ALL NOVEL C5
Chapter 5: Crossing the gate
A large underground plaza covered in grotesque symbols and broken pieces.
“That was a bloody fight.”
I looked around the ruined underground plaza in amazement.
The walls shattered as if a bomb had gone off, the floor scorched and swept away, the bones piled everywhere like a garden.
The underground plaza, where the demon king had last fought the heroes, was in ruins.
Of course, there could have been a magic circle or artifact that the demon king had set up here, but there was no sign of it in this broken plaza.
Instead, the ruins before us showed how fierce the battle had been and that the fleeing demon king was by no means weak.
In the center of the ruined underground plaza, a grotesque altar stood intact.
-Woosh. Woosh. Woosh.
Floating in the air above the altar was a glowing door.
It wasn’t actually a door, but a magic circle, however to me, a knight, it looked like a door floating in thin air.
A glowing square frame and a churning space inside.
If I stepped inside, I would be transported to another world.
Knights stood around the intact altar, and several wizards examined the altar and the portal.
Orthodox wizards from the tower, dressed differently from our party’s wizard.
Our party’s wizard looked curiously at the altar, but uncharacteristically did not approach the other wizards.
The wizards examining the altar and portal also pretended not to see us.
I knew there was bad blood between the battle mages and the orthodox mages, but I hadn’t expected it to be this bad, and seeing it firsthand almost made me angry.
But it was none of my business as a non-mage, and I could only stare wistfully at our wizard as he feigned ignorance.
We were late, and there was no sign of the other vanguards who had gone down first.
“You can go right in. You might feel a little dizzy while moving, but you’ll be fine soon. You can hear the rest of the story once you get there. The warriors are waiting for you in the other dimension.”
One of the wizards came up to us and told us about crossing dimensions.
Even as he spoke, he looked at us with envy.
It’s almost like a scientist looking at lab rats for a new discovery.
The glint in his eye as he watched us was not unlike that of the wizard in our party earlier.
They seemed to dislike each other, but they were both wizards after all.
After a brief explanation, we ascended to the altar, leaving the wizard’s envy behind.
The realization that if we passed through the floating space, we would arrive in a world completely different from this one still sent a chill down my spine but, as a knight, I couldn’t help it.
Even with my crisis-sensing abilities, honed over the years, I didn’t see much danger right now.
The party members I glanced at as I walked along were no different.
Except for our battle mage, whose eyes widened at the sight of the portal, everyone’s expression was more or less blank.
No, I shouldn’t count the ear man, he’s always had that look on his face.
With my heart pounding, I stepped onto the altar with the rest of the party and stepped through the flickering portal.
And then, the world turned upside down.
Holy shit. A little dizzy?
I’m dizzier than when I’m drinking like a motherfucker and riding a Waldo Viking!
After a fantastic dimensional shift, I landed on the floor, gagging.
“Oh my God, I’m dizzier than when I drank a bunch of potions.”
The mountain soldier who’d entered first was lying on the floor, gagging, and the battle mage was lying on his stomach next to him, vomiting profusely.
“Ugh!”
Damn, the smell makes me want to throw up even more.
To top it all off, the sputtering knight had stuck his sword into the ground and was leaning on it.
Funnily enough, the sword was embedded in a hard rock.
He’d loaded the sword with mana to keep himself from falling, and then embedded it in the rock.
It was a classic nobleman doing something like this to save face.
However, he seemed unharmed, as if he’d been through this before and was used to it.
As he looked around, I could barely keep my wits about me.
Despite feeling like the world was turning upside down, the dimensional shift seemed to have gone well.
No one had been dropped or injured, though everyone looked worse for wear.
The pioneers who had gone first also seemed to be safe.
I regained my senses and looked around.
Blue skies, high mountains and parched forests.
We had arrived in the forest, in a canyon surrounded by mountains.
It was a forest with leaves falling from the trees that had turned yellow in the warm weather.
It was the kind of forest I had seen many times in the early days of fighting the demons.
The trees of those days were eventually tainted by demonic energy and withered away over time.
The forest in front of me hadn’t yet been affected by the demonic energy, and it looked like a slightly desolate autumn forest with dry leaves falling.
Just like the autumn forest back home…….
“Maybe it’s because it’s a different world, but the trees here are quite different from our continent, and they seem to be a bit smaller.”
While I was looking at the forest in a daze, the mountain soldier, who had regained his senses, looked around and said.
Unlike me, who felt like I was back home, he seemed to find this forest unfamiliar.
Certainly, the trees before us looked quite small compared to the trees of Sorvia, or our world, which can grow tens of meters or more in a short period of time.
To use an analogy from my previous life, it’s like the difference between a giant fir tree in Canada and a small tree in my country.
In contrast, this forest didn’t seem so foreign to me, perhaps because it looked so similar to the forest I had seen in my previous life.
The soldier’s words sobered me up, and I checked my body first.
I could breathe easily, and I didn’t smell anything strange.
My eyes didn’t hurt, and my skin didn’t tingle.
I felt like I was in a normal forest with good air.
After years of rolling around in a place full of demonic energy, the air seemed much better here.
After all my worries, this world seemed no different from the one I was used to.
Nevertheless, I pulled a bottle of holy water out of my bag and drank it right away.
It seemed fine, but it’s good to be prepared.
When my party saw me drinking holy water, they pulled out theirs and drank it too.
As we were drinking the holy water, one of the first people to arrive spoke up.
“This is the last party of the vanguard, right? Since you’re all here, I’ll tell you what I’ve seen and what you need to do.”
He didn’t speak loudly, but I could hear him as if he were speaking right into my ear.
It was a delicate mana maneuver that put a voice to mana and carried it to everyone’s ears.
It was an amazing feat, but not surprising.
The one who spoke was the one who made the demon king flee.
He was the one who had caused the demon king to flee and brought me here, but seeing him take the initiative like that, it was hard to curse him outright.
He’s a damned hero.
I stopped with my back to him.
There were about 40 people gathered in front of the glowing portal that floated in the air.
The vanguard was about 20 of them.
They were divided into four teams of five or so, like ours.
The other twenty were nobles, mages, and soldiers, including the hero party and what appeared to be officers.
As all eyes gathered, the hero stood in front of the group and began the briefing.
“First, I’d like to thank you for volunteering to be the vanguard.”
It wasn’t volunteering, it was borrowing.
He wasn’t the one giving the orders, but it wasn’t my place to grumble.
Damn command, those damn nobles.
While I cursed under my breath, the hero continued.
“First, let me tell you what my men have discovered here: fortunately or unfortunately, there are humans, intelligent humans, living here. In fact, it’s not surprising, since the Demon King has fled here.”
It seems that the first group of heroes to cross had found signs of life here.
They saw skeletons, either killed by the demon king or brought back to life by it.
No one was surprised to hear that there was an intelligent race here.
It was only natural that there would be an intelligent race of humans here, after all, the Demon King had crossed over.
The demon king who had fled to this world was the King of the Dead, the Demon of Death, who could raise the dead.
Rather than the demonic energy that spreads automatically, the creatures he personally raises from the dead are usually of a certain size and have some intelligence.
Furthermore, the corpses retained the intelligence they had before they died, so humans were the most common undead he raised.
The fact that the demon king had fled to this place meant that there were plenty of bodies in the world for him to utilize.
“That’s why I ask you to be careful when you encounter the humans here. The Children of the Divine Tree have come with you to prepare you for when you encounter them. When you encounter the humans here, I ask that you follow their instructions as closely as possible.”
When you meet humans from this side of the world, let the ears do the talking…….
I’m not sure the less-than-affable ears are up to the task.
“Our goal is to capture the escaped demon king. Of course, I’m not asking you to capture the demon king yourself; we’re going to get him this time.”
I think the hero was trying to be funny, but I didn’t find it funny.
No one else laughed either. The only ones laughing were his companions.
Judging from his colleagues were laughing next to him, it seemed like he was the joker of the party.
Apparently unperturbed by the cheap shot, the hero continued.
“Your job, as the vanguard, is to follow the trail of the Demon King who disappeared after crossing the portal. In fact, some of you who have joined the vanguard may have received other instructions, but don’t forget that you too must prioritize the search for the demon king.”
In any case, the worlds were connected.
Now that the demon king had been defeated by the hero and fled, the heads of the nations who had fought him must have had a lot on their minds.
It’s entirely possible that they’ve given other orders behind the scenes.
I wonder if that’s why the shiny knight in our party.
I glanced over at the glitter knight, who was examining the blade of the sword he had driven into the rock.
Alas, he didn’t seem to have any thoughts.
“We’ll set up an outpost here at the portal while you search the area, and if you see anything unusual, let us know.”
After the hero’s words, we scattered in all directions, following the plan of action set forth by the noble officers.
The hunt for the demon king who had fled to another dimension had begun.