coo, coo.”

Meldy exhaled deeply and uttered, "I'm almost done, Elena. Just give me a few more minutes to activate the warp."

"Dad. I think I can hear some footsteps coming. There's no time to lose. If it fails, we will all die."

Brad’s death flashed back into his head: turmoil began affecting his concentration. Meldy knew he needed to do this without mistakes - even a flaw would entail fatal risks. Shaking his head, he began collecting his mana essence towards the tip of his pointer finger, producing a bluish imprint on the array.

Meldy chanted some more spells and reached out his hands towards the array and pricked his finger with a needle.

Drop, Drop, Drop.

Blood essence flowed and the portal started to glow. It hummed and the system was finally activated.

"Are you done, Dad?" Elena was sitting in a corner, carrying her brother. As she looked at the baby, she became more worried and scared for their safety. "Dad, will we able to reach the - "

THWACK!

The lifeless body of the blond man collapsed on the ground, creating a soft 'thud' sound. His severed head rolled like a ball, and his blood - crimson red - flowed freely. Like in a horror movie, his eyes and mouth were still open as if he couldn't believe his unexpected demise.

Elena screamed. She was literally jittering as her knees trembled. The baby boy wailed and she became more panic. Meldy knew they had no more time left, and they were in grave danger. He saw the severed head on the ground, and he uttered a gasp, “Jericho!”

"I’d say your butler was a great help in leading our way to this portal." A slender woman approached the corpse, giving it a light kick as if mocking the dead. She shook her head and looked at the body with disdain in her eyes. Taking out a blue small sword, she guffawed. "This could have been prevented, Father-in-Law. Now, tell me, where is the key?"

Meldy was in a rage, and his eyes were bloodshot from crying. Contemplating at his faithful butler’s lifeless body, he wished it was him who was dead. He clenched his fists and scowled at the slender woman. "How can you betray us, Felicia. You are a scumbag! You can't take the key. Trash like you don't deserve to have it, you whore!"

Felicia just stood, unabashed at the words she heard. She fiddled her grey hair and scorned at Meldy. "It doesn’t matter. In the end, all of you are going to die here. Twelfth Guardian, prove your loyalty to the clan and kill these traitors!"

A robed man, whose face was covered with a hood, silently approached them. Standing still, the robed man unsheathed his sword and, all of a sudden, attacked Meldy relentlessly.

Meldy was already aware of the sudden attack. He immediately extended his arms toward the robed man, with palms facing the enemy, and chanted, “Tempest!”. Gust of wind came out from his palms and attacked the robed man, pushing him 10 meters away from Meldy. At this instant, his hood was removed, revealing the mysterious man’s face.

“ERIC?!”

Meldy never expected in his wildest dream that his nephew, Eric, would be the identity of the robed man. Clenching his fists, he glared at him, and said "Eric, how could you do this? Does our family mean nothing to you? Does Elena mean nothing to you? Do I mean nothing to you?"

Eric couldn’t stare at Meldy with a straight gaze. His face was gloomy as he backed away from the enraged Meldy's range. "I'm sorry. I...I had no choice, they held my parents as hostage."

Meldy whimpered but he quelled his tears. It was a nightmare for him to see his son and butler dying in front of him, and Eric’s betrayal made his rage stronger. He had an urge to kill them, yet he was powerless to do so. He was aware in his heart that his time had come, that he would be next in line. Instantly, he formed several hand seals and pointed his fingers towards Elena. "Spatial Arrow!"

A blast of blue beam came out from his hands and hit Elena. Dazzling blue lights covered her entire body, and after a few seconds, she disappeared without a trace.

Felicia drew her sword, ran swiftly towards Meldy, and slashed him mercilessly.

His chest was badly wounded, even his white bones were already visible, and his blood dyed his tattered robe. His left arm was dismembered, fresh blood spurted from the open wound. He was in agony, yet, this did not stop him from retaliating. "Eric, you traitor! You must die with these bitches and dumbos, you ungrateful bastard!" With his right hand, he formed complicated hand seals and flicked his fingers at Felicia. "Meteor Explosion!"

A sudden gush of force appeared in front of him, rotating fiercely and formed a big lump of red granite. All of this happened in mere seconds!

BOOM!

It exploded. Big chunks of granite were scattered in different directions.

Felicia was caught unguarded, and she was hit squarely in her chest. Gaping wound smeared her bosom, and she was moaning in great pain. "Dammit, kill...kill him! Don't let him get away!"

Eric was hit directly in his head, bursting it like a balloon. Blood sprayed out from the wound like a fountain, and he fell down, dead.

Meldy was sent flying towards the portal because of the blast. Bleeding profusely, his body was dyed entirely with his blood. Yet he still refused to surrender. He stood up, formed another seal, and smeared the array with his blood. "Spatial Force, 6th Level Art, Activate!"

Suddenly, the portal radiated and the array buzzed. Blue beam of light materialized at the portal and Elena reappeared at the center of the activated warping device.

"Dammit! Do not let anyone of them get away! Destroy the portal!" Felicia gritted her teeth as she clenched the soil. Her lackeys, clad in black robes, stride towards the portal, moving in a zigzag motion. They unsheathed their weapons and positioned themselves in different directions, forming a hexagram.

When Meldy noticed what the enemies were trying to do, he was alarmed. They were forming an Oblivion array, a trap formation consisting of snow gales. He knew he must prevent them from finishing it at all costs, or else, he would become a living popsicle. Without hesitation, he zoomed in a flash. "No one shall leave this place alive, cheapskates!"

He was already exhausted from the series of battles, but he knew he had to do something, lest his children die. He understood he had not enough mana essence to cast another self-magic. Even his physical strength was already drained. In his desperate attempt, he took out his remaining artifact, the Obsidian Pebble, from his pocket and put his life essence into it even though it would endanger his life, and shouted, "Forbidden Spell: Meteor Gravity!"

The earth shook, even rifts were formed along the monolith walls. Rocks crumbled while the ground moved like a wave of the sea. The enemies were wide-eyed, they understood that this was not a simple spell. They hastened their spell chants and began forming the array when suddenly the gravity force increased. One by one, they collapsed on the ground. Others wobbled but to no avail, the gravity's pull was simply too much for them to handle.

"DAD! DAD!"

"Elena, there's no time. I can't keep up anymore. Hurry! Press the button and activate the portal!"

Elena sobbed as streams of tears flowed out of her eyes. Despite being scared, she still nodded. "Dad, I, I don't know where to go. I don't know what to do. Please don't leave me. Please don't die."

Meldy smiled at her crying daughter.

"No, I won't die. I promised I'll be with you. I'll come back after this, okay? Just...take care of your brother. No matter what, do not expose your identity to anyone."

"I'd come looking for you, so be a good sister. I love you, my child."

"Remember the card I have given you earlier. This will lead you to your mom’s world."

“Don’t worry, I will live. I have my own means in protecting my life, just do whatever it takes to survive.”

“Soon after this is over, I’ll look for you. That’s my promise.”

Elena was still crying, nevertheless, she pressed the red button and suddenly, rays of light enveloped them and she, together with her baby brother, disappeared.

"Please God Elesius, for the last time, protect them. Keep them safe." Meldy clenched his fists and turned around facing his enemies with dignity and pride. "I know you both will have a hard life. Nevertheless, you must both live!"

________________________________________________________________

Hailian Continent, February 4, 4068 A.D.

At the Portal of the Other World

“Welcome to the Portal to the Other World.”

A mechanical voice greeted Elena as she blankly stare at the shining portal. Not knowing what to do, she began to gather her mana to cast another protection spell, just in case something dangerous would popped out of nowhere. After a few minutes of intense waiting, the brilliant lights surrounding the portal disappeared, and what appeared next was a 4-inch fairy hologram.

The fairy smiled at her, and reached out her hands towards Elena and asked, “May I know what coordinates you would like to be transported at?”

“Coordinates? What coordinates?”

“I need to know the coordinates of the world you want to be transported at, if you don’t want to end up somewhere dangerous,” the fairy cheerfully replied as she flapped her tiny wings. “If you won’t give me coordinates, I could just randomly teleport you to a world or realm, maybe like the realm of the werewolves and monsters?”

Dangerous! Elena shuddered as she heard the fairy’s reply, knowing that she could end up in random places, like a savage land or a desolate world, if she didn’t know her exact destination. What should I do? What about the card? Could the card Dad gave me save me from this predicament?

Elena pulled out the card from her pocket and looked at it intently. It was just a blank 2-inch card, brown all over, with no particular design written on it. What should I do with this? She scratched her head as she tried to figure out the way to know the coordinates of her mom’s world, using this blank card. Wait, is this just like the mail card used for sending letters, wherein only the intended receiver could read the message? Do I just have to fill this card with mana?

Hope began to surge once again inside Elena’s heart as she let her mana gather on her hands, filling the card until it became bright blue. After a few seconds, numbers slowly appeared at the center of the card.

“Please tell me the coordinates you want to be teleported at. After a minute, if no coordinates will be given, I will be forced to warp you at a random location. The countdown begins…”

“Teleport me at the coordinates 112, 2004!”

“Thank you for your cooperation. Your chosen destination is the Realm of the Humans, called Earth. Hope you enjoy your travel.”

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