WHOOMP! KA-BOOM!

An earth-shattering explosion shook the land as a massive stone structure was transported through the Void and superimposed on another one, similar to itself. The following incompatibility of two nearly identical Space-bending artifacts occupying the same physical plane at once resulted in the violent annihilation of both.

The massive stone temple-like stone structure around them immediately collapsed in on itself as its insides were violently ripped apart and turned to rubble, leaving a wide ring of destruction that could be seen from kilometers away.

Yung Lin ran like mad, praying to a thousand gods that his intuition was wrong. He begged and pleaded with the beings unlikely to exist to make it all just a dream. Yet, the smoke rising above the forest and the familiar shouts of his Junior Brothers told of a dark tale.

As he cleared the last distance and came into the open, his deepest fears came to life. The Portal Nexus, something his sect spent millions of man-hours and a decade of wealth to complete, was completely ruined.

The destruction was such that no two stones remained in their place, and all the runes, magic formations, wards, and glyphs protecting the place were completely obliterated. They were made to survive a full-out attack from even their Sect's Patriarch, and yet, they were all gone.

Yung Lin felt his body fill with dread. Whatever destroyed this was powerful enough to completely wipe their Sect out of existence with a single hand! He swallowed hard and carefully took a step closer, doing his job as the one responsible for the site's construction to evaluate the damage. But as he examined the place and considered the consequences of such destruction, and the punishment from the sect he would receive, perhaps facing a swift annihilation wasn't even such a bad thing.

What Yung Lin didn't know, was that all the protections they had only worked against outside threats. They had nothing that could block or endure the violent explosion between two Portal Nexuses colliding in the structure's core.

But as the white light of the teleportation faded, Gerald was revealed in the middle of all that destruction, completely unfazed.

For a moment, of course. Immediately after, the dust and smoke rushed at him, resulting in a violent coughing fit.

Cough! Cough!

"Yo, what the fuck!"

Cough!

He quickly used some Wind magic to blow away the dust and get some breathing room. But as his vision cleared, he became aware of his situation, and especially the destruction around him.

"What the hell happened here?!"

He wasn't aware, however, as he was being teleported, he gained a few short seconds of invulnerability as his body materialized in another place. Luckily he ended up in an open space, otherwise, he would have probably merged with a stone structure and would have been annihilated just like the Portal Nexus itself.

It had to be said that the Nexus wasn't supposed to move from its place of origin and shift through space with him. However, as it was not finished, and also wasn't yet anchored in space, when Gerald accidentally used the machine's full power, it was forcefully ripped from its base, and relocated to another viable destination.

It just so happened that it was another Portal Nexus that was also under construction, and so the two merged, destroying each other in the process. And now he was stuck here. Wherever here was…

Gerald dusted himself off and carefully made his way over the rubble. This place seemed to be quite luxurious before it was destroyed, and he hoped people wouldn't blame him for its destruction. Though he heard some agitated voices coming from all around him, and he readied himself for the worst.

Just in case he would have to escape, he changed his clothes and wore the most generic attire he could find. It was the most common cloth shirt and trousers as well as some cheap boots and gloves to hide his metal hand.

Blatantly showing unknown people a bunch of silver didn't seem wise.

But as he came out into the open, he realized he was nowhere near the Kingdom or the Empire. The facial structure of the people here was much thinner, and their skin color was much lighter as well. They also appeared to be from the same organization as they all had similar long black hair and wore an identical light blue tunic and white trousers, with leather greaves and vambraces of matching light gray color.

They were all in a state of shock, something that was to be expected when a massive building suddenly collapsed on top of them.

Gerald saw a few of them digging through the rubble and helping some of the unlucky ones that got wounded or buried.

"Hey, you!" He heard a shout directed at him. It came from one of the people there, though this one was slightly older than the rest, and his attire also had a different dark blue trim, probably marking his position as a leader. And he did not appear happy, to put it mildly.

He advanced with aggressive steps and only stopped a few paces from Gerald.

"I am Yung Lin from the Brilliant Sword sect," the man introduced himself and cupped his fist. It was clear to Gerald that he was angry for some reason, but an abundance of caution forced him to act according to the tradition.

The two then started at each other in silence until Yung Lin couldn't take it anymore.

"… Who are you?" he eventually asked.

"Oh!" Gerald realized what the man wanted. "I'm Gerald, from the… Blood Sun Viper sect," he introduced himself while lying through his teeth. He felt like using their name could be useful. At least he didn't have to come up with a completely new name for a freaking sect.

"You said you are from the Blood Sun Viper sect?" the Lin guy asked, and Gerald could pick up some slight changes in his expression. Perhaps it was curiosity?

"That's right! Do you know it?"

"Never heard of it," the man shook his head. "But I know you are lying… Now, why would that be? You wouldn't be the one responsible for all this destruction, now would you?" His eyes had that dangerous look to them. The one that said: "One wrong word, and you are dead!"

Gerald was in a dilemma. He suspected that his fooling around with that machine was what triggered the teleportation, and it was also most likely responsible for the destruction around him. However, he couldn't be completely sure. When he came to, the place was already in ruins, though the dust of its collapse had yet to completely settle.

"Honestly… I don't know what happened," he began. "One moment I was minding my own business, and then there was suddenly this bright light, and bam! I found myself here, choking on dust. Where am I anyway?"

"Ancient Ironbark Timberland, property of the Brilliant Sword sect," Yung Lin answered coldly. "And you lied again!" His expression turned frosty and a pale blue longsword appeared out of nowhere.

"Last chance! Were you the one responsible for the destruction of the Portal Nexus?!"

"The what?" Gerald was confused, but his opponent didn't seem to want to elaborate further. "Look man, it's possible I was partially responsible for this mess, but honestly, it wasn't on purpose!" His words evoked some reaction as the other guy took a deep breath and his body began to lightly shake, probably due to the anger his body was visibly struggling to contain.

"Listen, I'll pay for the damage, alright? I got plenty of money, just name your price." He made the offer not because he felt bad, but because he couldn't read the guy opposite to him. Everyone else he could somewhat examine, however the man himself was an enigma. He had no clue how strong he was or even what heights his Aura reached. He seemed to be well versed in holding it hidden, which made him uncomfortable.

"Pay?" Yung Lin scoffed at the sheer thought of someone personally paying for the entirety of the damage. "Do you even know what you are saying?! How could you possibly have so much money?!"

Not bothering to waste any breath, Gerald emptied half his gold stores, as well as the countless Earth Crystals he had with him, and made a human-sized pile on the floor. "Look, here! That's most of what I have, surely it is enough?"

Yung Lin stared at the small mountain of shining gold and crystals as he was momentarily rendered speechless. But then he started to laugh. A mad kind of laugh.

"Hahaha! I'm dead, I'm so fucking dead! HAHAHAHA!" He covered his eyes with one hand as tears started to roll down his cheeks.

"For decades the sect gathered treasures and saved Spirit Stones, and now some retard Mortal destroyed it all. And he wants to pay it back with a pile of trash?! HAHAHAHAH! Oh gods in the Void, why do you have to punish me so?!"

Gerald understood well enough to know that he had fucked up despite the words not being addressed to him. What might have been valuable in his eyes didn't necessarily transfer to another civilization.

"Uh… Listen… How about we come to an agreement… I got other stuff-"

"SHUT UP!" Yung Lin held his head and his eyes went wide as he was slowly losing his mind. "Listen to him… This idiot is still trying to speak… He should just fall over and die…" he quietly mumbled to himself. "Yes… Yes! Maybe if I capture him and slice him up, maybe the Elders will forgive me… What have I got to lose?!"

"Listen here…" Gerald tried to speak up and try reason with the man, but then he noticed the latter's sword hand move, and he instinctively leaned to the side and lifted his silver hand up to block the incoming strike.

However, the expected recoil of the collision never came, as the pale blue sword went straight through his silver hand, accompanied by a soft white glow.

His hand was gone. The metal offered no resistance whatsoever. Even a glowing knife going through soft butter would have slowed down more than the sword did.

In that instant, Gerald realized he had fucked up. He had royally fucked up!

"Stand still, and let me kill you!"